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

That's awesome, and good for you bud! I've definitely been that guy that had to run to the store right when something was about to start, and bring back last minute supplies to "save the day." It a really rewarding feeling.

And I've also been that guy that grabbed extra guitar stings for band members in between sets!

 

Another time a regular act at my bar was performing, and the band's frontman had car trouble. Actually, car trouble is an understatement. He had a 2001ish Nissan Maxima with really high miles, and his alternator failed if I remember correctly. They were from somewhere in Jersey and drove well over an hour from their hometown for this gig. The Maxima was crammed with most of the band's vital equipment (part of a drum kit, at least one guitar, and multiple amplifiers). The Maxima just totally died within walking distance of Puck, and the guy was forced to coast into someone's driveway. I had been on a run for my boss when I got word of the situation.

A worn out 15-year old Maxima with out-of-state plates was partially in someone's private driveway and partially blocking a public road in Doylestown Borough on Friday or Saturday night. Translation: "Illegally Parked" was an understatement, and there may as well have been a "TOW ME!" sign in the rear window. It was also completely incapable of moving under it's own power! The band was planning to just schlep all of their equipment from the car to Puck on foot, and if the car got towed they would deal with that later.

I walked in and heard the conversation. I interrupted and said I had a pickup truck and some jumper cables, and that if I couldn't get the car jumped, the least I could do was allow the band to toss their gear in the bed and drive it to Puck so they didn't have to carry it. Of course they said yes...

With the owner of the Maxima riding shotgun, I drove my Tacoma about a block and a half to where the car had died. Before we even saw the car, we saw red and blue lights. The police had found the Maxima (or someone had complained), and the car was about to be towed! The band member told me to stop so he could get out. I hit the brakes, and he undid his seatbelt, jumped from the truck, slammed the door behind him, and bolted in the direction of his car.

It took me almost 5 more minutes to get there with the Tacoma, and I still encountered another roadblock...

When you've been driving and working in Doylestown Borough as long as I have, you get a feel for the area that the typical out-of-towner does not not have.

I had to cross a tiny parking lot behind what was then Bobby Simone's (now Doylestown Brewing Company), and I could see that no parking spaces were available. This did not bother me because I just had to jump start a car. Unfortunately, there was a middle-aged man in an older model red Honda Pilot in front of me who was going like 5 MPH looking for a parking space. He would stop every few seconds, and it took less than a minute for me to lose my patience and start beeping at this guy. Again, I was behind him and I could see there were no spots available. After my second or third beep, the guy in the Pilot slammed on his brakes, threw it in park, flung his door open, and got out with a look of homicidal rage on his face. He started screaming at me. I cracked my window and told him not only that there were no parking spaces in this lot, but my friend's car had a dead battery and was about to be towed for being illegally parked. He said "How the hell was I supposed to know that?!?!" He then got in his Pilot and drove off.

The band member who owned the Maxima showed the cop on the scene his New Jersey driver's license to show that he did in fact own the car, and a quick records check confirmed this. The cop then backed his Tahoe up so I could get my Tacoma in and gladly allowed the Maxima to remain where it was until at band's equipment could at least be removed. The cop then offered to have the same tow truck he'd called to haul the Maxima to impound take it to the local Nisan dealership which was about 10 minutes away. This would have still cost money.

The owner of the Maxima was a premium AAA member, so he could get the Maxima towed all the way back to Jersey for free. He thanked the cop and the cop stood by in case we absolutely could not not move the car. Even if we got the Maxima started, the problem at that point would be where to put park it legally until the band finished performing. Luckily, a woman who lived nearby kindly allowed the Maxima to be parked in her driveway until the flatbed came. However, we still had to get the damn thing into that driveway.

Keep in mind my Tacoma was still effed up from the October 2015 encounter with a drunk driver in a Mercedes, so the bumper was twisted and sticking out. I was afraid of getting it hooked on somebody's vehicle, somebody's fence, somebody's plants, somebody's house... The list goes on. Luckily I managed to get my truck into a cramped space with damaging it or anything else. The band member even hooked up my jumper cables to his car. Amazingly. we got the Maxima started, but the battery light immediately came on. Luckily it ran long enough for the owner to get it into the driveway.

Yeah, my Tacoma literally saved the show!

 

Thanks!

 

@Plain Jane Taco
@LocoLocal
@Iamraiderpower
@ChadsPride

This 1997 Oldsmobile Eighty-Eight LS belongs to one of my best friends. He has AS like me, and it was his first car. He got his driver's license in about 2005 when he was still in high school, and bought this car with his own money not long after.

My friend bought his car from the older man who bought it brand new, for just $1,500! My friend got the original window sticker from the seller when he bought it, and the MSRP on this car when new was over $24K! At the time my friend bought the car, it needed a new paintjob but it only had like 60K miles (low for a car that was at the time 8 years older) and there was not a single thing wrong with it. The A/C and heat worked, all accessories worked, and it ran and drove great. My friend's parents paid for a new paintjob as a Christmas present the year he got it, and my friend had an Alpine CD player and an alarm/remote starter installed as well. This picture was taken at the Coffeehouse sometime in 2009:

Again, this picture was taken in 2009. The Olds was 12 years old at the time, and had been repainted 3-4 years previous. By this time, the car had at least 140K miles. Yet, this car looks better than it did on that dealer's lot back in 1997! When my dad saw this car for the first time, he was amazed by how well my friend took care of it. Unless it was like below freezing outside, my friend detailed his car at least once a week, had it serviced regularly (routine maintenance), and kept all the service records. This beast had the damn-near-bulletproof 3800 Series II V6, so it was incredibly reliable. Not one in the 5 years (and nearly 90K miles) my friend had it did it ever break down and/or leave him stranded.

The only significant problem was that the A/C system in this car had a slow leak, and it had to be recharged every once in a while (every year or two; a full charge of refrigerant in early spring would last the entire summer and it was COLD). Since the car was newer than 1993, it had R134a which meant a license was not required to purchase it. Another friend of ours who was an ASE certified auto technician showed him how to recharge the air-conditioner and what told him what equipment he needed. My friend who owned the Olds bought the necessary equipment and placed a thermometer in one of the vents. Whenever the A/C started blowing above a certain temperature, he'd charge it in his driveway! The only reason I've never serviced my own A/C is because the A/C in Tacoma has always cranked out ice cubes every summer since 2010, and as of 2016 has a confirmed temperature of 41°F at the vents!

Going to back to the Olds, even greater than the car itself was the memories made in it. As of 2017, there are five of us (four guys and one girl) from the original Coffeehouse including myself and the owner of the Olds who still hang out regularly. Of those five, only one of us (one of the guys) does not yet have a driver's license. The other three members and I all have driver's licenses and our own vehicles.

Back in 2009 when we first met, my friend with the Olds was one of only two in that group who had a driver's license, and the only one with his own vehicle. My friends Olds had front and rear bench seats and had room for six people including the driver. Those bench seats were very comfortable and pillow-like, and the backseat was huge and very comfortable. Four large adults could fit in the Olds comfortably. Three people could fit in the backseat comfortably. The car had six seatbelts, but my friend traded the Olds for a 2006 Maxima about a year and a half after I met him, and in the time he had the car since I knew him he never filled the car to capacity.

Needless to say, when the Coffeehouse closed for the day, a bunch of would pile into the Oldsmobile and go somewhere. Typically we ended up at someone's house. Alcohol was not allowed on Coffeehouse property because it was funded by the county, and once all of us were 21 years old, we would pile into the Olds and hit one of several local bars.

By 2010, the Olds had like 150K miles on it, and needed like $700 worth of work to pass inspection. Instead of sinking more money into a 13-year old car with 150K miles that was worth barely two grand, my friend traded it for a used 2006 Nissan Maxima SL. The Maxima had less than 40K miles when my friend bought it, and as of 2017 has about 160K miles. My friend pampers the Maxima just has as much as he did the Oldsmobile!

 

Monterey, California (March 2009):

I like mine cooked medium rare...



This is a 1997 Dodge Ram 1500 2WD. I just now ran the license plate through CARFAX and it's still in the records, though the vehicle was obviously totaled due to the damage and the trail goes cold after 2009. As of June 2008, it had less than 60K miles!

My parents and I flew out to California for a week right after my 20th birthday to visit family. My uncle has a 1978 Harley, and my dad had a 1999 Harley FXDX at the time. However, my dad obviously did not bring his bike 3,000 miles from Pennsylvania. He rented a Road King from a guy who had like two or three Harley-Davidson motoryclces that he rented. This guy was licensed and insured, but he didn't have a brick-and-mortar rental facility. He kept his small fleet in storage units. When I went with my dad and uncle to pick up the Road King at the storage facility, I spotted this "well-done" Dodge Ram. According to someone who worked at the storage facility, this truck belonged to a security guard who worked there if I remember correctly, and it suffered some sort of electrical fire. Not really any big loss in my opinion, as it was a base model Ram 1500 with the 3.9L V6. This V6 engine did great in the smaller "mid-size" Dodge Dakota, but was underpowered in the full-size Ram. I swiped one of the melted "V6 Magnum" emblems from the front fender and kept it as a souvenir (still have it somewhere), and my dad took my picture next to the extra-crispy Ram.

@Plain Jane Taco
@LocoLocal
@Iamraiderpower
@ChadsPride

 

If a company is going to total it there is a reason why. They will always do what is in their favor financially (and rightfully so)

 

One of my closest friends (non-AS) is married to an amazing Russian-Ukrainian woman. Tonight, we did a round of straight Ketel One, on her! And I washed the Ketel down with a swig of Guinness!

 

Driving in Doylestown on St. Patrick's Day!




I find situations like this to be extraordinarily op
At least one of them had the presence of mind to get up on the sidewalk:


Already narrow roads made even more narrow by the snow:


And on the drive home from work, I encountered a DUI checkpoint:

 

That's just poor workmanship.

 

Can I fix it or should I just get a new casing?

 

Looks like they've been screwed up. I'd replace them. Probably the only way to have them fit as designed. It's easy to replace them. Just a little patience setting them in place.

 

Where do you recommend getting the casing? Dealer? Junkyard?

 

Well considering you want it to look good I'd say to get new replacement parts from the dealer. It's hard to say what you'll get from a wrecking yard but it maybe worth a shot I guess. I value my time so I would just go to the dealer. Searching for one at a junkyard could take time. Just my two cents

 

$60 for the goddamn lower casing?

 

Yeah it sounds spendy but maybe the guy that installed it should be responsible.

 

I'm afraid to the rock the boat, because he installed the wiper switch correctly...

 

Well that doesn't make sense to me. Installing it correctly means reinstalling all the parts correctly.

 

One of many unique vehicles I saw while in Malibu for a week (July 24th, 2016):

 

How do I get it done right without burning bridges? If my truck gets hit by another drunk guy I'm totally bringing it back to this guy because he does do excellent body work.

 

Lol sorry. Excellent work doesn't leave any signs. If he's good at what he does then he'll step up and take care of it.