Tim W. SoCal

"Those who would give up essential liberty, to purchase a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety" Benjamin Franklin, January 1775

Now I'm remembering the early days of my youth when Revell instruction sheets had tables listing the names of all the car parts, which was the inception of my automotive education.

Were you as passionate about the scale model hobby in earlier years as you are today?

to siphon the

YEP! On my "TO DO" list is this kit in Poppy Red with Coyote power.

Be wary of the words that come out of your mouth, for the damage they cause may be irreparable.

Yesterday, I was driving down the freeway in a Gov't truck, so I couldn't take a pic, but I had a beautiful Rangoon Red with red interior '64 Ford Falcon Futura Convertible enter in front of me, headed toward the beaches with its top down. I don't know if it was in original, VERY lovingly maintained condition or if it was an older restoration, but it was NICE, almost pristine. (I passed it to see the grill to determine '64 or '65). My Dad had a Wimbledon White with red interior '64 Falcon Station Wagon, which was one of the cars I learned to drive in, so I have a soft spot in my heart for these cars. In high school, my younger brother and I rebuilt the 170 I6 engine and front suspension and added aluminum slotted dish wheels with B60-13 tires all the way around as a gift to our Dad. In the late 70s, the 2-speed automatic transmission started slipping, so I went to the local Ford Dealer to get a rebuild kit. The counter guy looked at me like I was stupid and told me Ford NEVER made a 2-speed automatic trans. The next day, I carried the trans in, set it on the parts counter and asked for the same counter guy. He came to the counter looked at the trans and at me, immediately got P/Oed and said "What the HELL is that?!!?" I told him it was a Ford Falcon 2-speed automatic transmission that he said Ford never made. I was then informed that parts for that trans were not available, so the Falcon got a C4 installed. A few years later, after he sold it, I was at a local Pic-A-Part yard getting brake drums for a friend's car when I spotted my Dad's old Falcon after it had hit a pole head on, still with the Tweety Bird sticker I had affixed to the headliner in the cargo area in place. Broke my heart to see that car in that condition at the wrecking yard.

Delivering pertinent news in a credible and coherent manner, particularly on the internet, seems to have become as extinct as real newspapers and print magazines.

Sentence structure refers to how the basic grammatical elements of a sentence, such as the subject, predicate, and sometimes objects, are organized.

because the Captain

You and me both. (and I'm sure there are others on this forum) I get really frustrated and irritated when a potential customer goes to the parts store for a "free check engine light code read", gets sold a sensor, usually of dubious quality, brings the part to a repair shop and then gets very angry at the repair shop for refusing to install the part, or if they do install the part, refusing to guarantee the repair. I try to explain to the "customer" that a code reader is kind of like a road map, but it isn't a taxi cab. It will tell you what road to take, but not get you to the final destination. I have also seen several fuel evap system parts sold when the cause of the problem was actually a loose gas cap.

Are we ever going to resurrect manufacturing within the boundaries of our once very industrious country?

Contrary to popular, yet naive belief, love, on its own, does not, will not and cannot conquer all. It never has and it never will.

Ribs that are broken is one of the most painful and frightening injuries I have ever experienced.

over ice with

Aliens like Mork from Ork and The Coneheads used to crack me up with uncontrollable laughter.

Me too... I had an '82 Mercury Capri RS 5.0 HO. It was the first car I bought new, Oct. '82 at the year-end close out because the '83s were arriving. I chose the Capri because they were more highly optioned for substantially less money than an '82 Mustang GT and came in more colors that silver, black and triple red, plus I liked the Trans-Am style fender bulges better than the Mustang's design. I drove the wheels off of that car until I parked it in early 2000. At that point, I planned to build a drag racer out of it and run it at the NHRA sanctioned 1/4 mile strip they were gonna build in Banning, CA. As far as the drag strip, sponsored in part by the city and county, after all the hoopla and champagne toasting and glad handing and back slapping and ribbon cutting, the deal fell apart and the land and everything near it sets abandoned to this day. The Capri was eventually sold at a fire-sale price. If there's ever a 1:25 Scale '82 Capri model kit, I'll snatch up at least 4 of them. I already have the Dark Curry Brown Metallic spray paint ready to apply on that gorgeous Capri body.

Sanity was abandoned in the early 80s, being weird is fun, so why be normal?

and lots of

I think that goes for the truck's owner, also.

Also in the early 90s, my first was disc brake rotors from the C.H.Ina Co, posted all over their box "Factory Finished - Do Not Machine". Finished the job, head out for the test drive, hit the brakes and the rotors are so badly warped the shimmy nearly rips the steering wheel from my hands. Take the front brakes back apart to cut the rotors, doing shallow cuts, mind you, and run into all the air pockets in the casting. These were name brand rotors from a long time, well established parts chain. Had that experience too, then after drilling the radiator mounting holes in the correct locations, couldn't get the trans cooler line fittings in the radiator to stop leaking, until the FOURTH radiator (delivered next day from the same parts house's warehouse) was installed. And on top of that, many OEM parts for cars less than 5 years old are already obsolete and discontinued...

Well, after all the tens of thousands of dollars and hundreds upon hundreds of hours I've invested in advancing my skills and keeping up with VERY rapidly changing technology, as well as maintaining my reputation as an honest maintenance, repair and business man, "grease monkey" is a bit of an insult...

One of the best ways to overcome and defeat despondency is exuberantly laughing.

so I'm starting

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