Joe Handley

Hot Tar Pitch could do that, IIRC, that's how those churches in Chicago were lost. One crew realized what happened and just left the place to burn, no calls to 911 or anything!

I wouldn't be surprised if it was construction related, there had been a number of historic Chicago churches that burned up over the last 20 years while roof repairs were being done and apparently Notre Dame had a leaded roof. Very well could have happened when the lead work was being done, in some ways, I can't imagine that kind of lead work being that much different than lead filler on a car body.

Did you hear about that cop's kid in Louisianna that burned a bunch of churches? He used similar language in his reasoning for doing so.

We've been monitoring this at work between calls, the lead CSR in my office is hoping some of the statues were already off the roof and someplace save since there was work going on up there.

I hear yah there, that's mainly whybI was thinking about selling my Jeep, too many issues that aren't going away or other to replace the ones that are. Then there is the time and weather to fix them, since we don't have a useable garage, we can't work on it in incliment weather or after dark and Mom's medical issues and caring for her that has takes up time that the weather and darkness doesn't. Sometimes it feels like I could take all 2 weeks of my vacation time when the weather will be really good so we can wrench on it and have somebody keep an eye on Mom and it still won't be enough time to fix all we need to. At least with it being an older, somewhat desireable Jeep, it carries more resale value and even though it is rusty, is regaining value, and I can sell it for more than I could most of vehicles from '98 in the same, if not slightly better shape.

So new that they can't be bought yet either

Saw these last night at an EV Charging Station getting topped off.

Got my deductible check from my insurance company for the repairs to the 200, all $500 worth! Got brake parts for the big brake conversion on my 200 to pick up from the dealership then go get a new impact gun at Harbor Freight in the morning, so guess how I'll be paying for those

I'd just be happy to see more late model muscle for those of us who are still on the younger side.

Your kids are what you raise...................

I'd love to hear this on that system

Just got some semi metallic brake pads from R1 Concepts for the 200 in today, the little guys up front are the stock sized replacements for the back while those enormous ones behind them are fronts for when I get the LX car hoses and 2 piston calipers in so we can upgrade the front brakes to what is basicly the SRT4 Caliber front brakes. I already have the Euro only front caliper brackets and new front rotors from R1 that are 13.39" dia vs the factory 11.57". The calipers are the stock replacements on my Sister's Challenger R/T Classic and compared to the stock single piston Avenger/Sebring/200 calipers, are huge!

That's not a suicide door Pete, that's a van style slider on the passenger side! Weird part thought, the driver side door is a conventional swing out door

Exactly, the Jeep seems to be at the "nickle and dime" stage and is rotting away and to really fix everything needs to be torn down and restored at bare minimum, not something I have room to do, since money wise, it would have to be as funds permit and I would again need to buy a winter driver, which would end up being some sort of ?UV that could also move parts better than the 200 or a 300 could.

I know, I've looked out of curiosity in a 100mi radius of West Chicago (60185) and there was one that was at an auction house for $1300 that I'm not sure if it was as solid as mine is and what appeared to be a clean, lifted '01 Sport that has a price of nearly $13k.......I didn't pay much more for mine in '03! We put over $1000 into it last year with the only paid labor being for the guy who put the new tires on it.....and he earned that money! Brake parts are looking to be over $150 IN parts for the master cylinder and maybe booster, probably need to do pads, rotors, and calipers up front too, that could be at least $500 combined, if not more, not including the $101 to register it for 2019 and nearly $300 for the 6 months of insurance as of mid summer. If we had to pay labor on top of it, it could be enough to match the cost of some of these ones that are for sale and in not much better shape than mine is. As far as my Sister, She has used it to transport her friends' son when he was a toddler, just couldn't put anybody normal sized in the passenger seat, so we know it can be done, plus her Husband has a Mazda 3 sedan that may be the primary babymobile until those two are paid off and she can get something roomier to "Baby" with.

They're nice looking, bought those to stick on the MPC G-Body Elco SS kit for a late 80's-early 90's style build........just not sure if I want it to be painted in a Bright and NEON or Pastel color.

Nice looking XJ!

These came in today.

The '06 my Sister was silver and looked like it could have been "Retired", but she seemed to get targeted and pulled over more than somebody who works in a library kids department should. The cops that have seemed to be surprised to find her driving vs a younger male. I have seen where Avenger owners have been confused for cops too. Don't have either with the 200

He's still talking about fixing it, seeing if the brake failure had something to do with the master cylinder.......

I thought about the Charger, but it still looks a little too hot rod-ish for a sedate big cruiser like I've been thinking of and may attract the kind of attention I don't want while cruising around, like guys wanting to race and police wanting to write tickets.My Sister was pulled over a few times in her '06 3.5l Charger before she traded it in for her Challenger and we knew a woman with a similar year R/T (looked like the one used for the Testors' box art, come to think of it) and when she got stopped, cop asked her "Does your husband know you're driving his car?", knowing her, I would not want to have been that cop, he deseved anything she may have said to him for that comment! My 200 with that engine is several hundred pounds lighter and would me more of the fun car of the pair. Oh, I didn't think to ask above, does your Charger have the yellow or black gas cap?

I figure with these things going up un value, it's worth trying to find it a new owner that might actually fix and drive it. It's sitting in the back yard for free, but the city has bugged us on it before when I had forgot to put the current sticker on it and the old tires had trouble holding air (they had been on it 7 or 8 years at that point), so that would be one less concern too.

Luckily, the rockers can be replaced (about $400 new for all the stampings), and these things are starting to see an uptick in resale value now, with beat down trucks now selling for more than nice, clean, "low mile" ZJ and WJ Grand Cherokees are in some areas. I also fear that it might become one of those "I'm going to fix it one day" situations where it sits and decays for the rest of my natural life instead of being put back on the road it it needs to be.......and to some extent, feels like it wants to be......as weird as that sounds. With all that said, it just makes sense to me to move onto someone else at this point.

There aren't really any "Good" XJs left around here either though, they all have been either chopped up into trail trucks (not sure where the trails are, they're probably mall crawlers) or have the rust issues as mine does.....and that doesn't fix the altitude issue without lowering one. I had a Journey in December when a new heater core and HVAC control box were being installed in the 200 and liked it, but that would also need to be lowered for the step in height issues, never mind the leg bending ones that he and I both have. The little Chevy Bolt would really work well there, if it were cheaper and AWD but trust me, FWD and 260lbs/ft and 3600lbs curb weight in snow is not fun...adding right now torque would make it worse!