Thread: L.A. County Sheriff Department Annual Hot Rod Car Show.

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sorry I haven't posted in awhile,. had a small run of bad luck over the last 2 months..

It started with a dash fire in the '39. not serious, but enough to render the car un-drivable for now. it seems the previous owner had a tendency toward using in-line fuses from his local auto parts store. He apparently didn't have a deep knowledge of auto wiring as he wired 3 30-amp inline fuses together, that is he wired them ---fuse---fuse---fuse--- each line was going to a different device (windows, door poppers, engine fan) but they were all tied together, not even crimped or soldered, just twisted and taped, all coming from the same point on the fuse block and all ending at the same point on the headlight switch. with vampire clips branching them off to the other items.. so essentially a 90 amp circuit.

seems I hit the trifecta in loading up the circuit and caused it all to arch and melt, the engine fan was running, the headlights were on, and I was attempting to rollup the windows when everything stopped working and I smelled smoke.

I lost the fuse block as it is a melted mess.

it's not really a big deal as I had already planned on removing the dash and replacing the fuse block and all the wiring as I had run into other questionable things with regards to the wiring already.. Just wasn't planning on doing it this soon, was hoping to wait until the summer.

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after that some things on the house went to hell, we have an instant hot tank under the kitchen sink for instant 206° hot water, this is tied into a RO system and a cold water dispenser as well, the instant hot tank started leaking so I turned off the water supply, didn't think much about it, but I should have unplugged the unit, it sat for a day or so with the heating element running and when it was done boiling off the water in the 2.5 gallon tank and enough steam pressure had built up it exploded under the sink, not a big explosion but enough to take out the garbage disposal, the RO, and the abs drain traps. of course it had to happen on New Years Eve around 8pm when no one was open, nor were any hardware stores open on New Years day..

So my wife got a new faucet, garbage disposal, instant hot, RO, and related counter top spigots, plus since I had to tear it all apart anyway, I re-grouted the backsplash.. Happy Wife..

and then 2 days after that my Refrigerator Compressor died, 2.5 year old LG completely useless, we went 19 days with no refrigerator while I fought with Best Buy Warranty about getting a replacement, luckily I had the foresight to buy the extended warranty, but the compressor is on back order for 6 weeks, so I had to claw my way through 6 levels of incompetence with their warranty department to force them to replace the Fridge rather than wait 6 weeks for a repair.

Luckily I have a beer/wine fridge in my garage, so we didn't lose any food.. my beer fridge is a 27 year old Amana that I bought when I first moved out of my parents house, it got demoted to beer fridge 2.5 years ago when we upgraded to the LG, I am so glad I decided to keep it and not let Best Buy haul it away, she's still going strong without ever having any major service done.

So that is has been my end of year 2017 and beginning of 2018, and that is not including the loss of my Uncle who passed on Christmas Eve at age 85, and my wife's uncle who just underwent removal of 2/3s of one Kidney due to a cancer mass.

methinks 2018 is not going to be my year..

Wow!
Remember the country western comedy show that was on television way back when?
In part of it, they had a theme song "If it weren't for Bad Luck I would
have no Luck at all!" Sounds like you have been living out that song.

Hope it gets better...

On the wiring, if you don't want to go with an aftermarket fuse box, I used one from early VW Rabbits for my 50 Sedan. It is a nice size, fits under the dash but will rotate
down and out so you can see it when opened. Lots of good stuff with the wiring in the aftermarket too.