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

Also, since February 2014, Thompson Toyota has managed to rack up three strikes with me...

February 2014: Master cylinder had to be replaced; The job was done properly, but when I got the truck back there were several horizontal red scratches meticulously (and purposely) carved into my hood. These scratches were not there prior to the truck being dropped off, and the dealer claimed no knowledge due to the truck having ice and snow on the hood when it arrived; Photos taken of the truck being loaded onto a flatbed for transport to the dealer prove that this is bullshit, but they had their detailers buff the scratches out free of charge so I didn’t push the issue.

October 2018: Brought truck to dealer for annual state inspection; As I was merging onto Route 611, the hood started bouncing up and down because someone (I’m presuming the tech who performed the inspection) neglected to properly latch the hood. I brought the truck back and had it inspected to
damage; the dealer owned their mistake but tried to blame the valet for “mistaking the hood release for the brake release”, which is amusing because automatic 2nd Gens have a push-to-release parking brake and anyone working at a goddamn Toyota dealership should know this. However, dealer owned their mistake and offered to pay for any damages; There was no damage so I let it go...

November 2019: The “notched wheel bearing” fiasco I’ve just told y’all about...

 

I have a couple of theories as to how those red scratches appeared on my hood; It most certainly was not the result of a dealer mishap, because I can’t think of any scenario that would cause three or four perfectly aligned scratches; If the hood was totally bashed in, then I could see that being caused by the dealer...

• Theory number one is that some random asshole(s) vandalized a few random vehicles after business hours.
• Theory number two is that a friend of mine who was going through some personal problems at the time and got his Scion serviced at that same dealership saw my truck and let his emotions get the better of him.

 

With regards to this friend, as stated above he was going through some personal issues in late 2013-early 2014. He even sent a text message to me saying “I hope you burn in hell and die”. He disowned me in October 2013 and reached out to apologize in February or March 2014. We are still friends, but I rarely hang out with him because he has his personal issues and “hanging out” to him always involves playing video games in his basement.

I asked him point blank if he knew anything about my truck being vandalized at the dealer, and he of course denied it; For some reason, I believe him...

 

It did not help that in 2009, I introduced him to one of my Aspie friends from the Coffeehouse; Both of these friends ended up spending more time with each other than they did with me, which caused tension between us. The Aspie friend also liked to rip on me in front of the other friend, which led to me getting very upset with him at times.

For lack of a better term, this particular Aspie friend was a womanizing mooch. He was two years older than me and had a part-time job at McDonalds, but he is now almost 33 and does not have a driver’s license. He spent his money as fast as he could earn it, which I was guilty of as well; However, unlike him, I did not mooch off of my friends for rides and money, and I didn’t steal the credit card my mom had confiscated.

By 2012, he was very quickly getting on everybody’s nerves. In September, the whole group became aware of something very inappropriate he’d done and that was the last straw (not gonna discuss this on TW); He was disowned from the group and it took at least another year before he finally realized that nobody wanted him around and he moved to another county.

Unfortunately, the other friend was not directly affected by what this Aspie friend had done and continued to hang out with him as late as 2014.

 

In October 2013, I worked at Dunkin Donuts for all of three weeks. Because all the people on my shift were Indian and spoke relatively poor English, I trained with the only other white American on staff in the afternoons. This girl mentioned my former Aspie friend by name, and how she’s actually told the manager not to even interview him because he was such an asshole. Apparently, my former friend really wanted this job because it was practically across the street from his apartment, and when he found out I’d gotten the job he was unhappy.

One day I came to my truck on my break and found what I though was bird poop splattered along the window and down the driver’s side door. Upon closer inspection, I realized it was some sort of iced coffee drink and it had likely not ended up there by accident...

Just about everyone in Doylestown knows what I drive, and I am 90% sure this former friend threw his drink at my
truck in a fit of rage over the fact that I’d gotten a job he though he was entitled to. Luckily, my truck was not damaged.

 

2nd Gen Tacos with varying degrees of modification (various combinations of lift kits, armor, grille guards, lights, stereo systems, etc) are very common in my area; However, almost all of them are 4x4s and the vast majority are ACs or DCSBs. Modified 2nd Gen 5-lugs are virtually unheard of in my area, and even my truck is pretty much stock except for the Toywerx grille and stereo system. Despite being mostly stock, my truck is probably the most distinctive 2nd Gen 5-lug RC in my area and as a result is instantly recognizable.

I’d say 90% of the time this works out in my favor, as most of the cops and all the parking enforcement guys know my truck and will cut me slack when it comes to parking violations (typically the result of parking in a NO PARKING zone to unload the truck). Unfortunately, it also works against me, because one time in 2018 this old woman stopped at a green light to ask directions from a beer truck driver. I couldn’t get by and was running late for my job at the detail shop where I worked at the time, so I laid on the horn. The beer truck driver told me to calm down and at most I gave him the death stare.

Unfortunately, this beer truck driver was the same one who delivered to Puck. About a week or so later, my boss took me aside and asked me why I’d flipped off the beer guy. I was absolutely dumbfounded and looked at her like she was crazy; She mentioned a few key details of that incident and I remembered. I explained that I’d blasted my horn at some old British lady in a red Corolla for stopping at a green light to ask the aforementioned beer truck driver directions, and that the same British lady had gotten out of her car to confront me at the next red light (which is how I knew she British or possibly Irish, based on her accent), but that I’d never flipped anybody off.

My boss was not all that mad at me, but she expressed concern about my temper and said I could tell her anything; I agreed with her that I needed to calm down, but I stood by the fact I’d never flipped anybody off. I then asked her “Who are you going to believe? A guy you’ve known for over seven years and employed for almost four of those years, or some asshole beer guy who is new to
this route and doesn’t know me at all?” Needless to say, the matter was dropped.

 

Going back to 2013, I’d been on the outs with the womanizing mooch former Aspie friend for over a year, but he didn’t seem to take the hint. Right after I quit Dunkin, I went to Puck for a beer. There was a free show downstairs and there was a good crowd, but the patio was dead. Charlene, this amazingly hot woman in her early forties (now she’s pushing 50 but is still hot) who unfortunately no longer works at Puck, was tending bar on the patio that night. Char and I were always pretty close, and she did not like it in the slightest when people messed with me.

My intent was to have a quick beer and a burger then leave, so I parked the Tacoma in the no parking zone on Printers Alley and sat down at the deserted patio bar.

A short time after I arrived, Char mentioned the aforementioned Aspie friend by name and said “Charlie, your friend so-and-so just went into the venue.”

My response was something along the lines of “He ain’t my friend.”

Char said “If he comes up here do you care, or do want me to tell him to leave?”

I told Char that I was not having in the mood to talk to this guy and she nodded.

My former friend had most certainly seen the Taco parked out front, correctly assumed I was there, and went inside looking for me. Again, this was a year after I’d established I really wanted nothing to do with him. Fortunately, shows at Puck typically had a cover charge; The GM always let me in without paying the cover charge because we were good friends by then, but my hapless former friend was chronically broke and could never afford to get in when there was a cover. As a result, when this ex-friend was still living in Doylestown, Puck was my sanctuary from
him.

The ex-friend did not find me in the basement venue and inevitably came back upstairs to the patio. Char walked out front behind the bar and stopped him about halfway between the patio entrance and the covered bar. She basically told him that he was not welcome there and he left without incident.

He later wrote a negative review on Puck’s Facebook page, which further fueled the staff’s contempt for him, but nothing else came of it.

 

I'd rather have fisheye mirrors on both sides. Less likely to become accustomed to the electronic gadget when driving something without the feature. Besides, all those bells and whistles add to repair costs and insurance premiums.

 

I’ve actually got those on my truck right now!

 

One of the few things I willingly bring my truck to the stealership for nowadays is state inspection. If Pennsylvania did away with it’s stupid safety inspections and emissions testing, I would be done with the dealership for good, especially after last week’s axle seal fiasco; So, here’s what happened...

I brought my truck to Thompson Toyota in September 2019 for inspection. They called me and asked if I wanted the tires rotated for an extra $14. Like a dumbass, I said yes! I was busy when they called me, and it did not occur to me that the wheels had to be removed as part of the inspection anyway when they looked at the brakes! I essentially paid them an extra fourteen bucks to put each tire on a different corner the truck.

I did not put two and two together until my dad looked over the receipt that night. My dad told me never to opt for the tire rotation at that dealer again.

Unfortunately, we all fell for it again when my mom brought her 2013 Nissan Murano to the same dealer. Yes, it is a Toyota dealership, but my customer benefits applied to my mom since she was immediately family. Also, my trusted mechanic Pete was busy and I do not much care for the local Nissan dealership (I actually worked as a car detailer for the same family of dealerships that owned the Nissan dealer for ten months and used my employee discount to get the inspection cheap last year; I no longer work this company so my motivation for bringing family vehicles there no longer exists). My mom waited for the Murano and it passed inspection with flying colors, but they somehow managed to talk her into getting the tires rotated for an extra $14!

She actually called my dad to get his opinion, and he somehow missed the fact that she was at the same dealership and said to go ahead with it. Now, my family is out $28 for something that my independent mechanic says he would have done for free!

If someone brought their vehicle in for something like an oil change, to get the A/C recharged, or pretty much anything that didn’t require removal of the wheels, and the tech recommended a tire rotation, then I could see charging a little extra in labor costs for removing the wheels and rotating them.

However, I say again; PA state inspection requires removal of the wheels to look at the brakes, so all this dealer is essentially doing is charging the customer to carry a wheel from one end of the vehicle to the other and install it in a different location!

Typical stealership at its absolute finest!

 

How about the Flintstones?

 

Love the Flintstones! Though I don’t think any of the main characters were on the spectrum...

I go into “Yabba-Dabba-Do” mode at the end of a work week though!

 

Peter Griffin was yellow in that one? I don’t remember that!

 

What about the Great Gazoo?

 

Ever see the a Gilmore Girls?

 

The Great Gazoo was definitely something; Don’t know about on the autism spectrum though...

 

Can’t say that I have...

 

Ah.....it’s a chick show. My Wife likes it. But the grandmother on it I would say is on the spectrum

 

https://www.climbing.com/.amp/news/...some-uncomfortable-truths-but-ignored-others/

That dude is in the spectrum, but depending on the publication they tend to hide it

 

@BassAckwards

Thank you for your interest in my photos! Those ones are old though, and my truck is now rolling on stock 15” wheels again