1st Gen Lunchtable Thread - General Discussion

must be something in the air lol had pizza for dinner here today too

 

I should do this

 

I'm going to start referring to my base-model, manual-everything truck as "enthusiast spec".

https://cosprings.craigslist.org/cto/d/colorado-springs-2022-ford-bronco-2dr/7808642179.html

 

1) You cannot bundle transportation (an expense item) with an investment asset. They both carry debit balances on the ledger. Whatever you spend on transportation expense this year is gone. Sometimes we hit it lucky and replace something or spend on transportation maintenance so we avoid incurring that expense again for years. If you are getting some utility from a transportation expense item you are lucky. You can loose a large amount of money on damage to an expensive car in depreciation. Is any used car with customizations really adequately covered for loss? Look at the people who lost vehicles and houses in recent flooding.




2) Financial investments (depending on type) wax and wane with the moon. It wasn't long ago that BitCoin crashed.



3) Your best bet is to repair the vehicle you have and drive it until you can no longer get any utility out of it. So it will take a few years longer to use up the recent repair items.

Usually in used transportation I feel lucky if I make one or two good buys out of three. Sometimes it takes a year or two for me to realize a transportation purchase was a good buy for the long haul. But that doesn't mean that I cut bait and run when something goes wrong.

Life with my 99 Tacoma started with a knocking engine that I had to replace. I knew it had problems when I bought it. I easily spent over $6k to get it into great shape back in 1999. Then 5+ years goes by and it is one of the lowest maintenance vehicles that I've owned. I could have pissed and moaned when I was dealing with the cowl leak back in 1999 and a strange driveline vibration that turned out to be corrected by add-a-leaf springs and axle shims. Sometimes you just need to be resourceful, keep a cool head, and work through problems by watching and learning from other people who find solutions to seemingly impossible problems.


Many years ago, I had the pleasure of attending a work conference where General Wesley Clark came to speak. General Clark was a graduate of Hall High School in West Little Rock.

Two quotes stuck with me:

One of the things I learned in the military is sometimes you don’t know what mistakes you make for a long time. But as you go through a campaign, there’s lots of decision points you make, and you don’t know whether those are gonna be the right decision points or not.

– Wesley Clark

Real success is achieving extraordinary outcomes with ordinary people.

– Wesley Clark

Fred W. Smith

I do not believe I could have built FedEx without the skills I learned from the Marine Corps. A manager is not a person who can do the work better than his men; he is a person who can get his men to do the work better than he can. I'm not afraid to take a swing and miss.



Nothing ever starts out being perfect. Its what we make of it that decides the outcome.

 

@Speedytech7 Tagging me in that radiator thread made me remember how nice and well-made that Leland was

But also, how much I hated removing that power steering pump

Was just thankful for that thorough walk-through on rebuilding a steering pump over on mud

 

All great points. One thing that I always grapple with are unintended consequences which is I think is inline with that quote. You can make great decisions in the moment and it isn't until some time later you find that you maybe solved problem X but in created problem Y. I always try to make an educated decision based on the facts at hand, and if it is wrong, well I might not have had all the facts to shape a different solution, but I don't know what I don't know. In those moments you hunker down and learn from it and keep going.

I am curious though, how do you feel about the notion of comparing repair costs to the value of a vehicle? People get upset to have a $5k repair on a car that is $5k in value. For me, it costs $5k to continue to have transportation, end of. I've seen it time and time again the logic of "it was going to cost me $3k to fix my car so I steady I bought a $30k used vehicle instead".

 

Some folks have a fixed notion of value... ie what they had purchased for or maybe put into it along the way... whereas others have a sense of value "to them" not necessarily strictly monetary but could be. My cheapo BMW cost me $2500, but it is a nice car that drives well and is comfy... I'd have no problem putting another $2500 or more in right now to keep it that way either because it would be hard to do much better for the same invested and it would introduce more unknown about the new vehicle. I don't have the perpetual "any decision is better than the decision I made" mindset @Ozark_RegCab does though, I know that not every beater I see on marketplace is going to be reliable as-is where-is after I buy it.

 

Im just surprised none of these shops mentioned it could be dangerous to drive 80 mph across the country with a driveshaft was too short, even after they all had it up on a lift. That could have burned the truck to the ground or caused a serious accident. Now the driveshaft shop is trying to blame me for “not wanting to spend more money on another shaft” after they’re the ones that made it too short after measuring it like 3 different times.

 

Well, starter arrived early!



@Sperrunner

Little gift for myself, finally came in





Even has a wittle wadder

 

Didn't they make it to OEM length though?

I feel like we've been through this part of the discussion before.

 

Idk what they did, somehow they made it too short, and it also had the incorrect bolt pattern originally.

 

That's what I was getting at.

If made to OEM length, it'd be no different with or without a lift.

 

If I know the car and feel comfortable with the technology and original quality, I will easily spend over market value to keep it running. I just had a transmission rebuilt on a 2004 Civic by a locally well regarded shop for $4,000. The car with 125,000 might be worth that on the market if we need to sell it. However, we have owned it since new and received many years of service from it. Overall its a good little car that we expect to drive for another 3 or 4 years, maybe longer. A new Civic sells for $27k. I look at cars like a piece of machinery with a service life. As long as it is performing its function, its money that I don't need to spend.

We're all past the days here of needing to drive a new expensive vehicle for looks. I'm not selling real estate or need a prestigious vehicle. I've learned that a clean older Toyota will attract more attention than something new.

 

@time623 I wasn’t trying to point the finger at you guys for it, but the driveshaft shop that somehow made it too short in the first place. I appreciate you all trying to help. Ultimately I should have known it wasn’t a good idea to attempt the trip like that.

 

Beartooth will always be one of my favorites! Lot of really good lyrics, and I love that you can hear the band sound better and better as new albums come out.

 

You're good, I deleted the post when I saw you had edited it to specify you meant the shops before I even posted. Sorry, I just misunderstood what you meant and got a little annoyed lol

 

RIP W56, there is no way it holds together very long behind this... 15psi through the mostly stock turbo 2rz, tuned on pump 92oct!

 

Yea I've had a frustrating time with shops lately. the last ine I had it at seemed good, but I did wonder if the pinion seal replacement could've somehow been related to the driveshaft failure. That seems unlikely though, since it was the u joint that failed, nit the rear flange.

 

I still miss Attack Attack! but Beartooth coming out of the breakup is alright and they are getting better as you say.

 

Did it still roll? I was wondering if the rear end locked up first and blew up the DS and trans