No, I'm not dead! Well, not yet, anyway.
Has been a while, though--apologies to the random person dropping by who had an expectation of semi-regular content.
IN ANY EVENT, I had the rare and much welcome chance to hit the junkyard today. Thrice. But not by choice.
First, I'd saved up enough good-husband points for months now to be able to get out, so bright and early I headed out to the Pull-A-Part. I was on a quest for a sunvisor hook, the old one on the passenger side having snapped off a year ago. Found my first donor car, and flopped out the toolbox and...
Dang.
Wrong box. I thought when I picked it up something was a bit odd, but in my haste and joy, I didn't think to think more closely, and managed to pick up the great big box full of Black and Decker battery tools. Not a plain ol' nut driver to be found. (Yes, yes..."Aside from the author." You're NOT bein' funny, y'know.)
So, back to the house, got the right box of sockets, and headed back to the yard.
This time, a much more leisurely stroll, found several hooks, and decided I should get a visor, too, since the passenger side one was so warped. And hey! What about a passenger side rear 'hockey stick' bumper molding! Lost that about three years ago and haven't been able to replace it since. (And paying $50 for a semi-newish one is mucho crazy.)
Odd find--two '92s parked nose-to-nose, and both had all-black grilles. I rarely see these, and here were two right together. And both in good shape. Hmm. Should I?
Nah.
Went and paid the princely sum of six bucks for the molding and sunvisor, went home, replaced the hook and visor, and...
Hmm.
Boy, you know, I sure should have gotten the driver's side visor, too. I didn't realize just how warped it was, too.
Well, why don't I just go ahead and make the third trip!
So, I did--went straight to the previous visor-donor, got the other visor, and decided I would get that grille, too. Cleaned up nice, although I'm not sure I like it better or not.
In other things mechanical, after two winters of scraping ice off the back window due to what I thought was a bad relay, I found the actual cause--bad fuse. Seems that even though I'd checked it, it actually had a burn-through, but it was right at the very tip, so it was invisible by just looking. When I took it out, I finally found the break. So, now I have a newly operable rear-window defroster! Now that it's spring.
AND SO, the ol' homely lump of iron continues to chug along, all 253,000 miles of him. Still averaging 20 mpg, too!
IN ANY EVENT, I had the rare and much welcome chance to hit the junkyard today. Thrice. But not by choice.
First, I'd saved up enough good-husband points for months now to be able to get out, so bright and early I headed out to the Pull-A-Part. I was on a quest for a sunvisor hook, the old one on the passenger side having snapped off a year ago. Found my first donor car, and flopped out the toolbox and...
Dang.
Wrong box. I thought when I picked it up something was a bit odd, but in my haste and joy, I didn't think to think more closely, and managed to pick up the great big box full of Black and Decker battery tools. Not a plain ol' nut driver to be found. (Yes, yes..."Aside from the author." You're NOT bein' funny, y'know.)
So, back to the house, got the right box of sockets, and headed back to the yard.
This time, a much more leisurely stroll, found several hooks, and decided I should get a visor, too, since the passenger side one was so warped. And hey! What about a passenger side rear 'hockey stick' bumper molding! Lost that about three years ago and haven't been able to replace it since. (And paying $50 for a semi-newish one is mucho crazy.)
Odd find--two '92s parked nose-to-nose, and both had all-black grilles. I rarely see these, and here were two right together. And both in good shape. Hmm. Should I?
Nah.
Went and paid the princely sum of six bucks for the molding and sunvisor, went home, replaced the hook and visor, and...
Hmm.
Boy, you know, I sure should have gotten the driver's side visor, too. I didn't realize just how warped it was, too.
Well, why don't I just go ahead and make the third trip!
So, I did--went straight to the previous visor-donor, got the other visor, and decided I would get that grille, too. Cleaned up nice, although I'm not sure I like it better or not.
In other things mechanical, after two winters of scraping ice off the back window due to what I thought was a bad relay, I found the actual cause--bad fuse. Seems that even though I'd checked it, it actually had a burn-through, but it was right at the very tip, so it was invisible by just looking. When I took it out, I finally found the break. So, now I have a newly operable rear-window defroster! Now that it's spring.
AND SO, the ol' homely lump of iron continues to chug along, all 253,000 miles of him. Still averaging 20 mpg, too!
posted by Terry at 4/04/2009 05:45:00 PM
8 Comments:
I'm going to have to hit the yards real soon as the Tempo I bought for eldest son a year ago is back in my driveway, awaiting a replacement engine. Seems he punched a hole in the pan and then continued to drive it until the engine was a smoking paperweight.
And I bought a cheap car recently- a 94 Lincoln Mark VIII! It's a $2000 car, (when I bought it) but have already paid for new tie rod ends and a new catalytic converter to replace the rusted through one.
But it is a sleek car with just 140K miles on it and I'm just the 3rd owner. The air suspension works and doesn't leak and it gets 20 MPG around town! For me, that's an economy car!
That Mark VIII is pretty sweet--and you are right, the fact that the air suspension still works is a good thing. I see a lot of 'em dragging their butts around.
I wish my mother still had her Mark VII--that was a cool chunk of car.
There's a '64 Conti convert for sale up here. It's had one frame off renovation but the stuck in a 351 windsor... Blech. Yes I am a Moron.®
PS: the id says ter sho, I'd wondered where Ed Sullivan wandered off to.
Eww. I mean, a 351W is a good engine, but there's nothing like a nice big 430 or 450.
Hello? Operator? Is this Pep Boys?
um, that was me.
vachon
Hey, sugar! As to your query, sadly, no, my level of finanaces do not allow me to even pretend to be Manny, Moe, or Jack.
I told my wife that I wanted a Volvo. I found a '61 544 on Craigs list for $2K. My older brother had bought a new 444 back in 1957, and I had fond memories of borrowing it and joyfully finding the limits of 4 wheel drifts around Storm King Mountain in the Hudson Valley upstate NY. Also, I've been searching for a vehicle that isn't computer controlled, is solid copper instead of solid state, something that would survive a high altitude nuclear EMP. Call me a kook, but if you connect the dots, I find a high probability that this might happen soon, considering all the 'Death to America' demonstrations on the news. What better way to destroy our system than toast every PN semiconductor junction with a multi-kilovolt per meter EMP?
Nevertheless, my 1961 544, with dual SU's carbon brushed generator, and contact point ignition, would survive handily, while at least 99% of existing vehicles would be rendered dead.
Also, my 544 is the *only* sports car I know of that I can stretch out and sleep in by removing the passenger seat. I could comfortably live inside in a post apocalyptic dystopian scenario.
Plenty room for a camper kitchen and an AK-47. You got a better way to survive 2012?
Anyway, my wife don't know jack about cars so she sez, alarmed, "Y ou want a vulva? a vagina? A sex change? NO! Which set off a light bulb in my head... Change the first O to a U, the second O to an A, and , as sure as Bob's your uncle, I could be driving around in a Swedish Vulva! A Twatmobile! What fun! Now for a '58 Edsel grille!
Post a Comment
<< Home