Minor Confession Thread

In reply to Daylan C :

Neutral drops are kid stuff.  Reverse burnout with a slam into drive once you get a little momentum up is the way to go.  That way the tires are already lit so traction isn't an issue... right?  Suddenly reversing the rotation of all the moving parts in the trans is an issue, but that's the bit you don't care about.

Plus it leaves awesome fishhooks on the pavement.

In reply to Duke :

Solid argument. Will take this under consideration.

Daylan C said:

I really want to neutral bomb the Mustang at least once before I tear it apart for the t45 swap. I feel like I'm going to break something I didn't plan on replacing yet or at the very least end up having to drag it back to the garage. Being able to drive a car into surgery is kind of nice.  But I've never done that before and I feel like a car that's about to get a transmission swap is a good opportunity.

When you do it, make sure you have crappy (meaning not-sticky) tires and maybe even throw some water on the pavement prior to it. That'll minimize any chances of breaking something. 

Duke said:

In reply to Daylan C :

Neutral drops are kid stuff.  Reverse burnout with a slam into drive once you get a little momentum up is the way to go.  That way the tires are already lit so traction isn't an issue... right?  Suddenly reversing the rotation of all the moving parts in the trans is an issue, but that's the bit you don't care about.

Plus it leaves awesome fishhooks on the pavement.

I'm having flashbacks to when Roadkill attempted this with their wretched Econoline pickup and busted the tailshaft clear off the C4 automatic and flung it and the pretzeled driveshaft clear of the vehicle.

The above reminds me that I've too much mechanical sympathy to have any fun.

If I had a pair of junk tires to put on the rear i'd probably do it and film it, but I think the only 2 sets of 5x4.5 wheels and tires on the property are the bullits with bfg comp 2 all seasons on the car and the Jeep XJ wheels with really tall dry rotted hankooks. I'm not sure those will fit and they are holding up the XJ right now so it'd be a mess to get them off and usuable 

I finally realize what middle age is.

I remember and kinda still want to do some of things I did 20, 30, 40 years ago, but know I'm too darned old for a lot of them.

Even with my burning hatred of plastidip, i may be buying a can to test stripes before committing to them. I can't believe it.

In reply to Dusterbd13-michael :

Stripes are a bit of a pain to pull off (pun half intended). I didn't do stripes exactly but was using it to 'paint' the lower half of the accursed Patriot black so it had a bit more personality and the 'edge' wasn't a body panel so had to mask it off like one side of a stripe. It takes some serious attention to timing and monitoring the dip to get a nice clean line out of it since you need to keep applying the plastidip while the previous layer is still a bit wet, build it up until it's as thick as you want it, and then pull the tape off while it's still slightly wet so it doesn't 'set' across the tape and tear and leave a jagged edge.

I keep finding 11mm sockets looking for a 10. I'm about to lose it over here.

Then I realized I had to start it and move the car with no belt and then left it sitting for over a month. So the battery dead. Waiting to see if the sketchy battery charger will charge it. Unfortunately i think my warranty finally ran out on this battery. I was really excited to hear it with no belt squeal or compressor clutch rattle too.

I live a very boring life and today I was reminded of how happy I am with that.

A friend’s GF showed up at his house last night.  She was almost certainly high.  He was almost certainly drinking/drunk (his house, alone, midnightish).  It turned into some sort of domestic dispute ending with her shot and him in jail.  He claims self defense but we’ll see how it shakes out.

Thank the FSM my life is boring.  Ain’t nobody got time for that kind of craziness.

In reply to KyAllroad (Jeremy) :

ZOINKS!!!

In reply to KyAllroad (Jeremy) :

I never miss dealing with crazy friends.

For the 20+ years I’ve known my mother in law there’s always been a bowl with candy, usually M&Ms, in the living room. I’ve been staying here alone the past few days since she’s in Florida and the wife’s surgery was done up here and when I got in last night there were no more M&Ms. I don’t think I’ve ever seen the bowl empty before.  This morning I stopped at Walmart and bought a few big bags so this doesn’t happen again. 

Wally said:

For the 20+ years I’ve known my mother in law there’s always been a bowl with candy, usually M&Ms, in the living room. I’ve been staying here alone the past few days since she’s in Florida and the wife’s surgery was done up here and when I got in last night there were no more M&Ms. I don’t think I’ve ever seen the bowl empty before.  This morning I stopped at Walmart and bought a few big bags so this doesn’t happen again. 

Story time, and it is one of my favorites. 

My dad is from Chicago, my mom is from Southern Indiana/Northern Kentucky--think the John Prine song Paradise. They met when they were  both living in Louisville; they moved to St. Louis when they got married, and moved to Chicago when they had kids. While my dad was from Chicago and had friends and family, my mom didn't know anyone in Chicago outside of dads family, and her Aunt Ethel. Ethel was from western Kentucky, grew up on a tobacco farm. She went to college, joined the public health service, then got her masters, and eventually moved with the PHS to Chicago where she rose to the rank of Captain. She never married, never had kids. Mom and Ethel were the only people in the family within a 5 hour drive of each other (they were about 30 minutes apart). Ethel had always been important in my moms life--when my grandad died, mom was only 6, and Ethel stayed with them as long as she could. When my uncle died, mom was only 12, and Ethel again took all of her vacation and stayed with the family.

Well, Dad didn't really know Ethel. But they moved to Chicago--mom was probably 7 or 8 months pregnant with my older brother, and Ethel soon became probably the most important woman in our lives outside of Mom. When they needed a babysitter, it was Ethel. When my great grandma died, Ethel took us for the weekend and bought us toy guns and let us drive her 92 Roadmaster or 87 Toronado (we were no more than 4 years old). When dad was out of town on business, and mom was pregnant with our younger brother and sick with the flu at 7AM, Ethel was in her bedroom in her uniform and called her boss "I won't be coming in today" *click*, while mom rested she took my brother and I - 2 and 4 - to McDonalds and to the playground.

She once took my brother to a family reunion in Kentucky. She got pulled over no less than 3 times on the drive. Once she handed the officer her license, and said "Oh wait, that is the wrong one". She had kept active licenses in 3 states, just to keep her out of ticket trouble. Good thing the cops didn't have SCMODS. After she wrecked her Roadmaster, she complained that her Park Avenue that replaced it didn't have enough power, and she didn't like FWD.

Well, Anyways, we went through a lot with Ethel. She would have done anything for us. She was my favorite person in the world. It went from her taking us places, to us helping her move into assisted living. I took her to her last family reunion, then her brothers funeral. Somewhat poetic, the fact that she used to take us on trips, and in the end we had to take her. She passed in 2014 at 89. Dad, her nephew-in-law, gave the eulogy. He told his favorite story of Aunt Ethel. My parents came to get my older brother, he was probably 3 or 4, after he had stayed the night with Ethel. My parents come to the door, and my brother excitedly grabs my dads hand and leads him to her living room to show him the candy bowl on the coffee table. He tells dad, with all the excitement of a little boy, "And Dad, the best part is, its ALWAYS FULL". I still tear up thinking about my dads words in that church in Kentucky: "Ethel, may your dish always be full". 

And I wish that for everyone on this site as well--may your dish always be full.

In reply to Ashyukun (Robert) :

+1

Ebay / Amazon has vinyl for pretty cheap, and you can probably get the width you want with a nice edge. Since this is a test, Does it matter if it fades to beige in a few weeks?

Or, use blue painters tape to lay them out & imaging the color of your choice and/or photoshop replace the blue in pics.

In reply to mtn :

i love stories like that.   i teared up a little as wel.

I am so grateful that the local college men's basketball team got knocked out first round in March Madness. Now I don't have to listen to the local news jerk themselves off 24/7 over Jim Boeheim and the SU team. And I don't have to listen to Jim Boeheim whine his way through another interview for a while. The guy sounds like Elmer Fudd on downers, and from what little I pay attention to basketball, the team is middling at best.

In reply to NickD :

Be careful because now he has more time to drive around.

In reply to Wally :

Yeah. And he'll get off scot-free, even if he was speeding in conditions he himself stated were terrible when he hit the guy

In reply to mtn :

That is much like my in-laws.  When my father in law passed last year the funeral home was packed with people stopping by to tell us how good a man he was and how he helped them and my mother in law is going non stop with my wife, people from her church and family members that all need someone to help.

In reply to NickD :

Count yourself lucky.  I live 40 yards from the University of Kentucky and their rabid fans.  My confession is that I give less than a gnat fart about a game where 10 genetic mutations show each other their armpits for an hour.  But still I have to endure my co-workers banging on endlessly about how “we” really pulled that one out against “them”.   Really?  Did you “you” suit up the game you out of shape, 48 year old, short dude?

KyAllroad (Jeremy) said:

In reply to NickD :

 

Count yourself lucky.  I live 40 yards from the University of Kentucky and their rabid fans.  My confession is that I give less than a gnat fart about a game where 10 genetic mutations show each other their armpits for an hour.  But still I have to endure my co-workers banging on endlessly about how “we” really pulled that one out against “them”.   Really?  Did you “you” suit up the game you out of shape, 48 year old, short dude?

 

I read a rant that, quite correctly, defined this kind of attitude as a sign of being a complete loser, with no personal accomplishments to take pride in.  They have never done anything of worth, so this sort of thing lets them take pride in SOMETHING, even though it's something they didn't do.  I'd hotlink it but it is also pretty political, so I won't. 

I work with one of these people.  I drive a Volvo currently (it's my winter car), so he projects and assumes that, since I drive Volvo, that I am Volvo Uber Alles and I think they are the perfectest cars ever and so forth and such as.  No, I'd rather have an STi, but I can't afford to buy a car that is $20-30k used and then watch it rust out after two or three years and then have to buy another $20-30k car.  Or a Passat W8, the only 8cyl car I'd willingly own at this point, BUUUT I have a problem with buying a unicorn that VW has declared all W8 specific parts NLA, and the aftermarket has not taken up the slack, and I already own ONE Volkswagen product that VW has basically disavowed all knowledge of its existence... oddly enough also a "Passat" (teh Quantum Syncro Wagon)

He drives a Chevy truck, so I get in little digs every now and then just because, hey, why not.  Lie the other day when I was pondering the fastest way to do something, and he piped up why not just air hammer the wiring apart.  I pointed out that it wasn't a Chevy, so it had to go back together again...

In reply to Knurled. :

I took my new truck in for its first (free) service the other day and went for a walk down Automobile Row while I waited. As I passed the Volvo dealership, I spotted a new V90 T5 R-Design wagon.

I looked at the sticker price and it was $64k. Somehow, I said to myself that that didn't seem to bad for a flagship model and that it would be a really nice car to own. I started doing some math in my head to see how I could make that happen.

And then it occurred to me that I would be equally enthusiastic about finding a ratty $1800 1996 Volvo turbo wagon, and I kept walking.

Was out driving the Mustang yesterday and saw a pink Pontiac G6. I immediately said to my buddy I had with me "What is this? Methhead Paris Hilton?"