More repairs

With D-Day rapidly approaching, I'm trying to repair as many issues as finances will afford while still leaving money left over for the journey.

Of course...there's always the unexpected.

Today I decided to tackle a few things. Yesterday I patched up the two small exhaust leaks that were annoying me more than anything. It set really well, and is solid once again. Eventually I'll just replace the pipes, but just not right now.

I re-sealed the coolant drain plug, which was already leaking. I guess the silicone was temp-rated high enough for it. I put the hi-temp Ultra Copper and made a gasket out of material I had lying around, so it should do the trick.

I pulled the rear tires off the car to inspect the rear sway bar. In the process of loosening the end links, I broke a bolt (surprise, surprise...I should lay off the steroids for a while) so that means I'll go ahead and make the order today from Aaron in Oregon. Until then, I'll just run the car sans roll-bar. It will help me realize the difference in handling with and without a roll-bar (the '86 was produced without a roll bar, mine was retrofitted with the bar from the '85 for more balanced handling).

And I'm sure the list goes on. There are like six bolts I need to extract for plastic underbody pieces, but I'll do that a bit later.

Right now, I'm going to take the Mazda to Kimball's for some well-deserved ice cream.