It’s been an interesting few months, and few hundred miles. I’ve been lurking because my heart just hasn’t been in it, or in much of anything lately. Long story absurdly short: I kicked Dani out in May, and Something Blue went with her. I could wrap up that thread with how I’d been working on peeling the improperly sprayed bright blue Plastidip and cleaning up the midnight/tan factory two-tone, but I think I’m just going to stay away from Subarus and Sagittariuses for a while. (Is that even a word? Sagittarii?)
With neither the Volvo nor the Discovery anywhere close to being ready for daily driver duties, and me suddenly in need of something to check the mail and pick up groceries, yeah…here comes the Rooster.
186,263.7 miles
No He Ain’t Gonna Fry
The aircon is completely there, but completely empty, and no one will touch these old freon systems. Long term I’ll be buying the conversion parts and getting it charged up with the good safe stuff, but in the mean time it’s summer and I’ve got a buddy with a new tinting business that owes me money from buying my last Subaru. I went with 35% on the doors (he did offer 25%, but I like to see) and 5% on everything else. It was put to the test last week during what they called an unusual heat event (105°F), and was absolutely worth every forgiven dollar. (Also, so glad the heat kicked off our monsoons and got us back to our usual summer 80’s.)
Restomod Continues
The reverse lights haven’t worked since I bought the truck. I haven’t cared much as I can see just fine with the split window open and the big bright brake lights, but now I need it to be 100%. With while-I’m-in-there and upgrade-whenever-replacing in full effect, I popped off the covers to start troubleshooting only to be pleasantly surprised by a pair of empty sockets—both reverse bulbs simply completely missing. In went the new LED brake and reverse bulbs, job well done. 
After some finagling and filing, I also managed to modify the pointy ends of the newer style dome light bulbs to work with the flat blades of the old dome light (which wants the loopy-style end, festoon?). Both map lights were just standard 194s, so easy peasey. Yep, I went with warm white to keep the color temperatures true to the vehicle’s era (same with the reverse bulbs).
Rats
I have absolutely had it with the rats (not packrats, they’re cute and fairly easy to deter). Somehow—despite killing dozens—I still have a few full-sized rats running around, less than before, but still enough to cause trouble. About a third of the replacement coolant cap I’d snagged from the junkyard was found chewed up nearby.
This fix was supposed to wait until I replace the radiator, but at least it was easy to do since these older systems aren’t pressurized.
Back to the rats: I’ve managed to rid the workshop and attic of them with a combination of sonic warfare and traps, I’m going to have to do the same with the vehicles. If anyone has other effective measures they’ve used I’m all ears (I’m willing to go scorched earth now).