SAmadei

Uh, well, yeah, they were. Sorry, but your modern eyes are apparently too used to soft, friendly lines... unable to process the beauty in the old designs. The only crap you posted was the Plymouth Champ... hardly a "real" Plymouth. There was not a single bad looking American car in this entire thread. In fact, as time marches on, even the early imports are starting to outclass the current styling... even the Champ. I have had plenty of old cars and all had radios, brakes... and with one or two exceptions, they had air conditioning and power windows. _Functioning_ A/C is a different matter, I'll concede, but I could have ponied up for a R12 recharge. Heres some things my old cars had that new cars apparently will never have again... trunk space, easily understood drivetrains, body styles available as coupes, sedans, wagons and convertibles, and ignition that is not able to shutdown remotely (OnStar, HERF or electrical pulse). I'm not going to say the old cars are better than new in all ways... they're not. The technology has progressed to give us better batteries, build quality, transmissions... but when these technologies are added to an old car, you have a pretty unbeatable ride.

Are you kidding? ... this is roughly the same weight per linear inch (long) as a Challenger. And on the road, it'll get more attention than any American car built in the last 25 years. Hope somebody saves it.

And thats when this started. Generally, it only happens from my NYC computer... but as soon as I start to try to diagnose the problem (i.e., load the site using the same network on my laptop), OpenDNS stops blocking it. Only happens for a few minutes every few days. Its very strange. Its annoying at the same point because the OpenDNS stuff cannot be overridden and it does not give much feedback to what triggered the problem, which makes me think its deep upstream.

Is the Cheers and Gears site or its hosting company being "protected" by OpenDNS? I ask because I keep getting a "Phishing Site Blocked" message... then a few minutes later, it clears. Its happening when I use TW Cable... but I doubt they are providing it, to the best of my knowledge. In fact, I don't use their DNS... I use my own DNS server I built myself at a remote co-location site. I also doubt that the local antivirus and tools or whatever is doing the blocking... I work in this industry... not a novice. Anyway, I thought I'd bring it up to see if anyone else is having this problem. I suspect that perhaps one of the ads is triggering this blockage... but it would also be nice to determine where the block is. Thanks.

When I originally replied, I actually was going to include the phrase "for under $50K", but I figured it was unnecessary since we are talking about conversions of the big 3. In any case, I'd still be stuck with something that looks like a Mercedes. Meh... I guessitimate I could convert FWD to RWD for less than $10K. 4 door to 2 door for $20K. Hardtop? Sure, they're nice, but I can live with the B pillar. Don't get me wrong... GM's inability to produce a large car instead of BS CUVs and SUVs, and the demise of my sentimental favorite Pontiac will eventually drive me to BMW and Mercedes. But this is not the solution for the average person.

Ugh... I like hot dogs, but rarely eat them, knowing their, uh, sordid ingredients. But Wienerschnitzel has got to be the worse dog I've ever gotten. I love fast food, but after a few bites, the Wienerschnitzel meal I looked forward to trying was in the trash and I was across the street at Ecoli-in-a-Box. Of course, this thread has me in the mood for my first hot dog of 2010... and it will likely be from... Five Guys! Yeah, the burger people. they cut them in half and grill them. Cheese, bacon and BBQ sauce, and its ready to go. Ketchup or Mustard?... always Ketchup... I hate Mustard.

What is 1157 and 1533 lbs? Certainly not the cars.

I like the idea of a RWD conversion from a sleeper standpoint. Nobody would every expect to see a G6 pull the front wheels off the ground. After all the times I've been under the Bonne, I'm convinced that a RWD conversion would not be as hard as some would figure. Of course, I'd like to make it into a coupe, as well. Why? Simple, at this point in history, there are no large RWD coupes available for purchase. Really? Where can you buy a RWD Intrepid or something "just like it"? The Charger ain't no Intrepid... sure the Charger has a great drivetrain, but the appearance pales compared to the Intrepid. If I wanted a RWD Bonneville? Oh, a STS is "just like it"... uh, no, its not. G8, well, their getting hard to find already... and they aren't Bonne sized.

1959 Edsel wagon. May have been a 1960. A bit rough, but being fixed. Too bad it was smoking blue pretty bad.

Would have liked to see pictures. I like the carriage tops on some cars.

This just makes me ill. I don't smoke it or advocate it, but I don't care if he had 30 tons of weed in the house, this is simple abuse of power. Wheres the ASPCA? We just routinely shoot dogs on warrant servings now? Oh, yeah, most of the ASPCA functions seem to be privatized now, to people who want to take your pet and put them down for money.

My Bonne does this on the passenger side inboard pad if I'm not careful. Everytime I switch out pads, I clean and lube the float sleeves with antisieze.

That's why I couldn't ever buy a new truck. Trucks are for work, and are going to be driven through the brush and trees in my yard. I can't believe how hard it is to find a local beater Chevy/GMC pickup for cheap that is inspected or will pass inspection. Darn things never sink below $1500 unless they are mortally wounded.

Three words: Armor plated Hoverrounds.

And the fact out government seems to hold barely a passing interest in the border problem, among other problems, shows that we have lost control of our own government.

Is it just me, or is the bowtie on the steering wheel huge? It looks at least 20% bigger than it should be.

Trust me, all the cars with serious problems have inspection stickers... the owners just pay garages to look the other way. It irks me every time I drive around and see some guy in a hugely lifted truck (over 6" requires a stability inspection) with black tinted windows all around, blacked out lights all around, no exhaust, 8 sets of fog lights, no front plate and a current inspection sticker. Meanwhile, I get failed because there is a rip in the seat back showing 1/4" of steel structure. Yes, I have been failed for that. "Someone could get cut on that"... WTF?!?

Not knocking it, but that's from 1973. Margaret Nolan from 'Carry on Girls'. Shes 66 now, and probably looks a little different today. Actually funnier is the rest of the clip with the old guy next to her trying to close it back up and her slapping him.

For the NJ members... some good news about the economy. The article is Here.

My family largely saves everything... but our most important heirlooms are various things made by my mother's parents. My grandfather was quite the woodworker, and we have a couple rocking chairs he made... my sister has a little kitchenette he made. He also made a set of lamps with a spiral, that to this day, I have NO idea how he made with his lathe. But the most important item I have is a traffic light he made for me when I was a budding car crazy child, which included a timer system so it would automagically change. It needs a bit of restoration... and so I opened it up the switch controls one time, and I realized his built _everything_ from scratch... no radio shack switches or timers here. Its so old tech, I'm not sure I can fix it up. My grandparents had those kind of hand made rugs, too. I'm not sure what became of them... my Aunt probably has them. And yes, I drove little cars around the 'laps' as a child.

Meh... did it on the '99 Bonne, which is not a particularly easy car to do it with. Later cars have an access panel. In my case, the hardest part was getting the rubber hoses for the filler and vapor recovery off. They were really fused on, and there was little room to get some muscle on it. To tell the truth, the Bonne had a bunch of stuff in the way, yet, that stuff helped the situation... as it acted as a shelf to rest the tank on. The job was harder looking than it turned out to be. When I did the '91 Firebird or '89 fullsize van, it was actually MUCH harder. In any case, the most important thing is jacking the car _VERY_ high. 3-4 feet minimum... this is tricky, as some cars will put the nose on the ground... or want to teeter back and forth... so one must be careful. Next important thing is to get as much gas out as possible.

Its fine to carry a DL around because its designed to be carried around. Its small and usually laminated. I know that my BC would be a ragged piece of paper in a few weeks if I had to fold it 5 times and put it in my wallet exposed to sweat, grit and pressure. Of course... you need to have a valid BC to get a license... so why do you have to carry both? Why not just require people to carry the written results of the road test. And the written test. And your diploma. And all your vaccinations. And a piece of placenta. Where does it end? The idea of needing to carry your BC around irks me because my original was basically a piece of flimsy copy paper. When I took it a few years ago to the NJ DMV, due to new identification requirements, it wasn't ACCEPTABLE! Not because of damage... but the old printing was not secure enough, so I had to spend a day in Trenton and $$ to get an updated copy. This is a load of BS... I provided my BC to get my license in the first place... what 'security' is there to show it again? If someone was trying to get a falsified license, they'd make a false BC along with the other false documentation. In fact, there is less security due to the dumbing down of the officials who think that 6 crappy documents is better security than one carefully examined document. I don't want pretend security. I was privacy and real security. So what would have happened if this guy was from Cali... and never heard of this Arizona requirement to have his BC with him? The states shouldn't have different document requirements, where he's stuck for days while someone has to retrieve those documents.

I was thinking the other day about the Volt, in the light of it being used the same way as a Nissan Leaf... i.e., as a electric only car. I know that engines and gasoline don't like sitting still for long periods... I was curious, if the Volt engineers have planned for the possibility of a owner never getting the Volt to run the gasoline engine. Sure... the Volt could turn it on briefly from time to time to ensure it doesn't suffer from its disuse, but then I was thinking... what if the owner never puts gas in it... so then the Volt could not even run the engine periodically to keep it in good condition. Then I was thinking... what if the user never runs the Volt's engine... and the car doesn't occasionally run the engine... then that gasoline is going to slowly turn to varnish. In one case, the engine potentially suffers from rust and lubrication problems from disuse... or has problems with keeping the fuel system unfouled. I also wonder if the Volt engineers have planned for the possibility that owners may wish to remove the engine/gas tank to save weight if its never used... say gas goes up unexpectantly to $88 a gallon in a couple years... or if the engine was to malfunction and not be worth replacing. Thoughts?

Based upon people in my family glued to the TV or rushing to the TV... 9/11 Second is a toss up between the Challenger explosion and Reagan's assassination attempt.