PennSilverTaco's "Perfect 5-Lug Regular Cab" Build, Aspergers, and General BS MegaThread!

That’s awesome.

 

I thought I was going to hit 120K miles by November 3rd of this year, but I don’t think that is going to happen; Car show season is pretty much over, and my Grandma sold the house in July so I won’t be driving up there anymore...

However, I think I’ll be hitting 120K before Thanksgiving!

 

Awesome setup!

 

Nice!

 

Thanks. It’s still a work in progress. But I got the basics down. Pretty much left is the front end set up. Winch and bumper

 

New Halloween decorations!

 

Stopped to look at a '78 Mercury that was for sale after leaving the Skippack International Auto Show, and took this picture of Porter sitting in the truck...

 

So, I made a mistake...

I’ve been talking a lot about the silver 1994 Dodge Grand Caravan my aunt and uncle bought new and owned until 2004; I thought it was an LE, but my uncle says it was an SE, which is the mid-level trim...

Now that I think about it, that van lacked the lower-body cladding that was standard on all ES models and LE models without the fake wood paneling; It also had the standard bucket seats instead of the plusher LE/ES seats. What threw me off is that it had the 15-inch “trident” wheel covers that I thought were only available on the LE; After reading the brochure, I realized it was available on all LE and SE models!

 

That van is a perfect representation of how great things were back in the old days with regards to ordering a new vehicle...

According to my brochure, the basic 1994 Grand Caravan SE came standard with a 3.3L V6 producing 162hp, dual airbags, a full gauge cluster with tachometer, AM/FM stereo with four speakers, power steering, and power brakes; Air-conditioning was an extra-cost option on all models except the top LE/ES, but my aunt and uncle did order theirs with A/C, because even in Northern California it can get pretty hot!

They ordered A/C, cruise control, tilt wheel, ABS, AM/FM cassette, Quad Command seating (second row buckets), power locks, and a few other options; They did not get power windows or rear A/C and heat, and I’m guessing they paid about twenty grand for the van...? Both of my cousins took their driving tests in that van, in 1996 and 1999 respectively, and they had the damn thing for exactly a decade! They sold it in 2004, with about 180K on the clock, when the A/C compressor shit the bed...

 

As all of my regular readers know, I was born in California in 1989; We moved Pennsylvania in 1990 and then back to California in 1996...

We lived in Mountain View, California from 1996 until 1998; and because were just over an hour from my aunt, uncle and cousins in Monterey, we regularly visited!

My fondest memory of the infamous silver ‘94 Caravan was sometime in 1997, when I was 8 years old and the van was 3 years old...

I was spending the weekend at my aunt and uncle’s house in Monterey, and my parents were not there (out of town?); I had already gone to bed, but it couldn’t have been later than maybe 10pm when my aunt woke me up and dragged me out of bed...

She took me out to the van, still in my jammies, and ushered me into the shotgun seat; I asked what was going on and she was very vague as she reversed out of the driveway.

In no time, we were in downtown Monterey and there were street rods and classic cars everywhere! I was in heaven! Apparently, my aunt had heard about this event, called Cherry Jubilee, from a friend or possibly on TV and knew I’d want to see it; So she dragged out of bed, threw me in the van in my pajamas, and drove us into town!

My only regret is that this was before I had an interest in photography, and about a decade before cellphones with decent cameras came out, so my aunt and I have no pictures whatsoever of this magical event

 

Also, on another note, my mom took my picture in front of a lowered candy apple red 1993ish Chevy 1500 regular cab stepside during a visit to the relatives in Monterey in the summer of 2000; I saw that same truck still cruising the streets of Monterey on subsequent trips there in 2010, 2015, and 2017!

 

In the parking lot at work today; Ants are seriously the 18-wheelers of the insect world!

 

I’m actually getting my flu shot in my truck!

 

Scored some new additions to my license plate collection!

 

What states you got so far

 

In alphabetical order, California, New Jersey (including a 1920s plate, and a “Leatherneck” plate that was on my late Grandpa’s GMC Envoy), Pennsylvania, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia...

 

Effing humid today!

 

Just stumbled into this thread and have not read all 1500+ pages but......do you have news on Puck and will you be returning (or have you already)? We played there and really enjoyed it.

 

Nice. I’m not a collector myself but I think it would be cool to have all 50 states in my garage