Sorry Rob, but your cheap metal plates are way too thin. At a minimum I'd never go less than 1/4 steel for something that heavy, but I totally agree with the writer who suggested 2x12 pressure treated boards. ... View more

Good timing on the article. I've done all three (lease is #3). I have a 2008 Ranger FX4, and I would gladly trade it on on a new Ranger, except all Ford sells now is 'not-a-ranger' things. I'm not losing the V6 for a turbo 4 - ever. Worse, the pricing is just stupid. I can buy a 4x4 F150 for just $1000 more than the FX4 pretend Ranger, and the F150 has a proper engine (V8 eco-boost). So I guess I'm keeping the 2008 for some time to come. But my wife needed a new car. Except they don't sell cars anymore - at least not ones with a proper transmission (auto, not CVT). So we ended up buying her a new Mazda CX-5 SUV. It has a proper engine and transmission (no turbo), and all the features she wanted to replace her 2004 sedan. We both love it. As to buying, I leased a car once back in 1991, and it was one of the stupidest things I ever did. I basically paid full price for the car (Honda Civic Si) on the lease, then when it came time to turn it in they offered it to me at almost full retail price. No way I would pay DOUBLE for a car, so leases are stupid economics for most folks. The other problem with the lease is you have to be VERY CAREFUL how you maintain the leased auto. For most people that means 'dealer service' at $$$ compared to doing it your self. But I was warned - "non authorized service can jeopardize your warranty under lease". Now that my have not been true, but who is going to risk it? ... View more

I seem to be alone for the moment, but for me the problem with flipping is that it has a tendency to attract those who have no intention of putting much work into the flip. "Lipsticking the pig" is a term in real estate flipping, but it happens in autos as well. Worse are the ones who do incorrect, sloppy or just plain BAD work on a vehicle, usually to stuff that is hard to inspect, and then flip for profit. I've seen too many people buy what seems to be a good car and then discover some really badly done 'fix' or restoration work and have to undo the whole thing to even start to make it right. Also funny - at least where I grew up (Alberta), those who bought & sold with minimal work (i.e. polish & wax only) were called "curbers" and the term wasn't any more positive. ... View more

Richard Thompson - MBB-GT https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2-ZI5cPvQus Awesome song for those loving the British sports car scene! -R ... View more

My MGB was originally a pastel yellowish color. It had been repainted red, then body rust, etc... I had the body restored and repainted a turquoise green. But the engine compartment was still that yellow. Fast forward 20 some years when I was applying for classic car status. The requirements are 'all original, pristine look'. They had no problem with the new paint, but the dirty yellow engine bay was a no-go. One can of engine clean and a power wash, followed (when dry) by a can of flat-black high heat paint and the engine compartment looked great. Passed the classic requirements with no issues. ... View more

Oh, one other p.s. to my previous post... I've watched you work on this car, and it's nowhere near as rough as you think. For one thing, the seats, door panels and dash indicate it's been garage stored and is actually in pretty decent shape. The floors are again pretty great. Except for the perforation on the driver's side and maybe a hole on the passenger side, that sheet metal is pretty darned good. Restore the thing. Not 'concourse' finish, but remove the rust, replace only as much of the floor as is gone and badly rusted (i.e cut back to good metal and then cut the pan to fit and weld it in). Then go drive the little car and have fun. As you find problems, fix them and carry on. ... View more

Actually, as an owner of a 68 MGB and someone who had to replace the floor pans myself, I disagree with your first conclusion: the holes in the floor probably were not CAUSED by the metal 'floor' that was added on, they were the REASON the person tacked on that added floor. Rather than remove the original floor and weld in a new floor pan on each side, they chose to hide the issue with an additional metal piece. The actual floor replacement is not that hard if you can buy new floor pans. Just cut out the old (you don't even have to cut it all out, just the worst parts) and then MIG weld in the new floor. Seam seal and paint with a good rust-binding primer and you are done. Even I managed to do the job and I never welded sheet metal before (just 1/8" angle iron frame type stuff). In spite of that I managed to do a decent job once I read the proper welder settings and practiced on some scrap. In other words, FIX IT. It's not hard, and you'll be most pleased with the job complete. ... View more

Couple of things: 1. You still have not evaluated what REALLY happened. There is no way a lower speed 'impact' with a curb did that damage. NO WAY. So the little dude was probably really, really speeding; not surprising given the zippy look of the car. 2. I agree with the other comment. The fellow should be on the hook for the money for the repairs. He did this (being a jackass, IMO) and should be responsible. As it is he's been stringing mom along, but you should have a heart-to-heart with him about responsible driving. 3. There is NO WAY you should give the car back if this lady's son will be driving it again. Otherwise, with the lying and zero consequences to him at present, he'll total the car for real again very soon. And, just to give YOU some pause in all this, he may not walk away from the next high-speed encounter with "a curb". ... View more

Maybe it's just where we live, but those aftermarket HUGE spoilers that look like an aircraft wing mounted on 12in struts. Whenever I get talking to one of those types, I always ask them if they are going to add "speed holes" at some point. 🙂 ... View more

My first truck was a Dodge D10, which was bought very used and was a blast to drive, especially in winter. It finally died when the timing belt went and the interference valves all bent over and took the engine with it. I agree that trucks are too big now.   I still own my 2008 Ford Ranger (FX4) that I love. I would gladly buy another Ranger if it were a real truck instead of the aluminum 4banger toy they now sell at exorbitant prices. Last spring I priced out some 2020 trucks... A ranger fx4 with the turbo 4 banger was just $2000 less than an F150 with V8. I mean, really?   If I do buy another truck to replace this 2008 ranger, it will be the smaller Toyota, as those things do seem to last. I don't like paying an extra 15% just for the brand, but since all the other trucks are monsters, what can you do? ... View more

Well, you totally skipped Revel, which was a huge model kit maker (for model builders). There was also Airfix (British) for those playing with HO model trains (I was a kid, after all).   But the biggest omission, IMO was the Monogram Big T 1/8 kit. I first saw that as a 10 year old and knew it was the kit I wanted. Eventually (12) bought it on a  holiday in the USA and kept it for years.   Again, thanks to mom for throwing it (and all my other built models) out when I went to university. I did keep my Revel space models such as the Saturn V model which I now also have as a Lego kit. ... View more

We've owned two wagons over the years. First was the pre-cursor to the AMC Eagle (or co-cursor?)... the AMC Hornet wagon. Ours had a small block V-8 and auto tranny. The car was so light, and with the V-8 I could out-drag almost any other vehicle off a red light. A true 'sleeper' of a wagon. Very nice looking as well. Eventually the timing belt started slipping. You'd turn off the car and hear a 'gronch', which meant - time to open the hood and shift the spark plug wires on the distributor by one position. Did that for years before finally giving to my dad to play with.   The second station wagon may well have taken the title as the heaviest wagon ever made. It was a 1980 Plymouth Volare wagon. It was brown. It was HEAVY. It rode like a boat but had lots of power (another V-8 with auto). A bed mattress flew off a truck on the 120km highway going to the rockies one day right in front of my wife (truck owner was swerving in the wind) and my wife had to drive over this mattress or take high speed evasive action. She chose to drive over the mattress and the Volare never even flinched.   But trying to turn or stop that thing on Alberta -30C icy roads... not going to happen. We eventually traded it in on something newer, but it was a rock solid wagon. ... View more

Sorry, but am I the only person who finds such a glaring oversight as failing to mark the #1 position on the distributor body (in an expensive part) totally unacceptable? I mean, if they can't even do the simple things correctly, how can you have such faith that it will perform over the longer term? ... View more

Two come to mind. The first is *very* old (like '70s). When the Pontiac "Judge" came out, laugh-in was on TV so of course there were some pretty lame commercials exploiting "here come da judge" type stuff, but the most ludicrous was the rubber front on the grill, where they would hit it with a sledge hammer to show how "indestructible" it was.   Of course some bright light figured what worked on TV would work in the showroom. Where I grew up, that lasted about a week, until one spatially challenged customer managed to sledge-hammer THRU the grill to the tune of several hundred dollars damage. (put an end to the local campaign real quick).   The second disaster was Celine Dion attempting to sell a particularly super-expensive  Chrysler behemouth (the 300???) as a "mom's car". That was during her Vegas years but I can't recall much else about those commercials except they didn't last a month. ... View more

Two comments: First, wet distributor (especially if you just pressure washed the motor)... WD-40. Yea the stuff is terrible, but this is the ONE place where it's a handy quick fix. Good to have a can in the trunk. Second: I was told by a long-time (i.e. English) British auto mechanic that these small engines do NOT like to be cranked and cranked and cranked. That can work with the American V-8, but not the British 4-banger. Better to give it a short crank, then stop and wait a few seconds, then try again. If the car will start (i.e not other serious issue as mentioned in this article), then that is the best way to start them. ... View more