Ace-Garageguy

Yeah, we have several fleet accounts, and semi-basic vehicles with a reasonable level of ease-of-use features like you mention only seem to be available to fleet purchasers...or maybe you can get a stripper if you wait months, but I really don't think dealers have any interest in selling individual vehicles that aren't optioned-out.

Well, see...nobody native-born actually works in the US anymore. All the new pickups are bought by soft-hands can't-change-a-lightbulb yups trying to look macho. The real work trucks are aging out of the fleet, and are all on their tenth owners by now (still running, because they were built like...wait for it...trucks). AN ASIDE: ALL the electronic gizmology in my '89 GMC is now toast. EFI died, radio died, HVAC controls died...but all the hard mechanical stuff still works fine, so I've retrofitted all the dead electronics with...GASP...old-school switches and a carburettor. And try actually working out of one of the ridiculous mile-high modern pickups. It's one royal PITA unless you're 8 feet tall. OMG!!! OMG!!! OMG!!! I'm gunna hafta put you on ignore sos I don get no seconhan smoke death over the internet. OMG!!! OMG!!! OMG!!!

Yeah, that old double kit was a grail until I got one. Looks OK initially, but nothing measures out right.

Man, now I know what I'm asking Santa to bring me this year. I haven't seen that body style in a long, long time.

Yup, nobody here, or even world-class masters like Gerald Wingrove, came out of the egg knowing how to do sweet Fanny Adams. And just a thought...if you do get so frustrated on one particular model, don't throw it out. You can always prime and practice painting on even the worst fubarred bodies, and all the parts can find homes on other stuff eventually. You might be surprised, but even total garbage can be recycled into a cool model. Click the link below.

Yeah, and they're everywhere. Old and young alike.

Yup. The man speaks truth...but it takes more than a casual desire to get really good at anything, even if you're a prodigy. Short attention spans and looking for where to place blame for less-than-stellar results just won't get you there.

Rational design and engineering, simplicity, serviceability, ease of repairability, quality materials...all interrelated. KISS is dead. And yes, I can defend my opinions because I've been hands-on in the car business off-and-on for over 50 years, under hoods and in body shops. Some of the stupid beggars belief, but if you don't get under the skins of the mo-gooder-rolling-living-room-disposable-status-symbol-appliances, you'd probably think all the insane complication and ridiculous bells and whistles are just dandy excellent greatness. Ignorance is bliss.

Year-to-year Detroit styling changes were once some of the high points of my existence.

Price and value are often at odds.

Demise been eatin decheese in dehouse.

"Totally tubular, maaaaan" was occasionally the proclamation of a hippy-dippy dweep I once knew.

Seemed pretty self-evident to me, but you know... ?

Yup, once you master the process... ?

Yup. I was shooting the last coat of clear on a real '37 Rolls, with the booth doors closed, and the porter pulled a car in front of the booth to spray some silicone-based somethingorother. Whatever it was made it through the full-door filters. The fisheyes practically exploded off the Rolls. Needless to say. I had a slightly "confrontational" interaction with the porter. And then I had to sand it all off and re-shoot the entire car.

Thin spaghetti with homemade pesto, shaved parmesan garnish, fresh-cracked black pepper, and a surprisingly good 2019 Yellowtail chardonnay...organic blueberries and strong black coffee to finish. I'm so glad I can cook.

Rap is a genre that usually turns me off, but every once in a long while, I'll hear something I really like.

Fisheyes are almost invariably the result of surface contamination. It can occur from airborn stuff settling on the basecoat, while sitting a few hours or days, and from skin oils. If anyone is using spray furniture polish, or anything containing silicone nearby, that's a recipe for disaster too. Pollen can also cause it, believe it or not. It's a problem with real-car and aircraft paint jobs as well, where a re-do can cost a shop literally thousands in materials alone. Best preventative I've found, 100% effective, is a wipe with a lint-free cloth or soft paper towels (I use the super cheapo generic white recycled ones), soaked in 70% isopropyl alcohol. Then blow whatever dust or lint is on it, and don't touch the surface with fingers. And be sure the surface is completely dry.

Movie plots seem to be becoming secondary as Hollywood puts more emphasis on hammering audiences with "The Message".

Dead flatbed semi loaded with enough lumber to build a house, in front of my house since about 2:20 when it showed up on my security cam feed. Still there now I'm home, guys working on it don't seem to have a clue. How the driver got it there's a mystery too, as there's a narrow 90degree hairpin turn that he would have to come through, and even big box trucks usually wipe their RH sides on a huge pine when they try. Fascinating. Oh yeah...and double standards always chap my wrinkly old backside.

"Work" means wildly different things to different people.

That one was removed earlier. It had to do with walls and blame shifting.

"Fellow" is often shortened to "fella", and there sure are a lot of little fellas masquerading as grown men all kinds of things these days.