frustratedpilot | Entries tagged with chevy

To condense a lot of happenstances into something more undestandable:

* My car's brakes were inspected a couple weeks ago. There's still some horrible noise coming from the rear, but the problem I'd had was for the most part fixed.

* Dad traded in the Cadillac for a Camry--and two weeks later got in an accident with it. On Wednesday I'll take it to the repair shop for him.

* We were planning on a trip up north to coincide with Dad's high school class reunion, but that may not happen if our money situation has a big crimp in it.

Took a daytrip to Kentucky yesterday. It perpetually mystifies me the way that Moonshine's Sony sound system will play some cuts from the keydrives I have, but not all of them. Really I wish I knew how to remedy this issue.

The Suzuki car that General Motors sold in the United States as the Geo Metro (a stablemate of the Prizm I drive!) is still in production in its 1990s vintage form--in Pakistan.

I took Moonshine in for an oil change at the Dandridge Pennzoil today. I'm only a month or so away from putting 100,000 miles on her since I bought her. And, like the song goes, so much has happened and nothing has changed.

http://www.alibaba.com/member/kr101003498.html

AUTORIA is a company that specializes in rebadging kits for cars built in Asia. Their target users are those with Daewoos and KIAs who want to somehow redeem their "face" with their neighbors. So the company offers the option of rebranding your car as a TIGRIS with new nameplates and new insignia.

In theory I could rebrand Moonshine in a similar fashion. I'm motivated by the fact that under current Tennessee law, my car is old enough to be sold to a scrapper without the title or other ownership paperwork, thus my car is a possible target for thieves looking for a quick buck. So if I could somehow make my vehicle look newer...or just different enough to make a thief believe that stealing it would be more trouble than it's worth...it would help me a great deal.

http://www.3dtuning.ru/en

This is a Russian car customizer Flash widget.

PS:

An attempt to rod a Chevy Lacetti (the closest thing they had to Moonshine).

Well, after that incident in Morristown in which I heard some really nasty noises come from Moonshine's underside last week, Dad and I scrambled to find a repair shop to get her back to rights.

Dad calls mechanic he knows #1--"Sorry, I've got a bunch of projects lined up. Be at least a couple weeks.'

Mechanic he knows #2--"I'm busy this weekend. Be out of town too."

I mentioned the place where we got Moonshine's new tires and Dad decides against that. So today he took Moonshine over towards Panther Creek...

New AAMCO shop!

MOONSHINE: Hey! Pull in here!

DAD: Okay, just a moment.

And so Dad tells them about the problems I'd had with the car, and the mechies look her over and get to working...

MECHIE: Two new front rotors! Reconditioned CV axle! And a new brake pad!

MOONSHINE: Eeee...

(Dad's in the lounge getting a cup of tea...)

MECHIE: Clean out and inspect the rear brakes!

MOONSHINE: Ohhhh...

(Dad's getting his shoes shined...)

MECHIE: New spark plugs and plug wiring!

MOONSHINE: Ahhh...

(Dad gets a back massage...)

Of course this takes all afternoon. Finally he gets back to Rather Manor and shows me the invoice.

DAD: 12 month guarantee on all the work.

ME: And you got $50 in discounts!?

He always manages to find good customer service. I'll have to take Moonshine for a test drive overmorrow.

Sagittarius Horoscope for week of October 25, 2012

As you contemplate what you want to be for Halloween, don't consider any of the following options: a thoroughbred racehorse wearing a blindfold; a mythic centaur clanking around in iron boots; a seahorse trying to dance on dry land. For that matter, Sagittarius, I hope you won't come close to imitating any of those hapless creatures even in your non-Halloween life. It's true that the coming days will be an excellent time to explore, analyze, and deal with your limitations. But that doesn't mean you should be overwhelmed and overcome by them. Halloween costume suggestions: Houdini, an escaped prisoner, a snake molting its skin.

I wish I could escape...was out driving today and heard some very frightful noises coming out of Moonshine's brakes. I don't think I could go far without a getaway ride.

This is the badge for the Baojun marque, which is a joint venture between General Motors and two Chinese automakers, Liuzhou Wuling and SAIC/Shanghai. SAIC owns the UK marque MG (of which we still have high regard in our family). The current Baojun product, the 630, is an economy four-door sedan in roughly the same class as my current Chevy Prizm Moonshine.

I'd already thought of re-badging Moonshine as a Holden, or a Vauxhall, or an Opel, or even a Shacman. Suddenly the Baojun looks to be the way to go, as the name starts with B and it's got that horse logo that's kind of like the one Ford used on their Stallion version of the Mustang II.

The above is the corporate logo for the Chinese truck maker Shaanxi Automobile, whose Western doing-business-as name is Shacman. I was pointed in that direction by the China Defense Blog, which had a post yesterday about the military vehicles they are offering to the People's Liberation Army.

I got to do some Wiki-poking around and saw that Shacman is affiliated with MAN (which is connected to Volkswagen) and Steyr (which is aligned with GM Europe and Mercedes-Benz).

And so degrees to Moonshine? The Corolla/Prizm was also sold in Europe as the Opel/Vauxhall Astra, and Steyr did some of the engineering work on follow-up models of the Astra when Opel/Vauxhall evolved their own versions once the Toyota/Geo/Chevrolet/NUMMI partnership finished. In theory, even though Shacman doesn't make passenger cars at all, I could be in my rights to rebadge Moonshine as one, if only to get it "monogrammed" with my S.

I wonder from whom I could get parts...

I wonder if that will fit in her engine bay. Chevy's new 2.5 Liter EcoTec engine for the 2014 Malibu. More HERE!

I was having problems with uploading up to tonight, but I guess it was because there were glitches in the software driving my modem. New software put on it a couple hours ago, seems to be working.

1964 Karmann for sale in Dandridge. Moonshine pays a social call.

Attempted to take Mum to the store this afternoon and we didn't get far in Moonshine--it was quickly evident that the rear passenger side tire was going flat. So back at Rather Manor we try to reinflate the tire and Dad notices a nailhead in the tread.

So Mum and I take Dad's Buick to the store, and when we get back Dad's in his pickup going past us into town--and Moonshine is up on a jack.

After a while he returns. "I missed the fellows at the tire garage by five minutes. This will have to wait for Tuesday."

Now, I'm willing to think this is just lousy luck. But at the same time...

Last week our neighbor across the street was away from his place and Dad sees a couple men there. So he went over there and asked them what they were doing. They were looking for a car the man there owned. Dad knew that the neighbor had lent it to a friend, so Dad sent them in that direction.

Turned out they were repo men from the bank; the neighbor had quit payments on the car, and so his passing it to a friend was legally theft and the friend's having it was possessing stolen property. So the repo men taking the car were saving both the neighbor and his friend from going to jail.

The neighbor didn't see it that way, of course. He was very angry about it and cussed both Dad and Mum when he found out. We aren't on speaking terms, and I wonder if my car is out of action due to sabotage rather than a mere piece of bad luck.

Makes no difference to me, of course. If it was bad luck, I'll just move on and forget it. If it was the neighbor trying to get back at us, I'm going to ignore it and not sink to his level.

But if it happens again, I know who to call. I believe in justice, not vengeance.

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My car is Moonshine, dig?

Now, if my luck is ascendant and I win the OnStar Sweepstakes in June, that car will be dubbed Mariah the Younger. It's a long story.

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Moonshine, of course. Mobility is perhaps the most important aspect to my character.

Still going through my research addiction on racing sports cars and GTs and kit cars and so on. Latest question running through my mind: "What are the ultimate racing cars built by the marques that are/were cars my family owned?"

* Oldsmobile. The final racing Oldmobiles were mainly in IMSA's last years before the reorganization to American LeMans. In addition to Olds-engined WSC cars (the Riley & Scott, Spice, and Courage chief among them), race-configured Aurora sedans were competing in the GT3/GTS-1 classes.

* Chevy. Well, the Corvette and Camaro programs are on-going of course, as well as ongoing NASCAR ubiquity.

* Ford. Mustangs, NASCAR, GT40, Probe GTP--take your pick.

* Pontiac. The final version GTO saw action in GrandAm just before the marque's demise. There was also a Drift/GT-configured Solstice or two. And Pontiac-powered prototype racers in ALMS.

* Buick. NASCAR (up to twenty years ago), dragsters, GTP cars, but not much lately. Buick is sponsoring Holden race cars for Asian circuits, but it's not the same.

* Dodge. The Viper WAS the ultimate racing Dodge, but 2010 was the final year for the car. Can the Challenger pick up where the Viper left off?

* MG. There is a new MG LeMans car? Hmm. Need to find out more about it.

* Toyota. NASCAR, Formula, tuners, drift--they're all over the place.

* Nissan. Z Cars in GT, of course, plus prototypes, touring, drift, some Formula.

* Audi. Dominating P1 in ALMS for years. Plus running in GT, touring, drift, and so on.

* AMC. Well, when I got my Concord, they had already faded from the pale, got acquired by Renault and then Chrysler, and had become Eagle. Their ultimate racers were and always will be the Javelin/AMX family.

Have I left anything out? Must come back to this later.

PS: As a matter of fact, I left out:

* Mercury. NASCAR, hot rod dragsters, Cougars and Capris in IMSA...but not much after 1990.

Yes, Moonshine crossed the Finish Line today in time for Lunch. We started with fuel at I-75 at Highway 61 between Clinton and Norris, and moved east on 61 to Big Ridge, where the route took us up on Rt. 170 to a segment of Highway 33. Now, I should have taken the left turn back onto Hwy. 61, but the construction in the area confused me, and wound up adding twenty miles to the effort from getting lost, finding a mistake, and doubling back.

Highway 61 between Maynardville and Luttrell is not a lot of fun and only recommended for vehicles the size of Segways.

61 to Corryton, 331 to Harbison, 131 to Halls and then US 441 down to downtown Knoxville.

Last stop: Magnolia Avenue:

This is the north side of the 1900 block of Magnolia. Directly aft of Moonshine's bumper is the building that up to recently was home to Mary's Hot Tamales diner. On the other side is the building that used to be the Pepsi bottler where Mountain Dew was invented. I couldn't get good photos of either, but the block is in serious need of rehab. This same neighborhood has the Knoxville campus of Pelissippi State College and the local PBS station.

Of course, the rest of the trip is practically home turf and I've driven it dozens of times before. Total Distance: 235.5 Miles.

I've promised a nice lil' brown jug souvenir for on Moonshine's dashboard, and likely a front bumper plate. Job well done, my Prizm.

This week, a new car wash opened in Morristown, just a couple miles from school. So today on lunch break, I took Moonshine there, as the place was offering freebie washes. Yes, they were free, and the top-of-the-line service.

It wasn't a detail, but still the next best thing. And Moonshine probably lost five to ten pounds of Tennessee and Kentucky in the process.

My day started before 6 AM with the school day (mostly practical work--the Afternoon session went better than the Morning one), and then after I got back to Rather Manor 'round Tea Time (this time the Tea came with a can of Ravioli) it was into Knoxville for the monthly IPMS meeting.

On the way there, I was in the middle lane of I-40 between the Asheville Highway and Cherry Street exits when a car in the fast lane shed a hubcap--which whacked Moonshine's bumper and front driver's side fender. I'm very relieved that I didn't overreact and cause a real accident. I couldn't check the damage very well (as it was getting dark when I got to my destination) but it all seems superficial.

I've been trying to stave off a head cold since Sunday and it's been tough. Rather Manor has no central heat as the propane tank is being changed and the new one has yet to show up. (We're changing suppliers.) I'm not sure a sick day would help. Week after next is Fall Break anyway.

More to come.

I'm recharging my personal batteries; Moonshine's was replaced by Dad while I was in school.

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Stephen R Bierce

Frustrated Pilot

March 2022

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Pilot's Log

Where Very Little Happens

Entries tagged with chevy

Car Stupf

All This Machinery Making Modern Music...

Useless Fact

Wheel In The Sky Keeps On Turnin'

A Moonshine By Any Other Name...

Note To Myself

Maintenance (Kiffiescope?)

FreeWill And Your Afterburner Will Follow?

First On My Block

Shacman Fever...Is Driving Me Crazy...

Moonshine 2.5?

Close Encounter Of The Karmann Kind

Grounded!

Writer's Block: Taking a trip with Mrs. Tibble

Writer's Block: Where's the receipt?

Sports Other Than Football

Moonshine's Lap 'Round The White Lightning Trail: Stage Ⅲ--FINAL!

Moonshine Gets A Shine

Glad To Be Stationary-ish

Update