How'd it go today?

[CurSedVoyce]

No salt in CA. My old New England cars were another matter entirely. I had a 76 Datsun PU that rain would come in from the wheel wells and mist you while driving
Coastal cars can have a little.

 

[flushcut]

An 01' here in Wisco would have been pretty much dissolved by now.

 

[lxskllr]

The mechanicals and the body in my dodge are having a race to see which can die first. That's more a dodge issue though. I'd estimate MD is middling for rust damage compared to the rest of the country.

 

[Tree09]

Illinois is very bad for it too. All my vehicles have died by rusting issues. One of the reasons i was so happy to have an aluminum body one, it won't last forever by any means but it will last longer than the steel ones do if you use them in the dirt and rocks.

 

[CurSedVoyce]

Welds break prior to rust here. Like all my pick up beds. All the front welds break first behind the cab, then the corners. But hey, my newest truck with a bed is a 91. And I have a custom bed set aside for that. Two others are flat beds.

 

[Nutball]

I wonder what caused the fire? Guess we'll never know. Are you keeping a fire extinguisher in there now? I'm thinking a big CO2 one would be good.

 

[CurSedVoyce]

Electrical we are pretty certain, but we will never know what. Could have been a mouse or rat chewing a wire for all we know. Harness and fuse box are right where it looks like it started. Right under the master cylinder. So that would explain the brakes going soft. Melted the plastic reservoir. Oil from reservoir igniting would explain why it caught so fast. Fuel lines and tank after that. There was no time for a fire extinguisher to be deployed and effective.

 

[SkwerI]

New truck looks nice. You won't miss the moon roof, they are a huge waste. You will appreciate the extra 2-3" headroom instead. I never use mine because the sun blinds me while driving.

 

[pantheraba]

I agree. Probably in the 80s I had a Dodge champ that had a hatch in the roof a sunroof I think guess they called it. I hated it. Even though it was tinted, sun would come through there and heat it up too much... sometimes it was just too bright. Looks great in the brochure but it's a pain in the ass.

 

[CurSedVoyce]

The moon roof had a closable shade. It was cool for the kids. (Safety Nazis need not comment)
The kids loved cruising Christmas Tree Lane out the moon/sun roof. Bumper to bumper, stop and go that people on foot would pass you. They hide the reindeer and such. Fun times them sitting on the roof, legs dangling through that thing. I'll deal. The heated seats will be my biggie come winter.

 

[Burnham]

I do not wish to piss on your parade, my esteemed friend Stephen...but to cut right to the chase, because I know you won't take this as idle aggressive noise.

Was it wise to buy a near identical vehicle that burned itself to the ground, might have taken your dear K, and did take some personal e gear into the smoke and heat...???

Just asking, because I don't have any idea of what's the what in this instance. But I do know, if I was in your position, I'd have serious reservations about replacing like with like.

 

[CurSedVoyce]

Its not a defect of the vehicle. More a circumstance of events. My parents have a Tahoe same year with nary an issue. As do many folks here. Very reliable vehicles and easy to work on.

 

[BeerGeek]

So, before leaving for the yard on Friday morning, I look over at the wall next to the garage and said, "Hey, is that what I think it is?". Sure enough (and then chuckling about the recent Steve Mack "camera" pic in the Philosophy Forum Meme Dump), I had to deal with spraying this early in the morning:



When it was light out, counted about 20 dead wasps on the slab and crowded around the hole. Hard working buggers built it in about 2 days. If only I could get brush monkeys who work like that....

Then finished up a few minutes ago spraying 2 different yellow jacket nests in the wood pile where some really old stuff that should have been disposed of years ago lay. Had to unearth a couple of logs to find where they were hiding the nests, as they were both 2-3 logs deep in the shit pile. Finished off a second can on those 2 (as I had tried soaking the logs from above multiple times, to no avail).

 

[Burnham]

That's a pretty nasty large nest. Lotta stings in there .

 

[SkwerI]

Brake cleaner from the auto parts store works better and is cheaper than wasp spray.

 

[pantheraba]

I have used brake cleaner often...especially for carpenter bees...a quick shot up into the hole they make does the job.

 

[stikine]

Good thing to know.

 

[cory]

Why spray if you aren't working on that tree?

 

[Marc-Antoine]

Good wasps are dead wasps.

 

[BeerGeek]

Well Cory, let's list the reasons:

1. Wife and daughter are both deathly afraid of bugs in general, and those stingers were about 8 ft from the garage door they come in/out of and unload shopping from.
2. My son has been stung by yellow jackets and a hornet lately, so he's been somewhat wimped out about them.
3. Other people park down in that part of the driveway, and would most likely freak them out with wasps buzzing right by there heads (as they did to me a few times, being I'm the only rational one who doesn't usually have an issue with them).

 

[Marc-Antoine]

Great accomplishment, I changed the oil of my van. Finally.
The first time I do it on this one since I bought it. That's nearly 50.000 miles !
I even changed the oil filter. I'm a great maintenance guy. LOL.

 

[Bodean]

Dang Stephen, Glad she's ok. yikes... one less motor to change,

 

[Nutball]

Isn't there a new synthetic oil out now guaranteeing 500,000 miles? I know there were some 10-20k oils for once per year changes.

 

[CurSedVoyce]

Dang Stephen, Glad she's ok. yikes... one less motor to change,

Indeed. The motor was coming due on her truck. So a blessing in disguise. She had another deer hit too prior to it burning.

 

[lxskllr]

I'm *really* skeptical of 500k mile oil. How do you measure that anyway? Even a perfectly running motor consumes oil. That first oil fill will be long gone by the time 500k gets there. If it gets there... That's pretty exceptional life for a vehicle.