Introduce yourself

[ericjon262]

I thought that, even though there's only a handful of us left here on the forum, it might be nice to have a quick intro thread where we can off some simple introductions and a bit of background about ourselves. it would also offer a place for new members to get an idea of what kinds of people are in here, and what we're working on.

I'm Eric, I'm currently a Machinist's Mate in the Navy, and I work on Submarines. I've been turning wrenches since I was strong enough to lift them, and have enjoyed studying mechanical and electrical science/engineering. In high school, I studied telecommunications with the intention of being a cable technician, and afterwards joined the Navy and studied Nuclear systems and their associated technologies.

I have one major project, My 1985 Fiero SE "The Banshee" viewtopic.php?f=16&t=17757, and several minor, long term projects, like "The Pig Rig", My 1988 Suburban viewtopic.php?f=9&t=21517, Project Pile of Parts (POP) a collection of Nascar engine parts destined for a Firebird, viewtopic.php?f=9&t=18131.

[pmbrunelle]

On fieromontreal.com where my main build thread is located, we've dwindled to a pretty small number of active members. My build thread has mostly just myself and my friend Yamacoco posting, with few other people chiming in.

In the heydays of the club (nominally, we meet monthly in the warm-weather months), there used to be 25-30 attendees. Now it's more like 5-6 core members, including myself.

So things are similar here at RFT, but that's OK. It's not an ideal situation, but it's better than the madness of the zero-quality interactions over at the Facebook groups.

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My name is Patrick Marc, though I don't use my second name unless there's a name collision.

I always liked things that moved, and even things that don't move. My dad is a mechanical engineer and he taught me much of what I know today.

After high school (class of 2006), I joined the Army reserves as a non-commissioned member. I did odd-jobs on the side, and halfheartedly did college classes on the side. After four years of this, I felt like I was going nowhere, so I signed up for a bachelor degree of mechanical engineering. I finally found my calling; I blitzed through the degree in 3-1/2 years.

After growing up in Montréal, I moved two hours out to Grand-Mère go to work in the only automotive shop of that small town! I started on the shift-fork assembly of a top-loader style automated manual transmission. Since then I've settled into the design department of electric power steering products.

I wanted a turbo Fiero way back in 2008, but I didn't have the time/money/knowledge to make it happen until recently.

[Honest Don]

Hi! I’m Don

I was on here about a decade ago. I’m the second and fourth owner of a once-lovely, now whatever, blue 87 SE.

[ericjon262]

Hi! I’m Don

I was on here about a decade ago. I’m the second and fourth owner of a once-lovely, now whatever, blue 87 SE.

Welcome back!

[Honest Don]

Hi! I’m Don

I was on here about a decade ago. I’m the second and fourth owner of a once-lovely, now whatever, blue 87 SE.

Welcome back!

Thanks!

[Shaun41178(2)]

I'm infamous

[Honest Don]

I'm infamous

[pmbrunelle]

Must mean the opposite of famous.

Like how inflammable means not flammable.

[crzyone]

Is this like AA but for fiero owners?

Hi I'm Levi

I've had 6 fieros, 4 FD RX7s, 2 R32 GTRs, one Evo X, SW20 MR2, GC8 STI, EK hatch.... etc etc. I don't frequent this forum or any other anymore because most of the core members have pretty much left the forum as well.

I'm a power engineer and I use that to operate a control room of a gas plant for XTO aka Exxon Mobil. Been doing that for the last 20 years or so.

I'll check back to the forum in a year or so to see if there are any more people on here lol...

[The Dark Side of Will]

I'm working overnights for Thermal Vacuum (TVAC) testing right now, so why not?

My name is William and I'm... <pause, deep breath, you can do this> ...an Autoholic.

I have crazy ideas for things OEMs didn't do that I'd like to, like 12 cylinder mid-size cars (M73 E34? M120 W124? W12 C5 RS6?) and V8 AWD compacts... and the ideas. just. won't. leave. me. alone.
I have a soft spot for raucous mid-engine rides, with the not-so raucous one I could actually afford when I first started working on cars being the Fiero.
I'm a complete super-freak for suspension geometry and hold a PE license in machinery design, with degrees in Physics, Math and Systems Engineering.

I've been mostly into Fieros, but I've branched out over the last decade into German offerings and over the last year into fun with diesel fuel.
I currently have:
1988 Fiero (Storm Trooper)
1987 Fiero w/ Northstar (The Mule)
2005 Mercedes Benz E320 CDI (Karl) My very first diesel
2006 Chevrolet Express 3500 (Brutus) extended diesel w/ sliding door. Duramax power! Move Shit & Carry Stuff! (TM)
1988 BMW 325iX (Bad Idea) 2 door/5 speed. Currently in need of rod bearings for the original engine and swap to an S62
1985 BMW 735i bought because it was cheap... fixing oddments on it to sell as Karl is a FAR superior DD and road trip car
1978 Ferrari 308 GTS - Steel bodied/carb car with no engine or transmission; expecting to receive engine & trans from 1990 348.

I've always been jealous of Levi's FD's... I was never jealous enough to spend that money, though. I've driven a still-rotary, stock turbo FD with basic mods and it was pretty quick with outstanding handling. I did really like it although I didn't really fit.

Aspirational cars include C215 CL65 AMG (to be named "BEnzo"), 996 Turbo and maybe a 1st gen NSX.

[pmbrunelle]

I think that my disorder manifests itself as a mild case of autoholism simply due to lack of money.

If I had more money for fun projects, I'd hire a bunch of smart labcoat-wearing folks, and get to work on:
Thermonuclear bomb
Nuclear reactor for boat
Gen 5 jet fighter aircraft

It is an embarrassment that my country has none of this...

[The Dark Side of Will]

It's an embarrassment that my country still uses reactor designs from the 1950's and a whole lot of people I know pronounce it "nucular".

[ericjon262]

It's an embarrassment that my country still uses reactor designs from the 1950's and a whole lot of people I know pronounce it "nucular".

it is pretty amazing to see how many ideas and improvements were made to the "designs from the 1950's". I like to equate the PWR's used by the navy as SBC's, the design is old sure, but it's seen consistent improvement, and has a good track record in the applications it's been used.

That being said, the biggest opponents of nuclear energy in our country, are ignorance and misinformation. People who have no idea about how a reactor works, and only "know" that there's radioactive stuff inside and that radioactive stuff is really super ultra bad. because of this, mob mentality halted quite a bit of R&D, caused huge amounts of regulation, and even construction of new plants.

Fun fact, coal fired power plants release way more radionuclides into the atmosphere than nuclear plants do, in fact, nuclear plants release almost no radionuclides, as they are contained in the cooling systems and usually filtered out of the coolants, or stored until they decay into stable nuclides.

[pmbrunelle]

Welcome back to Earth's surface.

in fact, nuclear plants release almost no radionuclides

Except for when accidents happen... the problem isn't in normal operations. Coal isn't great either, but no energy source is without problems.

As humans continue to breed like rabbits, energy needs increase... so you gotta pick some source (all distasteful in some way) if you want your heat, lights, and refrigerator to work.

I think the best course of action would be to reduce the human population to 100 million or so, and then we could stretch our non-renewable resources longer. This could buy us time for a longer-term plan, and allow people to live well in the meanwhile.

I do not expect that to happen. I instead expect some kind of resource crunch, poverty, and then war to fight over the leftovers. The remaining survivors could then inherit an empty wasteland.

As such, I do not feel a major reproductive drive; I would be condemning my hypothetical child to a bleak future, not something a loving parent would willingly do.

[ericjon262]

Welcome back to Earth's surface.

Thanks! I saw the sun for the first time in 90+ days today, it seems alot brighter when you go that long without seeing it!

in fact, nuclear plants release almost no radionuclides

Except for when accidents happen... the problem isn't in normal operations. Coal isn't great either, but no energy source is without problems.

while I won't disagree, I will say accidents are few and far between, and a coal fired plan is continuously releasing both radionuclides, and all sorts of heavy metals and toxins into the atmosphere 24/7/365.

[Indy]

I'm Nate. In high school, I bought an Indy that I wanted to put a Super Duty 4cyl in to. Now I'm old and it's still not done, but at least those 529's are funded.

In my spare time, I'm an engineer who does ground testing for various aircraft.

[ericjon262]

I'm Nate. In high school, I bought an Indy that I wanted to put a Super Duty 4cyl in to. Now I'm old and it's still not done, but at least those 529's are funded.

In my spare time, I'm an engineer who does ground testing for various aircraft.

I always look forward to seeing updates to your build thread!

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I've seen a few new usernames on the "newest user" ticker at the bottom of the homepage, so I figured I would bump this up.

[The Dark Side of Will]

As humans continue to breed like rabbits, energy needs increase... so you gotta pick some source (all distasteful in some way) if you want your heat, lights, and refrigerator to work.

I think the best course of action would be to reduce the human population to 100 million or so, and then we could stretch our non-renewable resources longer. This could buy us time for a longer-term plan, and allow people to live well in the meanwhile.

I do not expect that to happen. I instead expect some kind of resource crunch, poverty, and then war to fight over the leftovers. The remaining survivors could then inherit an empty wasteland.

As such, I do not feel a major reproductive drive; I would be condemning my hypothetical child to a bleak future, not something a loving parent would willingly do.

Counterpoint: "Superabundance" happens when resource availability grows faster than population.

https://www.aei.org/economics/the-age-o ... -optimism/

https://www.cato.org/policy-analysis/si ... -resources

[pmbrunelle]

As humans continue to breed like rabbits, energy needs increase... so you gotta pick some source (all distasteful in some way) if you want your heat, lights, and refrigerator to work.

I think the best course of action would be to reduce the human population to 100 million or so, and then we could stretch our non-renewable resources longer. This could buy us time for a longer-term plan, and allow people to live well in the meanwhile.

I do not expect that to happen. I instead expect some kind of resource crunch, poverty, and then war to fight over the leftovers. The remaining survivors could then inherit an empty wasteland.

As such, I do not feel a major reproductive drive; I would be condemning my hypothetical child to a bleak future, not something a loving parent would willingly do.

Counterpoint: "Superabundance" happens when resource availability grows faster than population.

https://www.aei.org/economics/the-age-o ... -optimism/

https://www.cato.org/policy-analysis/si ... -resources

So there is a difference between X "economically-viable resources that are known to man" versus Y "amount of stuff on Earth".
X <= Y

I would say that Y is a relatively fixed quantity for many items, but it is not known. However, it's not because Y is unobservable that it does not have a defined value.

I can agree with Simon's Rule, but only in the short term. Perhaps for decades or centuries.

Eventually, the Y limit must be reached. Innovation just changes how quickly we get there, and how lavish the party is in the meantime.