ValkingBlog: January 2008

ValkingBlog

Because there is more to life than just work...

Thursday, January 31, 2008

The Bus Depot, Inc

Well campers, you know how it is when you've got a problem with the brakes on your car, right? You take it to the brake place and they charge you something like $200 and some change and sell you a brake cylinder, some new brake lines and a warranty, right? Nope, not if you've got a vintage Volkswagen. Brake pedal was returning on kiddo's type 181 (Thing) and needed fixing. It's somehow got disks up front and drums on the back and a pedal not coming back can be an annoyance, not to mention a safety issue. Something really nice about old VeeDubs, they're SIMPLE. Yep you guessed it, I looked at it and can fix it myself, a broken spring.
Enter the Bus Depot. In a timely fashion they shipped me the $2.88 spring and a $20 locking gas cap for the Vanagon. Hey, if you're paying shipping, you might as well get something bigger than a spring. Besides, another thing about vintage VW's they usually didn't have locking caps, or if they did, they've been replaced by an earlier owner with something that didn't as older accessories got scarce. Now you might not know it, but the internet is a real treasure to the old car owner. Fifteen years ago the old car owner had no idea where to find a needed piece or part if it wasn't to be found in the local area. Now all one has to do is search a little, or find a group about your vintage item and VIOLA you can find parts... So when I saw they has locking caps for $20 (yes the same locking caps from Germany that someone's selling on eBay for $30 including shipping) I decided to snap one up. Not that I think someone's stealing my gas, but when it's near $3.00 a gallon now, better sure than sorry. So everyhting arrived today and the caps a real beauty. Fit's nice and looks good too. Better than the radiator cap looking thing that someone (previous owner?) had there until now. I'm driving instead of riding tomorrow, so I'll have a chance to see if leaks fumes or fuel. It also looks like kiddo and I get to turn more wrenches as we change that spring in the next few.
More soon,
-Rob "get a VeeDub" D.

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Wednesday, January 30, 2008

Happy New Year

Yes, I know it's a bit past New Year's, but hey, I had to say it. The boss and I went to lunch today and the waitress asked if she had to tell us happy new year. "Why?", I asked. "Well y'all haven't been in here since last year," she replied. Well she had a point. So with a first post in a while, Happy New Year.
What were the holiday's like for everyone? Well for me they brought the holiday spirit and a Nintendo Wii. Nice piece of work. It's not all action and video like the PlayStation, but it's pretty good. The best of it all, I got to see my wife and kiddo going crazy racing cows. That made the holidays for me. 2AM Christmas morning cow races...
So now the bills are all paid and we're back in the grind a bit. There are bright spots here & there. Flying over the holidays was intense and fun filled. More flying in December than the previous 3 months. This month, none yet. I'm overdue. I've had like 4 people at work ask if I've been flying lately... Reply's the same for now, "Not since Dec 24th..." Soon very soon. Have a few projects in the works.
Going to build a few ideas out and see how they work. I'll tell 'ya about them here when I do.
We got kiddo a set of tires from the local Firestone store. Nice knowledgeable people. I went all over town trying to get a set of tires. I learned something.
The only people in Savannah Georgia that want to sell you tires are at the Firestone store in Chatham Plaza. Pep Boys didn't have a complete set or the desire to look anything up, Goodyear/Gemini was just full of clowns that knew the industry from the immense year and a half the most experienced employee there had, and Sears just couldn't find a set under $500 or so. I'm not even going to go into how the Goodyear guys wanted $245 to install four tires that were $49.00 each. (Yes that's right $445 for a set of four fourty-nine dollar tires.
More abut how good firestone was soon. I don't really want to rant into next week right now. Pic of the day. A damascus utility knife by Barry Dawson. I really love good gear. This one is kiddo's. More soon.
-Rob "Happy New Year's" D.



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