SAmadei

I've wanted to build something like this for years. If it was 2500, I'd be all over it, assuming a magnet test didn't uncover 3 inches of bondo.

Yeah, I figured Life was up there. I guess NatGeo suffers from the same problem as wheat pennies... too many people hold onto them. Why not use a belt sander? Clip the magazine in a jig and grind off 1/8 an inch.

Compared to most of what Toyota has had since, the "Van" is kinda cool in retrospect.

I don't think there are many people looking for such magazines. I've been surprised you would take apart National Geographics... I thought they were one of the holy grails of old magazines.

Hopefully that will help make the difference. The O2 sensor tends to wear out slowy the and CEL only comes on if it REALLY out of wack. I replaced mine after 100K and it was looking pretty bad... but no lights... the car ran noticeably better afterwards. I would probably leave the 50K O2 sensor alone, for now. If you have some high temp antiseize, you could inspect it... but be careful. Hardly a perk... I have almost come to blows at these stations. They don't understand cars, refuse to follow procedure, and are very inconsistant. I've been lucky for the last couple trips through... but I know it can't last. It depends on how scared you are that its going to be a problem. I would likely just run a potent can of FI injector cleaner before the test. I worry that some of the cleaners could screw up emissions. I wouldn't worry about the gas... the better gas has more detergent and/or better quality control, so it likely would have kept things cleaner over the long run... but one tank won't make a difference. If you had a preignition problem, I'd definitely use the higher octane stuff... but you have a knock sensor, so the car can react and maximize the ignition for the fuel... so I don't think 87 vs 89 will make a difference. Historically, GM tells owners to your the lowest octane fuel recommended by the owners manual... only use higher if knocking is an issue. Otherwise, its a waste of money. Anytime. I agree. We already have laws that visible smoke will get you a ticket... and the people in the middle of the spectrum between clean and smoky just run their junk through crooked mechanics. Most people at this point have a newer car... and if the emissions go out of wack, the CEL goes on, they panic, bring it to the mechanic (or trade it in IMMEDIATELY!).

In NJ, you can fail for HC, CO or NOx... typically, NOx is produced from a hot combustion... lean combustion or EGR problems. No EGR, which would be the first think I'd check means that I would likely run the car through with some fuel injector cleaener and try to keep the engine temp down when you take it through. I'll usually pick a nice, cool day and visit something near the inspection station... so the car can cool down and not leave the car idle in line. I would also consider replacing the O2 sensor, as it controls your mixture, and could be causing a lean condition. If your HC and CO are good, I might consider a new thermostat... possibly one that opens a bit lower. But I'd only do that if it failed. I suppose a clogging catalytic could also raise the combustion temperatures. Weather conditions have a lot to do with how the emissions work... especially in a borderline car. I've taken the same car through on different days and passed when it failed a few days before... and I hadn't changed a thing. Luckily, in NJ inspection is free at the state inspection centers and you can go though as many times as needed. I like the new OBD-II stuff... in NJ... no sniffer/treadmill... they just trust the computers tests... so as long as you don't have a CEL, you likely don't have an emissions problem.

Yeah, the precip we've gotten in the past 6 months or so is nuts. Rivers in South Jersey are getting pretty high. Reminds me of 1978... 2.5 foot of snow, lots of rain let to a big lake in the backyard. Well, it looks like there is about and acre sized shallow lake now... I'm afraid of what the spring will bring. In 1978, the yard turned into a quagmire.

Don't matter... several of them. Either a propeller-era one or a Hawk. Avanti is nice, but its already hung around enough. Studebaker was a decent, everyman's car. They had several styling cues that I feel would help shake up the current staid, automotive landscape. Studebaker was many times ahead of the curve back in the day. Interestingly, enough Wiki claims someone is already working on this return... There is a web site for Studebaker Motor Company that claims to hold the rights to manufacture future vehicles using the name "Studebaker" (obtained after the name had reverted back to the public domain). This "newer" Studebaker Motor Company plans to revive the automotive company by producing a new line of vehicles (also scooters and motor cycles). The company is currently in the planning and prefunding stages. However, the website has not been updated since June 2008. Of course, I like the idea of the 'Cuda coming back... as I preferred the 'Cuda to the Challenger. I even like the idea that AMC was coming back, even though it was an Aprils Fools magazine article. Of course, all this IP is owned by Chrysler and their potentially sinking ship, so I don't hold out much hope... just like I don't hold out hope that GM will produce anything in the future I would want to buy new.

Studebaker

I support PETA... the other PETA... People for the Eating of Tasty Animals. ;-)

The Engineered Hardwood versus Hardwood was a major issue in my GF's remodel. It was also a slab, so she was talked into the EH... unfortunately, after its done, it dents and scratches every time you as much as look at it, its not sitting on the slab right, so it oilcans as you walk over it. Now the dry winter weather has shrunk the wood and gaps are forming. I'm just not impressed... sure the color and variation is great, but it just does not look right to me. Its a shame because the hardwood she was going to use was Brazilian Walnut from Lumber Liquidators... and it was so hard and indestructible, the samples were almost like tile. I'm convinced the contractor insisted on the EH because it was easier to install... it was only a 30% savings over the real wood, IIRC. Of course, the hardwood would have required some kind of underlayment... but I'm sure it was not too hard. I'm also sure the contractor would have screwed up that install, too. My experience with Bamboo is mixed... it seems like it dents and scratches pretty bad. I generally like the Bamboo pattern and its renewability, but I have yet to see a Bamboo floor that impresses me. Same with core... like it in theory... haven't been impressed yet. Of course, impressing me with hardwood floors is a tough job. I've got a vintage 1959 hardwood floor in one house that has been absolutely abused for 30+ years... and it looks better to me, IMHO, that most new floors. Not only that, it still has enough material to be refinished... and I like the refinished, flat, one-piece look a lot better than the pre-varnished wood with beveled edges.

Throw a 50 lb bag of cat kitty or two in the trunk and sprinkle a little under the rear tires... problem solved.

I like the Nomad concept as much as the next guy, but that ship has sailed. It was a great idea in 2004... but now it looks kinda plain, and with the Mini Coopers being fairly ubiquitous, it would look like a late, Mini Cooper copy to the layperson.

I missed your post the first time through... am your rebuttal certainly changes things a bit... but the original story is not too far off, even if this guy is manipulating the media. Let me ask this... Have you been through a bankruptcy? Or a foreclosure? How about a bankruptcy thats screwed up by lawyers three times on a property with three mortgages and the bank ignores the orders of the court to proceed to foreclosure anyway... on a $15K balance on a $200K property. Then the property owner dies suddenly and dumps the entire situation into the the survivors to sort out. Of course, no lawyer wants to touch it. Yeah... that's what I've spent years sorting out. Without going into detail, let me just say the crap the bank pulled makes this guys original story MORE than plausible.

Well, I imagine that the guy is looking at two consequences... many three. 1. After foreclosure is over, he could be on the hook for the balance of the mortgage... but he said the land itself is worth about 160K, IIRC. Bankruptcy show fix that. 2. There may be some township rules about leaving a pile of wreckage behind. 3. Demolishing a house without a permit. Though, I suppose he could have gotten one. Umm... what other consequences could there be? I'm trying to figure the insurance angle... To the best of my knowledge, the bank probably requires pretty basic stuff... enough to cover their loss... 160K? As long as he doesn't file a claim, it wouldn't be fraud. assuming insurance was even in effect.

I totally get trademark law and the need to defend it against all threats. But, the logo in the article don't look like the Ram logo... Yeah, there both heads on view of a ram... Totally different style, color and detail. Plus one is horns out and one is horns out. If Chrysler is threatened by the use of the Ram as a logo, they should man up and go after a worthwhile opponent... the St. Louis Rams.

And thats just what the big oil execs WANT you to believe. Seriously, I agree... it is a sad and tragic event... but there are some people out there who would systematically kill everybody on Earth in the name of greed, so paying someone a few bucks to screw up the plane is not beyond the realm of possibility.

In this case, the original land is a fairly sedate corner... on probably a 5 acre tract. Of course, the idiot who had the house moved dropped it where the drivers arbitrarily parked it. Resulting in a rancher with its short side facing the road and and not square. As a child, I unearthed lots of old debris around the house digging holes, as kids will do. Stuff like that got me interested in this kind of stuff. I can't imagine one or even 4 guys could push a railcar too much... they are pretty heavy, especially full of beer bottles. In this case, the rail cars are much, much older. There is nothing online about it, only whats left in my brain from my research 20 years ago. The story concerned a long abandoned railroad spur in Egg Harbor City. The Germans who founded Egg Harbor City had grand plans for a metropolis, including a huge port on the Mullica River. To help facilitate growth to the area, Egg Harbor City and the town on the other side of the river, Lower Bank, agreed to build a railroad connecting the still active Atlantic City Line to the Central NJ Railroad, sometime in the 1880s, IIRC. Well, Egg Harbor City built their part, to the river, but Lower Bank never did, so apparently the rails were used to shuttle back and forth from the port to the main RR, and soon fell into disuse. During WWI, the need for iron caused the tracks to be pulled up for scrap... but they started at the RR end, leaving 3 railroad cars abandoned deep in the woods, near the river. I would just like to track the rightaway and see whats left... If they really are still out there, nearly a century later... I imagine there might be little left but the trucks. I imagine they were wooden in constrution, as a metal railcar would have been cut up for scrap. 20 years ago, some friends and I tried to track it... but the path was too overgrown. Everyone once in a while, I look online for scraps to see if there was more to it.

[quote name='ocnblu' date='20 February 2010 - 07:20 AM' timestamp='1266668410' post='578906'] [b][i][size="4"]...a new Mercedes?[/size][/i][/b] [/quote] Yeah, but rewind back to 1991~1992. The new Protege had just come out, and that was described as a ringer for a small Mercedes by the auto mags... and the Sentra was a pretty radical change over the boxy predecessors... but it surely didn't look or drive like a Mercedes. [quote name='ShadowDog' date='20 February 2010 - 01:04 PM' timestamp='1266689089' post='578954'] That is correct, but that was before the entire W-body changed for '95 and they reintroduced the Monte Carlo as their 2-door coupe of, essentially the same body style. This was in 2006, when most people in anything auto-related could probably remember that the Monte Carlo had been around again for over 10 years. [/quote] Oh agreed, its absurd for that dude to think the car was a Lumina... I was merely making a technical point for those keeping score at home. ;-) The dude probably grew up with a 2 door Lumina... and never realized they stopped making them. "They STILL make 2 door Luminas, right?!? Please, GOD, I hope so!" ;-)

As slow and flaky as that website is, it FINALLY confirmed a 25 year old mystery... the location of my childhood home. LOL. Sure, I knew where my childhood home was when I lived there... but it wasn't built there. I had heard rumors of its relocation and that the original house had burned down... sure enough, 1972 my yard is empty and one a few miles away has a house... 1995 my yard has one and the other is empty. Obviously, I knew my yard had one in 1978 and that the field where the house came from was empty... but we were never certain. Of course, it still doesn't answer the 'Why would someone move a 15 year old house to make an empty field?', but all involved are likely dead or senile now. I had suspected the it was moved so it wouldn't interfere with the little airport... but that not the case.

And Iowa, for some strange reason. Its a neat site, though... a bit flaky and slow, though. I usually use the USGS quads going back to 1930 or so to track buildings and ruins. Interesting that my home here in Brigantine was about 150 ft in the ocean in 1920. Oh, I have plenty of RR maps... but they don't always have the numerous little spurs and short, non-connected runs on them. And the search for the train cars in the woods is easily shown on a map... but hard to pick up on the ground. We picked up part of the trail, but it crossed a road and disappeared... on one side you could see the path, ballist and mossy, rotted ties... the other side, nothing but a wall of VERY old trees... and a house with no tresspassing signs. I was always interested in this stuff because the abandoned West Jersey and Atlantic Railroad rightaway abutted the rear of my home I grew up in.

[quote name='ShadowDog' date='20 February 2010 - 01:10 AM' timestamp='1266646210' post='578890'] Me: "They don't make two-door Luminas." Him: "Well, sure they do." [/quote] Actually, they made 2 door Luminas... but not long, and not after '95. I think the funniest thing ever said to about the car I was driving was back when I was a security guard... we drove '91 Sentras around a parking lot. I was the supervisor, so I was the only one who could take the cars out of the lot... the lot didn't have a bathroom, and another guard needed a lift to the approved gas station, so I drove him out there... two dorks in Security uniforms in a Sentra. Well, some pineys in a pickup pulls up along side of us and yells out "Look what the world's coming to... now rent a cops get to ride around in a new Mercedes!" I was so 'WTF?', I was speechless.

I've done my fair share of exploring in South Jersey, and I've learned the local history, so I have a pretty good idea of what to expect, but I still am amazed by the stuff I would find... abandoned RR beds miles from anywhere, HUGE concrete pads in the middle of the woods. Research turns up nothing, and I cannot understand why anyone would build such stuff so far off the beaten path. Best I can figure is that they where part of WWI munition factories, or suppliers to the factories. A lot of factories popped up in our area for the war effort, but most are well documented. I still want to try to find the supposed RR cars in the woods... but nature has done a good job at hiding the trail.

While I see these conspiracy theorists being a little premature, if something else crazy happens to Tesla, I could see there being huge conspiracy theory stuff going on for years... easily enough to eclipse the Tucker conspiracy. There are just too many rich people threatened by a company that hasn't even gotten a head of steam going yet.

Believe it of not, the biggest bird problem I've had are Northern Mockingbirds. They are notoriously stubborn and fearless. They will chase people, dogs, cats, hawk, whatever... Years ago, they would menace our cats... chasing them and crapping on them. There real smart and can actually recognize individual animals and people visually. Problem is they put there nests 6 ft off the ground... and this summer one put one 18 inches from the gate to get in the yard. I didn't notice it at first, just kept getting harassed by the bird. Finally, one day I noticed the chicks in the nearby tree... but momma bird didn't like it and flew after me... got me in the hand. The darn things also network... they tell their friends and so I was bird enemy #1 all summer... Everywhere in the yard I could hear them chacking at me 100, 200, 400 ft from the nest. They return, so I'm looking forward to another year of bird attacks. Yippee!