That is always a long process.

I have people tell me they would work on their cars like I do if they had the tools and knew how to do it. It is not like someone was there teaching me. I have had to figure out a lot of things as I went but it ain't rocket surgery.

My dad never helped me work on with cars at all. My brother was there as a backup if I failed but he helped very little. I knew if I had him fix something I screwed up it would cost double.

MY dad has never been much into working on cars. I was taught how to change the oil and do minor maint. beyond that call the mechanic. So this has been a fun learning curve but I relay on people like Rick who are willing to take things slow and explain things as we go.

My dad told me I was 100% responsible for all expenses on my cars. All he paid for was the insurance. That was a chunk for a 16 years old. I paid for the car and all other expenses. I figured doing it myself was a lot cheaper and I knew it was done the right way. Or the best of my ability.

Makes sense.

I had to foot all of the expenses for my first car, an MG Midget. I started wrenching on it from the get-go. I learned the hard way...putting the wrong type of brake fluid in it was kind'a exciting when it dissolved the rubber in my master cylinder. :eek:

I bet that never happened again.

I remember the first time I changed brake pads. I did not know to pump the brakes and seat the pads against the rotors. I rolled backwards and dang near out into a busy road before I got enough brake pedal to stop. I never made that mistake again.

Now that would create a little excitement.

And a LOT of profanity.

Well we had an expensive weekend. My DD Stratus with 167k miles had a water pump start leaking and some idiot engineer thought it would be a good idea to run it off the timing chain and that isn't something I was going to tackle so we took it in for service. On the way it started knocking pretty bad so I meet my wife with a salesperson and they gave us $575 in trade for it. She is an independent contractor so she was eligible for a $4k factory rebate, or so they told us. Now we have a new engine and they even wrapped it in shiny new paint for us.

Oops, service call, more on that story.

That was nice of them but I suspect they want a lot of money for that swap. I am just a grumpy old man and keep driving my cars and fixing them as problems come up. I have not made a car payment since the last millennium.

The allure of a new car is there, but the revulsion of car payments is high.

This weekend we drove to Enid, OK from OKC 95 miles each way in the wife's car. Her car is dead quiet with n wind noise and a fantastic factory surround sound system with XM radio and lots of bells and whistles. It is plush and nice but boring. :cool:

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Get off m..Squirrel!

Ugh, my friggin neighbors pool service bastards keep dragging crap through my yard and screwing up the grass and bushes....they use some low rent dude who drives a 1986 pedophile van....I think i'm gonna grab some of those 12g trip 'alarms' and load em with these
Ammo To Go : 10rds - 12 Gauge 1 7/8" Short Cayenne Pepper Blast Ammo [PGW1259] - $19.95

Do you know if he is servicing more than the pool?
Maybe you could get some compromising photos and blackmail him into showing some respect.

When the neighbors landscaper messed up my yard I had the neighborhood association go after the neighbor to get her to make the landscaper clean up his mess. He still didn't do what he promised, but I got him pretty good by telling him what I was planning to have him do to my yard while he was doing what he had promised before using my yard for access to the neighbors. He commented that he would have made more of what I wanted than he made off the neighbor. Very gratifying to tell him is was just too bad he burned that bridge. Next time anything like that happens I'm getting a signed contract.

Woo hoo, heard from the wheel shop...still waiting for the manufacture of custom barrels from where ever a custom wheel shop gets wheel barrels made.

Morning folks.

Our local PCA region is donating the annual check to charity today. Our big event each year is a car show and we give the proceeds to a local charity. We have given close to 20 grand over the years. Not bad for a tiny little region with a couple of dozen guys that are the core of the club. Most of the work is done by eight or ten guys working for free.

This is in addition to the Christmas time charity donations.

morning all.

Way to go Glen!

We are 2 months from paying off the credit card and then we were saving for a car. The one we traded was a placeholder to replace one that was totaled in January 2013. Oh well, the first car payment we have had since we married in December 2000.

It is another Mopar but the dealer here offers a lifetime powertrain warranty when you buy there. It may be added into the price, but they are competitively priced with others in the area. The catch is they have to do all the maintenance. Which is OK on one hand and sucks on the other. We did opt for the 5 year maintenance package which added a couple bucks a month for 5 years free maintenance/tire rotations and a 5 year 100,000 mile bumper to bumper warranty. Not sure if it was worth it but I don't even have to worry about a flat tire for the next 5 years. I need to find an extra set of rims for winter tires for days like this though.

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Step one parts should be here tomorrow.