FUTURE_OF_GM

I know right?! But my goal is to get you BACK into a Pontiac. (insert evil laughter here) For some reason I am IN LOVE with that '57... To me, it is the ultimate Pontiac because it was THE FIRST Pontiac performance car... But, if I had the money it would certainly be a tough choice. The Pontiacs are amazing but there are so many incredible cars that it makes my head spin... I wrote up a 1,100 mile SHOWROOM fresh 1994 Impala SS and a SEMA Cobra yesterday.

So excited it's almost awkward: 1957 Fuel Injected Bonneville -- 1 of 630 produced http://www.rkmotorsc...nneville/132642 1970 Trans Am Ram Air IV -- 1 of 59 http://www.rkmotorsc...Trans-Am/132152 1973 Trans Am Super Duty -- Numbers matching http://www.rkmotorsc...per-Duty/132078 1978 Trans Am Special Edition -- All original down to the tires and dealership sticker on the bumper http://www.rkmotorsc...ns-Am-SE/132663 1979 Trans Am 10th Anniversary Limited Edition -- Original numbers matching W72 car: the last Pontiac V8 http://www.rkmotorsc...-Edition/132657 Excited enough to drool: 1969 Trans Am Ram Air III -- 1 of 114 produced http://www.rkmotorsc...Trans-Am/132679 1974 Trans Am Super Duty -- Numbers matching http://www.rkmotorsc...per-Duty/131868 1967 GTO Tri-Power -- Numbers matching, 1 of 5 sweet GTOs we have right now http://www.rkmotorsc...tiac-GTO/132597 Still pretty damn excited: 1973 Grand Am -- National Award winning magazine feature car http://www.rkmotorsc...Grand-Am/132674 1978 Trans Am Gold Special Edition -- All original numbers matching http://www.rkmotorsc...Trans-Am/132630 ** We also had a nice '65 Catalina and a sweet '02 Firehawk ** AND we HAVE a pristine Turbo pace car that hasn't been posted yet Celebrate Excitement! About half of these are my work BTW

Okay, After a few months of sitting on repairs, I have the GMC on my schedule for next week. (Was supposed to write it up tomorrow, but I'm taking a PTO day in preparation for an air show ) It should be shot today or tomorrow and the write up will take me 1-2 days, then it'll be posted to the RK site. Roger, I got permission to send you some of our studio shots (My shots in the showroom never turn out very good because the lighting is so bright) Find me on Facebook (I tried to find you but didn't have any luck -- I'm on Camino, Cort, ocn and Balthys friend list; I'm the guy with the wicked awesome face paint ) or send me an email address.

I really don't have a favorite brand now.... I *want* to love Chevrolet but really, the only things they have that reallyimpress me are the Camaro, Corvette and maybe Cruze RS. Same thing goes for GMC and Cadillac... Nice stuff, but not really anything I'd buy at this point in my life. I'd say Ford is probably my favorite "brand" right now... If I was shopping, I'd probably be purchasing from them in the form of a Mustang, Focus or Taurus. Dodge is probably competeing with Chevrolet for second, but all they really have that I'd write checks for is the Charger or Challenger. BMW would probably be my favorite 'fooore-in' brand. The rest: Buick, Chrysler, Jeep, Fiat, Ram and Lincoln.... zzzZZZZzzzzzZZZZzz. Wake me up when they achieve HALF of the appeal that the discontinued "damaged" brands had.

That's a hard one because I feel that everything I listen to fits my personality. I do love talk radio, but the only time I get to listen to NPR now is in the AM and I'm so damn tired of hearing about the middle east I could scream But it's usually a nice mix of metal and bluegrass/rockabilly/old country. I'd say my weirdest guilty pleasures are probably techno (I love my some freakin techno) or 80s dance stuff or maybe GaGa or Oakenfold (Zoo York FTW)

Nice to have you back!

Good luck man! I'd certainly come to the party if I were in the area. You're a model of positivity for the rest of us. Keep us updated

What band did you see?

The car Dale flipped at Talledega and then finished the race in. Found this one a while back... Took this one a good while ago. An oldie but a goodie.

http://www.seriouswheels.com/1950-1959/1956-Cadillac-Firemaker-Custom-by-Pfaff-Designs-Front-And-Passenger-Side-1024x768.htm (custom '56 Cadillac) -- New link to the "posted image"

http://www.hubgarage.com/mygarage/HOTRODTUCKER/vehicles/26739/photos/864807

Why not buy it back from the insurance company and repair it? (Assuming there isn't any permanent damage) We actually did that with one of our cars because it had sentimental value. Insurance companies are so wasteful; they'll write off a perfectly good car just because of its low value. EDIT: I'm sure you know this, but check into the status of a repaired titles in your state first (to make sure you won't have any future insurance issues) When I 'totaled' my last Focus, it popped the bumper cover loose, pushed the fenders back .5 inches, shattered the windshield and deployed the air bags... Insurance company totaled it... That's like a days worth of body work. Tell your son not to sweat it... We all have bad luck sometimes and so far no one has been hurt. (which is the really important thing)

It certainly is a SAD time to be a car enthusiast... If I didn't have my classics and work in the industry, I probably wouldn't care at all anymore. Even the performance models have $h!ty styling these days. Everything just looks so BLATANTLY plastic... We used to disguise plastics by keeping the proportions of the car and making it at least LOOK solid or metal. Not anymore. Most new compacts look like a damn Chinese blender... A few cheap "sporty" cues here, some "accent chrome" there, an voila! Instant "quality" product. Case in point: look at the new 'updated' Spark... I didn't think it was possible to make that $h! box look worse, but somehow they figured out a way to do it.

That's really awesome man! You're living the dream. I've always considered myself nomadic in a way. Maybe next year I'll take my paid time off and finally do that Route 66 trip I've planned for years. And yes, the new Chargers are SWEET!

That's awesome man! Color me jealous!

1932 Ford Roadster with a supercharged flathead V8 http://www.rkmotorscharlotte.com/inventory/132577 1940 Ford De Luxe wagon (woody) http://www.rkmotorscharlotte.com/inventory/132572 1967 GT500 (not real, but does have real GT500 components) http://www.rkmotorscharlotte.com/inventory/132476 1969 Plymouth Road Runner (could make me a Mopar guy in a heartbeat) http://www.rkmotorscharlotte.com/inventory/132482 1970 Chevrolet Chevelle (This is what I'm trying to build my '73 Camaro into... Something like this) http://www.rkmotorscharlotte.com/inventory/132576 1972 Chevrolet Corvette (Would like to turn the Camaro into something like this eventually too) http://www.rkmotorscharlotte.com/inventory/132416 1993 Chevrolet Corvette 40th, all original down to the tires. http://www.rkmotorscharlotte.com/inventory/132549 1996 Chevrolet Corvette Grand Sport (we have 3 of these on the premises now) http://www.rkmotorscharlotte.com/inventory/132545 This place has so many cars that I'm in love with, but these are some of my write ups that stick out as spectacular cars. Oh, and I'm probably going to write up the 2nd Baldwin Corvette (the one that's been featured in numerous magazines, 2 tv shows and was invited to the Corvette museum in BG) next week. And, the GMC is still awaiting parts.

You guys be safe! Luckily it looks like we're getting spared. A soaked ground with wind is a HORRIBLE situation. In 2004 or 05 we were devastated by a hurricane in Asheville (a lot of vacant structures still haven't been torn down. But anyway, the news actually started advising people NOT to go outside of their houses because the wind was wreaking havoc on water logged roots and trees. Bad situation.

Well, by 'lug' I mean just low RPMs where the motor is taxed or pulling. When it's running normally, the O/D on this thing kind of reminds me of GMs fuel saving shift thing. The car will accelerate and then when it kicks into O/D it just murders the motor. It's like someone flips a switch. I really hate that transmission. It seems like Ford didn't have a decent auto, so they just 'threw this one in'.

Well, I replaced the coil boots and that *mostly* took care of the problem... By that I mean it runs pretty good 3/4 of the time and like straight sh*t the other quarter of the time. The fuel filter will hopefully be installed this or next weekend and the air filter should still be good to go. I cleaned and reconditioned it last time I changed the oil (it's a K&N) I'm really afraid that I have a coil going out in which case I'm going to have to do one of two things. 1) buy "a" coil and troubleshoot each of the cylinders (install and remove the coil) until I find the one that's dying. That way I can buy a little bit of time before I have to drop some change 2) Just man up and buy $400 worth of coils nd change them all. Right now, most of my commute is interstate driving and the car does fine cruising on the interstate. It starts missing when it kicks into O/D and 'lugs'. As of now, when the car hits O/D and starts lugging, I switch off the overdrive which raises the RPMs into the 'cruising' range where there is no skip. When the car gets to a speed that can support O/D better, i.e. doesn't lug as bad, I switch it back on. Kinda sucks, because I'm at a point now where I can begin to properly maintain (meaning do better maintenance and replacement than jut basic stuff) this and my Camaros (with the new job) if it'll just hang on for a few more weeks. I had a real bad feeling this was happening back in January... I fired the car up after a damp couple of days and it had a *slight* miss. I knew at that point moisture was getting into the system somewhere but wasn't sure where or how to fix it. The coil boots were old but in good shape, so I didn't sweat it too much. Come to find out, sometimes the hood scoops leak on the #2 and #3 cylinders and cause the coils to eff up.... I'm *assuming* that is what happened to mine. But until I change the coils, and find out it could be just more dead ends.

Update: The GMC is being estimated for repairs. Apparently it needed a few mechanical repairs as well. Probably wont show up on my schedule for another couple of weeks.

Felt it here in Charlotte... Parents felt it even better in Asheville.

Well... Any ideas? The car picked up a bad miss in February of this year and I put replacement platinum plugs in. That cured the miss for the most part (it has always had a very slight miss at 14-1500 RPM -- Apparently that is a characteristic of some of the 4.6L cars and something that a lot of people 'live with') Round about May, the ugly miss came back. I added some fuel system cleaner thinking that it couldn't hurt and the miss went away. This weekend, I've been moving so the car has been racking up a lot of interstate miles. Sure enough, today I was getting of the interstate and it's like someone flipped a switch. I added more fuel system cleaner (again; it can't hurt anything and I don't trust the fuel system in this car to begin with) but the miss is still there. It seems to cut out real bad when it's pulling from 1000-1400 RPMs, then it clears up and the car runs great (about 1800 RPMs -- cruising speed on the interstate) The car has about 124K on it now. I'm thinking about picking up some new coil on plug cap (I guess it would be called a cap) tomorrow to see if that's the problem. (Again; can't hurt) But if that doesn't fix it, I'm not sure where to go... Should I tear into the ignition system or do you guys think my suspicions about the fuel system are warranted? The car is due a fuel filter, but I haven't been able to get home and install it (2 hours away where all of my tools are and the majority of my maintenance happens) I've also read about some valve on the throttle body that makes these cars miss. (I have very little experience with modern cars)

This site has dates, styles and detailed architectural notes (I'm not sure if any of the houses have floor plans) I use it to keep tabs on old stuff around here and it might be worth a look. www.cmhpf.org Go to Historic Properties and List of Designated Historic Landmarks.

The fiance said that this isn't really her forte so she doesn't know much. But she suggested going to the library and searching for architectural history text books as a spring board. She said hopefully those will provide the basics fo you to build off of. She also said to check with the local historical society, especially if it's a specific house because a lot of times towns will keep the original floor plans or historical data on houses. I know that's not much, but hopefully it helps a bit.

My fiancé is an architect in training. I'll ask her and get back to you.