Looked at the Honda and Chevy Today

It was a spur-of-the-moment thing, and we got there about 30 minutes before they closed. The Honda dealer had NO sales staff there, just some frightened looking little receptionist wearing a mask, and behind a big clear plastic shield. They had one outside, all locked up, that looked like it just came off the tuck, and one inside that we crawled all over, doing the tire-kicking and door-slamming thing all by ourselves. VERY nice interior ("soft touch" surfaces everywhere), paint looked pretty good, all the panel fits were excellent, the doors and tailgate closed with a solid feel, and the seats seemed very comfortable. SLW could easily get in and out of it even though it didn't have the steps she wants on it, and she thought she could see out of it adequately well, but she wouldn't know until she drove one. She was quite impressed with the rear seat that folds up to free a lot of cargo space, and the "Two Way" tailgate that drops down like a proper tailgate, but also swings out like a door.

She agreed a beige leather interior would get filthy beyond belief in six months, so she backed off on wanting a red one as that's the only color interior available with red. If we buy a Honda, we'll get a blue one, as it has a slate grey/black interior.

The we went up the street to the Chevy dealer. They had Colorados (Coloradoes?) galore, but all the ones on the lot were either strippers, or fully-loaded Z71 and ZR2 off-road specialists. A nice young guy came out (one of the owning family's sons), and after talking a bit, he said he had a car with a deposit on it like we wanted, but he'd go get it so we could look at it. Except for the color, black, and the "RST" package at $2995, it was exactly what we wanted as far as trim level and interior. We crawled in and around that one, but he couldn't let us drive it as it was too close to closing, but he said if we came back during the day, we could drive one with the same config (4WD, mostly) that we were looking for. The Chevy had beautiful paint, good panel fit, nice interior, REAL KNOBS for the radio and climate control instead of touch-screen everything, and SLW could easily get in and out of it even though it, too, lacked the side steps she wants. She could see out of it OK ("Not As Good As The Honda"), and she liked the flip-flop-fold-em-up rear seats, but again, she proclaimed them "Not As Good As The Honda", which has tons of very cleaver storage cubbies, and a lockable trunk in the cargo bed. I noticed lots of hard plastic on the doors and dash of the Chevy, but it seemed to be screwed together pretty well.

So we kind of shot ourselves in the foot by going out so late, but at least we got to look at two of our choices.

And as expected, she's got doe-eyes for the Honda even though she hasn't driven it.

As of this time, the original five contestants have been winnowed down to three, the Nissan Frontier and Toyota Tacoma having not made the cut. Don't get me wrong, the Toyota is about as reliable as an anvil, and WSF has friends that say the same thing about the Nissan, but they're 10-year old designs, due for a redesign, somewhat loud and crude, and the interiors have a strong "Work Truck" look to them. I'm sure *I* could live with one, but I don't think she'd be happy with it unless she got several more orders of magnitude "countrified".

And although she's agreed to test drive the Gladiator, I don't think she'll care for it. It's a stretched Wrangler, pretty much has a Wrangler interior (gussied up right nice, though), has coil sprung suspension with straight axles front-and-rear, and looks pretty utilitarian.

I think she'll want to go with the Honda. I'd be stunned if she found the Jeep "acceptable". I just hope we drive the Jeep over some reeeeally nice roads on the test drive so it doesn't shake her fillings out.....

Welllll..... That Was Quick....

 I figured it would take the wife at least a week to decide she didn't like the Jeep Gladiator. Only took her three days.

SO....I'm keeping my Grand Cherokee, and she'll be trading in her Elantra. Not sure what she'll be getting, but as WSF commented, she'll love it, and I'll drive it when required.

Best Blogger's Post I've Read All Year!

Peter over at Bayou Renaissance Man has an absolutely GREAT post about the current state of affairs, and offers some powerful suggestions as to how to start to work our way out of it.

I know most of you read Peter's blog, but please don't miss this post. It's outstanding!

First Steps....

Spent about 3~4 hours today pulling out the radio gear, power cables, signal cables, Aux GPS cables, and returning everything to the way it was before I put the stuff in.

Got the shop vacuum out and sucked all the crud out of the car, and cleaned the glass.

I pretty much know everything about this car that needs attention, and some of it I'm going to do (the headlights, again), and some I'll farm out (the detailing). And some items won't get done, like 4 new shocks. I put new brake rotors with high-end ceramic pads on it before we moved here, and the pads show like (maybe) 10% wear. The rotors still look new. The objective at this time is to get it a much presentable condition than it is now. In short, it's filthy! The carpets need to be shampooed, along with the headliner, and the seats need to be professional cleaned. The drivers seat needs a couple of small repairs, the windshield needs to be replaced, the driver's side outside mirror is getting cloudy and should be replaced. If I can find a cheap used one, I'll swap it out. Other than the items mentioned here, it's a rust-free "California Car" that's low-mileage (2006 model year, 87,000 miles), never been wrecked or abused, and always had regular maintenance. Once I get it presentable, we'll start the serious shopping.

And we haven't decided 100% on buying a Gladiator. I've been reading reviews of the other trucks in the size class, and one I want to look at is the Honda Ridgeline. The "Truck People" look down on them for various reasons, but they'll tow up to 5,000lbs when they have the all-wheel drive package, and since I doubt if I'll ever do any serious off-roading, the all-wheel drive capability they have should be sufficient. The Get-Outta-Dodge roads we'd have to use can be easily handled by one of these, as I've seen a couple "Up On The Mountain".

The only thing the magazine reviews faulted them on was the brakes. Soft pedal, lots of travel, and longer-than-average (for the class) stopping distances.

So the game's afoot, and I'm proceeding with the fact that if we really do buy a new car, the Jeep will be traded in or sold to a private party, and we're keeping her Hyundai. The little Elantra is seven years newer, runs like a top, and only has 38,000 miles on it. It's been an excellent car (never mind the two big accidents; wasn't her fault), it's pleasant to drive, gets very good fuel economy, and has been dead reliable except for the time she didn't close the door all the way, the dome light stayed on, and the battery croaked.

Hmmmm...Should I, Or Shouldn't I?

Sweet Little Wife has been talking lately about us "needing" a truck. She can't really haul much besides me, groceries, and The Little Guy around in her beloved little Hyundai Elantra, and with her recent furniture refinishing and gardening projects, she really does need to haul some stuff around.

And there have been numerous times when I needed things that were too big to fit in my Grand Cherokee, which has less space inside than you'd think by looking at the outside.

She also said it MUST have four doors (a.k.a. "Crew Cab" configuration) as she likes being able to take more than one person somewhere, i.e. The Little Guy and one or both of The Kids. Hmmm....guess I get to ride in the bed, then.....

And it MUST be four wheel (these days "All Wheel") drive, AND be capable of getting up to the The Homestead of our extended family, something she says she would NOT attempt in the little Hyundai, and I don't blame her one bit, having driven up there numerous times.

So I mentioned something about the new Jeep Gladiator being a four-door, all-wheel drive, "Trail Rated" vehicle with a pick-up bed, and just let it fade out after that.

We went running around doing some errands this afternoon (Home Depot, CVS, etc) and went to Freddy's for dinner. I *finally* got my Patty Melt from Freddy's and it was fabulous! She mentioned how nice it would be if we had a "nice little truck" to run all out errands in as she looked at how packed we had my Grand Cherokee.

I said we'd drive by the Jeep dealer tonight on the way home, and see if they had any Gladiators in stock.

They only had two, one pretty basic, and one pretty loaded. We looked at the "pretty loaded" one, and except for the color (black), she loved it. She absolutely detested in in black, though, saying "It Looks Like a Gestapo Car", which really cracked up the sales guy.

So we came home, went online, and did the "Build and Price" thing, and looked up the resale value of my Jeep.

Current delivery time is running about 8 weeks for a special order car, and if we're gonna cough up the Ka-Ching for one, we're going to get exactly what we want, so unless they put $10k "On The Hood", we're loathe (well, *I* am) to buy one out of stock.

I'm gobsmacked she's considering this. She even says I can get it with the six-speed manual trans. She knows how to drive a manual trans car, but I'm not so sure she'll like driving one of these with a manual, and that's the last point we have to discuss, as an automatic transmission is a $2,000 option.

Other than, should we get RED, or White?

R.I.P., Charlie. You Brought Joy To Countless People.....

This is the first time in recent memory that the passing of a musician has bummed me out. His music had that "something" to it that resonated with people across all backgrounds and walks of life.

Uneasy Rider

Still In Saigon

Long Haired Country Boy

In America

God Bless you, Charlie. I've got a feeling there's gonna be a lot of toe tappin' going on  in Heaven.....

Happy Independence Day!

As our friend Shaun says, "Be well and embrace the blessings of liberty".

Embrace them very tightly. Once gone, they're nigh well impossible to restore without great sacrifice and hardship....

Huh...just noticed the HOT DOGS are missing from the above picture.

Not to mention the Chevrolet emblem.....

Yep, we did it once....

And we've always been ready to do it again.....

Might not be a bad idea.....

So go ye forth, and Embrace The Blessings Of Liberty!

Here We Go Again.....

Ground out the dings and divots I missed the first time, and feathered the edges of the paint around them.

Then I sanded the whole thing down again, this time using 150 grit.

The black paint makes a good "guide coat", easily showing the high spots where the paint sanded off, and the low spots, where it didn't. And wonder-of-wonders, it's almost acceptably smooth. This stuff sands off relatively easy with 150 grit, and I probably would have blown right through it with 80 grit.

I'll go over it again tomorrow when I have more light coming in. I have some "High Build Primer", but it doesn't specifically say it's for flexible parts, so I'm loathe to use it. The "recommended" primer should be here Monday, so I just have to sit on my hands for a while. This is starting to look like I can pull it off successfully, so I don't want to blow it using wrong materials.

It's not like this is the ONLY project I have cooking......!

Back In Black!

The bumper cover is painted.

And as expected, the surface prep was less than perfect well done. Since I didn't have any grey primer, I couldn't see how many and how deep the sanding scratches (and you ALWAYS have them) were. Since the finest paper I used was 220 grit, it left quite a few. The 80 grit I started with to knock everything down and get all the bad paint off left some deep ones, and I should have (at least) sanded it down with some 600 to smooth it out.

This is the only picture I could get that shows the surface decently, and you can see I still have more work to do.

It's pretty "rough", and it looks like these coats of black paint will be my "primer".

I just wonder how tough this stuff is to sand. I'll let it dry/cure a few days, and then WET sand it with 600.

A Decade of Solar Activity in Six Minutes

One of my radio buddies sent me this link, and it's amazing to watch.

So, I embedded it here. The music is a bit "spacey", but the video is fascinating to watch.

Watch it full screen for maximum effect.....




And speaking of solar activity, 6 Meters is "open" again, and several guys in the area made contacts with Japan just now @2300UTC.


It's damp and rainy today, so no painting.....

Taped Up and Almost Ready For Paint

Got the front of the car lifted up about 18" today, and mounted solidly on some NON Harbor Freight jack stands.

I'll lower the hood, and cover the front with some old moving blankets I have. Since this a "Rattle Can Job" the spray won't go very far, and I masked back far enough to prevent any overspray from getting on the car. I'll wipe it down with some prep solvent and check my masking once more, then spray it with the adhesion promoter, and then the color coat.

And this is the table SLW has been refinishing:

She saw it at the local ARC Thrift Shop and liked it, even though it has some really bad spots in the finish. She's been sanding away and learning things, and has just about declared it finished (no pun). She'll probably Varathane it tomorrow and then polish it out after the coating has cured.

This is the second one she's refinished, and her technique is getting much better. She's realized doing stuff like this is NOT as easy as a YouTube video makes it out to be, and that you actually have to pay attention to what you're doing so you don't do some damage that's difficult to repair, like sanding clean through the veneer, something I've coached her about, showing her how thin the veneer is in on spot where a small piece had broken away.

So it looks like I should have this painted in the next day or two, and it's been the #1 item on the punch list since I got the car.