3 posts tagged “truck”
Plan B was to go to the local auto-junk "field" where you pay a guy $1 for insurance, take your tools and head out among hundreds of wrecked cars to see if you can find what you need. I held off going because I knew Nathan wanted to have the chance to look around. This guy wanted $45 for his and I had to remove it. No big deal, but at least it comes with the fan. I took off work early and went up there today, but when we got there, they had a big sign that kids aren't allowed out back for insurance purposes. What a bummer! We've been to the other local car/junkyard and Nathan went in. Oh, well - I told him to wait there and all of the mechanic-junk-dealer guys were happy to have him just sit there and be quiet. He did. Meanwhile, I went to "the second row on the right" and looked at some of the most wrecked up cars I'd ever seen. What a mess. I saw more than one engine squished all the way into the front seat. That must have been something to talk (or not talk) about for some time. I went around twice and I didn't see a truck that even RESEMBLED mine, even if I used my imagination. While I was out there wandering in the mud I decided to call the local Dodge dealer/parts counter and ask. They looked it up. "Oh, the motor is $179 and if you need the fan, that's another $87 so you can get them both for just over $260". You could hear me gasp. "Okay, thanks" I said and hung up. $260! You're kidding me, right? That's just robbery. If the internet was only $51... yeah, I know - they are an official dealer. We left and the guys working there didn't sound surprised, as if they knew they didn't have the exact right truck. Nathan had been talking about this place every since I told him that we had to go there. I told him I was sorry they wouldn't let him in and realized it was a bummer, then he said was we were leaving "I wonder if we can go out front and look at that old truck on the ramps?" They have this old, 1950's truck up on ramps - probably just for show. I thought about it for a minute and said "C'mon - the worst they can do is come out and tell us to leave." So we did, we looked at two old trucks and and old car and no one even said a word. (Jamie's right on with her theory that it's a heck of a lot easier to say "Sorry, I didn't know I couldn't do that" than to ask permission first.)
Oh, well. On a whim as we rode back to the house, I stopped at the local Advance Auto to see if they had it and to my utter surprise they had it and for only about $29. I asked about the fan blade and she said "Oh, the wheel. The wheel is $14.99". Now you're really kidding me. So for about $45, I'm getting the motor and fan blade for less than I'd get it online OR at the local junk yard where it's used AND I have to take it off myself. I was just amazed. What a great learning experience for both of us. Advance Auto really came through on that one. We came home and Nathan worked on the right rear wheel while I went to work putting the fan back in place along with the assorted covers and the recirculate valve thing. Done. We tried it out and it works. There is something now wrong with the switch, but I'll work on that next. For now, it's just good that I can have a blower working again. We'll finish checking the left brakes tomorrow and then hopefully we'll go back for a re-inspection on Friday.
Quick View of new fan going into place :
Nathan and Jamie cooked breakfast. Jamie made Biscuits and Sausage Gravy and Nathan made French Toast. He showed me his newly learned egg cracking technique and I even tried it.
Here's the old one:
I'm going to give it a few days and then I'll use nylon ties to put it back together (like a weave) and then I'll just reattach it. Worked great before and should work great now too.
After that, we worked on the raised bed to add the critter protection to the bottom:
Jamie made a FANTASTIC dinner while we were working along with dessert which was awesome. All in all, a really productive day.
Current Mood:
Not much to report for the weekend. We went to Golden Corral for breakfast on Sunday. We tried to go to Wendy's, but didn't succeed. Jamie wrote about that fiasco. Oh a high note, we saw Encino Man.
Not the movie, but the real life Encino Man caveman dude. He was sitting across from us at the restaurant eating. I could tell right off he was a caveman by his hair style. My guess was confirmed when we watched him eat. He held his fork like someone who just got out on parole - yes, a little defensive. He didn't close his mouth once while chewing and he he didn't cut things up. Like he'd pick up a huge anything and pull and gnaw at it. Very entertaining. The rest of his family ate the same way, but they didn't look as caveman like. I'm sure I'm fun to watch eat too, so I won't cast too many stones. Oddly enough, they didn't look all that rough as a whole but looked like the perfect family. Maybe they were aliens who just landed but don't have all of our customs down pat yet.
I sold my car. Now that I'm driving the truck, I can safely sell the car. I only wanted enough from it to pay for truck repairs. I don't recall ever selling a vehicle before. I've traded a few in, but never sold one outright. I also gave two to a junk dealer. That was easy. We were at breakfast at Golden Corral when my phone rang. I'm like "who the heck is that?" since everyone I know is either with me or out of town. Sure enough, it was a guy who saw the car.
Guy "What's wrong with it?"
Me "Gee, do you want the whole list?"
Guy "Major things."
Me "You'll need new tires. Right now, they are bald. The back one has a nail in it. Instead of fixing it, I opted to put in not one, but three bottles of that green slime."
Me "The car shakes when you drive over 45mph. Violently. Why? Because there are three bottles of green slime in the back tire and it makes the wheel off balance. I avoid the interstate for this reason."
Me "The air conditioner doesn't work. I charged it last year, but it didn't take. It felt good for about a month."
Me "The passenger front and back windows don't go up and down. This is a great feature when combined with the lack of air conditioning."
Me "There is a clanking in the front end. When the car vibrates in the back, it clanks in the front. The inspector didn't see it as a problem, so I ignore it. I turn the radio up."
Guy "Uh huh. Anything else?"
Me "The cassette player doesn't work."
Guy "Okay. Can I test drive it?"
Me "Surely"
Anyway, he comes by on Sunday to test drive. While he is standing there, some lady stops in the street and calls out "What's wrong with it?" - I spout out the same list, abbreviated - I leave off the cassette part.
The guy drives it around the block while Nathan and I stand in the yard.
Nathan "You know what you should call that car?"
Me "What?"
Nathan "A death trap."
Me "Thanks. Don't let him hear you say that."
The car isn't a death trap. That's just Nathan and Jamie bantering back and forth about how her car works better than mine and mine is therefore a death trap. All cars are death traps in the right circumstances.
The guy comes back and decides he wants it. Even with the problems and the eight cylinders, apparently it's still cheaper than the $80 per week he puts in his SUV. Besides, he likes to fix things and I priced it stupidly low because I'm OVER IT.
We took the money to Walmart to get two more tires for the truck. It was storming now.
Me "I'd like to get two tires."
Guy "We don't work on cars when there is a storm."
Me (8-O) "What?"
Guy "We are clearing out the bays and we'll work on cars thirty minutes after the last lightning bolt."
Me "Okay."
Nathan and I walk around the store. We need some radiator stop leak. I fund stop leak companies. I'm the reason they are able to give such great stock dividends. Fix it? Heck no - stop leak it.
Me "Nathan."
Nathan "What?"
Me "Let's go ahead and buy the tires and then we'll have that out of the way."
Nathan "Okay!"
(Nathan loves the truck. Doesn't LIKE it, that's not strong enough. LOVES it. He's been wanting me to get this back out on the road for years.)
Me "We'd like to go ahead and buy those tires."
Guy "Okay, which ones"
Me "The 75-R something or other. I looked, but I don't see them."
Guy "Oh, WE'VE got them."
He walks over and no, he doesn't "got them". I suggest we buy them and when they show up, they'll be ours.
Guy "I can't sell you what I don't have. If I sold you stuff I didn't have, then Walmart would be making money from stuff they don't have, and that's not right! We don't sell air."
Wow - I can't argue with that logic.
Guy "Call us to see if we have them."
Me "Okay, thanks"
We ended up buying a new DVD player to replace the one we had that just broke. How something that just sits there can stop working is beyond me.
