Project Cars--You Get to Vote on "Hold 'em or Fold 'em"

explorerx4 · April 25

I had a driectiona; tire mounted backwards once on e my '04 Focus.
Had even just cleaned the 'out' side and noticed when I saw it was the dirty side after a flat repair..

fintail · April 25

I suspect at some poorly managed high volume tire shops, that's a common occurrence. Employees probably have a numbers quota rather than quality.

Both of my prior AMGs had directional style tires, I remember checking the direction (they were fine). I remember the C43 had Yokohamas that would tramline like nothing I've ever driven, only on a particular road near me that had long shallow ruts.

xwesx · April 25

kyfdx said:
I had new tires put on the Fit at the Firestone store in November. Quick walk around, and sure enough, one tire was on backwards.

Just one?! Oh man, that's bad. Hahah. At least with the Durango, they could just swap wheels to the opposing side.

xwesx · April 25

Time to go install the new fuel pump assembly for the 2008 Forester. Hopefully no more than about 30 minutes to get that returned to right. I will take along the summer tires for the car, too, just to get that out of the way at the same time. Unfortunately, my lower back is killing me right now, so that's not going to help.

kyfdx · April 25

xwesx said:

kyfdx said:
I had new tires put on the Fit at the Firestone store in November. Quick walk around, and sure enough, one tire was on backwards.
Just one?! Oh man, that's bad. Hahah. At least with the Durango, they could just swap wheels to the opposing side.

Yeah, they had to pull it off, and re-mount. Just missed one. I don't think they got the other three right by accident. He knew they were directional.

xwesx · April 26

Fuel pump project went well. I had the car back to running within about 30 minutes. Sadly, when I started to swap the tires over, I got all of three lug nuts loosened with my impact wrench before the battery died, and then the second battery I had with me was also dead. Figures!

I ended up doing that project by hand, but in the end it is now all done and the car is fully operational. Final cost was $420 for the fuel pump assembly (with shipping charges), about 3.5 hours of time (most of which was diagnostics).

sda · April 26

Is the 2008 Forester your daily driver?

xwesx · April 26

sda said:
Is the 2008 Forester your daily driver?

No, I haven't used it for that purpose in about three years, since I brought the Q7 home. I let a friend borrow it for two years, then took it back from him last summer while hoping to sell the Q7. That didn't happen, so I let another friend keep/borrow it over this last winter (mostly just to free up space in the driveway).

My son turns sixteen in a couple months, so my plan now is to turn it into the teen car when he actually gets his license. We'll see.

fintail · April 26

Out again today, as the weather was fair and my friend with the 300CD I think gets a little restless and wants company. We aren't under any real kind of lockdown, time to get some air. The old dear had no troubles as usual, and got plenty of looks and a random passerby to ask a few questions. I did notice the brake pedal seems to be squeaking maybe a little louder - it has had an odd squeak since I've had the car. Otherwise, no news. The car seems to look best in muted sunlight:

And behind my friend's 300CD again, which is also a project he tinkers with constantly. Notice the brightness of the lights - he rebuilt them and lined them with foil or something. Might do that with my car. CHMSL is not stock on this car, but is off a 1986 MB - a common period piece that was on the car when he got it (also when he was 18, IIRC, this is his equivalent to the fintail):

tjc78 · April 27

So awesome you have had the car for as long as you have. I bought my 89 LTC when I was 22. I really wish I never sold it, would be so cool to still have it.

fintail · April 27

I am glad I held on to it. Maybe not an investment, but a sentimental item and and something that can relax me when I drive.

Although at the same time, I usually think if anything happened to the car, I probably wouldn't get another old car. If I did, not sure if it would be a car of this era. It would be hard to be constantly comparing one car to another.

andres3 · April 27

I remember years ago there were some very nice forged Volk wheels for sale on Tire Rack because they were down to 2 left.. They had another 2 left in a dark grey, vs. the original 2 in bright silver. Hence, the massive fire sale; over 60% off if I'm remembering correctly.

It was suggested by an aftermarket car shop owner that you could place 2 on the left, 2 on the right, and no one would ever be able to tell you didn't match by looking at the car from just one angle at a time.

Suggestion, what do you all think of it? Would you do it if you liked the wheels??

stickguy · April 27

if they were reasonably close (like bright vs. medium silver) sure. I have seen that with mismatched hubcaps and if you aren't looking for it would never notice.

tjc78 · April 27

andres3 said:
I remember years ago there were some very nice forged Volk wheels for sale on Tire Rack because they were down to 2 left.. They had another 2 left in a dark grey, vs. the original 2 in bright silver. Hence, the massive fire sale; over 60% off if I'm remembering correctly.

It was suggested by an aftermarket car shop owner that you could place 2 on the left, 2 on the right, and no one would ever be able to tell you didn't match by looking at the car from just one angle at a time.

Suggestion, what do you all think of it? Would you do it if you liked the wheels??

Nope... couldn’t do it.

texases · April 27

I had 2 spinner hubcaps on one side of my Mustang, two plain ones on the other. Nobody ever asked about it.

xwesx · April 27

andres3 said:
I remember years ago there were some very nice forged Volk wheels for sale on Tire Rack because they were down to 2 left.. They had another 2 left in a dark grey, vs. the original 2 in bright silver. Hence, the massive fire sale; over 60% off if I'm remembering correctly.

It was suggested by an aftermarket car shop owner that you could place 2 on the left, 2 on the right, and no one would ever be able to tell you didn't match by looking at the car from just one angle at a time.

Suggestion, what do you all think of it? Would you do it if you liked the wheels??

I'm a helluva cheap bugger, so I would probably do it if, 1., I needed a set of wheels anyway, and, 2., they were significantly cheaper than any other option that I was willing to put on my car.

And, yes, I would do it even if I didn't really care for these mismatched wheels. Just because function beats form (for the right price!).

stickguy · April 27

depends on the car too. If I bought some cheap spare car, and it just needed wheels I would be happy to do it on the cheap. I never change wheels though on newer cars. Just go with what it came with.

sda · April 28

Heck, if they were the same style but different color, there are products that you can spray on, some type of colored flexible film, to change the color and look.

fintail · April 28

Some people even use vinyl wrap on wheels. Not sure about durability, but so cheap that it might be moot.

ab348 · April 28

The tuner set have used Plastic-Dip, though I wonder how that affects the wheel balance.

qbrozen · April 28

I've done plastidip. No ill effects. You'd have to REALLY botch it up to mess with wheel balance.

Michaell · April 28

qbrozen said:
I've done plastidip. No ill effects. You'd have to REALLY botch it up to mess with wheel balance.

That was on the Fit, was it not?

qbrozen · April 28

Michaell said:

qbrozen said:
I've done plastidip. No ill effects. You'd have to REALLY botch it up to mess with wheel balance.
That was on the Fit, was it not?

I did do the Fit wheel covers. I’ve also used it on other auto parts. I have also resprayed silver volvo wheels with proper silver wheel paint. Those came out pretty good.

qbrozen · May 1

what do you think, @fintail ?
Does it have any life left?

https://bringatrailer.com/listing/2001-mercedes-benz-e55-amg-27/

tjc78 · May 1

Oh it does... just depends on the size of your wallet!!

fintail · May 1

Ah the flipper with the mcmansion background, I think I remember him. It looks well kept, I've seen them with 100K more miles on the clock - if it passed a good PPI, I wouldn't worry about more than the (high) running costs. It's a guzzler, devours brakes and tires, has some quirks (these can rust hard - seller claims no rust, I hope it really is a recent transplant), but these are generally solid if one keeps up with them. I had one of these cars for several years, the engine is a wonderful somewhat old school V8, IMO underrated in official output.

qbrozen said:

Does it have any life left?

https://bringatrailer.com/listing/2001-mercedes-benz-e55-amg-27/

stickguy · May 1

yes, it has low miles. but from the rust belt, and has rust. and basically, why would anyone really want this? What the heck are you going to do with it?

https://bringatrailer.com/listing/1972-chevrolet-vega-2/

qbrozen · May 1

stickguy said:
yes, it has low miles. but from the rust belt, and has rust. and basically, why would anyone really want this? What the heck are you going to do with it?

https://bringatrailer.com/listing/1972-chevrolet-vega-2/

I like it. Nice color combo. Wouldn't want it with that drivetrain. Good candidate for this treatment:

stickguy · May 1

that is a little excessive, but back in my youth, a Vega with mild tubs and a 350 V8 dropped in (a common swap) would have been great.

the other thing I saw that really called to me was a Checvy LUV with a 350.

andres3 · May 1

https://www.carvana.com/vehicle/1314660

Shouldn't this under-powered sedan have suffered 50% depreciation from the sticker by now? It's a good bit over that at the $60K asking price.

Is 520 HP enough for a big luxury liner like this?

fintail · May 1

Green on white, nice color combo for that Vega. Too bad things like that don't exist now. Color schemes reflect their times, today most are dreary,

Nothing depreciates like an A8 or variant. Carvana isn't exactly bargain city, either.

sda · May 1

qbrozen said:

stickguy said:
yes, it has low miles. but from the rust belt, and has rust. and basically, why would anyone really want this? What the heck are you going to do with it?

https://bringatrailer.com/listing/1972-chevrolet-vega-2/
I like it. Nice color combo. Wouldn't want it with that drivetrain. Good candidate for this treatment:

I liked the more subtle conversion with the Buick/Olds 215 V8. It made for a nice driver without overwhelming the car. I prefer a more stock, conservative appearance.

stickguy · May 1

the 215, or the Buick 231 V6, the car could handle OK. if you were going to go up into a HiPo 350, you needed to put a rear subframe, and maybe tubs, into it.

kyfdx · May 1

sda said:

qbrozen said:

stickguy said:
yes, it has low miles. but from the rust belt, and has rust. and basically, why would anyone really want this? What the heck are you going to do with it?

https://bringatrailer.com/listing/1972-chevrolet-vega-2/
I like it. Nice color combo. Wouldn't want it with that drivetrain. Good candidate for this treatment:

I liked the more subtle conversion with the Buick/Olds 215 V8. It made for a nice driver without overwhelming the car. I prefer a more stock, conservative appearance.

That is a straight up drag strip car.

steine13 · May 1

The rear tires are kind of a clue...
...and maybe the hood scoop

Missed that at first against the green background.

fintail · May 2

Sad one from a fintail group, looks like this one was folded:

"Another waste. A year or two ago, somebody thought this ambulance was worth $6,500. Two months ago, it ended up at Pick-N-Pull in Calgary. I tried to get someone out there to get the 15" wheels I need for my Universal since they are only $8.99 each, but the vehicle has already been crushed."

https://www.picknpull.com/vehicle_details.aspx?VIN=RNDpoGIGJeZy1W6D95xWUreBi&fbclid=IwAR3n3e68POYvmOMEtPDVYGfoOs3YgNPKSUNdJBpjSVFitjGGX3vifNPvgYI

(not a "220", but a W110 230)

qbrozen · May 7

@fintail , looking for your opinion/expertise on this ML550.

stickguy · May 7

Even cheaper for more road hugging weight!

https://theautobroker.auction/vdp/16070455/BuyHerePayHere-2012-MercedesBenz-GLClass-4MATIC-4dr-GL-450-for-sale-in-Brooklyn-NY-11204

Or get an even cheaper luxury barge, probably lot cheaper to maintain. Old school luxury SUV. Part time 4WD with a selector lever!

https://theautobroker.auction/vdp/13672111/Used-2006-Lexus-GX-470-4dr-SUV-4WD-for-sale-in-Brooklyn-NY-11204

kyfdx · May 7

I like that Lexus 4Runner for $7K

stickguy · May 7

Hard to go wrong for the price. Interesting spare/winter wheels. Comfy dump runner!

kyfdx · May 7

stickguy said:
Hard to go wrong for the price. Interesting spare/winter wheels. Comfy dump runner!

My son has been looking at used 4Runners. He says that the comparable GX is almost always substantially cheaper.

stickguy · May 7

Well tell him to come to jersey and pick it up.

kyfdx · May 7

stickguy said:
Well tell him to come to jersey and pick it up.

With my $7K?

stickguy · May 7

That sounds like a you problem, not a me problem.

qbrozen · May 7

stickguy said:
Even cheaper for more road hugging weight!

https://theautobroker.auction/vdp/16070455/BuyHerePayHere-2012-MercedesBenz-GLClass-4MATIC-4dr-GL-450-for-sale-in-Brooklyn-NY-11204

Or get an even cheaper luxury barge, probably lot cheaper to maintain. Old school luxury SUV. Part time 4WD with a selector lever!

https://theautobroker.auction/vdp/13672111/Used-2006-Lexus-GX-470-4dr-SUV-4WD-for-sale-in-Brooklyn-NY-11204

that lexus is the Land Cruiser equivalent, right? Always thought they were far far uglier than the 'yota, though. I'm not interested in either of those. Land Cruiser maybe, but I don't know why. I'd much prefer a classic version.

texases · May 7

No, the LX is the Land Cruiser equivalent. The GX is more similar to the 4Runner, but is actually based on the "Land Cruiser Prado".

fintail · May 7

Get a PPI and budget for maintenance, but I am not aware of any severe issues with those. Of course, they are not something on my radar. I know someone with a 13 model who has miled it up a bit and has had few issues - but it is a diesel. The V8 model is the rarest, most are the V6.

qbrozen said:
@fintail , looking for your opinion/expertise on this ML550.

fintail · May 9

Recently posted on a facebook group, this car was just unearthed after slumbering since 1992. 1963, and it even appears to be my color:

Notice this car has the accessory protection trim - something I don't really care for, I am not unhappy that my car lacks it.

tjc78 · May 10

Those moldings really look bad. Yours looks so much better without them.

fintail · May 10

I think they were a dealer installed thing. I'd rather deal with a ding here and there.

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