The Olds from Hades strikes again.

[Bob Riebe]

It figures on a pissant day like today, Low 30s, drizzling rain all day,  I would get news of my automobile from hell.

Now,  this was not a total surprise to me but the garage called and said, they pulled the heads off and there is hole in one cylinder ---- SO ---- what was going to be a $1,500 job, plus or minus, is now , as I am going to install a rebuilt long-block, a $ 5,300 plus or minus job.

If I get the extended 7 year warranty on the new long-block, $250 (with my fortune with automobiles, probably a good idea) long- $2,500 (shipping included-- it costs $150 more to ship it to house rather than a garage); installation , including work already done pulling off the heads, $2,772 .

Now I did some net searching and $1,900, plus or minus tens of dollars, is cheapest for a long-block minus shipping any where BUT six weeks, is the shortest time before one can be shipped, any where.
It seems that it is Black Friday for people buying long-blocks.
The gent I will probably get it from, is 10-12 weeks, but his 7 year warranty, seven years extended or standard, is as good as it gets.

Now I could, if I sold some of my toys, guns and cameras, get enough to pay for it, but hell has not frozen over yet, so I will sell my soul to the other half, for awhile (She helped my buy for damn near the same as the repair costs, and I paid her back).

I have had the car  for 4 1/2 years, been hit twice ($10,000 PLUS to the dudes who hit it) and I have put less than Twenty Thousand miles on it.
It had 35,000 when I bought it.

I have in the past 30 years bought low mileage, dent free, 1966 Plymouth Fury, 1966 Dodge Polara, 1968 Plymouth Fury III and a 1978 Oldsmobile Delta 88, every single one was hit by another car, plus the Plymouth one week after getting it back, after being hit, found that deer do not move  , even if you lock up your brakes.
BUT
I also had a 1970 Monte Carlo, already dented, a 1974 Ford Galaxy, and a1992 Buick Roadmaster, no one hit those, all were beaters.( but with the Ford, a dude driving his Mom's new car pulled out , crossing a street and stopped in from of me; I got down to about 5 mph before I hit him broadside and caved in the side of his car.) no damage to me.

Time to look for a beater.

[DDZ]

I grew up driving beaters and constantly working on them, because I never had enough money to buy a new car at the time.  Beaters are cheap, but they certainly have more of a tendency to leave you stranded, and leave you more work.

[Lloyd Smale]

ya i know it doesnt make economic sense but i like to keep one vehicle with a warrantee that will cost me nothing to fix. The rest of them break and i can take my time fixing them. Right now im rolling the dice. my rams warrantee was over about 8 months ago. But the price of new trucks has gotten so ridiculous i just cant pull the plug on a new one. Made the big decision yesterday. Truck needs tires. I havent bought a set of tires for a truck in 20 years. But told the wife that i ordered a set of bfg all terrains. Looks like this one will stick around for a while. Good thing is i have a good jeep too so the chances of both going down is slim. As it is we have two vehicles in the winter and three in the summer and i dont drive myself more then a couple miles a week and the wife works only 5 miles away and i dont think she will be working   for to much longer

[mcbammer]

It figures on a pissant day like today, Low 30s, drizzling rain all day,  I would get news of my automobile from hell.

Now,  this was not a total surprise to me but the garage called and said, they pulled the heads off and there is hole in one cylinder ---- SO ---- what was going to be a $1,500 job, plus or minus, is now , as I am going to install a rebuilt long-block, a $ 5,300 plus or minus job.

If I get the extended 7 year warranty on the new long-block, $250 (with my fortune with automobiles, probably a good idea) long- $2,500 (shipping included-- it costs $150 more to ship it to house rather than a garage); installation , including work already done pulling off the heads, $2,772 .

Now I did some net searching and $1,900, plus or minus tens of dollars, is cheapest for a long-block minus shipping any where BUT six weeks, is the shortest time before one can be shipped, any where.
It seems that it is Black Friday for people buying long-blocks.
The gent I will probably get it from, is 10-12 weeks, but his 7 year warranty, seven years extended or standard, is as good as it gets.

Now I could, if I sold some of my toys, guns and cameras, get enough to pay for it, but hell has not frozen over yet, so I will sell my soul to the other half, for awhile (She helped my buy for damn near the same as the repair costs, and I paid her back).

I have had the car  for 4 1/2 years, been hit twice ($10,000 PLUS to the dudes who hit it) and I have put less than Twenty Thousand miles on it.
It had 35,000 when I bought it.

I have in the past 30 years bought low mileage, dent free, 1966 Plymouth Fury, 1966 Dodge Polara, 1968 Plymouth Fury III and a 1978 Oldsmobile Delta 88, every single one was hit by another car, plus the Plymouth one week after getting it back, after being hit, found that deer do not move  , even if you lock up your brakes.
BUT
I also had a 1970 Monte Carlo, already dented, a 1974 Ford Galaxy, and a1992 Buick Roadmaster, no one hit those, all were beaters.( but with the Ford, a dude driving his Mom's new car pulled out , crossing a street and stopped in from of me; I got down to about 5 mph before I hit him broadside and caved in the side of his car.) no damage to me.

Time to look for a beater.

Just out of curiosity ,how many cars have you gone thru since your first  one ?

[Bob Riebe]

Just out of curiosity ,how many cars have you gone thru since your first  one ?

8

[mcbammer]

Just out of curiosity ,how many cars have you gone thru since your first  one ?

8

  Coincidentally, 8 for me to . Hope I dont need a number 9.

[TrumpWon]

I like used Hondas with under 100K.  If I don’t wreck them I can get 300K out of them.

[neckisred]

You should probably consider having a temperature gauge installed as well........................................

[Bob Riebe]

I am considering, as I will not have car for 3 months, spending the money, $185 last time I checked to put entire new break lines in my 1992 Buick Roadmaster , and put the  new battery I will buy for the Olds in there till I get my car back. ----  (I spent a chunk of money on the Buick, put a new fuel pump in the tank, then I put two new drums and springs , one entire new disk brake, including caliper up front on one side and new disc on the other, my self, in the mid-oughts; I should have checked the brake lines back then.)


Buick, beyond being a rust-bucket, ran fine till brake lines dissolved. It has used truck snow tires on back but to work on it I will have to jack it up in the middle of winter, outside, which sucks badly, so I bang my head against the wall and throw the bones to see what to do.

[Mule 11]

If it were me and I just had to have that olds, I’d cancel any shop work, buy a donor car and pull both engines and put the donor engine in it and hope for the best. Especially since you won’t be getting the olds for 3 months as it will be much warmer in mid March to april you will just have to put a BIG tarp over it and make sure it sits in a high spot to keep from working in a puddle of water. Also I’d buy a cheap beater in the meantime and sell it when the olds and Buick were roadworthy. My opinion, worth every penny you paid.

[Bob Riebe]

If it were me and I just had to have that olds, I’d cancel any shop work, buy a donor car and pull both engines and put the donor engine in it and hope for the best. Especially since you won’t be getting the olds for 3 months as it will be much warmer in mid March to april you will just have to put a BIG tarp over it and make sure it sits in a high spot to keep from working in a puddle of water. Also I’d buy a cheap beater in the meantime and sell it when the olds and Buick were roadworthy. My opinion, worth every penny you paid.

I thought for years about getting an engine hoist, my friend's Elm tree with a large low branch is long gone, but never had a good reason, or really a good building, not height limited, so I did not.

I stopped doing work on my own cars, except for oil changes , mid-oughts , partly no need but to a great degree my right knee made it so I could not squat, and going down on my knees, was days of misery after words.
BUT
My knee is not the problem it was, SO, now I just did what I did on the car this summer do to the fact mechanics per hour have doubled, and I do not have money I had twenty years ago, so I knew how to do what I did , could do it, and did it.

Now changing engines, if, IF I were 25 years younger, ummmm ..., and there are no good beaters up here any more, the one with computer systems, cost hundred of dollars for a windshield wiper switch and the old analog cars are either scrap from demo derby or have been kept up and cost over five grand even without the low miles this one had.
I like your idea, and I even have neighbor who helped me this summer, but I would much rather just get old and fade away.

The Buick this summer will be offered to a gent who bought another beater from me for a demo derby.

[Bob Riebe]

The newly rebuilt engine arrived at the garage a little over two weeks ago.
My fortune continues as they had just started two projects the day before it arrived new it was cominggg, but were so busy could not wait.

They will start installing it today and hope to have it running by Friday.
They are good people to communicate with on the whole.
The other half had a brake failure (we were going to have the brakes looked at the day after she smucked it).
Now I knew the brakes had a problem but always thought it was just me but after she smucked it, she said she had the same problem before.
Sadly I was in the car when it happened and for some reason was tongue tied rather than shouting out what would have probabbly saved the day.

It is a 2004 Mercury Grand Marquis; it is a very good car on the whole but American Family totalled it for 3,852 dollars.
It needs a new bumper/grill assembly, hood and right front fender.
In one of the things that really, really, really is annoying; many years back it hit a deer. I ordered a new fender and they sent me the wrong one, SO, they told me to keep it and sent the right one.
Sadly it is a left front fender.
We learned the BS system when dealing with insurance companies and body shops that they work with by contract.

ABRA estimated it at 4,200, and made a fuss about fixing it as American Family totaled it.
So we went to a gent we had before, when out regular guy was in the hospital for cancer, his estimate is a little over 3,100.
I thank God for that as the gent we used regularily retired.

Maybe it is a normal cycle but all businesses dealing with automobile are over loaded; all engine shops I spoke to had delivery in months, not weeks, ditto for most body shops.
The engine shops said , in the past it would have been a few weeks for delivery and body shops said they were swamped.