Off-Topic: The Man on the Moon

 I work at a lighting company that makes a lot of fixtures from glass. This one in particular, it struck me, looked a lot like the moon. My co-worker Ahmed disagreed. He said it looked like cheese. "There's no man on it," he said. So I made one. And a little flag, too.

Not satisfied with just that, I added a moon rover as well.

I don't have an actual Lego man, so I just made him (and the rover) out of some Legos I have at my desk. The astronaut's helmet is a glass bulb shield that's used in many of our products. The flag is just a piece of clear tape drawn on with narrow-tip Sharpies. The light fixture is actually called Aquarii, because I guess it's supposed to look like sea foam or something. It comes in a couple colors. I still think it's a moon.

Homer Simpson

Snow and road grime on my commute to work recently gave my car Homer Simpson-esque stubble. Notice it didn't spare the side mirror either.

Headlights

Had a burned out headlight when I left work last night. I put rice on to cook, and ran outside to do this. I had picked up the better lights available at Farm & Fleet. Philips Clearvision, or something like that. Strangely, General Electric is actually the brand formed onto the lens. Whatever. These are considerably better than what I had.

What's most unfortunate is that my car's eyebrows -- courtesy of Andre on the day I first met him -- are now gone.

Replacement header goes in painlessly

(click here to see these photos in a gallery)

Replacing the header went well. I'm thoroughly satisfied with Raceland's customer service, and I'm hoping the rusty one was just a slip-up in quality control.

Previous post related to this:
Initial impression and installation guide.
First signs of possible issues.
When it actually broke.
Raceland's response.

Warranty honored on Raceland header

I found out last night from their website that they offer a 2 year warranty on materials and workmanship of their products. That was somewhat reassuring, but I was a still skeptical about a relative newcomer to the US market and a company that seems to have a lot of presence on eBay. My skepticism has been assuaged a bit.

I received an e-mail response this morning from Raceland USA. The person (who did not give a name) said they've never seen that kind of problem before, assumed it was defective, and would gladly send me a replacement. This rep said that s/he'd talk to their tech department, and would send me a return shipping label if they wanted to study the rusty one.

I've received a tracking number. Having to redo the work is no fun, but it's nice to know they respond quickly to problems and honor their warranty. I will continue to document this experience.

Update, 1/6/10: The replacement arrived. They did include a return shipping label for the failed header, so I'll be sending that back as soon as it's out. Quality of the welds and materials on the replacement looks about as good as the original. Here's to hoping that the actual alloy used is a more proper mix so it doesn't rust.

Raceland header rusts and breaks

 

Update at bottom.
On my commute home tonight, my car backfired badly twice on consecutive upshifts. Immediately after the second blast, my car was ear-bleedingly loud. I knew something bad had happened to my header; it had been looking and sounding iffy for a couple weeks. When I got home, I jacked the car up and saw this.

After a trip to Farm & Fleet for a patch kit and a set of jack stands that I would later return, I came home and applied the patch. It worked for about 5 minutes, and quickly became nearly as loud as it was before. I blame my poor patch job and not buying enough patch material. But it's quiet enough to get me to my parents' garage without making me deaf.

I'm going to send the picture above to Raceland and ask for a replacement. T-304 stainless steel shouldn't rust, especially not like this, and not after barely more than a year. For now, I'm driving Amanda's car to work the rest of the week (the university is closed, so she's off work) and I'll apply a more permanent repair.

My original post about the install is here:
http://sentimentalmechanic.blogspot.com/2009/11/var-gajshost-https-document.html

Update: The 2-year warranty was honored, and I'm impressed with their customer service.

http://sentimentalmechanic.blogspot.com/2010/12/warranty-honored-on-raceland-header.html

The hottest mans alive

Myself and Eric, always with teh sexiness.

Amanda and Jenny, welcome to your futures.