Pilot's Log

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.

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.

I saw on Motorweek that Shell is adding compressed natural gas to its fuel offerings. So if I converted Moonshine to run on CNG, I wouldn't need to get a new credit card to pay for refills.

Must ruminate upon the plan. Need more technical information.

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...

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With the greater financial world--zilch.

With my parents and immediate family--everything except my car and the clothes on my back.

On Facebook this afternoon, I saw an ad for a site called SponsoredWHIPS.com and was curious about it. Their business is that, for a fee (which they don't mention in their ads) they will have your car customized and find a sponsor to advertise on it. Because of my curiosity about it, I applied at Facebook and got a phone call from one of their sales types. They wanted me to arrange payment then and there, over the phone, before doing any further business. As I don't have any income or money, I had to forgo the deal.

If I had the funds, I probably would have done it.

PS: After I wrote the above, I did a websearch and found evidence of loads of dissatisfied former clients, mainly people who paid money up front and for whom SWLLC never delivered what was promised. Thanks but NO THANKS.

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.