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

Took Porter for a walk in the Doylestown Cemetery today; I actually went to high school with this girl (though she was more than four years older than and I did not know her personally...

She had Down Syndrome (I think) and if I remember correctly she died of a heart attack in her sleep; She was very well-like among the other students and one of my classmates (we weren’t in special ed) burst into tears and started crying in front of the whole class when it came over the morning announcements that she had passed away.

 

The former church (now a house) across the street from my old high school is
in the process of getting new addition!




I honestly do not remember if there was another garage there, or if the owners of the church house bought the adjacent property and tore down the house...

 

I certainly believe the current penalties are having no affect on deterring people's behavior. Someone making 10k a week isn't going to feel any uncomfort paying a $150 fine. Nor a youngster suffering from affluenza. If anything, it's getting worse. New trends I've seen are people stopped at a stop sign texting away, others waiting behind them, others waiting for them to go when it's their turn. Then when they decide to go, they just go without looking. Another trend, on the freeway, they're texting away, hear their tires hitting the lane markers, and still don't look away from their phone. Just this week alone, I've had 2 near accidents because of that one.

I don't know the stats but I think distracted driving kills more than drunk drivers now. The only way to deter this behavior is to make the penalty painful to all, rich and poor.

My opinion, the penalties should be: First offense $150 fine, vehicle being driven covered with decals saying distracted driver. Second offence 1 day impound, $500 fine plus 25% value of the vehicle being driven. Third offense 50% value of the vehicle being driven, 14 day impound. Fourth offense forfeiture of the vehicle being driven, loss of the right to own, operate or borrow a cellular device combined with a 6 month jail sentence suspended as long as they don't own, operate or borrow a cellular device.

Where I live, it's gotten so bad the police no longer stop people for just being on the phone. In fact, I've seen police on their phones while driving a police car.

I don't think anything will change until some powerful politicians family member is killed because of a distracted driver.

 

UPDATE: As stated before, I went to high school with Nicole Bigay and was almost done with 11th grade when she passed away. I did not know her personally, but I remembering seeing her around and I can also remember that one of my classmates took it particularly hard when we we heard on the morning announcements that she’d passed way. I found her grave purely by coincidence while driving out the cemetery after walking Porter, and over the course of the afternoon got to thinking “Why don’t I leave some flowers or something since it’s been almost exactly fifteen years?”

So, I went to Giant and picked up some flowers; It was pitch black in the cemetery by the time I got back there, and the light you see is from the high-beams on my truck...

 

Also saw a fox while driving into the cemetery...

 

This looks like it might be more trouble than it's worth; Do you know of anybody on TW who has done this?

 

Never seen anyone do this on TW.
Nor anywhere else.

 

Probably not worth it then...

 

Not to me.

 

I mean I guess theoretically if you could find a seat belt warning relay from a 1st gen, tie it into the correct circuits, and disconnect the unlock warning switch wire from the factory cluster it would work but seems like alot of trouble to just change the door chime.

 

I had a fox in the backyard a couple years ago, talked to my neighbor a few days after and he said it came over to his house and was trying to steal his dog's food bowl.

 

I’ve been really busy;I’ve washed the truck since creating this thread, and here are some pictures of the blemish at an angle...

 

Its just barely lighter than the rest of the paint, and there are similar blemishes on the tailgate where other magnets are located; Most notably, my ribbon-shaped “Autism Awareness” ribbon...

 

This. Likely comes under the heading of shit that’ll buff out. I had one of those magnet signs from an employer for years and eventually dirt gets in there and dulls the finish but silver is a clear coat color so it should polish out.

 

I never do full details during the winter, but my friend details cars for a living and has all sorts of magic stuff in his arsenal that I’m sure will work.

 

I’ll go ahead and say, I’m not a paint and body guy.
But I’ll give my suggestion.

Since it’s the tailgate.
I’d probably use a Clay Bar, then Polishing compound, followed by a good wax.
(You might be able to start with the polishing compound and omit the Clay Bar)

If this takes care of the problem, you’ll probably have a slightly different color (cleaner) tailgate than the rest of the truck. So, you’ll have to do the whole truck later. Or don’t do it it later, if it’s not too noticeable.

We did this on a truck that had vinyl stickers on it for a few years.
We were told to try this by a local body shop. Thankfully it worked.

 

I just remembered what I wanted to say! I posted this right before I left work for the day and really wanted to leave, so I put it on hiatus...

We lived in the DC metro area (Northern Virginia) from about August of 2002 until July of 2005; Seeing that we lived like half an hour from the nation's capitol, there were a lot of government workers and military living in the area (My dad was in the Navy and my uncle was retired Army who worked for the EPA). There were also a lot of diplomats living in the area!

I'm guessing this was in about 2003 (maybe 2004); my dad and I were driving to the Carmax (located near Dulles Airport) to look at cars, and on the highway I saw this blocky, boxy silver van that looked like nothing I'd ever seen before. As we got closer (we were in the left lane and the van was in the right lane), I realized it was a Mercedes, but too small to be a Sprinter; It was tall like a Sprinter, but smaller and more streamlined. Unlike the typical North American minivan, it was obviously rear-wheel drive, and size-wise it was probably comparable to a Chevy Astro (albeit taller). The emblem on the back said "V220", and I also seem to remember that it was a diesel; Mercedes never officially sold anything resembling a traditional minivan in America until the Metris a few years ago! As we got even closer, I realized the driver was on the right; The van had Virginia plates, but it was easy to tell that they were the wrong size and the van had originally been designed for European plates. The fact that that it was RHD made me think that it was originally sold somewhere in England; They were normal Virginia, not the distinctive diplomat plates. My dad did not know who they might be associated with, but biggest question was "How the hell had they managed to get an RHD European-market vehicle with a diesel engine titled and registered in Virginia?!?!"

It could have been gas, but it still had Euro-spec emissions equipment and the steering wheel on the right; There was a middle-aged woman driving, and I don't recall there being anybody else in the vehicle (though it could probably fit at least seven people comfortably). It was hot that day, and all the windows were up in the van, so obviously it had A/C...

My two theories on the how the van ended up in America (specifically Virginia)...

• The van was clearly European-spec, and the RHD configuration narrowed it down to the United Kingdom or Ireland; A military family bought the van while one of the parents was serving a tour of duty in the UK and liked the van enough that they brought it back across the pond with them. How did they do it? They likely knew somebody who was able to pull some strings and/or at a bare minimum make it meet US emissions standards (I doubt it would be legal in California).
  
• Most likely scenario; The van belonged to a British or Irish diplomat whose profession had brought him or her to America, and because of diplomatic immunity or whatever, they were able to ship the van stateside and get it registered in Virginia (I think only the actual diplomat gets diplomatic plates, but don't quote me on this).

The second scenario seems much more likely because I did some research on this Mercedes model, and while it seems to be very nice vehicle, it is not up to par with what Americans would want in a family van; I could see an American family buying one while living abroad, but the diesel engines only made up to 120 horsepower and the gas engines only made up to 140 horsepower! My Tacoma has more power! I believe the military would pay the cost of shipping one vehicle across the ocean and back for families stationed in Europe, but let me tell you that if I could bring a European-spec vehicle home with virtually no strings attached, it certainly would not be an underpowered (by American standards) van!

 

I am 99% sure that the van I saw on the parkway in Fairfax County at least 17 years ago was the same model as the one below (this photograph was even taken at the same viewpoint I saw the van from); The van I saw was silver, had alloy wheel instead of wheel covers, and most notably was right hand drive, but I'm pretty sure this is the same basic model (W638; 1996-2003)...

Also, I stated in the previous post that I believed the silver van I saw was front-wheel drive; I was wrong...

The van I saw was apparently front-wheel drive, just like a typical North American minivan!




The silver van I saw in Virginia definitely had the "V220" emblem on the left side of the liftgate, and I also remember seeing the name "Viano" on the back as well; The van looked pretty new, and this was no later than 2004, so a year range of roughly 2001-2003 would make sense. It was definitely of a high-trim than the green van seen above, but yeah, at the time that was the first time I'd never seen an RHD vehicle that new in America that wasn't a Cherokee or Wrangler destined for the postal service!

 

While not much for HP by comparison to our trucks, remember that it was built about 20 years ago. Hell, a lot of 4 bangers in the 1980s weren't hitting close to 100 HP.