Ace-Garageguy

Attention Deficit Disorder is the claimed basis for the skyrocketing prescription of drugs like Ritalin.

Exactly. They were really pretty good little cars, and with the mission-critical timing belts seen to as recommended, they will just about run forever.

OMG!!! OMG!!! OMG!!! I guess I better sell it or better yet scrap it ASAP because...why? What killed the Neons and most of the PT Cruisers (down here in the sunny South too) wasn't rust. They got so cheap that the inept dregs that bought them second-or-third-or-fourth hand couldn't or wouldn't spring for the kinda spendy timing belt replacements. The belts stripped, the engines stopped, they went to the crusher. This illustrates the fallacy of "the repair or maintenance procedure costs more than the car is worth". Well suh, replace that ol' timing belt before it fails and does catastrophic damage, and the car will most likely run another 80,000-100,000 miles (the factory recommended interval is 102.000 miles) with only minimal other maintenance and repairs required. Then replace it again. I have a PT with well over 250,000 on the clock because I made the previous owner do the timing belts as recommended, before they failed and cost a LOT more to put right again. Whole lot cheaper than buying multiple used cars to get the same travel distance. You can lead used-car buyers to logic, but you can't make 'em think.

I'm just SO sick to death of these ignorant AI "authoritative" documentaries on stuff they actually know nothing about. And the legions of little techie dwerbiges that click their little mousies to get AI to produce this garbage don't even know enough about the topics to edit the stuff the AI gets WRONG. There's one on yootoob now that states the heads and block of the classic smallblock Chevy 265 were "cast in one unit". It's full of other mistakes and omissions and uses the word "shocking!!!" too, but that's the most glaring. And the self-proclaimed World Guardian Against Misinformation, youtoob, does nothing. There's a generation that's going to swallow gibberish like that whole, and a whole new class of internet "experts" is emerging. Western civilization is doomed, not by artificial intelligence, but by artificial stupidity.

Vibrations from Him may manifest as earthquakes.

Some really impressive stuff made in the USA comes from Motion Raceworks. It's not cheap, but it's gorgeous quality AND they get their prototypes 100% functional in reality BEFORE they commit to production. I'm using their breather/catch can setup on the Smeding Performance / Grumpy Jenkins "Signature" 750HP BBC in the high-end '66 Chevelle I'm wrapping up. This catch can... ...and these internally baffled breathers... 100% correct, but you have to CARE enough to find out what's right if you don't know, and the interwebs offer a LOT of bad information. And if you can't afford good parts...especially life-critical bits like front axles...you really shouldn't be trying to build cars. There are plenty of places on any build to save money, but low-end suspension parts made from inferior material isn't one of them. EDIT: Some of the Mopar pickups I know have forged aluminum front control arms as OEM equipment. Lowball aftermarket garbage is cast. Now THAT is scary.

Walking out the door on the way to the shop to start rebuilding the junkyard head for the little Neon in the relative cool of the morning. Pretty exciting, huh? The earlier idea was to engine-swap it with something interesting and make a sleeper, but at this point I don't have a long-term plan. Still, I like it, it's fun to drive, and it handles better than many "sports cars". https://www.facebook.com/thedrive/posts/it-wasnt-even-an-srt-4-just-a-four-cylinder-with-a-three-speed-auto-httpstribala/1021378313196748/ It gets great gas mileage, is comfortable, and has a huge trunk too. It may see some long road trips later in the year.

Welcome.

Fireworks are legal here, and I'm used to them. So is the cat. No hay problema. And luckily it's been wet enough the past few weeks so there wasn't much danger of idiots setting fire to the neighborhood this year (it's happened before). BUT...as I live with my windows open most of the time and use a big exhaust fan to cool the house on summer evenings (gets it down to the 70s, thank you), about midnight I started smelling burning plastic. Had to go out and check everything to make sure there wasn't a fire on MY property (I have had fireworks land on my roof before, still burning, so that's not as much a Karen move as folks might think). Never did figure out where the stink was coming from, but by 02:00 it wasn't. Explosions started in again at about 05:30.

My guess is that the sledge hammer would be quite sufficient on its own.

And which few even comprehend today. The popular use of the term "forged carbon fiber" to mean low-pressure-molded chopped goop is evidence.

And being poor quality cast iron, it'll break again almost immediately.

Uncomfortable muscle cramps can be due to a variety of factors, including dehydration.

Loose nuts, bolts, studs, and bearing races can be easily prevented with Loctite anaerobic threadlockers.

Big ol' fat 4th of July burger. Too many skeeters outside because I've been negligent in my control program this year, so I just pan-fried it. Sliced tomatoes, deli potato salad, and a slab of cherry pie for desert. Plain old 'Murcun food. And at least a 5 mile hike tomorrow to burn it off.

Jeff Bezos of course. He'll get a new one on the way from China immediately and pay all your medical or funeral expenses, and hire a crack legal team to defend you or your family from the civil suits brought by lawyers for the people you injured or killed in the crash. Oh wait...that might cut into his $50 million dollar wedding to the queen of implants and botox. Never mind. EDIT: Same goes for all the purveyors of cheap offshore junk that's made to get as much money for as little real value as possible. Have a problem with the stuff? Nobody's answering the customer service line, if there even is one. You're on your own, sucker.

You can't change the nature of reality by trying to forcibly bury everyone else's head in the sand.

"Work it like a pro" is a slogan on the PB Blaster cans.

A washing machine. Doing a "self clean". Seems kinda pointless to me. And then of course the stupid bell/whistle fails and you have to pay to have it fixed. Just another example of today's obsession with unnecessarily complex and silly "features". Is this thing made by today's GM (sorry Mary...gm)? ---------------------------------------------------------------- Congrats on finding your part though.

Complete this sentence: I wish I had a...

Use "beholder" in a sentence that doesn't include the word "eye".

Not to be preachy, but if you haven't, you really should research the downside of this stuff. While I fully understand the desire to avoid empty sugar calories (and I'll drink a couple of "diet" Cokes a week...the only sodas I drink for that very reason), the effects of non-sugar sweeteners on your body aren't good either. "While non-sugar sweeteners are often promoted as a calorie-free way to enjoy sweetness, research suggests they may not be as beneficial as commonly believed, and in some cases, could even be harmful. Studies have linked long-term consumption of non-sugar sweeteners (NSS) to an increased risk of type-2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease. Additionally, they may not be effective for weight loss and could potentially contribute to weight gain." If you drink a lot of the stuff, you really owe it to yourself to look for healthier alternatives. Yes, they're kinda a PITA and take some getting used to, but type-2 diabetes is a real downer...and is largely avoidable. It's really a shame that most of the mass-marketed beverages are pretty much garbage. For instance, I wish somebody made a carbonated lemonade or root beer or cola with just a little real cane sugar, and an electrolyte package. That would be a lot better for us than the stuff that's easy to find.

A lot of stuff for the hot-rod market is just as bad, but not as immediately life-threatening...and who would do the "testing or certification" these days? SEMA would be the logical go-to, but they're not in that business. And dog help us if the gubmint started certifying aftermarket parts. That said, there are very valid reasons that rods and customs have a somewhat sketchy reputation among normies, and just flat poor craftsmanship by the builders tops the list. We just took in a semi-bare chassis for a '32 Ford rod that was in a collision to repair broken shock mounts, frame horns, and straighten one slightly bowed rail. But the workmanship and "engineering solutions" the "builder" supplied when the car went together are so bad as to be almost beyond belief...to anyone who actually knows what they're doing.

Current production aftermarket "offshore" cast '32 Ford front axle, failed in use... Genuine 1930s Ford forged front axle, twisted intentionally by Ford to demonstrate its strength...