It seems like they waste their best chance to do something really good by being stupid about it.

And maybe that's just me - but if you have a chassis that works and can be something different - why in hell would you just trash it?

~As if it was somehow good to be a jackass...


NOTHING IN THIS WORLD comes easy, and all of it is more and more expensive. So my idea is to make something the best it can be out of whatever it is that I have got.

Does that make sense to anyone else?

For all I know, I may one day drop a 302 into a VOLGA just to prove to communist Russia that there was something they once could have done....

 

I was thinking about cars that could be built up, and trucks that were trashed in the woods - because nobody knew how to fix them.

I was also thinking about the Suzuki that had a five pound bag of sugar dumped in the gas tank, because the punk that owned it wanted to ruin it forever.

Why would you totally destroy a thing that could be rebuilt?

Just to screw it up forever...



That's a mindset I just don't get

What a WEENIE...

You ain't smart enough to fix it - so you destroy it

 

I think computers and electronics in vehicles has curbed the shade tree crowd almost as much as the newer generations lack of hands on working on stuff as 0pposed to playing on your phone.

Lots of ricers love to modify their vehicles now, but it mostly seems to revolve around adding a tuner and bolting on ground effects and spoilers, and the ever present coffee can exhaust. Of course the same can be said for most domestic vehicles as well, with the exception of the coffee can muffler (other than maybe the dodge crowd).

I had a guy buy a bumper off me today. He asked who I had install mine. When I told him I did it he wasn't sure what to say. His wife was with him and I saw her giving him that look so I threw in I had my wife help me do it. Changing a bumper is now considered expert level in the shade tree crowd I'm afraid.

 

Vehicles are plastic and disposable now-a-days, so this is to be expected among the masses................toss it away, buy a new one....end of story.

 

I see lots cars that are 2-3 years old that look like they are 1 step from the crusher.................but I guess some folks are just that way.

 

Surely you're not implying now that most folks won't tinker with their cars they tend to last longer? #ad


Stats can me presented to get across any point you want. You could also look at your stats and say cars are getting so expensive, or the economy is getting so bad, folks can no longer afford to buy a car as often as they used to.

But I agree. 100,000 miles used to be a milestone and it was a big deal when a car reached it. Now it's nothing.

 

I've got a neighbor across the street that just gave $29K for about an '05 Infiniti that he told me sold for $60K new. It's in pretty much mint condition, and the turbo'd V8 in it is rated at 420 HP. And of course it has all the bells and whistles, like full connectivety and sat nav. That thing can do almost anything except take your pulse and tell you if you are running a fever, but that's a level of wheels that never interested me.

We also have the opposite - people who think in terms of a thousand bucks for a running car and don't care if it looks like their Moms old college car...

Roadkill in Drummonds TN is not unusual, it's the norm. What is suprising is the new cars that turn up around here as people with more cashflow move farther out from the city to get away from what they see as a certain collapse of all law and order some day.

 

But when AND it WILL happen, that the breakdown occurs, it has shifted what used to be a couple hours in the driveway to a $3,000 repair bill from a stealership or a shop, that may or may not have people capable of fixing it, and will much more likely just shotgun parts at it............at your expense.

 

And if those repairs are done badly, by non-skilled folks that are taking short cuts, the vehicle itself becomes scrap - unrecoverable.

A few days ago I heard no less than Jessie Bailey telling one of the mechs in his shop:

"This is what happens when stupid people make half-way repairs, and it is left to us to clean up the mess they made of everything"

If you have been turning wrenches for any length of time, you have seen what I have:

That people who don't know the whole story often take short cuts that cause so much damage that nothing at all can save what is left except a whole new rebuilt engine or transmission. When all they had to do, was do the thing right and the car or truck would last for over 300,000 miles

And this applies also to people who own cars and trucks, and their friends - who butt in acting like they know something when they really don't.

Things like taking out the thermostat to compensate for a clogged radiator or bad water pump, and cause the engine to run at the wrong temperature so that the cylinders wear out from back to front. But before that happens - the radiator becomes totally plugged and fails, and likely they will crack the heads and warp the block before it is all over.

Car and Truck death, is caused primarily by bad advice and skills

 

Manufacturing design, tolerances, materials and capabilities are tighter now than the good ol' days. Enhanced Lubricants make the synergies of all those things possible.... not to mention the fact that computers now drive virtually everything in our vehicles these days. There ain't no room for slop.

.

 

Cars are definitely better. When I was a kid, if there was a car in our small town with 100,000 miles on it it was know and talked about. Pickups that bounced around in the country were ready for the crusher at 80,000 miles.

And although I have no evidence to support, I would wager with conputer diagnostics, google, youtube, and forums like this one there are more people who feel empowered to tinker and repair their own car than ever.

 

The '85 F250 diesel I traded off a few years ago was still going at close to 485K on its clock