My brother-in-Gearheaddom Phil speaks for a cause that’s always been near and dear to my heart.
It’s Time To Start Restoring Older Vehicles And Appliances
Lurch came out and said that FJB is going to be mandating changes to cars and both light and heavy trucks because Climate Bullshit.
This is on top of them already going after gas stoves and now air conditioners.
Every time the government sticks it’s collective nose into consumer goods everything turns to absolute shit.
Anybody else out there remember what a real toilet looked like before CONgress decided they used too much water?
And remember when the dirty cocksuckers banned conventional lightbulbs last year?
Basically if something has a proven track record and works, we can’t have that anymore.
Screw these assholes I say.
If you can find a decent rig from fifty odd years ago, spending half that much restoring it will get you a rig that will last for years and you will be money ahead.
Even if you have to get it from another state and have it trucked in you will be money ahead.
There won’t be a kill switch in it either.
Same goes with refrigerators and laundry machines.
There are guys out there who specialize in restoring old refrigerators and there are still plenty of outfits around that can repair old laundry equipment.
Screw these new computer controlled/ energy and water efficient pieces of shit.
They don’t work worth a damn to begin with and they have a life span measured in months, not years anyway.
Now, speaking of cars specifically, it’s true that the newer ones—though most of them cost two-three times as much as my dad paid for the house I grew up in (19k back in 1962, and it was a nice house too, in a good neighborhood)—they DO have an expected life span of around 200-300k miles before they go kerblooey. Then again, though, you didn’t need a PhD in computer science, two large rollaways full of expensive specialty tools, and a 150k diagnostic machine to work on one of the vintage beater Fords I’ve spent my entire “adult” (HA!) life running, either.
That said, owning the right kind of car can pay off in some unanticipated ways.
Two teens who carjacked a man at a gas station in Germantown, Maryland were unable to drive away because they didn’t know how to operate the car’s manual transmission, police say.
A 16-year-old from Rockville and a 17-year-old from Washington, D.C. were arrested after the carjacking on Saturday at the Sunoco gas station on Frederick Road, Montgomery County police said.
A man had just finished pumping gas and was getting into his car when he saw the two teens running toward him, police said. The teens then forced his door open, grabbed him and demanded his keys, which he handed over to them.
When the teens got into the car, they didn’t know how to operate the car’s manual transmission, police said, so they got out of the car and ran off.
Soon after, officers saw them nearby and took them into custody after a brief chase on foot, police said.
The accompanying video is sidesplitting.
No need to be thinking that this is the only such incident, either.
“Can You Even Drive A Stick, Ni*ga?!” https://t.co/uSQtelqGKy via @9GAG
— Mike Hendrix (@TommyGunMike57)
“Can you even drive a fuckin’ stick, nigga? On my MAMA, I wantin’ to shoot that nigga so bad!” Too, too funny. Clicking on the Tweet will take you over to my own barely-used Twatter account, then you’ll have to dismiss the “Sensitive content” warning to view it. Which, believe me, is worth the hassle.
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One of the biggest reasons that newer cars have a longer lifespan is electronic fuel injection. In an older carbed engine, you pump the gas before starting, which “washes” the oil film from the cylinders with gasoline before it fires up, oil pressure starts again, and the cylinders get coated again. Bore wear and ring seal is greatly enhanced due to EFI, and that’s the biggest reason that engines go 200-300K without needing rebuilds now. The good news is that EFI retrofits for pretty much any engine are out there and cost-effective nowadays. Yes, there are some improvements in metallurgy and machining tolerances over engines built in the 60s and 70s, but mainly it’s EFI as well as better ignitions for spark control.
My newest vehicle (of several – probably too many) is a 2005, and I’ve just put a couple grand into refreshing some of the components on it. I have zero interest in newer vehicles. It’ll get new paint this summer.