balthazar

That 'after' pic of the vinyl siding clearly was the result of fire or other extreme heat, not sunshine or even a grille. It's NOT that fragile, sorry. Also, the 'after' pic of the wood siding shows asphalt siding, not wood. Wood varies depending on the type & quality. My brother moved into a house built in '36, the rear & one side had about 10% paint left on it- the rest was bare, but it was not rotten. I doubt it had been painted previously since the '70s- maybe longer. Likely slow-growth cedar : that stuff lasts forever. (He has since painted everything & it looks great). Perhaps some Hardie board comes in some colors, but all of it I've seen is light grey (like concrete) - unless you love that; it gets painted and thusly, has to get repainted (but as less frequent intervals than wood). Stains last longer than paints on wood- might be a wash there (stained cedar vs. Hardie). -- -- -- -- -- I still see no advantage to a pitched roof-top A/C unit. It costs much more to install it, it's unsightly, you have to access the roof to service it, and you run the risk of leaks over time. This has to be an outgrowth of a no-basement or no ground-level room situation, because the logic of it escapes me. Put it on the ground and be done with it.

>>"so the A/C sits near the peak of the roof on it's own little platform."<< I'd be curious to see a typical pic of this, if you are so inclined. Seems like a big waste of money, as far as I can imagine.

Seen plenty of commercial installations on roofs (serviced one, too)- as that keeps them away from the public/damage & most commercial buildings have flat roofs. 10-4 on AZ roofs likely being commonly flat, too. But with the necc pitched roofs here in NJ, no residential rooftop A/C units that I've ever seen.

A/C on the roof of a residential house ?? This a condo/ townhouse sort of thing ? Weird, otherwise. -- -- -- -- -- And you are assigning logical reasons to go up on a roof, which eliminates the non-logical, fun reasons.

I find myself up on the roof at infrequent & impulsive intervals, and I've heard you cannot walk on those clay tiles. I wouldn't like that.

There's a few of those 'hacienda'-look houses here in Jersey - blorf! And somehow, because it's so far removed from it's native georgraphic area, it comes off as cheesy to me.

Aluminum siding : I didn't think they made this anymore. I haven't seen an aluminum-clad house that was newer than, say, the 1970s. Vinyl siding : there's nothing remotely wrong with vinyl. It's molded in color- no maintenance or paint here. It's cost-effective, and in a thrifty way. A number you can get with form-fitting foam that'll add a bit of R-value and keep the vertical seams tighter. Yes- it's hung via nails, but the nail holes are usually slots, so I could see a loosely-nailed piece moving horizontally. I have not seen siding that locks together- the nature of installing it in various lengths would seem to prevent that; IDK. Hardie board is good stuff, but it's relatively expensive, and more expensive to install (takes longer). It holds paint very well (better than wood) but does have to be repainted at intervals. I would think it would have less R-value than foam-backed vinyl, but you'd have to check that. If I were to build a new house, I would strongly consider cedar clapboard siding. More maintenance & a LOT more $, but I like the look, esp when you can add some detail around the corners & eaves. Too much work to re-paint, tho. Happily, I love the look of a paint-peeling old house, one that looks like a 99 yr old man might have died in, 25 years ago, and no one bothered to check. Oh; don't forget to consider Insul-Brick, the classiest of siding options.

>>"were lucky to get 120k out of the engine. Those gaskets were only good for anywhere from abt. 60k-80k typically and as you said $2k to fix, but really closer to $4k through most shops or GM dealer."<< Chevy dealer did my wife's GP 3.1's intake gasket (at 100K) for $600 early this year. I suppose some might gouge, but it's certainly no $4K job anyway you look at it.

Looking at that one pic of you in the Blue Velour Special and puzzling over that C-pillar. I am not recognizing that, off the cuff : ID ?

My brother had to put down his shepard this fall (about 6 months too late, IMO). Next day, he replaced it with a pound pooch, advertised as a boxer. It's a pit bull, pretty clear. Bro lives out in the sticks of West Jersey. The new dog has a thing for turtles, he says he sees them around, all white shells. Apparently the dog captures the turtles & gnaws on them until the color is all worn off. She's killed some, too. Is this not turtle terrorism, I ask you?

So true RE the chi-crap. I have not had to replace anything I installed so far, but I deal with far less componentry than you do. That's not to say that I don't find plenty of junk being sold under 'wonderful advanced newness' taglines. In order to finally find lumber milled to a consistant dimensions, it took an order of cedar 1x6 = $2/LF. 'Premium' PT pine decking can run 3/16- 1/4" difference in width on a 1x6. Junk.

No; I don't begrudge a mark-up either, but -and I've gotten into this conversation with numerous people- at some point it becomes excessive and ridiculous. And then to bitch about missing out on it when I saved him a parts-chaser trip AND got my truck out of his service bay quicker because of it, is over-the-top. Planning on a 14% rate hike next year, still mulling over my materials mark-up (will likely vary according to job). Bare minimum practice is 10% on retail, but many charge 25%. I like the idea of 35%, I must say. In the past I have worried about pricing myself out of work, but it is POURING in from all sides unabated. I am seriously stressing out, and this is the wrong time of year to do that.

^ If true, I need to lie & cheat a bit so I can take a full weekend off ! Starting Jan 1- new rates & practices coming ! Until then, killing it with time & a furrowed brow. -- -- -- -- -- In a related story: recently a pulley in the Silverado started to sqeak (on a Mon). I made a mental note to schedule a look-see (my stethoscope pointed to the tensioner pulley). That Thrusday, the belt shredded. Underhood, one of the... routing pulley's bearings had gone out, tilting the pulley. The garage I slowed to a PS- & PB-less stop in front of quoted me $80 for the 2 Duramax-specific pulleys. I offered to pick them up the next morning where they could be found- the dealer between my house & the garage. He said 'sure'. What he neglected to insure was, that they were charged to his account, because the dealer parts guy sure wasn't going to let me walk out with free parts. So I paid out of pocket. $32. The garage guy was actually openly miffed he wasn;t able to reach into my pocket and pick out my $48. For doing nothing. What is that - 250% ?? I wish I had a 250% mark-up on the $12,000 (& counting) of deck material I have suppiled to my one current job !! Sh!t - I would take January (or better yet: July) off.

Wow. The only thing I can offer is that with this much sh!t in one day, you know the next 6 months have to be pretty smooth sailing. But note the cause of most of the problems: administration (inspectors & ass. prinicpals)- those that can, do, those that can't, administrate. Or something like that. I am pulling my hair out because I have more work that I can even think about, and why I'm home right now @ 9:30 PM instead of doing some of it is something I am refusing to think about. Have about 5 different time-intensive jobs going right now... if only it wasn't X-mas & dark at 5PM....

THe irony of pointing out the (miniscule) historic world leader s-class useage is that those were all FLEET SALES.

>>"You have it backwards--it's theoretically possible for protectionism to increase domestic welfare, but it's basically never happened."<< Within the prism of the US auto industry, compare back when there was almost no foreign competitors present (less than 5%), and the state of the marketplace was effectively the same as protectionism, to today's wide open, unlicensed market over the last 30 years. The more pieces you slice a pie into, the smaller each piece is. For some, too small a piece is not worth dishing up.

'58 Impala coupe, white over red, for sale at my truck's original Chevy dealer (now cut-off from the new car pipeline) '30-31 Packard Phaeton, blue over black fenders, cruising.

>>"Regular vinyl tops probably went away w/ the '90 redesign. I don't recall seeing any '90-97 style ones with full vinyl tops. Some had the padded 1/2 tops and carriage roof tops."<< As I have zero interest in Town Cars, I'll buy that for a dollar. But you never addressed the GM question/answer there, Cubitar.

CSpec - >>"Guys, protectionism creates poverty in the country in which it is instituted."<< Theoretically possible, but not in reality in this case. >>"How does responding to Japanese protectionism by making ourselves worse off help anything?"<< Responding by calling for the discontinuance of the protectionism in this case will --as alluded to by your first statement-- 'make us better off'.

^ Agreed; STILL waiting on my supplied Silverado plow truck. Reportedly it needs dual tailpipes and I requested a flashing yellow cab light, because I thought that would be benefitial when backdragging thru 4-way residential intersections @ 4AM. I will have to get a pic up when it gets here to the Baltha-Ranch.

Vinyl tops on Town Cars certainly were commonplace in the 1980s. At the rate I seem to have seen them wearing them, it would be very cost-inneffective to have them all farmed out, esp when Lincoln previously already did them in-house. Here's a page from the '87 brochure : http://www.oldcarbrochures.com/main.php?g2_itemId=72024 Text states that 'even the 'base' Lincoln Town Car gets a full vinyl roof'. Body was redesigned for '98- from random Googling '01, '00, '99, '98 & '97 images, I can believe that redesign was the change-over point for Lincoln WRT factory vs. aftermarket vinyl roofs. As soon as they get 'carriage-roofy', they're aftermarket.

This discussion only reminds me of eBay- when they removed the negative feedback capability. That only REDUCED the self-regulation, but this isn't a transaction-based site. I waste enought time here already so even with smk's garbage, I don't foresee myself partaking.

Last: Town car (still??) ? Last GM: Cadillac Brougham ?

Only if "proper condition" means a PMD 400 underhood.

Never owned snow tires, only ever drove RWD, only problem I ever had was with a '78 Plymouth, but that was a bad, twitchy SOB to drive even in rain. 14 years in a RWD pick-up & I never (maybe once) purposely put weight in the back. I will say this tho; I get snow & ice here, but it's quite flat in central NJ- and that's a big part of the big picture.