New England B.S. Thread

My limited experience out that way is that the Worcester area can be congested on the Pike during Rush Hours.

 

There used to be about 7 auto body shops in my area. Three closed. I know a guy with one of the remaining ones and he's backed up two months.

Sometimes the weirdest stuff is backordered too. I tried to order an interior door pull trim piece for my F-150 because I scuffed one up pretty badly while transporting a large display for work. Just got the word that the part is on national backorder with no resupply date so my order's canceled. It doesn't seem like that would be a high demand part. It's just a piece of silver plastic with clips that pops onto the door panel.

 

My guy is backed up because he's good and COVID caused some of his guys to leave. A couple are coming back to work for him, so his backlog should drop off.

 

It's injection molded, that piece is done with a specific material that is only done at, say, one mold house. The mold is only there. There's no alternate. Ford is going to prioritize their molding hours on new production. They won't send the product out for aftermarket.

I work with plastics now, it's getting better now, but 2022 was rough.

https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/PCU325211325211

 

That makes sense. It probably doesn't help that the part was used for 2015-2020 trucks and the new ones have completely different door panels so they don't have the same trim piece anywhere.

 

Based on how much gas the Hyundai took, I figure it has about a 10 gallon tank.

 

Sounds about right for an econobox



PS you ain't that far off - 12 gallon tank....About the same range as a taco.

I get my solar panel in tomorrow, hope I can set it up this week/weekend. Otherwise I might be looking at some electric econoboxes

 

After driving this some more, I must apologize to Carollas. This thing makes a Carolla look like an Avalon.

 

The rental i had when my truck in the shop was a nissan rogue, and it felt like a death trap. The tires they put on rentals are the cheapest, hardest, pieces of junk they can find. In light rain i was actually sliding on mild turns.

 

I think it depends on the company and to some extent the location. The Enterprise shop I rented from uses Meineke for oil changes and such.

This car has a FL tag and for some reason the inside of the windshield is filthy. I've cleaned it four times now, using different cleaners each time. I think I finally got all of the spots. It also smells funny. Not musty, but I'd call it "stale." I've put in one of Fabreeze air fresheners that go into the AC vent.

I drove by the body shop today and wanted to go in and give my Tacoma a hug and tell it I miss it.

 

I know the feeling, my shop is on my work route and I would see it sitting there waiting to go in, or in the bay being all lonely. Just wanted to tell him it wasn’t his fault haha

 

It looks like I may actually close on time, 10am tomorrow.

 

Make sure you bring the papers you've had to send them so far, cause they'll probably be missing a copy of something

 

NICE!

My sister got delayed a few times I think. Ours was hammer down we did it in about 4 weeks, and it went off without a hitch. Again, luck more than skill.

 

Our first closing we were buying from a couple divorcing. She with her attorney, he with his attorney. So uncomfortable until they each left with a separate check. Second time the owner had moved to Texas and one bank attorney (who we knew) for them and us, smooth sailing.

 

This should be pretty simple, house is vacant and we are buying from a guy that flips foreclosed houses.

 

Finally getting a wood shop put together. First project is a coffee table for the GF.



Started with hardware store 2x6s. Still finishing the trestle style legs.

 

Looks like this one I made 2 years ago for mine.

 

I need to change an exhaust gasket at the end of the intermediate pipe toward the front . I have a gasket and I know the size of the bolt. But I might need to change this one.


It’s the end of the “Y “ pipe that connects to the catalytic converter. I tried 13-14 mm and a couple other sizes and I don’t know what it is. It was dark and I was just poking around and pretreating with PB.
Thanks