Project Truck Update: Polishing a Turd Edition, Part 1

Looks like there was a close encounter with a post.

So, I've decided to concentrate on getting the truck streetworthy and part of that will be replacing the doors. I have a good passenger door, but the question has been, 'what to do with the driver's door?'

I'm going to try to clean the driver's door up as much as possible, then use a phosphoric acid-based spray to convert the rust, then pain on top of that. Given how rusty the door is, I'm not expecting it to be perfect, but if I can get the doors on while I look for a better replacement, that will do for now.

Start of work.

As rusty as the door looks, it's actually structurally solid, thanks to the incredible thickness of the sheet metal used. The rust is really just cosmetic. Started sanding it with some 60-grit sandpaper. If I had a full-sized sandblaster, this would take 5 minutes.

After some sanding. Fresh Metal starting to show through.
Lots of rust came off. Looks a lot better.

Katrina Mud

This door went underwater in Chalmette in Katrina. There's still a residue of Katrina muck inside.

I then used some "Rust Neutralizer" on the door. It's a mix of phosphoric acid and other stuff. The phosphoric acid reacts like this:

Fe2O3 + 2 H3PO4 -> 2 FePO4 + 3 H2O

The rust (iron oxide) is converted to Iron Phosphate. The spray I used actually does a few other things on the side, like convert the red rust (Fe2O3) to black rust (Fe3O4, aka- millscale) and draw water out of the metal.

After two coats of phosphoric acid.

We'll see how it works. I've left it to cure overnight. I'll paint on top of it to protect it and see what happens.

Also on rust chronicles.

Tet 2009

Spring Rolls, the old standby.
Went to the Tet celebrations at Mary Queen of Vietnam in New Orleans East tonight.

I'm stuffed. We ate Bahn Mi (Vietnamese Po-Boys), egg rolls, fried plantains, spring rolls, pickled beef, and Pho Tai.


ASSORTED Pig Intestine. Yummy.


Pickled Beef. VERY hot.


Nuns help out


Giant Wok of Goodness. Fried Plantains inside.

Rest of the photos here.

New Orleans East

DSC00217
Originally uploaded by Noladishu

Passed by Jazzland / Six Flags New Orleans on the way to Mary Queen of Vietnam. Very Spooky. Rest of the set here.

This afternoon, while walking the dog,

This afternoon, while walking the dog, I noticed a fairly old, somewhat beat-up, dark green Mercury Mountaineer. The driver came around the corner really fast, tires squealing, and the passenger leaned out the window, dreds flapping, and yelled, "BLAT, BLAT, BLAT" and started laughing. They drove off in a hurry.

I was not amused, especially in light of recent events.

Many other local bloggers are also hearing gunshots nearby. Not good.

A couple of news items to point out:
Upset Quarter Residents Blast Police
A captain from Criminal Sheriff Marlin Gusman's office was also at the meeting tonight, but she garnered harsh criticism after she tried to explain to those in the audience that residents are not being pro-active enough. Frustrated and even angry members of the crowd fired back, telling her they're calling police every chance they get. One man even yelled, "go back to the Sheriffs Office."

Mostly Crimey, with more crime expected later. Good comments.

New Orleans breeds bold killers. 50% of NOLA homicides occur in broad daylight. An astonishingly high percentage. If you want one statistic that illustrates the total futility of the justice system in the city, there you go. No fear whatsoever.

More on New Orleans Crime and Punishment.

Mike Rowe on Work

Mike Rowe finds gets a bright idea about work after biting off the testicles of a lamb. Just watch the video.

Desk Swag

I've been working as an engineer (E.I./E.I.T. really) for a few years now and I've picked up little promo items, samples, and random detritus on my desk.

These are samples of ultra-high molecular weight polyethylene (UHMWPE). I was evaluating different companies' offering to find the best one. UHMWPE is basically Teflon, but a lot tougher and can stand up to the rigors of a heavy-industry environment.

From left to right, there is a tricone bit, a sample of an epoxy-lined heat exchanger tube, and 2 vendor sample bolts from a lunch and learn.

The tricone bit is just a baby one off a 3" water well. The ones that they use to drill modern wells are the size of garbage can or larger, but the operating principal is the same. The drill pipe is rotated by a big motor at the top and all the bit has to do is break up the rock into small pieces that the drill mud can carry away.

The next one is a sample of a heat exchanger tube. We wanted a heat exchanger that could handle corrosive produced water, but we needed immediate delivery. Carbon steel is very easy to fabricate, but is highly susceptible to rust. We used a vendor's epoxy coating to protect the tubes for a sacrificial bundle while a bigger, titanium bundle was fabricated. The epoxy lining vendor has paint lances that go inside the tubes after the heat exchanger is fabricated and internally line the heat exchanger.

The bolts are from a lunch and learn (vendor comes in and gives a 1 hour lecture that qualifies for Professional Development Hours [PDH's]). The vendor came in and described various types of anchor bolts and gave a detailed failure analysis of the bolts for the Big Dig in Boston. Cerasoli marked those bolts for failure long before they actually gave way.

Project Truck Update: Water Pump Do-Over

I forgot to paint the pump and use teflon tape on the nipple when I replaced the water pump the first time, so I had to go back and do it again.

I've painted the new one to make sure it doesn't rust this time.

Here's the old one dangling in place.

Decided to leave the fan blades off for safety, but I'll probably go back and put it back on next time I work. There's no cowl around them, so they don't pull much air through the radiator, but it does do a good job of pulling fresh air into the engine compartment in general.

Unfortunately, the alternator bracket I had to replace the old, rusty one doesn't fit (they were fibbing when they said it would fit a 350 with a long nose water pump). Oh well.

Still need to do more work on the inside, get door locks, rewire the truck, fix the oil leak, and then maybe try and get a brake tag.

UPDATE- Here's the new pump installed (minus fan):

Math for Engineers

Warning label?

The Letter of Last Resort

Facinating article in Slate about a "Doomsday Letter" given to each nuclear submarine commander.

This letter was written by each Prime Minister of Britain. It was to be opened only in case of a surprise, all-out attack by the Soviets. The question is, what did it contain?

The very presence of the letter undermines the Mutually Assured Destruction deterrence strategy. If there's a 50/50 chance of escaping retaliation, an enemy might risk an attack. The author claims that Thatcher and Reagan were committed to launching a retaliatory strike no matter what.

If you were writing the letter, would you say, "Nuke 'em" or "Let 'em Live?"

Pollution is resource in the wrong place

Going into the future, I think we'll have to be very inventive about our usage of natural resources. Fewer rich sources of energy and resources will be out there, so we'll have to find inventive ways of using what we have and extracting what we need from lesser grades of material.

Also, it will get harder and harder to clean up big environmental messes.

Recently, I heard this axiom:
"Pollution is resource in the wrong place"

I have no idea who said that, but it's very wise. So wise in fact, that I have a feeling this might be the next big thing.

Here's a few way I see it put into practice.

Butte, MT Open Pit Mine. An abandoned copper mine builds up water contaminated with all sorts of nasty chemicals and metals. It became one of the largest (by size) Superfund sites in the US. Right now, though, the mine has reopened using new methods to leach metals out of the water and clean it up (also making a profit off the extracted metals). Extremophile bacteria also helped clean up "The Pit." Researchers studying these bacteria have invented new cancer drugs from them.

Another example of beneficial use of "waste" resources is beneficial use of dredge material for coastal restoration in Southeast Louisiana. Rebuild the wetlands while maintaining the port.

Fly Ash has been in the news because of the spill. Fly ash is what's leftover when you burn coal for oil. The TVA spill happened because it was being stored in big ponds that just got bigger and bigger and bigger. Well, fly ash does have an actual use. It's been used as a cement substitute in concrete mixes. It was first used as such in the Hoover Dam. The manufacture of cement is extraordinarily energy intensive and has a HUGE carbon footprint.

Also related to fly ash is the huge amounts of entrained thorium that could be used in thorium-fuel nuclear reactors. A very interesting and very promising emerging technology. The science behind thorium power is very interesting, there have been multiple successful test reactors, and I plan on doing a post about it soon.

Here's to "waste not, want not" for future energy and resource sources.

Keeping up with the Corps

A couple of articles about our ongoing levee upgrades have caught my interest

Levee work must wait years for study. Near the strip of land between Lakes Pontchartrain and Borgne. It would be far more efficient to focus efforts on gating the other end of Lake Pontchartrain at the Rigolets and Chef Pass. That will be one of the big 3 projects that determine the long term future of New Orleans, the other two being the closure of MR-GO and a huge diversion of the Mississippi River along the lines of what John Barry suggested at Rising Tide.

Corps sticks with its plan, despite pressure from shipping interests.

Work underway on MR-GO closure.

I actually haven't worked on any Corps work, but I in the same office as those who do. While this is just sort of a feeling that shouldn't hold any weight, it feels like the pace has picked up in the last 3-6 months. It's like things are finally starting to move forward. Did a fire get lit under someone's butt when they saw the waves lapping over the top in Gustav? Dunno.

The Corps looks like it's taking serious steps to protect the city. Kudos to them.

Lazy afternoon links to chew on... 1.23.09

Economics:
Nationalization Linkfest. Another huge collection of links on the crisis. The last one about hanging the bankers sounds about right.

Two nations, one system: Chimerica. Related: after years of Paulson/Bush turning the "strong dollar policy" of the US into a joke, could Geithner turn things around? Obama's Treasury Secretary discusses the undervalued Yuan.

Huge milestone: Toyota passes GM for highest US sales. The General has been the largest US car maker for 80+ years. Not anymore. Don't get too comfy, though, Toyota. Detroit meanwhile is getting very depressing. Look at the last thing Jalopnik wrote about the Auto Show this year.

Spain loses AAA credit rating. Lots of other discussion on the downgrading of sovereign debt. This is a VERY tricky subject for an entity like S&P to get involved in. They should tread carefully, after their earlier boondoggles with mortgage backed securities. The blowback/ripple effects on this stuff is huge.

Money-laundering: the third largest global enterprise (after Auto industry and Financial industry). And then there are questions about what category much of the financial industry should fit in... Related: "Entire economy Afghanistan is nothing but crime."

Culture:
xkcd sums up dating.

Freaked-out reactionary racists.

"I had to drop out of college because my laptop came with Ubuntu on it. She's blonde.

The Bailout Game! Bernanke gets chased by an angry mob. Not a fully developed game, but interesting.

The Onion from when Bush took office. Prophetic?

Weird:
Dwarf glues Penis to Hoover. Ouch. Great headline, though.

Weapons of Mass Destruction found in Iran... by the Ancient Romans. Chemical weapons used by the Persians on the Romans. First use of WMD's?

"Quiverfull" women. VERY disturbing.

Ad placement from hell during a Battlestar broadcast.

Politics:
Unemployment lines full of Republican lackeys. Money quote: "There is nothing as desperate as a defeated politician looking for a job."

Everyone laughs at Tennessee Republicans:

More at Wonkette. Democrats with real balls.

"This land," he said, "was taken by the point of a gun -- and we are buying it back with American dollars." Political and legal maneuverings of one tribe. Imagine what the Houma's locally might do if they had recognition as a tribe, organization, and proper mineral (OIL) rights...

America closes secret torture camps! Yipee! Wait. Why have we fallen so far that we have to celebrate that?

Open Letter to Congress: Collectively you're a bunch of irresponsible opportunistic whiny ether-sniffing assface sissypants bedwetters until such time that you prove through your deeds that you're not.

One last link: hope for the future.

Green Dot Day

NOTE- I posted this briefly and then took it down because I was too early. Now I'm putting it back up late because I forgot

It's been 3 years since the Times-Picayune issued their infamous "Green Dot" map on the cover.

The infamous image is below:


Excellent roundup at Regional Modernism: The Map That Launched A Thousand Ships

Change Can Happen...

A couple of little vignettes:

The person in the story at the end of this post talking about how he's warming to Obama for being the first president in a generation to really give a shit about organized labor.

On my walk to Deanie's for lunch, a black limo driver and a white construction worker having an honest debate about Israel & Palestine. Both were calm, were reasonably in the ballpark with their facts, and were respectful of the other's positions, even if they disagreed.

There are some more I could write, but I don't want to embarrass particular people. People can change. All I'll say is I think the national IQ went up yesterday by a couple of points.