Camino LS6

I have to disagree on the original Mini. Even though it had a storied racing career, driving one is akin to being in an oven - one that is full of gas fumes. Yes, I've had the displeasure of driving one. The new Mini is another story entirely, it is one of a tiny number of FWD cars that I actually like. And the packaging under the hood is a miracle of engineering.

Not much chance of that, I have an ST to save for. The Silverado isn't scheduled for replacement until the 2015 model year. But speaking of that lug wrench, I bent it in two different directions! I think the tech ought to give me the one from his Silverado!

Looking very good,Ted! You've done a great job with this car so far. Just be careful not to leave that tape on too long, that water-based paint tends to be a bit weak. I agree on white for your permanent stripes.

I usually grow one for the winter, but I think I'll skip it this year. I hate shaving, but a beard is a hassle too. I'd go for that "hair growth inhibitor" stuff if it was for real. Besides, a beard makes me look ten years older.

Given the way those lug nuts were on, I'd have frozen to death before I could get the wheel off if that had happened to me. That's why I'm so mad at the tech who over-torqued them, and why I'm very glad the tire went flat in my own driveway.

I want to declare open season on these spandex-wearing, turtleheads. 10 points if you can knock over the fat-ass on the five-thousand-dollar bike! They need to understand the logic behind the concept of yielding to larger,faster, vehicles instead of placing their over-fed, spandex clad asses smack in the middle of the lane just to see how many cars they can line up behind them (just because they have a "right" to the road). Jerks.

Nice! Sweet '60 and '65 Caminos!

I sympathize! Read about my Saturday.

Oh, and I have a tire iron with the name of the last tech to rotate my tires written on it. He must have taken a nap while using the impact wrench on the lugs - even the wheels were stuck on the hubs the lugs were so over-torqued.

Today I woke up early with all sorts of grand plans to get things accomplished. I took care of the dogs and walked to the Silverado to go get my morning coffee - that's when things turned bad. The Silverado had a very flat tire. So, I think OK I can deal with that and proceed to attempt to change the tire. Well, after getting all of the never-used jack and lug wrench stuff out from its compartment behind the seat, I take off the centercap and try the first lug. Stuck. I mean really stuck. I fight with it for a while with no effect, then actually stand on the lug wrench - no movement. I start to jump on the lug wrench and It finally started to move. I think "great" half an hour into this and I have one lug loose. 2 hours later, 5 of the 8 lugs are now broken loose but the lug wrench is a pretzel and that last three lugs are deforming but not turning. So I try a 1/2" drive ratchet and socket, then add a large extension, then switch to a huge breaker bar, then try a deadblow hammer - all to no effect. At the end of that little episode, I finally manage to break one of the three remaining lugs loose by main force - my shoulder and back still hurt. So, the two remaining lugs are now so deformed and stripped that the socket no longer fits. I resort to drastic measures. I use a hand sledge to hammer on a size smaller socket, attach the breaker bar, and slip a 3 foot long pipe over the end. I push. I push harder. Finally, I get both lugs off. I know have 1 flat tire and three ruined lugs. A good look at the tire and I find a giant, blue, concrete screw at the very edge of the tread. So I call for a ride, and take the tire to the local Chevy dealer where the tech tells me that (as I suspected) the tire cannot be patched. They do give me three new lugs, however. Now it's off to the tire store to get a new tire. I choose the tire I want to go with this time and I wait. After what seems like too long of a time, they tell me that the computer is wrong and they don't have that tire in stock after all. But they will give me another one temporarily and order the ones I want for Monday. I say OK. They mount the tire and I think about how the truck is going to behave with mismatched tires and I worry about what that might do to the locking rear. Not to mention that I have a heavy workload scheduled for the truck beginning tomorrow. I also think about Having to take a chunk out of my Monday to get this dealt with. So I ask them if they can just put the other tire on if I hurry back - they say ok as long as I get there by 3:30 PM. It is just after 2PM at this point and it's a 20 minute drive each way. I rush home and mount the new tire. At this point I am starving and have run out of cigarettes. But there is no time to waste, so I just jump in the truck and head back. I make it with ten minutes to spare after cursing two idiots on bikes that decided to hold up a line of traffic (because they have the right to), and another idiot in a Tahoe driving with his flashers on at 15mph. I made sure that the bike-riders ate a copiuos amount of diesel exhaust when I got the chance to get around them. On the way back, I come to the painful conclusion that the front tires are even worse than the rears so I ask them to do all four. The real bitch of this all is that the tires only had at most 20k on them and they were complete junk. So now my 45k mile truck has its third set of new tires. The crappy tires were Michelin LTX ATs - don't buy them. Well, that's the story of my Saturday. Instead of getting a bunch of work done I ended up spending $630.00 that I hadn't planned on spending quite so soon. Thanks for reading my rant.

Very cool!

...or stolen.

Looks like an update of a 70s non-Corvette rally wheel used on Chevelles and Novas (among others).

The pictures suck, but it looks like a real Can-Am to me. I wonder where the shaker is?

Yup. The strategy is beyond stupid. It's as if the brain-dead folks behind it tried to take the approach that would have the least appeal globally and then promote it as a "global" car. It is least-common-denominator thinking, and insures that no one anywhere on the globe will feel a connection to the product. Brilliant.

It's about the cars and the industry - period.

Congrats Reg. Don't stop shopping though, you've gotten pretty good at writing reviews! :AH-HA_wink:

Absolutely! I'd happily go right to a wagon, skipping over the sedan, if a coupe didn't work for me. A sedan is just a wagon someone forgot to finish designing.

You don't know what a heavy door is until you experience a Colonnade coupe or El Camino! Heaviest door ever!

What an insane vision that would be. If no other incarnation was available, then yes, I'd buy (and then de-badge) the ST. With it being available at Pontiac, then no.

Happy Birthday!

I'd buy a Toyota if they promised to leave the country and never return. Otherwise, nothing could ever convince me.

You dropped your obsession with AWD and bought a base G8 demo?

The HLF? I love it!

Good progress! It's a great feeling to get a project legal again - can't wait for that myself.