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With the recent official loss of my G8, I've been back driving the sonoma and finally doing the upgrades and repairs I've wanted to do the last few years. Unfortunately I just was not able to keep the G8 for the engine/transmission to put in the sonoma since they wanted over $7,000 for the car that is now undrivable and deemed a total loss. But the money has been able to fast track these upgrades. First and probably most importantly THE AC WORKS! and when I say it's Ice cold, it's not like every used car listing "Ice cold AC" No the air coming out of the vents is physically painful if it's blowing at you. Rough estimate of 28oz of R134 and 8oz of PAG46, had an incident of finding out the compressor has a pressure relief valve that sprays oil all over the headers and HVAC box.... so I think I need to add a bit more refrigerant as it's fast cycling at 65mph Run into an issue where the ride height I like the way it looks was only about 1" from hitting the bump stops, which made for an awful time on Wilson road... so I've gone and added some preload to bring it back up to a stockish ride height and it looks goofy as hell but rides so much better. So to fix that problem I'm upgrading to Belltech blazer drop spindles, sealed hub and a normal rotor instead of the old school bearings in the rotor, along with that swap I'm also going to use the 4 piston brembos I had bought for the G8 but didn't get to install them, working on cleaning them up and preping to install them next weekend with cross drilled C6 Z06 rotors, which apparently are the same size as the Camaro/SS/CTSV rotors but has a 70mm center bore like the S-series trucks... Rears are coming soon but aren't a priority as the stock drums still function just fine, though they do look dumb inside the 19" camaro wheels that I'll FINALLY be installing in July after the front brakes are done.... Going with the same BFG G-force Comp 2 A/S plus tires that I had on the G8. And Lastly I need to fab a permanent mount for the trans cooler since there's no longer room for it behind the grille after the AC condenser got installed.. Currently it's securely zip tied in the same-ish location as the heat exchanger for a Sy/Ty So I thinking I might try to get some kind of little scoop made up too. Also noticed I REALLY need some kind of baffling or air dam between the front bumper and condenser, once the fan comes on it just pulls hot air from under the truck back through the radiator, Had this issue on my original S10 but It had the factory air dam that mounted to the core support and bumper. from my searching I seems like the Sy/Ty/SoGT NEVER had any such air dam Other than that It's just been repairing stuff I neglected in 2018 when I put it together or finding stuff that has happened during it's 3 year out door storage, like the headlights were shorting out and melted the passenger side plug, was actually the H4 bulbs in the Autopal housings. Uh the last electrical issue was the hot wire for the fuel pump was getting excessively hot, because the ground on the chassis has completely corroded, cleaned it up and relocated it to a more accessible spot and the wire still gets warm but not HOT I mean the pump is rated at 15-16amps at 60psi (Walbro 450) Today I spent a few hours trying to figure out why the brake pedal was so stiff with the hydroboost, turns out the pushrod was binding on the pedal so I got that addressed and it's feeling MUCH better now, hoping the new calipers are a better match with the C/K master cylinder I'm running so the pedal is a little softer and has a little more travel.

Well, apparently today I wore my front tire out trying to lose this pesky BMW that was behind me. Got a 4200 mile trip coming up, back tire will be toast by the time that is done. Just pulled them both off and will take them to Sills first thing in the morning. Glad I always keep a pair around.

I considered vinyl for the faux wood, but I'm just going to let it ride. The rotor covers are OEM and don't bother me, plus they hold the LED Ring of Fire.. which I like. It was all the extra chrome that was added to the bike that didn't suit me. With the exception of the passenger kick panels on the panniers and the arm rest mounts, and the luggage rack, the remainder of the chrome is how it left the plant in Marysville.

Chromectomy complete. I tried to remove some of the plastic wood trim from the rear storage compartments, but it is glued on like linoleum. Looks like I am learning to live with it, which isn't my favorite activity. Oh, well... it isn't hateful. I will live. It's still the same Goldwing, just less shiny.