Edmunds Members - Cars and Conversations

jmonroe1

28firefighter said:

They charged you a full hour of labor? Sheesh.

Dividing by two is not is not a dealerships expertise.

jmonroe

explorerx4

I wasn't as lucky as my BIL who found a nice Snap On torque wrench under the hood of his 5 series after getting the oil changed of couple of miles from where I went for service today.
There seems to be a lack of talent locally across the board locally.

jmonroe1

oldfarmer50 said:

jmonroe1 said:

ab348 said:

explorerx4 said:

I found 1 video on how to replace the MKC battery.
Unfortunately, it started with battery already removed, plus the guy was missing his right index finger.

I wonder if those two things are related?

It seems that serviceability is not a high priority for many auto manufacturers these days, and not just Ford. For years on many GM cars, replacing a heater core required removing the inner fender, which first meant removing everything that was attached to it and then removing the RF wheel. In some instances it also involved removing the passenger front seat and the glovebox. Now a heater core typically goes a great many years before needing replacing so perhaps that is excusable. But on my ATS, when a headlamp bulb blows and needs replacement a similar wheel/fender liner removal is necessary. I mean, come on. Couldn't they just engineer a little hatch or cover of some sort and let you avoid that?

First a little background:

In 1986 Mrs. j’s aunt wanted to give her oldest great nephew her 1974 Old Omega 2 door sedan, burgundy with the black vinyl top even had A/C that would chill your bones. I didn’t want Son #1 to have a car when he was in high school but the car had just under 24K miles and was in very good condition. I knew that car never saw 3000 RPM so I couldn’t let that car out of the family so he got it (I think @oldfarmer50 would have drooled over that car). Man, that car with it’s GM 350 V8 could really move that small Omega. Another reason why I didn’t want him to have it but I caved in the name a guy who appreciated a nice car. OK, so that’s the background.

When we moved to SC in ‘92 my son had his ‘91 Grand Prix that he bought when he got out of the State Penn (Penn State) in ‘91 but he wanted me to take it to SC because he wanted to give it a real overhaul some day so off to SC it went with me. Fast forward to about ‘94 when the heater core sprung a leak. That was a PITA job even back then. I wanted to sell it but he wanted me to fix it so that his plan would still be alive. OK, being the nice father that I am I bought a heater core and dreaded the hours of work to put it in. That job traditionally required the removal of a lot of the under dash stuff like wiring harnesses, heater and A/C linkages and who knows what else. So, I start with taking out the glove box. When I did that I could see the plastic air duct that housed the heater core but to get the duct work out meant dismantling all of what I just mentioned. Then I got an idea. I help up the heater core against the plastic duct and it fit within the duct. So, I cut out a rectangular hole in the plastic and low and behold I could see old heater core. Only took the removal of a few mounting screws and the new one just about fell into place. Replaced the plastic duct after fabricating some pieces of sheet metal to hold it in place with pop rivets, applied some metal duck work tape (the aluminum sticky stuff), sprayed it with rattle can black and you had to look twice to see the duct had been modified. I had to save myself at least 5 hours of work and the best part was that I didn’t have to disturb anything under the dash. Therefore, I didn’t have to hold my breath when I would have had to see if a lot of the accessories would still work,

I’ve told you guys before, I’m ahead of the curve when it comes to stuff like this.

Oh yeah, in case anyone is wondering what happened to that valuable Omega, when we moved back to the Burgh in early ‘97, my son abandoned his dream of redoing that car so I sold it to the guy that packed the 2 U-Hauls when we left. If I had done that core replacement the traditional way I’d only have one son today. :@

jmonroe

You seem adept at hacking and jerry rigging stuff back together on the cheap. You’d make a good farmer.

Wasn’t the Omega a twin of the Nova? Those are worth some money now.

Funny you should mention the Nova. When we moved to SC I drove that car a good bit just to make sure it didn’t go bad from lack of use. I can’t tell you how many times some would say when I pulled into a shopping plaza, “nice looking Nova. Do you want to sell it”? I always said it was an Omega. Most said, “that’s even better. I’m still interested”. Rarely did anyone say, “oh, I wanted a Nova”. Two guys even gave me their name and number and wanted me to call them when I wanted to get rid of it. That was in the Spring of ‘92. So, when I knew we were moving back to the Burgh and Son #1 no longer wanted the car, I called them. One had disappeared. The woman who he lived with that answered the phone said she kicked him out of her place and she was pretty sure he was running from the law now. That was the first guy I called so I called the other guy. Was almost hoping to hear a similar story but he was no longer interested. I can’t remember exactly, but I’m pretty sure that car didn’t even have 65K miles on it when I sold it to the guy that packed the U-Hauls. You would have probably liked that car even then when the Southern sun was starting to fade the paint.

jmonroe

28firefighter

explorerx4 said:

I wasn't as lucky as my BIL who found a nice Snap On torque wrench under the hood of his 5 series after getting the oil changed of couple of miles from where I went for service today.
There seems to be a lack of talent locally across the board locally.

This happened to my wife’s Mazda back in the day. I took it to a Mazda dealer in Pittsburgh that shall remain nameless. They left a torque wrench under the hood and slammed the hood down to close it. I found it at pick-up because the hood wasn’t aligned and there was a bump at the back by the windshield. Real Mensa members.

driver100

jmonroe1 said:

driver100 said:

Hate those styrofoam peanuts...wouldn't want to be the one picking those up especially with static cling. Ever try to throw them in the garbage when they are stuck to your hand?

Hint...wet your hands before playing with those peanuts.
jmonroe

Thanks, I'll try that.

stickguy

oldfarmer50 said:

jmonroe1 said:

ab348 said:

explorerx4 said:

I found 1 video on how to replace the MKC battery.
Unfortunately, it started with battery already removed, plus the guy was missing his right index finger.

I wonder if those two things are related?

It seems that serviceability is not a high priority for many auto manufacturers these days, and not just Ford. For years on many GM cars, replacing a heater core required removing the inner fender, which first meant removing everything that was attached to it and then removing the RF wheel. In some instances it also involved removing the passenger front seat and the glovebox. Now a heater core typically goes a great many years before needing replacing so perhaps that is excusable. But on my ATS, when a headlamp bulb blows and needs replacement a similar wheel/fender liner removal is necessary. I mean, come on. Couldn't they just engineer a little hatch or cover of some sort and let you avoid that?

First a little background:

In 1986 Mrs. j’s aunt wanted to give her oldest great nephew her 1974 Old Omega 2 door sedan, burgundy with the black vinyl top even had A/C that would chill your bones. I didn’t want Son #1 to have a car when he was in high school but the car had just under 24K miles and was in very good condition. I knew that car never saw 3000 RPM so I couldn’t let that car out of the family so he got it (I think @oldfarmer50 would have drooled over that car). Man, that car with it’s GM 350 V8 could really move that small Omega. Another reason why I didn’t want him to have it but I caved in the name a guy who appreciated a nice car. OK, so that’s the background.

When we moved to SC in ‘92 my son had his ‘91 Grand Prix that he bought when he got out of the State Penn (Penn State) in ‘91 but he wanted me to take it to SC because he wanted to give it a real overhaul some day so off to SC it went with me. Fast forward to about ‘94 when the heater core sprung a leak. That was a PITA job even back then. I wanted to sell it but he wanted me to fix it so that his plan would still be alive. OK, being the nice father that I am I bought a heater core and dreaded the hours of work to put it in. That job traditionally required the removal of a lot of the under dash stuff like wiring harnesses, heater and A/C linkages and who knows what else. So, I start with taking out the glove box. When I did that I could see the plastic air duct that housed the heater core but to get the duct work out meant dismantling all of what I just mentioned. Then I got an idea. I help up the heater core against the plastic duct and it fit within the duct. So, I cut out a rectangular hole in the plastic and low and behold I could see old heater core. Only took the removal of a few mounting screws and the new one just about fell into place. Replaced the plastic duct after fabricating some pieces of sheet metal to hold it in place with pop rivets, applied some metal duck work tape (the aluminum sticky stuff), sprayed it with rattle can black and you had to look twice to see the duct had been modified. I had to save myself at least 5 hours of work and the best part was that I didn’t have to disturb anything under the dash. Therefore, I didn’t have to hold my breath when I would have had to see if a lot of the accessories would still work,

I’ve told you guys before, I’m ahead of the curve when it comes to stuff like this.

Oh yeah, in case anyone is wondering what happened to that valuable Omega, when we moved back to the Burgh in early ‘97, my son abandoned his dream of redoing that car so I sold it to the guy that packed the 2 U-Hauls when we left. If I had done that core replacement the traditional way I’d only have one son today. :@

jmonroe

You seem adept at hacking and jerry rigging stuff back together on the cheap. You’d make a good farmer.

Wasn’t the Omega a twin of the Nova? Those are worth some money now.

he should start a YouTube channel. "WatchJMHack"

imidazol97

I am not sure we can generalize about all GM's being bad for replacement of heater cores. Never had to do it, but the heater core on my 98 leSabre was sitting right there laughing at anyone needing to replace it. I know because I had messed with the computer box that controlled the vacuum feeds to the HVAC airflow box that attached right onto the cover for the heater. Several members of forums had to replace theirs. Hard part was getting the rubber tubes off the engine side because they required a long nosed side plier type device, or lots of fiddling.

The later leSabre 2000-2005 and Bonneville had a modular HVAC box that was reasonably easy to get into for replacing the evaporator core and heater core. But did require unwiring the electrical parts that controlled the air flow and some dash stuff.

imidazol97

Amazon late shipment came today. One day late.

After a few hours trying to get the hard disk drive to work to clone the one in the desktop I'm working on, I figured out the HDD is defective and isn't being recognized as a hard drive. I had trouble with the public clonezilla software and some various versions didn't work on that Win 10.

I tried HDD on my laptop where I'd used the wiring setup before and it didn't get recognized. I unpacked a spare large Seagate drive and it worked find on laptop and the problematic desktop.

Durn.

But Amazon has changed their return setup. As a defective tech item, they wanted me to call or chat with a technician. I don't need that garbage. I diagnosed it. But I just take the item to UPS show them the QR code Amazon gave. UPS packages, labels, and verifies my return is real. I do have the packing materials though.

But that kind of return through UPS or Kohls can't be beat with a dead stick. I gave them a 10 on their return.

New one should be here Sept 13. Hmmmm. Can I count on that date?

ab348

I bought a new Seagate hard drive from Amazon a few months back and Win10 wouldn’t recognize it either. I was concerned it was defective but did a little Googling and found there was some arcane procedure buried deep within Control Panel that you had to go through to get it registered (just like a BMW battery I guess) and once satisfied, Win10 would let you format it.

jmonroe1

stickguy said:

oldfarmer50 said:

jmonroe1 said:

ab348 said:

explorerx4 said:

I found 1 video on how to replace the MKC battery.
Unfortunately, it started with battery already removed, plus the guy was missing his right index finger.

I wonder if those two things are related?

It seems that serviceability is not a high priority for many auto manufacturers these days, and not just Ford. For years on many GM cars, replacing a heater core required removing the inner fender, which first meant removing everything that was attached to it and then removing the RF wheel. In some instances it also involved removing the passenger front seat and the glovebox. Now a heater core typically goes a great many years before needing replacing so perhaps that is excusable. But on my ATS, when a headlamp bulb blows and needs replacement a similar wheel/fender liner removal is necessary. I mean, come on. Couldn't they just engineer a little hatch or cover of some sort and let you avoid that?

First a little background:

In 1986 Mrs. j’s aunt wanted to give her oldest great nephew her 1974 Old Omega 2 door sedan, burgundy with the black vinyl top even had A/C that would chill your bones. I didn’t want Son #1 to have a car when he was in high school but the car had just under 24K miles and was in very good condition. I knew that car never saw 3000 RPM so I couldn’t let that car out of the family so he got it (I think @oldfarmer50 would have drooled over that car). Man, that car with it’s GM 350 V8 could really move that small Omega. Another reason why I didn’t want him to have it but I caved in the name a guy who appreciated a nice car. OK, so that’s the background.

When we moved to SC in ‘92 my son had his ‘91 Grand Prix that he bought when he got out of the State Penn (Penn State) in ‘91 but he wanted me to take it to SC because he wanted to give it a real overhaul some day so off to SC it went with me. Fast forward to about ‘94 when the heater core sprung a leak. That was a PITA job even back then. I wanted to sell it but he wanted me to fix it so that his plan would still be alive. OK, being the nice father that I am I bought a heater core and dreaded the hours of work to put it in. That job traditionally required the removal of a lot of the under dash stuff like wiring harnesses, heater and A/C linkages and who knows what else. So, I start with taking out the glove box. When I did that I could see the plastic air duct that housed the heater core but to get the duct work out meant dismantling all of what I just mentioned. Then I got an idea. I help up the heater core against the plastic duct and it fit within the duct. So, I cut out a rectangular hole in the plastic and low and behold I could see old heater core. Only took the removal of a few mounting screws and the new one just about fell into place. Replaced the plastic duct after fabricating some pieces of sheet metal to hold it in place with pop rivets, applied some metal duck work tape (the aluminum sticky stuff), sprayed it with rattle can black and you had to look twice to see the duct had been modified. I had to save myself at least 5 hours of work and the best part was that I didn’t have to disturb anything under the dash. Therefore, I didn’t have to hold my breath when I would have had to see if a lot of the accessories would still work,

I’ve told you guys before, I’m ahead of the curve when it comes to stuff like this.

Oh yeah, in case anyone is wondering what happened to that valuable Omega, when we moved back to the Burgh in early ‘97, my son abandoned his dream of redoing that car so I sold it to the guy that packed the 2 U-Hauls when we left. If I had done that core replacement the traditional way I’d only have one son today. :@

jmonroe

You seem adept at hacking and jerry rigging stuff back together on the cheap. You’d make a good farmer.

Wasn’t the Omega a twin of the Nova? Those are worth some money now.

he should start a YouTube channel. "WatchJMHack"

If I did that you guys would be up the proverbial creek without a paddle. Then you’d have to deal with @driver100 a lot more. Believe me, I’m here for your enjoyment and sanity not mine.

jmonroe

jmonroe1

imidazol97 said:

Amazon late shipment came today. One day late.

After a few hours trying to get the hard disk drive to work to clone the one in the desktop I'm working on, I figured out the HDD is defective and isn't being recognized as a hard drive. I had trouble with the public clonezilla software and some various versions didn't work on that Win 10.

I tried HDD on my laptop where I'd used the wiring setup before and it didn't get recognized. I unpacked a spare large Seagate drive and it worked find on laptop and the problematic desktop.

Durn.

But Amazon has changed their return setup. As a defective tech item, they wanted me to call or chat with a technician. I don't need that garbage. I diagnosed it. But I just take the item to UPS show them the QR code Amazon gave. UPS packages, labels, and verifies my return is real. I do have the packing materials though.

But that kind of return through UPS or Kohls can't be beat with a dead stick. I gave them a 10 on their return.

New one should be here Sept 13. Hmmmm. Can I count on that date?

Does it really make any difference? We’re going to hear about it either way!!

jmonroe

tjc78

Hi all thanks for all the well wishes. We really just lucked out in a major way.

We signed a beautiful two year old home not far from where we live now. Our realtor has a rapport with the listing agent. She got us in last night ahead of multiple showings today and brokered a deal for asking price with a cancellation of all scheduled showings to avoid a bidding war.

It’s my wife’s dream house. 5bed/4bath only two years old. Home theater room pre-wired for a projector, all white granite kitchen with a smart fridge, sprinklers, whole house audio, metal railings, full networking with data cabinet, the works. Also has a full bed and bath for my mom on the first floor.

It’s a major step up from our house. Now we have about a week to get our house on the market! Realtor thinks it will be a super quick sale.

Settlement is about two months and I start my new job on the 28th. Lots to do!

I’ll post some pictures later on.

driver100

Great news tjc...you worked hard to get it......enjoy it.

driver100

jmonroe1 said:

stickguy said:

oldfarmer50 said:

jmonroe1 said:

ab348 said:

explorerx4 said:

I found 1 video on how to replace the MKC battery.
Unfortunately, it started with battery already removed, plus the guy was missing his right index finger.

I wonder if those two things are related?

It seems that serviceability is not a high priority for many auto manufacturers these days, and not just Ford. For years on many GM cars, replacing a heater core required removing the inner fender, which first meant removing everything that was attached to it and then removing the RF wheel. In some instances it also involved removing the passenger front seat and the glovebox. Now a heater core typically goes a great many years before needing replacing so perhaps that is excusable. But on my ATS, when a headlamp bulb blows and needs replacement a similar wheel/fender liner removal is necessary. I mean, come on. Couldn't they just engineer a little hatch or cover of some sort and let you avoid that?

First a little background:

In 1986 Mrs. j’s aunt wanted to give her oldest great nephew her 1974 Old Omega 2 door sedan, burgundy with the black vinyl top even had A/C that would chill your bones. I didn’t want Son #1 to have a car when he was in high school but the car had just under 24K miles and was in very good condition. I knew that car never saw 3000 RPM so I couldn’t let that car out of the family so he got it (I think @oldfarmer50 would have drooled over that car). Man, that car with it’s GM 350 V8 could really move that small Omega. Another reason why I didn’t want him to have it but I caved in the name a guy who appreciated a nice car. OK, so that’s the background.

When we moved to SC in ‘92 my son had his ‘91 Grand Prix that he bought when he got out of the State Penn (Penn State) in ‘91 but he wanted me to take it to SC because he wanted to give it a real overhaul some day so off to SC it went with me. Fast forward to about ‘94 when the heater core sprung a leak. That was a PITA job even back then. I wanted to sell it but he wanted me to fix it so that his plan would still be alive. OK, being the nice father that I am I bought a heater core and dreaded the hours of work to put it in. That job traditionally required the removal of a lot of the under dash stuff like wiring harnesses, heater and A/C linkages and who knows what else. So, I start with taking out the glove box. When I did that I could see the plastic air duct that housed the heater core but to get the duct work out meant dismantling all of what I just mentioned. Then I got an idea. I help up the heater core against the plastic duct and it fit within the duct. So, I cut out a rectangular hole in the plastic and low and behold I could see old heater core. Only took the removal of a few mounting screws and the new one just about fell into place. Replaced the plastic duct after fabricating some pieces of sheet metal to hold it in place with pop rivets, applied some metal duck work tape (the aluminum sticky stuff), sprayed it with rattle can black and you had to look twice to see the duct had been modified. I had to save myself at least 5 hours of work and the best part was that I didn’t have to disturb anything under the dash. Therefore, I didn’t have to hold my breath when I would have had to see if a lot of the accessories would still work,

I’ve told you guys before, I’m ahead of the curve when it comes to stuff like this.

Oh yeah, in case anyone is wondering what happened to that valuable Omega, when we moved back to the Burgh in early ‘97, my son abandoned his dream of redoing that car so I sold it to the guy that packed the 2 U-Hauls when we left. If I had done that core replacement the traditional way I’d only have one son today. :@

jmonroe

You seem adept at hacking and jerry rigging stuff back together on the cheap. You’d make a good farmer.

Wasn’t the Omega a twin of the Nova? Those are worth some money now.

he should start a YouTube channel. "WatchJMHack"

If I did that you guys would be up the proverbial creek without a paddle. Then you’d have to deal with @driver100 a lot more. Believe me, I’m here for your enjoyment and sanity not mine.
jmonroe

Don't give him ideas....it could become worse than watching Scotty

nyccarguy

tjc78 said:

Hi all thanks for all the well wishes. We really just lucked out in a major way.

We signed a beautiful two year old home not far from where we live now. Our realtor has a rapport with the listing agent. She got us in last night ahead of multiple showings today and brokered a deal for asking price with a cancellation of all scheduled showings to avoid a bidding war.

It’s my wife’s dream house. 5bed/4bath only two years old. Home theater room pre-wired for a projector, all white granite kitchen with a smart fridge, sprinklers, whole house audio, metal railings, full networking with data cabinet, the works. Also has a full bed and bath for my mom on the first floor.

It’s a major step up from our house. Now we have about a week to get our house on the market! Realtor thinks it will be a super quick sale.

Settlement is about two months and I start my new job on the 28th. Lots to do!

I’ll post some pictures later on.

Congrats Tom! That's excellent!

ab348

tjc78 said:

It’s my wife’s dream house. 5bed/4bath only two years old. Home theater room pre-wired for a projector, all white granite kitchen with a smart fridge, sprinklers, whole house audio, metal railings, full networking with data cabinet, the works. Also has a full bed and bath for my mom on the first floor.

Wow, that sounds like a LOT of house.

stickguy

that was quick. I am surprised they would want to avoid the bidding war. that would be my favorite part as a seller!

Congrats. sounds perfect. What town?

oldfarmer50

jmonroe1 said:

oldfarmer50 said:

jmonroe1 said:

ab348 said:

explorerx4 said:

I found 1 video on how to replace the MKC battery.
Unfortunately, it started with battery already removed, plus the guy was missing his right index finger.

I wonder if those two things are related?

It seems that serviceability is not a high priority for many auto manufacturers these days, and not just Ford. For years on many GM cars, replacing a heater core required removing the inner fender, which first meant removing everything that was attached to it and then removing the RF wheel. In some instances it also involved removing the passenger front seat and the glovebox. Now a heater core typically goes a great many years before needing replacing so perhaps that is excusable. But on my ATS, when a headlamp bulb blows and needs replacement a similar wheel/fender liner removal is necessary. I mean, come on. Couldn't they just engineer a little hatch or cover of some sort and let you avoid that?

First a little background:

In 1986 Mrs. j’s aunt wanted to give her oldest great nephew her 1974 Old Omega 2 door sedan, burgundy with the black vinyl top even had A/C that would chill your bones. I didn’t want Son #1 to have a car when he was in high school but the car had just under 24K miles and was in very good condition. I knew that car never saw 3000 RPM so I couldn’t let that car out of the family so he got it (I think @oldfarmer50 would have drooled over that car). Man, that car with it’s GM 350 V8 could really move that small Omega. Another reason why I didn’t want him to have it but I caved in the name a guy who appreciated a nice car. OK, so that’s the background.

When we moved to SC in ‘92 my son had his ‘91 Grand Prix that he bought when he got out of the State Penn (Penn State) in ‘91 but he wanted me to take it to SC because he wanted to give it a real overhaul some day so off to SC it went with me. Fast forward to about ‘94 when the heater core sprung a leak. That was a PITA job even back then. I wanted to sell it but he wanted me to fix it so that his plan would still be alive. OK, being the nice father that I am I bought a heater core and dreaded the hours of work to put it in. That job traditionally required the removal of a lot of the under dash stuff like wiring harnesses, heater and A/C linkages and who knows what else. So, I start with taking out the glove box. When I did that I could see the plastic air duct that housed the heater core but to get the duct work out meant dismantling all of what I just mentioned. Then I got an idea. I help up the heater core against the plastic duct and it fit within the duct. So, I cut out a rectangular hole in the plastic and low and behold I could see old heater core. Only took the removal of a few mounting screws and the new one just about fell into place. Replaced the plastic duct after fabricating some pieces of sheet metal to hold it in place with pop rivets, applied some metal duck work tape (the aluminum sticky stuff), sprayed it with rattle can black and you had to look twice to see the duct had been modified. I had to save myself at least 5 hours of work and the best part was that I didn’t have to disturb anything under the dash. Therefore, I didn’t have to hold my breath when I would have had to see if a lot of the accessories would still work,

I’ve told you guys before, I’m ahead of the curve when it comes to stuff like this.

Oh yeah, in case anyone is wondering what happened to that valuable Omega, when we moved back to the Burgh in early ‘97, my son abandoned his dream of redoing that car so I sold it to the guy that packed the 2 U-Hauls when we left. If I had done that core replacement the traditional way I’d only have one son today. :@

jmonroe

You seem adept at hacking and jerry rigging stuff back together on the cheap. You’d make a good farmer.

Wasn’t the Omega a twin of the Nova? Those are worth some money now.

Funny you should mention the Nova. When we moved to SC I drove that car a good bit just to make sure it didn’t go bad from lack of use. I can’t tell you how many times some would say when I pulled into a shopping plaza, “nice looking Nova. Do you want to sell it”? I always said it was an Omega. Most said, “that’s even better. I’m still interested”. Rarely did anyone say, “oh, I wanted a Nova”. Two guys even gave me their name and number and wanted me to call them when I wanted to get rid of it. That was in the Spring of ‘92. So, when I knew we were moving back to the Burgh and Son #1 no longer wanted the car, I called them. One had disappeared. The woman who he lived with that answered the phone said she kicked him out of her place and she was pretty sure he was running from the law now. That was the first guy I called so I called the other guy. Was almost hoping to hear a similar story but he was no longer interested. I can’t remember exactly, but I’m pretty sure that car didn’t even have 65K miles on it when I sold it to the guy that packed the U-Hauls. You would have probably liked that car even then when the Southern sun was starting to fade the paint.

jmonroe

So the first guy just wanted a quick get away car?

oldfarmer50

tjc78 said:

Hi all thanks for all the well wishes. We really just lucked out in a major way.

We signed a beautiful two year old home not far from where we live now. Our realtor has a rapport with the listing agent. She got us in last night ahead of multiple showings today and brokered a deal for asking price with a cancellation of all scheduled showings to avoid a bidding war.

It’s my wife’s dream house. 5bed/4bath only two years old. Home theater room pre-wired for a projector, all white granite kitchen with a smart fridge, sprinklers, whole house audio, metal railings, full networking with data cabinet, the works. Also has a full bed and bath for my mom on the first floor.

It’s a major step up from our house. Now we have about a week to get our house on the market! Realtor thinks it will be a super quick sale.

Settlement is about two months and I start my new job on the 28th. Lots to do!

I’ll post some pictures later on.

No way I could multi task like that. You must have nerves of steel.

snakeweasel

stickguy said:

that was quick. I am surprised they would want to avoid the bidding war. that would be my favorite part as a seller!

Congrats. sounds perfect. What town?

Agree, I would think that the seller would want to get as much as they can out of the house, if a bidding war happens they can make more money out of the house by keeping it on the market for a few days.

abacomike

tjc78 said:

Hi all thanks for all the well wishes. We really just lucked out in a major way.

We signed a beautiful two year old home not far from where we live now. Our realtor has a rapport with the listing agent. She got us in last night ahead of multiple showings today and brokered a deal for asking price with a cancellation of all scheduled showings to avoid a bidding war.

It’s my wife’s dream house. 5bed/4bath only two years old. Home theater room pre-wired for a projector, all white granite kitchen with a smart fridge, sprinklers, whole house audio, metal railings, full networking with data cabinet, the works. Also has a full bed and bath for my mom on the first floor.

It’s a major step up from our house. Now we have about a week to get our house on the market! Realtor thinks it will be a super quick sale.

Settlement is about two months and I start my new job on the 28th. Lots to do!

I’ll post some pictures later on.

That's stupendous! Best of luck with the new digs!👍

suydam

@tjc — congratulations! My daughter and SIL just signed on a house too. You have to move fast in this market! Sounds like you have your work cut out for you — in a good way!

28firefighter

Big congrats, @tjc78!

tjc78

stickguy said:

that was quick. I am surprised they would want to avoid the bidding war. that would be my favorite part as a seller!

Congrats. sounds perfect. What town?

Wenonah, Yes we were too, but they needed out ASAP (relocating) and have three small kids. I don't think they wanted to go through the process with tons of showings and all the back and forth. Having an inside track with two Realtors who feed off each other really helped.

We have been looking for months, but only recently got serious. We knew exactly what we wanted. This stretched the budget a bit, but since it's so new we figured it was worth it. It's looking like a 2.75% rate so the extra money we are spending isn't much at all monthly.

Here are some pictures.

tjc78

Thanks everyone! It's such a wild year! I have to say it's a good time to make moves like this. You'll pay more for your new place, but you'll also get a lot more for your current home and with money so cheap you can cash out a bit to invest.

We are moving so fast on everything my head is spinning!

tjc78

oldfarmer50 said:

tjc78 said:

Hi all thanks for all the well wishes. We really just lucked out in a major way.

We signed a beautiful two year old home not far from where we live now. Our realtor has a rapport with the listing agent. She got us in last night ahead of multiple showings today and brokered a deal for asking price with a cancellation of all scheduled showings to avoid a bidding war.

It’s my wife’s dream house. 5bed/4bath only two years old. Home theater room pre-wired for a projector, all white granite kitchen with a smart fridge, sprinklers, whole house audio, metal railings, full networking with data cabinet, the works. Also has a full bed and bath for my mom on the first floor.

It’s a major step up from our house. Now we have about a week to get our house on the market! Realtor thinks it will be a super quick sale.

Settlement is about two months and I start my new job on the 28th. Lots to do!

I’ll post some pictures later on.

No way I could multi task like that. You must have nerves of steel.

I'm a unique individual.... I procrastinate on things at times but 100% work best under pressure.

stickguy

Very nice. I won't show it to my wife, she might want it!

and look at all that room in the driveway to park extra cars!

jmonroe1

@tjc78, congrats on the mansion. Sounds like you’ll be happy there.

Just want you to know, don’t bother trying to recruit any of us to pack the U-Haul. You had no time for us about getting us over to the beach house before the season ended. So we’ve all decided to get together on our own the weekend that you’re moving.

Good luck and don’t strain your back.

jmonroe

graphicguy

28firefighter said:

Great review - thanks! It is a compelling option for the price point and the reliability. At 26k you start pushing into GTI/GLI territory, but I'd think it is probably a safer bet quality wise.

When Civic Si was leasing in the mid-high 200s, IMO, that was a screaming bargain for a sporty sedan. I'd probably consider jumping on one if those prices ever came back around.

Gladly.

If I were looking for something in that size and price range, I’d probably stack the Civic Si over the GTI. My son loves his GTI. But, even he is now starting to look at a replacement, and he’s looking seriously at the Si.

That’s the first time I had ever driven an Si. Drivetrain, steering, handling was just so good, it’s hard not to take notice given its price tag.

Hondas are just put together so well, and engineered so smartly.

I might take the GTI off his hands given he just put a new set of shoes on it. Then again, I don’t need another car.

graphicguy

@tjc78 ....so very happy for you. Love the new house! Congrats!

tjc78

stickguy said:

Very nice. I won't show it to my wife, she might want it!

and look at all that room in the driveway to park extra cars!

Yes, and first time in my life I'll have a garage! No poles inside it either. Current owners aren't using it for cars, so there is all shelving on either side. That's getting ripped out first thing otherwise there is literally nothing to do! It seems like the current owners barely moved in before having to sell.

stickguy

graphicguy said:

28firefighter said:

Great review - thanks! It is a compelling option for the price point and the reliability. At 26k you start pushing into GTI/GLI territory, but I'd think it is probably a safer bet quality wise.

When Civic Si was leasing in the mid-high 200s, IMO, that was a screaming bargain for a sporty sedan. I'd probably consider jumping on one if those prices ever came back around.

Gladly.

If I were looking for something in that size and price range, I’d probably stack the Civic Si over the GTI. My son loves his GTI. But, even he is now starting to look at a replacement, and he’s looking seriously at the Si.

That’s the first time I had ever driven an Si. Drivetrain, steering, handling was just so good, it’s hard not to take notice given its price tag.

Hondas are just put together so well, and engineered so smartly.

I might take the GTI off his hands given he just put a new set of shoes on it. Then again, I don’t need another car.

hopefully I do! Stick I assume? Moonroof?

tjc78

jmonroe1 said:

@tjc78, congrats on the mansion. Sounds like you’ll be happy there.

Just want you to know, don’t bother trying to recruit any of us to pack the U-Haul. You had no time for us about getting us over to the beach house before the season ended. So we’ve all decided to get together on our own the weekend that you’re moving.

Good luck and don’t strain your back.

jmonroe

Ha Ha you don't forget a thing! On my list to do is get a quote for a moving company!

Thanks!

graphicguy

I have an audio punch that I picked up yesterday. I know I go down the rabbit hole sometimes. But, if anyone is interested, I’ll post a pic and a brief description. Don’t want to force it, though.

tjc78

graphicguy said:

@tjc78 ....so very happy for you. Love the new house! Congrats!

Thank you!

And yes post away about that audio gear!

I'm also going to need projector recommendations from you and @roadburner

stickguy

just looked at the listing. That is a seriously nice place, and exactly why buying a couple year old one instead of brand new is a great option. They did a ton to the place that would cost a lot to do yourself.

jmonroe1

oldfarmer50 said:

jmonroe1 said:

oldfarmer50 said:

jmonroe1 said:

ab348 said:

explorerx4 said:

I found 1 video on how to replace the MKC battery.
Unfortunately, it started with battery already removed, plus the guy was missing his right index finger.

I wonder if those two things are related?

It seems that serviceability is not a high priority for many auto manufacturers these days, and not just Ford. For years on many GM cars, replacing a heater core required removing the inner fender, which first meant removing everything that was attached to it and then removing the RF wheel. In some instances it also involved removing the passenger front seat and the glovebox. Now a heater core typically goes a great many years before needing replacing so perhaps that is excusable. But on my ATS, when a headlamp bulb blows and needs replacement a similar wheel/fender liner removal is necessary. I mean, come on. Couldn't they just engineer a little hatch or cover of some sort and let you avoid that?

First a little background:

In 1986 Mrs. j’s aunt wanted to give her oldest great nephew her 1974 Old Omega 2 door sedan, burgundy with the black vinyl top even had A/C that would chill your bones. I didn’t want Son #1 to have a car when he was in high school but the car had just under 24K miles and was in very good condition. I knew that car never saw 3000 RPM so I couldn’t let that car out of the family so he got it (I think @oldfarmer50 would have drooled over that car). Man, that car with it’s GM 350 V8 could really move that small Omega. Another reason why I didn’t want him to have it but I caved in the name a guy who appreciated a nice car. OK, so that’s the background.

When we moved to SC in ‘92 my son had his ‘91 Grand Prix that he bought when he got out of the State Penn (Penn State) in ‘91 but he wanted me to take it to SC because he wanted to give it a real overhaul some day so off to SC it went with me. Fast forward to about ‘94 when the heater core sprung a leak. That was a PITA job even back then. I wanted to sell it but he wanted me to fix it so that his plan would still be alive. OK, being the nice father that I am I bought a heater core and dreaded the hours of work to put it in. That job traditionally required the removal of a lot of the under dash stuff like wiring harnesses, heater and A/C linkages and who knows what else. So, I start with taking out the glove box. When I did that I could see the plastic air duct that housed the heater core but to get the duct work out meant dismantling all of what I just mentioned. Then I got an idea. I help up the heater core against the plastic duct and it fit within the duct. So, I cut out a rectangular hole in the plastic and low and behold I could see old heater core. Only took the removal of a few mounting screws and the new one just about fell into place. Replaced the plastic duct after fabricating some pieces of sheet metal to hold it in place with pop rivets, applied some metal duck work tape (the aluminum sticky stuff), sprayed it with rattle can black and you had to look twice to see the duct had been modified. I had to save myself at least 5 hours of work and the best part was that I didn’t have to disturb anything under the dash. Therefore, I didn’t have to hold my breath when I would have had to see if a lot of the accessories would still work,

I’ve told you guys before, I’m ahead of the curve when it comes to stuff like this.

Oh yeah, in case anyone is wondering what happened to that valuable Omega, when we moved back to the Burgh in early ‘97, my son abandoned his dream of redoing that car so I sold it to the guy that packed the 2 U-Hauls when we left. If I had done that core replacement the traditional way I’d only have one son today. :@

jmonroe

You seem adept at hacking and jerry rigging stuff back together on the cheap. You’d make a good farmer.

Wasn’t the Omega a twin of the Nova? Those are worth some money now.

Funny you should mention the Nova. When we moved to SC I drove that car a good bit just to make sure it didn’t go bad from lack of use. I can’t tell you how many times some would say when I pulled into a shopping plaza, “nice looking Nova. Do you want to sell it”? I always said it was an Omega. Most said, “that’s even better. I’m still interested”. Rarely did anyone say, “oh, I wanted a Nova”. Two guys even gave me their name and number and wanted me to call them when I wanted to get rid of it. That was in the Spring of ‘92. So, when I knew we were moving back to the Burgh and Son #1 no longer wanted the car, I called them. One had disappeared. The woman who he lived with that answered the phone said she kicked him out of her place and she was pretty sure he was running from the law now. That was the first guy I called so I called the other guy. Was almost hoping to hear a similar story but he was no longer interested. I can’t remember exactly, but I’m pretty sure that car didn’t even have 65K miles on it when I sold it to the guy that packed the U-Hauls. You would have probably liked that car even then when the Southern sun was starting to fade the paint.

jmonroe

So the first guy just wanted a quick get away car?

I never thought of that but you’re probably right.

jmonroe

bwia

tjc78 said:

stickguy said:

that was quick. I am surprised they would want to avoid the bidding war. that would be my favorite part as a seller!

Congrats. sounds perfect. What town?

We have been looking for months, but only recently got serious. We knew exactly what we wanted. This stretched the budget a bit, but since it's so new we figured it was worth it. It's looking like a 2.75% rate so the extra money we are spending isn't much at all monthly.

Here are some pictures.

@tjc78, it looks like you are living your best life. Congrats young man! And best of all a very nice home and surroundings. The lawn reminds me of the Boston Red Sox, Fenway Park quality grass. I think they call it rich people grass.

Michaell

@tjc78 - congrats on the new house. Sounds an awful lot like our experience. We also bought a house that was only a year or two old, and the owners had to move out of state, which forced a quick sale.

Plenty of room for all, it seems.

snakeweasel

jmonroe1 said:

@tjc78, congrats on the mansion. Sounds like you’ll be happy there.

Just want you to know, don’t bother trying to recruit any of us to pack the U-Haul. You had no time for us about getting us over to the beach house before the season ended. So we’ve all decided to get together on our own the weekend that you’re moving.

Good luck and don’t strain your back.

jmonroe

Oh great, the email you sent out specifically told us not to mention the party to him and you go and tell him.

graphicguy

tjc78 said:

graphicguy said:

@tjc78 ....so very happy for you. Love the new house! Congrats!

Thank you!

And yes post away about that audio gear!

I'm also going to need projector recommendations from you and @roadburner

So, was coming back from the Civic transport yesterday and saw a Garage Sale happening close to my cul de sac. Usually, I don't stop at Garage Sales. I don't want/need someone else's clothes or Tupperware.

This one was a little different as it was being held outside an older Victorian house. My neighborhood was a large farm at one point. And, the family that owned the farm sold off parcels for my development. This house belonged to the Patriarch of that family.

More out of curiosity than anything else, I stopped to look.

Lots of large, sometimes antique, furniture. Some old, old tools. I was hoping for antique glassware, but all I found was (still collectible) milk glass. A very old Ford tractor was for sale, too. Apparently the children were tired of storing all of this stuff and was selling what was left of an auction they had a few weeks ago. Lots of stuff I liked, but I'm trying to purge, not acquire.

The chrome tube amp is from a well respected Chinese Audio company. Apparently it slipped through the cracks. This thing can't be much more than a year old. So, someone in the family bought it relatively recently. Point to point hand wiring, which is very unusual for any audio gear these days, which is made mostly from PCBs and machine wiring. Looks to be all hand made. Tubes were still in the factory wrap and in purpose built boxes. Not hugely expensive, but these are still selling on line. $400-$500.

Bought it for $27. It was in what looked to be the same box in shipped in (with the FRAGILE stickers all over it) and was wrapped in the same cloth bag it appeared to be packed with The chassis alone is worth $500 in the U.S. and weighs 20 lbs. The tubes are worth another $500, if they work. The units sold today have cheaper tubes. These tubes are PSVANE E34, which are prized for their sound.

Got it home, checked the wiring. Nothing looked amiss. Plugged in the tubes. Voila...everything works.

This isn't high powered. Looking on line, it's a 12 watt amp. Won't drive inefficient speakers but sounds glorious driving my highly efficient Klipsch Heritage.

@tjc78 projector price range? You want HD or UHD capability?

ab348

graphicguy said:

The chrome tube amp is from a well respected Chinese Audio company. Apparently it slipped through the cracks. This thing can't be much more than a year old. So, someone in the family bought it relatively recently. Point to point hand wiring, which is very unusual for any audio gear these days, which is made mostly from PCBs and machine wiring. Looks to be all hand made. Tubes were still in the factory wrap and in purpose built boxes. Not hugely expensive, but these are still selling on line. $400-$500.

Bought it for $27. It was in what looked to be the same box in shipped in (with the FRAGILE stickers all over it) and was wrapped in the same cloth bag it appeared to be packed with

FRAGILE? It sounds Italian to me, not Chinese.

sda

tjc78 said:

stickguy said:

that was quick. I am surprised they would want to avoid the bidding war. that would be my favorite part as a seller!

Congrats. sounds perfect. What town?

Wenonah, Yes we were too, but they needed out ASAP (relocating) and have three small kids. I don't think they wanted to go through the process with tons of showings and all the back and forth. Having an inside track with two Realtors who feed off each other really helped.

We have been looking for months, but only recently got serious. We knew exactly what we wanted. This stretched the budget a bit, but since it's so new we figured it was worth it. It's looking like a 2.75% rate so the extra money we are spending isn't much at all monthly.

Here are some pictures.

tjc78 said:

stickguy said:

that was quick. I am surprised they would want to avoid the bidding war. that would be my favorite part as a seller!

Congrats. sounds perfect. What town?

Wenonah, Yes we were too, but they needed out ASAP (relocating) and have three small kids. I don't think they wanted to go through the process with tons of showings and all the back and forth. Having an inside track with two Realtors who feed off each other really helped.

We have been looking for months, but only recently got serious. We knew exactly what we wanted. This stretched the budget a bit, but since it's so new we figured it was worth it. It's looking like a 2.75% rate so the extra money we are spending isn't much at all monthly.

Here are some pictures.

Very, very nice. Congratulations on your new house and job!

tjc78

ab348 said:

graphicguy said:

The chrome tube amp is from a well respected Chinese Audio company. Apparently it slipped through the cracks. This thing can't be much more than a year old. So, someone in the family bought it relatively recently. Point to point hand wiring, which is very unusual for any audio gear these days, which is made mostly from PCBs and machine wiring. Looks to be all hand made. Tubes were still in the factory wrap and in purpose built boxes. Not hugely expensive, but these are still selling on line. $400-$500.

Bought it for $27. It was in what looked to be the same box in shipped in (with the FRAGILE stickers all over it) and was wrapped in the same cloth bag it appeared to be packed with

FRAGILE? It sounds Italian to me, not Chinese.

You'll shoot your eye out kid!

ab348

oldfarmer50 said:

Wasn’t the Omega a twin of the Nova? Those are worth some money now.

Yeah, the GM X-body compacts of the '70s initially had names whose first letters spelled out "NOVA" - Nova, Omega, Ventura, Apollo. Never could tell if that was intentional or not. The Omega was a pretty nice car, better-trimmed inside and out than most Novas, and could by had with the Olds Rocket 350, which was perceived as a better engine than the SBC. I don't know if the Ventura and Apollo came with Pontiac or Buick V-8s as an option or not.

dad23

Wow, looks great @tjc78, lots going on to be thankful for

jmonroe1

tjc78 said:

jmonroe1 said:

@tjc78, congrats on the mansion. Sounds like you’ll be happy there.

Just want you to know, don’t bother trying to recruit any of us to pack the U-Haul. You had no time for us about getting us over to the beach house before the season ended. So we’ve all decided to get together on our own the weekend that you’re moving.

Good luck and don’t strain your back.

jmonroe

Ha Ha you don't forget a thing! On my list to do is get a quote for a moving company!

Thanks!

Hey, I have a suggestion that you might want to look into:

When I knew I was going to be moving back to the Burgh from SC, I started getting some quotes from a couple moving companies. As you can imagine the cost was quite high but I wasn’t going to carry all the furniture and pack it into U-Hauls. When talking to both of my sons one morning I just a mentioned what it was going to cost. They both wanted to know if I was crazy and they both said they were coming down to carry the heavy stuff and pack it into U-Hauls. I told them I didn’t want them carrying that stuff either. But if they could come down and help with the packing that would save me a good bit of money. They argued with me but their mother convinced them to do it my way.

Then I got an idea. I called a large U-Haul place that had one of those storage places too. I asked the guy if he had any guys that he could recommend that could pack U-Hauls for me and he said, “sure, I have a couple guys that do that for people moving all the time”. He gave me their number so I called one of them and he was happy to get some extra money. He said for a house the size I mentioned (almost 3500 sq.ft.) he needed 3 guys, him doing the packing of the furniture and 2 guys to carry it to the trucks (I was going to rent two 26 foot jobs). He said it would take him a day and a half to do the work. His price was $42 an hour for all three guys. I just about fell over when I heard that price because I was being quoted $65 for each guy from the pros and they were going to use 3 guys too for 2 days. OK, that was fine as long as I could find guys to unload it when I got back to the Burgh. Even if I had to pay a good bit more per hour on the Burgh end, I was still going to save a ton by not having professional movers doing it all. More good news, I called one of those manpower places and hired 3 guys to unload the truck on the Burgh end and only had to pay the manpower place $12 per guy per hour. Now this was in August of 1997 but the cost today still has to be a lot less than using professionals for everything. I was very satisfied with the work. There was only one small scratch on the bottom side of the fridge and that would be hidden when it went into the kitchen of the house we eventually bought.

Just something to think about.

jmonroe

tjc78

Again everyone your comments are fantastic I appreciate it. This has been a long time coming for us.

I looked it up, they only paid $15,000 less than we did two years ago for this house. In this wild market, I think we did OK.

@graphicguy
Nice find!

About the projector, can I get a decent one for $1200-$1500? It's a very dark space and I don't need UHD. I've never shopped for one. I'm thinking a 100" screen would do the trick.

omarman

Beautiful home. That walk in pantry deserves it's own reveal party. Congrats!

abacomike

tjc78 said:

Thanks everyone! It's such a wild year! I have to say it's a good time to make moves like this. You'll pay more for your new place, but you'll also get a lot more for your current home and with money so cheap you can cash out a bit to invest.

We are moving so fast on everything my head is spinning!

The pics are great. Beautiful home!