Monday, March 31, 2008

Time for a Butt Kickin'

Found this quote today on Mark Knowles hub page:

"Google won't search for Chuck Norris... because it knows you don't find Chuck Norris, he finds you."


Well, I like to give credit where credit is due, so I did some research (like I always do) and found a little trail of sorts. Seems Mark's page probably got if from the SEO Blog, by Jim Hedger , who in turn got it from Google PR-czar David Krane at http://www.kraneland.com/ .


Whew! Anyways, here is what you do:

Step 1: Visit http://www.google.com/

Step 2: Input these search terms: find chuck norris

Step 3: Click "I'm feeling lucky"

Then check out the results!

Wednesday, March 26, 2008

How to Mickey Mouse Something

No, I'm not going to tell you how to jerry-rig something, or Mickey it, or many other expressions that folks use to exemplify the meaning of cutting corners. One of my old bosses always use to say the name Rube Goldberg, as in "boy, you Rube Goldberged that!".

Soon after I bought my '71 Cutlass, which I refer to as "Number 2", I realized that it was a shade tree mechanic's car - meaning that there was a whole lot of Mickey Mouse going on. Number 2 suffered from many small problems, which on the surface made it look like it was falling apart. When I started digging in, it became apparent that most of the problems were self-inflicted. Number 2 had become a victim of it's previous owner, whose name must have been Jerry Rig!


Here is an example of just one of the "high tech" fixes that I found on Number 2. Yes, that's a broom stick handle shoved in the end of the hose!



The rear view mirror was also broke, or so I thought. The mirror was pointing towards the floor and had a wad of duct tape wrapped around it, along with a length of copper electrical wire to "hold it up". I really wish I would have taken a picture of it, it was classic! It was so convincing that I really thought it was broke so I started to look for a replacement.


I managed to find a mirror on eBay and put in a bid, hoping for the best. Well, fate has a way of dropping hints, and after I lost the auction due to a last second bid sniper, I decided to remove the mirror to inspect it. After I peeled back the layers of sticky duct tape, I discovered something very interesting. The special screw that tightens the mirror to the arm was missing, and had been replaced with a wood screw. Unable to tighten the wood screw completely, the previous owner fashioned a hook out of some copper wire and then applied a generous layer of grey duct tape. Needless to say, the "fix" didn't work, so the mirror just hung there looking like some kind of Frankenstein dangling from the roof.


After a thorough cleaning I realized that all the mirror needed was the correct screw to properly tighten it up. I dug for hours through all my trim screws and my perseverance paid off. I actually found the proper screw for the mirror! Once I put it in, the mirror worked flawlessly. A definite eye opener for me, as I should not have judged a book by it's cover, so to speak. It could have been worse. I could have got in a bidding war and paid too much for a mirror that I really didn't need, so I consider myself lucky.


While were on the subject of being Mickey Mouse, there is one place that it's actually normal and accepted every day. Where you ask? Disneyland of course! While I have been to Disneyland quite a few times, I have never actually been to Disney World, which I hear is even better. I am planning on going soon, so of course I did some research. Just like my cars, I want to save as much money as possible. Most folks around here would probably go to the Auto Club to book their vacation or call a travel agent. Now I don't know about you, but I want to get the most for my money, especially while I'm on vacation. During my research, I ran across this publication:
Click Here!
Do yourself a favor and check it out. It could save you a bundle. See you in Fantasy Land!

Wednesday, March 19, 2008

Pain in the Gas

I don't now about you but I am sick and tired of getting gouged at the pump. I put gas in my car today and paid $3.69 a gallon! Gas has been going up about 3 cents every other day. Why don't they just jack it up to four dollars so the price will stay the same for awhile. Why is it that the price goes up instantly but takes so long to long to come down? The oil companies know that there is nothing we can do about it, and that we will continue to buy their gas no matter what the price.


I wish there was an affordable electric car that I could buy. One of the least expensive out there is the GEM vehicles which are distributed through Chrysler. I would buy one of these but they are a total piece of crap. I drive one at work everyday and they are constantly breaking down. My employer has one of the largest fleet of GEMs around so I have seen first hand how bad these vehicles are. The batteries constantly need to be replaced (due to the rough ride), the frames crack (their aluminum), the wheel cylinders leak almost as soon as you replace them, the battery charger has gone out twice, and the main electrical plug outlet (where you plug in the cord) burns up! Let's not forget the clear coat problems and the random cracks that the body has at most of the mounting points. I know that GEM stands for Global Electrical Motorcars but they really should have named it TURD.


Hybrids are another story. Toyota held the crown for top mileage for quite a while until BMW recently unveiled a 5 series that beat it. The BMW 520d with a 2.0-liter diesel engine and regenerative braking posted an impressive 41.9 mpg - about 0.9 mpg better than a full hybrid Prius. Not a huge difference but keep in mind that the BMW is about 500 lbs heavier. Plus, which would you rather drive, a BMW or a Toyota? BMW also built a V-12 concept car that ran on hydrogen. Imagine filling your tank with the water hose! Sound too far fetched? Check out these sites I found for converting your car to run on water:
Click Here!

and here's another one:
Click Here!


I checked out both sites and it looks like the conversion is in addition to gas, so your car is like a hybrid of sorts. It got me curious and made me want to convert one of my older cars, but it sounds a little too good to be true. I will be doing some investigating on this and will post my results when I have them.

Monday, March 17, 2008

Parts is Parts

All parts are the same, right? If you believe this then I have a some beach front property in Arizona to sell you. I sold auto parts for over 15 years so I have seen my share of parts. I'm not talking Autozone either. Back in the day there were professional parts stores, where the guys that sold parts were seasoned professionals. The counterman that I know is a salesman, parts identifier, problem solver, diagnostic technician, machinist, inventory control person, and a mechanic's right hand man, all in one.


I worked during what I consider was the "hay day" of the parts era. The most popular muscle cars of the sixties were just 15 years old, so the majority of the parts sold were for cars with name plates such as: Chevelle, Camaro, Corvette, Mustang, Cuda, Charger, Challenger, 442, and GTO. And who could forget the British invasion - Triumph Spitfires, MG Midgets, Austin Healeys, and Jaguars. I pushed parts for more cars then I can remember. It was at the parts store that I also bought and sold most of my cars.


Finding them was the easy part. The typical scenario would involve a customer coming in with a huge parts list for their car. After seeing what it would cost to fix their ride, and factoring in all the labor involved, the prospect of selling it seemed more appealing. I bought some sweet rides across that parts counter, like a '69 Hugger Orange Camaro, a '69 Chevelle SS, numerous '57 Chevys, and more then a few El Caminos. Yes, I was heavy into Chevys, but I wasn't very brand loyal when it came to getting a deal.


Getting back to the subject of parts, the store usually carried two "levels" of parts, good and better. We usually referred to them as cheap and expensive. The cheap parts were generic, usually imported, and budget priced. The expensive parts were name brand, heavy duty, and priced accordingly. The saying use to be, You Get What You Pay For, but that's not necessarily true today. Let me explain. On a recent trip to a "chain type" parts store, I found quite the opposite to be true. I needed upper ball joints for my '71 Cutlass. This store had them in stock and was one of the least expensive. They offered two choices. One ball joint was a generic brand, 90 day warranty, and cost $9.99 each. The other ball joint was their name brand, life time warranty, and cost $19.99 each. With such a big difference in price you would expect a major difference in the parts. That turned out to be true - sort of.


The expensive ball joint ended up being made in China, had a rough cast body, and the rubber boot was thin and held in place with wire ties. The attaching bolts didn't even have any grade marks on them. It reminded me of an import ball joint, like you would find on a Toyota. The less expensive ball joint was made in Japan, had a machined cast body, OEM style thick rubber boot and clamp, and the hardware had grade 8 markings. This was clearly the superior part, both in looks, quality, and price. It may not have had a lifetime warranty, but at this point it looked as though I was just purchasing an insurance policy with the expensive part.
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Another example is the W-30 hood that I bought for my '72 Cutlass. I searched far and wide for a functional ram air hood, and discovered that no company made one on the West coast. I had no choice but to ship one in from the East coast, so that meant that I had to choose carefully. The factory W-30 Ram Air hoods were very unique. They were steel on the bottom and fiberglass on the top. I actually found an NOS GM W-30 hood on eBay but the bidding was already over two thousand dollars on the second day, a little rich for my blood. I also found a company that reproduces the OEM ram air hood using your old steel hood as a "core". The price was around $800 dollars and I should have ordered it, but I didn't. I decided to save a few dollars (I'm on a budget, remember?) and order a hood from a large and reputable fiberglass company. I shouldn't have anything to worry about, right? Wrong.
Behold the wonderful W-30 hood that I paid $500 dollars too much for...
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I lined the edges of the scoops with tape so you can see what the problem was with the hood.
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The really sad part was when I called the manager of the fiberglass company to tell him about the problem. Guess what? He said he already knew about it! "So you have been selling these without telling people about the defect?" I asked. He told me flatly he didn't consider it a defect and that all fiberglass hoods had "imperfections". I told him that if I had known about this so called imperfection before hand, I never would have bought the hood. Needless to say all of my complaining did no good, and the hood is now collecting dust in the corner of my garage. Anybody know a good fiberglass guy?
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So that's the way the parts business goes. Sometimes you get what you pay for, other times you get more then you bargained for. The bottom line is that when ever possible, look before you buy. On an eBay purchase, I would say ask for more pictures or at least ask a lot of questions. I personally have bought a crap load of parts off of eBay and 99% of my purchases have been more then satisfactory. A little due diligence when buying parts will go a long way towards getting the most for your money, and saving you from storing defective parts in your garage.

Tuesday, March 11, 2008

Opportunity Rang But I Took a Message

My main purpose of creating this blog page was to put on "paper" what has been floating around in my head since like forever. I love cars, new and old, but mostly old. I love photography, digital SLR is my game. I also enjoy working on classic cars, so the blending of all three seemed natural. What if I could get a job that paid me to do all of that? What if I could do my favorite things for a living? Most of us dream of this scenario, right? I was possibly an interview away from this happening, and I made a choice...


Let me back track a little. I was pounding away at my blogs and I really wanted to get some feed back, a professional opinion if possible, on my writing style, etc. I decided to email the Editor of a major automotive publication asking for his opinion. I know, a really long shot, right? At the most I was hoping for a return email from him, asking me if I was serious or chastising me mercilessly. I did not get any emails. What I got was a phone call. A phone call that could have changed my life. No, it was not a job offer but rather an opportunity to interview for a Technical Editor position. Holy crap! Me, a Technical Editor? My ultimate dream, no doubt, with the possible exception of winning the lottery. The Editor told me to think about it and call him back. In my mind I am doing the comparisons, but how do you compare your dream job to reality?


Reality to me is my family, my house, my pets, and my cars, pretty much in that order. If I were to do a pie chart, my cars would be the smallest piece of the pie. It's not like I want it that way, that's just reality. Reality is also bills - lots of bills - so this must take precedence over all things, including dreams. In this case the dream did not pay enough. Sure, there were tons of perks, but perks don't pay bills. Perks get you a bitchin' looking ride, but at what cost? Don't get me wrong, the job pays well, but I just happen to make more. The situation looks even bleaker when you factor in commute times and fuel costs. I was looking at an additional 4 hours a day just in travel. That's 80 hours a month, or 960 hours per year! (6 months!!) How bad do I want this?


With all that said, I still want this dream job. I just can't do it full time at the moment. What I would really like is to be freelance, or a Contributing Editor, or something along those lines that I can do part time so I can really get the feel for it. My work does need some polishing, so I will continue to polish it here, with you as my critics. I will land a gig someday soon, just you wait and see. Meanwhile, I get to keep blogging, so enjoy!

Thursday, March 6, 2008

Fish Stories

We all hear the stories of the big fish that got away. "It was a 75 pound Bluegill, I swear!" Yea, right, and I caught a Sword fish with 12 pound test. The same holds true in the automotive world. Much like the fishing world, there are tons of stories about the "one that got away". In my case it was a 1970 GTO Judge. Even though I only looked at this car twice, I will never forget it.


If I remember correctly, I was around 18 years old. Me and my friend Ken were headed over to a buddy's house and I had made a wrong turn going there. We both saw it at the same time and I pulled over quicker then you can say "Bobs your Uncle". Sitting in over grown grass next to a driveway was a '70 Judge, white with blue side stripes. Dusty and neglected, it was apparent that it had been there for a long time. I got close enough to see it had a hood tach and then immediately made a B-line for the front door of the house. It didn't even matter to me if it had an engine, it was a Judge! I had to find out if the owner wanted to sell it. To my extreme disappointment, I discovered that she didn't want to sell, but she did agreed to let us check it out.


The Judge was all original. Talking to the owner revealed that she had bought the car new and drove it everyday to work. She had to park it many years ago because of a water leak, and just never got it repaired. The Judge was equipped with the Ram Air 400 engine and a 3-speed manual trans. I remember lifting the hood and the first thing I saw was the foam seal on the Ram Air lid. Below the air cleaner I spotted dusty, chrome valve covers and what looked like a factory aluminum intake manifold. The car was still wearing it's original Pontiac Rally wheels shod with cracked, flattened tires. The reason the owner did not want to sell was because her son had shown some interest in it. I had already made up my mind to check back with her on a monthly basis, just in case things changed.


I drove back by about a month later and talked to her again. Still the same answer but I did get to look over the car again. This time I wrote down the block numbers, head casting numbers, and trim tag info. I couldn't catch the owner at home again after that, but I would drive by and see the car still sitting there, month after month. There was a period of time where I didn't go by for quite a while. When I finally was able to drive over there, the car was gone! I figured it had been moved into the garage or brought to a repair shop, but I really didn't find out what happened for quite a while. Several months had passed and I was in the area so I decided to drive by what had become known as the "Judge house". The owner was outside watering so I decided to stop and ask her what happened to the car. I thought for sure she was going to tell me that her son was getting it fixed up, or it was buried in the garage, or something like that. To my utter suprise, she informed me that her son had changed his mind and wanted a newer car. She was unable to find the number that I had left her so she called the local wrecking yard, who ended up giving her $800 dollars for the car! I felt sick to my stomach...

This was one that definitely got away. It was all my fault though. I should have stayed in better contact. Just like in fishing, if the lure is still out there, your going to get another bite. My other bite was in the form of a 1968 GTO, which I managed to reel in, but that's another story.