Ace-Garageguy

No sir...not at all...and not what I said. I think he needs to find a COMPETENT mechanic, wherever that may be, who actually understands what he's doing, will charge a fair price for correct work, and who will stand behind it. I simply said that a trip to the dealer is no guarantee of competent techs working on the car. But then I've only been in the business for 40+ years, so what could I possibly know?

Funny how folks have differing opinions about the usefulness of dealerships. I just this month replaced a failed computer in a 2001 PT Cruiser. I charged the client $35 to pull the codes from the bad one, research a reliable source for a reman unit, and got a programmed replacement for less than $170, including shipping...with a lifetime warranty. Installed the unit for another $35. Less than $250 total. The dealership would have got close to a grand. Gee. I wonder what the big difference in price is. Going to a dealership does NOT guarantee a competent diagnosis OR repair, but it DOES guarantee you'll spend a ton of money.

Well, example 4 in my posted source is wrong. I should have proofed it more betterrer. "Flout" Versus "Flaunt" "Flaunt" and "flout" sound similar but don’t mean the same thing. When you flaunt yourself, your wealth, or your accomplishments, you’re parading them in front of people—showing off. "Flout" means “to disregard, scoff at, mock, or show scorn.” A rebel flouts rules and laws. Quick and Dirty Tip Remember that you flout laws by linking the "out" in "flout" with the idea of being outside society. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- But wait...there's more... Choose Your Words flaunt/ flout Flaunt is to show off, but flout is to ignore the rules. Rebels do both — they flaunt their new pink motorcycles by popping a wheelie, and flout the law by running a red light. Flaunt means to work it, to preen like a peacock. You could flaunt your new Harley, your wealth, or even your bright colors: Flout, on the other hand, means to show a blatant disregard or contempt for. If you scoff when told what to do, you flout the rules. Prosperous Chinese are less shy about flaunting their wealth than people in other countries. (Economist) Daffodils flaunted golden cups at their more gorgeous neighbors, the tulips. (Lucy Foster Madison) The problem is that people use flout to mean flaunt. If you mix up the words in the sentences above, the meaning changes. It would be weird to flout your wealth or your golden color. Garner's Modern American Usage identifies this error at widespread: it can be seen in the writing of well-educated people. However, Garner advises (and we concur) that the distinction between flaunt and flout be preserved. In other words, the euro zone is based on a gentleman's agreement that's widely flouted. (Salon) Baseball's rulebook is routinely ignored, flouted and evaded. (New York Times) Just sayin'.

Mmmmmmm...flautas. Maybe Mexican takeaway will put me in a better mood tonight. De-irked, so to speak.

I agree entirely, and I use Firefox for most everything...but last time I took my machine to an "expert", somehow he wiped out the ability to stream video content or sound from youtube via Firefox, and my lazy workaround to get to access that content is to just use IE. Someday I'll fix THAT problem correctly.

Microsoft automatic updates. The last one that installed itself this AM wiped out my ability to play video or get sound on IE. Pretty clever, TinyLimp. Naturally I got it fixed myself. I'm just so damm happy I'm able to do other people's work, correcting their fups, for free. Is it too much to expect a TinyLimp auto update to actually leave functions...functioning??

People who use "flaunt" when they mean "flout". :lol: Word police reference:http://gumbo.blogspot.com/2009/08/dont-flaut-it-flaunt-it.html

Yes sir, I believe it. Kinda makes you question the wisdom of sending all these parts out of the country to get rebuilt. I'd MUCH rather pay an extra $20 to get an alternator that was rebuilt in the USA and worked right the FIRST time, instead of getting garbage, installing it, only to find it's BLAH_BLAH_BLAH_BLAH and having to go back to try another one. Again, there's nobody driving the bus who has a clue.

It's a Van's Aircraft RV-6 homebuilt, very popular and well engineered. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Van%27s_Aircraft_RV-6 http://www.vansaircraft.com/public/rv6.htm

Great paint, perfect stance. These look really good low. One minor suggestion...you might use a soft brush to flick the dust off of models just before photographing. I use one of my ex's really soft makeup brushes (when I remember to) with about 1 1/4 inch bristles. Works great, doesn't hurt the paint or delicate details.

The fella I mentioned in post 12 was also one of the first to use remote "immobilizers" with GPS.. Miss a payment and your car wouldn't start. Then in a couple more days, it disappears on the hook. Of course there's a "rest of the story" here too. Not all of the patrons of "buy-here, pay-here" lots are paragons of virtue who have fallen on difficult times. I've seen many repo-ed vehicles come in that were apparently uninsured, wrecked, hidden and reported stolen, and I've also seen them vandalized to the point of being total losses. One once-nice little Mazda FWD V6 coupe came back on the hook completely, intentionally destroyed. It turned out the idiot owner had run the car out of oil and blown the engine. Then while attempting to "fix" it, he'd piled up every greasy part that would easily unbolt from the engine inside the interior. Then when the "repair" efforts failed, he'd taken, apparently, a sledge hammer to every body panel, window, and all the engine bits. Great folks on both sides of the game.

http://www.motorauthority.com/news/1086895_mazda-furai-concept-burns-to-the-ground-in-the-hands-of-top-gear

http://www.motorauthority.com/news/1088961_three-lamborghini-gallardos-burn-to-the-ground-after-crashing-into-each-other

That's pretty cool.

Yup. I ran a body shop for a guy who owned several "buy-here, pay-here" lots. He'd get a cash downpayment that was about what the car was actually worth...always more than he had in it...and then do the weekly payment deal. Everybody rides indeed. Everybody screwed more like it. Funny thing was, he was real "religious" fellow, big talker in his church, always quoting. Seemed like he held his text in one hand, waving it around, so you wouldn't notice he was picking your pocket with the other hand.

Absolutely absolutely correct and spot-on. One of the things that's disappointing some folks about this tech is the expectation that somehow, it's going to allow almost-zero-effort parts output for almost-zero-money. Point-scan-print for a few dollar investment just isn't going to happen any time soon, if ever.

Yup. I recently got 3 bad Mexican-rebuilt master cylinders for an old ('86) Ford truck in a row. They just wouldn't make pressure. Finally in anger and frustration, I took the last one apart to see what the problem was. The seals were in BACKWARDS. Impressive craftsmanship and quality control. I found a NOS OEM seal kit online and rebuilt the old one myself. Perfect. I've also had a rash of supposedly quality aftermarket replacement parts for fairly recent Mopars lately. Chinese radiators with the mounting holes in the wrong places, engine mounts that had to be modified to even fit the vehicle, and most recently, "exact replacement" suspension lower control arms that were CAST aluminum instead of FORGED. Dangerous, and I refused to install them. The very high percentage I get of BLAH_BLAH_BLAH_BLAH parts and vehicles referred to me after the owners have been told "there's nothing wrong with it...it just won't run right" (by professional "mechanics") tells me that there's something very wrong in the car repair industry.

I may be wrong, but it's my understanding that onboard EDRs (electronic data or event recorders) in most recent cars record information for only a few seconds before, during, and after an air-bag deployment event...still sufficient information to analyze a crash, but not minutes of data. Unlike the black boxes on airplanes, which continually record data including audio and system performance, the cars’ recorders capture only the few seconds surrounding a crash or air bag deployment. A separate device extracts the data, which is then analyzed through computer software. http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/22/business/black-boxes-in-cars-a-question-of-privacy.html?_r=0 However, some insurers are offering customers a cousin of the EDR, which tracks how a car is driven over a long period, so volunteer participants may qualify for lower rates. Apparently the Carrera GT Walker died in did have an onboard EDR. In a statement to E!, Los Angeles County Sheriff's detective Jeff Maag said he hopes to secure a warrant to read what is on the car's event data recorder.

Killer wicked stance. Good thinking to raise the entire crossmember relative to the frame to lower the front of the car.

Interesting theory as to a contributing factor, but like most "accidents", the primary culprit was operator-error...in this case, traveling at apparently at 90+mph in an area that wasn't safe for such speeds. If you're gonna go fast, please learn from this and go fast in designated, safe, properly prepared and manned racing environments.

Yes...glad you said that, because that's really the point. The pilot of the Avenger felt horrible when he realized what he'd done, of course, but no amount of regret will change it. It only takes an instant of inattention or irresponsibility to end someone's life...yours, someone you love, or that of a perfectly innocent bystander, and it can just as easily happen on the way to the mall for Christmas shopping with your family. Please pay attention.

I hope you do too.

A worse deal...in Ga., pawnbrokers can charge 25% PER MONTH for the first 3 months, and 12.5% per MONTH after that. That's 187.5% per year...legally...AND, you have to put up collateral that you'll only get maybe 30 to 50 cents on the dollar-value for...AND, miss a payment and you've lost everything.

When you taxi ANY aircraft, especially a large taildragger like the Avenger, your PRIMARY responsibility is to constantly check around you for other airplanes. YOUR responsibility, as pilot in command of the aircraft. It doesn't cut it to say "I didn't see it"...obviously, or to rely on ATC to tell you what to do. These aircraft were in a long line waiting to turn on to a runway to take off. The little one stopped. The pilot of the big one didn't see, because he wasn't looking. Large taildraggers are taxied safely by performing a series of shallow "S" turns back and forth across the taxiway, in order to see what's IN FRONT of you, because you CAN'T see over the nose. This pilot didn't bother. All of us, every day, engage in activities that can kill or maim as a result of a moment's inattention. Stay safe. Pay attention.

Pilot of the small plane unhurt. Passenger killed instantly.