Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with Repair

Roofjob

gilgamix — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 19:38:19 -0800

How much would it cost to repair/replace the roof of a 1988 BMW convertible? We are thinking about buying a 1988 bmw convertible for my brother-in-law for Christmas. Apparently "the handle for the roof is broken, so the hood can't go up (very easy to fix). "

I have no experience with convertibles, and the car is cheap enough that we could afford to put some work into it, but I need some idea of what it will cost.

And so I turn to the hive mind, my trusted guide in all manners esoteric and then some.

Duct tape and chickenwire and sh**

toodleydoodley — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 16:07:38 -0800

Can I use automotive-type silicone sealant to coat the metal handle of a kitchen utensil? I'm looking for some help in an inelegant solution to an intractable problem in the kitchen. Because our household heritage might best be described as Rednec-Tino (or Lat-Nec), a lot of messy, spattery frying and sauteeing goes on around here.

I finally found a 13-inch spatter screen that covers all but my largest (14-inch) pan, but it doesn't cover that one unless I rest part of the handle on the lip of the pan, which would make the stay-cool plastic center melt and leak out of the wire-loop handle of the splatter screen.

Here's what I want to do: I want to punch the plastic center out of the wire loop and replace it by coating the wire loop with silicone sealant, like Form-A-Gasket.

Will this poison me and everyone I cook for? How long should I let it cure?

caveat: I live in BFE, so bonus points for cheaper brands of silicone sealant that I can buy at ACE hardware.

What's this plastic garbage called, and can I replace it and not the whole door?

SpecialK — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 17:51:16 -0800

I'm moving out of a house I'd rented, and my dogs at one point had eaten the plastic "trim" pieces that are on the outside of the back door, which is your average metal-framed swinging with a big full-length dual-paned glass window. the damage isn't really to the door or the glass; it's to this stupid plastic trim that's around and within the glass that makes up a grid of squares. I don't know what this trim is called. Bonus question: Can I just replace the trim and not the door? Home Depot was, unsurprisingly, unhelpful.

A practical mechanics primer?

invitapriore — Sat, 05 Dec 2009 19:40:05 -0800

Where can I find a basic and fairly comprehensive run-down of, quite literally, the nuts, bolts, screws, seals, bearings, washers and so on of practical mechanics? I'm looking for resources, in print or online, that describe the common and basic components of machines, why they're there, and what they do. For example, this hypothetical resource might contain a chapter or a sub-chapter on washers, going through the different types and explaining their applications. It might also detail certain machines to show how the general principles of how these parts work are applied -- the example that got me on this kick is the headset of a bicycle, whose many components I only partially understand.

While I'll probably be applying this knowledge mostly to bicycle mechanics, I still want something general -- I have plenty of references for bike-specific stuff, but they haven't really helped me get a broad feel for how these things work. Most times, when I get a new experience under my belt, I feel as though I've just memorized one particular case as opposed to having added to the sort of general knowledge that would allow me to deal with novel situations. A general resource will also probably prove helpful when dealing with non-bicycle machines and home repair issues.

I found this book in my searches, but it's out of print and I'm sure there are others. Unfortunately, all of my google searches turn up physics textbooks, which isn't really what I want or need.

Thanks!

I'm going to bloody well fix this Xbox myself.

Frasermoo — Sat, 05 Dec 2009 18:11:33 -0800

Help me fix my Xbox 360. I'm looking for documentation on a tried and tested fix for the red rings on the 360. Having been through multiple consoles, I've decided to try the X clamp fix myself. Has anyone here done it themselves? What instructions did you follow? Was it successful?

Would you like to play internet mechanic? Bonus points if you can recommend a mechanic or Hyundai dealer in Chicago.

nooneyouknow — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 15:09:21 -0800

Would you like to play internet mechanic? My car is having problems, one involving the brakes and two mystery problems. Bonus points if you can recommend a mechanic or Hyundai dealer in Chicago. My car is a 2004 Hyundai Elantra Sedan. FYI, I have 17,000 miles on the car. I don't know if this is important, but I read somewhere that not driving your car a ton was a bad thing.

Brakes - The amount of pressure I have to apply to the brake pedal varies a lot. Sometimes I only have to press the brake pedal down a little, sometimes I have to press it all the way to the floor, sometimes it's anywhere in between those extremes. This first started happening some months ago. I thought it was because of wear on the front pads so while I was at the dealer for a different issue I had them look at the brakes. They said the front brakes were fine but the rear brakes needed to be adjusted. After that, it was okay for a while, but the amount of pressure needed started varying again. So, I took it back to the dealer and said "My rear brakes need to be adjusted". They acted like I was speaking Greek. They looked at my brakes and said the rear brakes were at like 50% but didn't say anything about adjustment and offered to do some work on my front brakes for $250.00. That seemed quite expensive so I declined and took it to Meineke. The mechanic at Meineke said my front brakes were fine and that my rear brakes needed to be adjusted. So they worked on them and the brakes worked okay for a bit but now they are acting up again.

So, what does it mean that the rear brakes needed to be adjusted? Why doesn't adjusting them keeping the problem from reoccurring? Am I looking at having to get new rear brakes? Any idea how much that would cost?

Mystery 1 - In October, I took the car on the expressway for the first time in some months, and once I hit about 60 mphs it started shaking like it stole something. I don't know if the whole car was vibrating but it felt like it. The steering wheel was shaking so much that my entire forearms were vibrating. Any clue what this could be about?

Mystery 2 - When I turn the steering wheel to the left, there is this noise, it kinda sounds like metal on metal. But, it's not constant, it's noise-silence-noise-silence, like a record skipping. Sometimes its loud, sometimes it's quite soft. This only happens when the car is in motion and it never happens when I turn the steering wheel to the right. Any clue what this could be about?

I used to take it to the dealer where I bought it for service (which only involved getting it inspected every year and routine maintenance, I haven't had any problems with this car prior to the ones listed above), but I'm reluctant to take it back there since they acted like they had no idea of what readjusting the brakes meant when they had done it previously and suggested brake work that it seems I didn't need. So I would appreciate any recommendations for a decent mechanic or Hyundai dealer in the Chicago area.

Help us get our shower back!

joshuaconner — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 14:20:46 -0800

I live in a mobile home, and I went to change out the shower arm and head in our bathroom, and I ran into some trouble. Instead of finding a fixed, metal pipe coming through a relatively small hole in the wall - what I've found when I've done this previously in apartments and the like - there's a plastic fitting attached to some flexible plastic tubing coming out of a hole that's larger than the flange that came with my new shower arm.

Because the fitting is not fixed to anything (I actually had to fish it out from in the wall with a bent coat hanger because once I detached it from the original shower it kind of just sprung back down into there), it won't hold up my shower arm, as you can see in the second picture here. (That goopy-looking stuff is residue from some Great Stuff I sprayed in the hole to try and at least stabilize the fitting in one place on the advice of a guy at my local hardware store. It didn't work.)

I'm not attached to this shower arm or head - at this point, really we just want a fully functioning shower again. We've talked about removing that piece of drywall and replacing it with a new piece (or cutting out that part of the drywall and putting a new "patch" piece in its place (so the hole can at least be closer to the correct size), but a) it seems really labor-intensive, and b) it doesn't solve the fundamental problem that the pipe the water is coming out of is just kind of flopping around in there.

Putting the original shower arm and head back on isn't an option, though we're fine with changing to some different style of shower arm and head if it will give us back a fully functioning shower.

Ideas?

Is This Really Death Metal... For My Car?

Rewind — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 12:31:41 -0800

While performing routine maintenance on my car, my mechanic noticed a hum coming from the (standard) transmission. He then changed the transmission fluid and noticed pieces of metal when draining the old fluid out. Crap. This car only has 85,000 miles. How many more can I realistically get out of it? The car in question is 2002 Ford Focus, which has had a not insignificant amount of work done on it over the years (particularly around the tires, wheels and clutch) because a) it’s a cheap car manufactured with cheap parts and b) I’m primarily a city driver who drove the thing hard in its early years (when I was younger and just as stupid.)

When I asked my mechanic how long he thought it had, he was somewhat noncommittal and said, “Maybe a year. Maybe more or less.” I understand him not wanting to give me a definite time because it’s probably a hard thing to pin down, and he probably doesn’t want me yelling at him if it turns out he was wrong. While I’ve never noticed the hum he alluded to, I also fully admit that I’d have no idea what to listen for. To me, car acceleration sounds like car acceleration. I trust my mechanic implicitly, and don’t think for a minute he was trying to get me to spend more on additional work. In fact, based on the transmission issue, I ended up not replacing my timing belt, thinking it would be wasted money if the car only has a limited lifespan.

So, I guess my question to you mechanical folk out there is if you have any type of experience with this and if so, how long did the car last, and do you have any additional insight you think might be useful? I’m actually reading some information online which says that metal in the transmission drainage is actually normal. I’m tempted to trust my mechanic on this, however. At the root of all this is me questioning whether or not I should buy a new car. Eventually, I’m going to have to, of course, and now seems like a great time to buy one given the economy and some of the deals I’m seeing, but not if my current car still has a reasonable amount of miles still left on it. Thanks in advance.

To repair or to replace?

hjd — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 04:50:24 -0800

To repair or replace? Should I repair a boiler with renowned reoccuring faults or replace it with a new reliable boiler with a 5 year warranty? I am having issues with my boiler at the moment. It is an 8 year old Baxi 100HE and it's ignition is frequently locking out. It is a renowed fault with the Baxi range which I have read about in forums. The way to repair it involves calling out an engineer and perhaps having to pay for expensive parts to be replaced (not sure what the parts cost but on forums they were referred to as expensive). According to MoneySavingExpert.com boiler repairs and maintenance come to about £180 a year - but I guess if this boiler has a reoccuring fault it might be more, although of course I cannot be sure.

Do I sink money into this boiler by having it repaired and then perhaps regularly maintained after that, or invest in a new boiler by Viessman which I have read is reliable on forums and also comes with a 5 year warranty. This may cost about £1200 though for the boiler and the installation.

Cost wise they may end up amounting to the same over the 5 years based on conservative estimates, but since I do not have experience of hot water/heating systems on a long term basis I am not sure which is the most effective choice.

Also, even if the boiler is under warranty I suppose I will still have to have it serviced each year to ensure the warranty is not voided, so that would potentially be another £100 a year on top of the original £1200 installation.

Does anyone have any advice based on their own experience and knowledge?

Dead iMac - How screwed am I?

Bango Skank — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 07:30:36 -0800

My apartment flooded while I was away on vacation now my '07 iMac won't power up. So this is going to be a two-parter with specific questions about my computer and a general question about the nature of battery backups. I came home from an awesome week of vacation only to discover that we had torrential rains while I was gone and my apartment flooded (again) and sat wet for 4-5 days. Before I got home my landlord discovered what happened and did a pretty great job cleaning it up for me. He even paid to have professional cleaners come in and mop the floors and shampoo the rugs. Besides the stink of mildew and damp that will just take some time to dissipate the only main damage appears to be my computer and TV and the battery backups they were plugged into. The TV is an older model and while I'm sad to see it go I can accept that, but the computer is pretty heartbreaking.

The computer was sitting on top of a desk and did not get wet. It was plugged into a combination surge protector/battery backup that was plugged into the wall. The computer and battery backup were both switched off. The battery backup was full of muddy water.

Now my dear, sweet, beloved iMac will not power up, I press the power button and nothing at all happens. I have checked all the connections and I know it is plugged into a live outlet. Any suggestions of what it might be? I know that during heavy rains I get some pretty wicked power surges which is why I purchased the top-of-the-line battery backups in the first place. How would I even begin diagnosing the problem? Would I be a complete idiot to consider cracking this thing open and monkeying around in there myself? If the computer is now a doorstop what are the chances of recovering my data? (I don't have a backup of either my photos or my iTunes library [please don't lecture me I am already kicking myself hard enough!])

To add a degree of difficulty taking the computer to an Apple store is not an option. We do have at least one local computer repair place that claims to work on Macs but they do not have a great reputation. If this is not something I can deal with on my own I will either have to ship it to Apple (all on my dime - the warranty is long since expired) or trust that the local guy's bad reputation is unfounded.

The general question regarding battery backups is this - did I nullify the surge protection/current regulating abilities of my battery backup by switching it off? I was hoping to save some electricity while I was gone but in hindsight I am wondering if I made things worse by turning the power off.

Desudser?

pwnguin — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 18:34:37 -0800

How can I clean the soap out of my (laundry) washing machine? We have an out of warranty front-loading washing machine, a Whirlpool Duet (ghw9200l). Recently it's started failing to pump out water; after trying for a while it moves to an error state showing F-02 and beep. The water has suds which is unusual, even when I just run a rinse cycle with no soap or clothes.

I'm running rinse cycles, but google queries suggest adding some "desudser." Is there such a thing, and is it better than just rinsing? If so, where should I look to buy it?

How to fix a house's foundations?

moorooka — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 22:52:21 -0800

After noticing some small cracks on the interior walls of one room, I went outside and saw several HUGE zig-zag cracks have appeared between the bricks at the back corner of my house. All the indications of a bad case of subsidence. Time to panic; the house is now worthless! What are my options? From my googling, it seems that a structural engineer will have to come in and fix the foundations. How much does this cost in general - all I know is that it will be an absolute fortune, and insurance (in Australia) does not generally cover it. I'm f*cked!

Help me debug this bluescreen.

DarkForest — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 14:13:30 -0800

Windows XP Home machine goes blue screen on boot. I'd like to fix it without reinstalling. Details inside. I'm fixing a Windows XP Home machine for some friends. This machine has been fine for a couple of years, but is now going blue screen on boot. I've tried a bunch of things with it, but haven't gotten anywhere. I'd like to be able to fix the machine with all their applications and data intact. I've already made a copy of their hard drive. The computer is a Dell Inspiron 530.

The only recent thing they can tell me they did to the machine was to install then uninstall some facebook toolbar control. This is a family machine, full of games and misc. junk. There's plenty of room on the hard drive.

The only information on the blue screen is the stop message with the numbers 0xC0000005 0x8053A363 0xF7A6D684 0xF7A6D380. No other error message or filename is given. No minidump is produced.

Trying to boot in safe mode shows a list of files being loaded, ending with mup.sys. A second or two after that, the system hangs in a blank blue screen. From what I've read on the net, this does not indicate anything with mup.sys itself, but something that loads after it. Booting Safe Mode with Logging does not produce a boot log.

I've been booting the machine with Ubuntu and UBCD4WIN live disks, and trying the recovery console on the Windows XP install disk. I've run Ubuntu's memory check, and chkdsk from the recovery console, and these seem not to be the problem. I can look at the filesystem and registry with no problem.

I have updated the BIOS, tried removing the video card and using the integrated video. I've run several virus/malware scans. I've tried reverting to older versions of the registry from restore points. I've tried disabling the video card driver and audio driver from the recovery console. None of this has made any difference. I'd like to be able to use the autoruns tool to experiment more with enabling/disabling things, but it doesn't seem to run on an external registry.

So, what am I missing? There must be corrupt or outdated driver or perhaps some malware in there. Dell's site does show several updated drivers, but I can't install them because I can't boot the target OS. How can I trace the drivers being loaded at startup or find out more about where it's blowing up? Any leads would be appreciated.

Also, if you know of a good forum to ask this sort of question in, please let me know.

Thanks for your help.

Best Cobbler in Victoria BC?

Sustainable Chiles — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 11:11:23 -0800

Who is the best cobbler in Victoria BC? I have a pair of Black Spot Unswooshers that I like the look of, but are falling apart prematurely. The seam along the top of the toe is starting to come apart, and I'd like to have a cobbler fix them before the tear goes too far. Can anyone recommend a skilled Cobbler in Victoria BC? I'd like the repair to be as inconspicuous as possible.

My car stinks and I can't blame it on other cars forever.

zvs — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 09:42:34 -0800

Should I bother fixing my catalytic converter? Worth it to fix my catalytic converter? It periodically smells like rotten eggs and the mpg is down from 16 to 13 or 14 on the highway. '97 Mountaineer, but I don't use it to commute so it accrues 2500 mi/yr, tops. The car's only about 100K miles old.

Don't know how much this costs to fix. Would it just be cheaper to leave it alone? The car passed the Seattle emissions test by default a month ago, since it's too old to plug into the computer. But am I going to be sorry if I don't fix it when the car ... explodes or something?

My new piece of furniture has lost its magnetic personality.

AtomicBee — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 18:15:02 -0800

The magnetic closure on my new piece of furniture does not work properly. It is a simple problem, but I can't figure out a solution. Please help me fix it! I just got a great deal on a piece of scratch & dent furniture, with a broken door closure. The door is held closed by a pair of magnets on each end. The magnets are embedded into the wood, and are supposed to be flush with the surface like the head of a screw. Unfortunately, the magnets in this case are recessed into the surface, so they do not make contact when the door is closed. They are held in with glue. This is not one of those spring-loaded catches common on glass-doored entertainment centers.

My initial thought was to get the magnets out , fill in some sort of epoxy behind them to make them flush again, and then glue them back in. However, I can't figure out how to get these things out without carving around them, thereby causing a ton of damage to the surrounding wood.

How can I fix this? Best answers will cause as little damage to the furniture as possible.

Should apple require my hard drive to fix my graphic card?

manduca — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 18:26:24 -0800

The graphics card in my macbook pro failed, which happens at a "higher than normal" rate. Apple agrees that's the problem. Still, they want me to leave my hard drive in the computer when I give it to them for repairs. How diligent are they about protecting your data from theft and ill-use? If data on your hard drive somehow gets set free while visiting apple-land, it doesn't violate the Applecare terms of service (pdf). "[apple is not liable for...] the failure to maintain the confidentiality of data" (section 4). In section 7f, "You agree that any information or data disclosed to Apple under this Plan is not confidential." My hard drive is backed up, but I don't want to risk someone having access to all my personal info. Should I put up a fight? Here's the background; feel free to skip it.

I'm a former IT person, and the diagnosis of graphic card failure seems pretty straightforward to me. All symptoms match. My hard drive is backed up, but I'm worried about my personal info being in the hands of others, especially after stories like this of hard drives full of data going MIA during service. How should I handle my upcoming interaction with the techs in the apple store?

The computer is still under applecare. When I talked with Applecare telephone support, they confirmed the diagnosis but said I needed to send the hard drive in with the system. After reading the terms of service, I was pretty reluctant. I didn't push very hard for them to make an exception. Thinking that I might have more luck in person, and with in-person contact with a geek, I made a genius bar appointment.

My position is that apple should be willing to fix my computer without my hard drive in it, since the problem is clear and isn't related to the hard drive. Every computer repair service has spare hard drives used for troubleshooting. The macbook pro hard drive is end-user replaceable, so I'm not violating any warranty by removing it. Sure, if I screw up the removal, it's my problem, but I'm ok with that.

What I'm not ok with is this: for my data to be relatively secure in this case, I must take the time to securely wipe the hard drive and reinstall the OS, and then restore all my data when I get the computer back. In fairness to apple, I imagine that asking for the hard drive generally makes sense since a problem is often not clearly defined before the system is received. And we users aren't always the most reliable or knowledgeable reporters.

Nevertheless, my current plan is to take the hard drive out before I go to the Apple Store. I expect my approach will be in the self-deprecating vein to begin: I'll admit that I'm being a bit of a curmudgeon and ask them to indulge me. I've had terrific interactions with the Genius boys (are they all male in every store?) in the past, and I'm hopeful that they would at least by sympathetic to my position.

Is my request reasonable? Is there a better approach?

Blankets just aren't the same...

Bergamot — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 20:56:03 -0800

What should I do with a wounded duvet? A few months ago my partner decided to do some housecleaning, and washed our lovely, heavyweight down duvet (I know, I know...). Apparently the fabric of the duvet got caught in the washing machine somehow, and tore open the duvet. I'm so glad I wasn't there to deal with all the soaking down, and especially glad it wasn't our washing machine! So now we've got broken bedding. The duvet was sectioned, and only one section--sadly, one in the middle--was emptied of its down, but it's still useless as it is. Is there anywhere I could go to get it repaired, or is this a very expensive write off? (We're in Edmonton, if it helps). If it's not reparable, is there anything else we could do with it?

Need help fixing a roll up shade

kbar1 — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 21:27:22 -0800

Please help me to repair a roll up matchstick shade or refer me to a web site with directions in plain English. I bought an 8ft. matchstick shade and spent hours just installing the 3 hooks and hanging it, then discovered the drawstring on the right side had pulled loose from the pulley mechanism.

Obviously, I'm not mechanically inclined, but I'd rather try to fix it than return it to the store and start over. The problem string attaches at the top-back of the blind and should loop down under the bottom, and up to the pulley. The string is attached as it should be at the back, but just hangs straight down. I've tried feeding it through the pulley, but there doesn't seem to be room - and even if it did fit, it seems like it must need to attach to something - but what?

I know this is a longshot, but I'm hoping it will make sense to someone with experience fixing roll up blinds. Thanks!

any idea where i can get an out-of-warranty ipod dock repaired?

camdan — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 07:51:57 -0800

i purchased a specktone retro ii a couple years back, basically this thing. unfortunately, i got it at a bargain bin reduced price from an ebay mass seller, with a very short warranty. sure enough, right at the end of the warranty the thing started wigging out. the original seller wouldn't take it back, of course, and the manufacturer won't take it either; they said to return it to the seller. a perfect feedback loop of screwed.

you might tell me to cut my losses and buy a new dock. and i do have another dock. but i like this thing. the sound is great, it looks cool, and it takes up very little space. it's just sitting around and i hate to waste it. every few months i'll start it up again, and i get a nice 15 minutes of brigadoon before the thing starts flipping out. i'd like to work it out. i need to work it out.

oh the problem - it plays fine for the first 15 minutes or so, then the audio cuts in and out continually in split second bursts. your only option is to unplug it, let it sit for awhile, then start over again. (if left plugged in the problem will continue without the ipod docked - the speakers cut in and out continually without cessation.)

if anyone knows anywhere i could send this thing to get it fixed, that would be great. if it's someplace in the atlanta area that would be even better. what would be THE BEST, if it's a simple solution that i can fix myself, and someone could tell me how to do it. it's got to have something to do with the power, and not the docking mechanism itself.
thank you! come again.

Correct parts for a Bernette/Bernina 812 sewing machine?

Perplexer — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 11:19:01 -0800

Correct parts for a Bernette/Bernina 812 sewing machine? I'm a sewing novice, never owned a sewing machine. Thus, many of my pants and jeans are too long, some garments have the ugliest button threading ever, and I still have an unmended hole in my jacket pocket.

I picked up a Bernette 812 "Made for Bernina" at a garage sale for two bucks, and it appears to be in good working condition. I can't tell, however, since it is missing the power cord and foot pedal.

Does anyone know the proper parts for this unit? I can't find a service manual or a whole lot of information on this model, and don't want to order the wrong parts.

Thanks!!

Catalytic converter unnecessary?

rahnefan — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 05:43:54 -0800

Do I need to replace the catalytic converter and oxygen sensor in a 2000 Honda Civic (125k miles)? Engine suddenly idling low. My Check Engine light came on night before last. The technician says the codes it gave are for the oxygen sensor and the catalytic converter (which upon inspection, is physically cracked). They said the purpose of the one is only to detect problems with the other.

But in my experience, a faulty catalytic converter makes zero difference in emissions tests (one went bad in a Toyota I had but for years after, the techs said it was as low on emissions as a new car). We just had this one tested.

My bigger concern is the engine is now starting to idle low, as if it wants to stop, but is that coincidental? I asked the tech but their explanation did not sound confident about a relationship between these parts and low idling. It sounded like, "sure, why not."

Are the parts unrelated to low idling, and do I really need them if the car has low emissions?

Can you recommend a good computer repair place in Hong Kong?

lmm — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 06:57:18 -0800

Recommended computer repair service in Hong Kong? My aunt's relatively new Vista desktop has, for the past couple of months, been consistently shutting itself down after at most 10-15 minutes of use and we've exhausted the usefulness of remote assistance. What is needed now is physical troubleshooting.

If you have any recommendations for computer repair service (on-site or depot), I'd greatly appreciate it. Thanks in advance!

How to get our weather balloon floating again? How to get it taking pictures?

Tufa — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 12:00:56 -0800

How to repair a weather balloon, in the context of aerial photography? How to do aerial photography at all? dmd and I recently thought we might try some aerial photography.

We thought we would use a weather balloon, one which was big enough to carry the payload of a Canon PowerShot camera.

Our ambition led us to purchase this weather balloon. It is made of latex. Hopes (and voices) borne high on helium, we launched the balloon on a windy day, in the high desert of central Arizona, a setting which (O! woe) led to the balloon's quick extinction. Shortly, the balloon was pushed by downdrafts into a bush of catclaw acacia. Catclaw acacia is named for its small, sharp, catching THORNS which resemble the claws of a cat. Reader, it popped.

I don't want to give up the investment of this balloon, or give up our vision of high-flying photography. My question is, is there a way to patch a hole in latex?

Would a leather or vinyl patch kit, or tire puncture kit, or some sort of plastic bond, work for this, do you think? Do you think using some Fix-A-Flat might work, if it was released into the balloon while it was inflated in some makeshift way to its full airborne size? I imagine this might stiffen the balloon and put a limit on how high it could go, but it would be good enough for me, as a salvaging situation.

And, do you have any tips for launching weather balloons, or for aerial photography in general?

Consider proximity of cactus and thorns when launching, is my best tip.

Spousal credit repair?

Anonymous — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 11:51:24 -0800

What is the best way to help my spouse improve her credit? My wife has bad credit due to her irresponsible ex-husband and their divorce. My credit is average. I have a credit card that I pay off month. I have yet to add her to my credit card. We're also about to buy a new car. Any recommendations?