T1B

I think honda and the foreign car makers in general pretty much hit their interior quality peaks back in the 90s. Really nice soft black plastic, simple gauges the size of dinner plates with numbers large and brigh enough that ray charles could see them. Then they started in with the fancy chromed bezel technicolor dashes. WTF? It's like some puerto rican chick took over as chief instrumentation designer.

I think it has something to do with the idea that you can't have a "dated" look.

Bullshit.

Sudden Sam wrote:Wags, I think you were in on that argument about quality of American auto building vs. Japanese cars.

Your Acura was built in Ohio and your Pilot was built in Alamama.

But yeah, the Explorer looks pretty nice, which is not shocking given Ford's recent track record. When my sled finally dies, I'll be looking at either a new (or newer) Fusion or Mustang.

R-Jack wrote:

Sudden Sam wrote:Wags, I think you were in on that argument about quality of American auto building vs. Japanese cars.

Your Acura was built in Ohio and your Pilot was built in Alamama.

Likely built by non-union labor as well.

BSmack wrote:Likely built by non-union labor as well.

Do you want the jobs in America or not?

R-Jack wrote:

Sudden Sam wrote:Wags, I think you were in on that argument about quality of American auto building vs. Japanese cars.

Your Acura was built in Ohio and your Pilot was built in Alamama.
But yeah, the Explorer looks pretty nice, which is not shocking given Ford's recent track record. When my sled finally dies, I'll be looking at either a new (or newer) Fusion or Mustang.

I have '07 Mercury Milan (Fusion) and would highly recommend it. It's got plenty of room to haul a family of four and the back seats fold down, if needed, to expand the trunk space for hauling a big load. I wanted the 6 cylinder engine because of my past experiences with 4 cylinders but was assured by the dealer and my research that the 4 cylinder engines are not the engines of the 80's. It's pretty much loaded and the 4 cylinder has plenty of power and zip, and averages around 28-30 mpg with both city and highway driving. I've gotten as high as 32 mpg on strictly highway driving and am completely satisfied with the car.

R-Jack wrote:

BSmack wrote:Likely built by non-union labor as well.

Do you want the jobs in America or not?

We were talking about the quality of the vehicle and the craftsmanship therein. Right?

88 wrote:

BSmack wrote: We were talking about the quality of the vehicle and the craftsmanship therein. Right?

Are you suggesting that union labor would have demanded that the engineers in Japan select higher quality materials for the dash?

...and UAW labor was responsible for all the absolute dogshit on wheels that came out of Detroit in the 80's and 90's?

Just tossing the fish in the water guys. How you bite on it is up to you.

BSmack wrote:Just tossing the fish in the water guys. How you bite on it is up to you.

According to Onions, that is what he does.

According to me, Onions is a fucking idiot.

R-Jack wrote:I'll be looking at either a new (or newer) Fusion or Mustang.

I've been a GM guy my whole life (Chevy and Pontiac) but when I was looking for a new ride in 2008, I test drove a Fusion. Probably the nicest, smoothest ride of any car I've ever driven. I wanted that car but it was about 2 grand over what I was willing to spend and the dealer wouldn't back off that price.

So I wound up buying the Grand Prix I had originally looked at. I hope it lasts as long as the 2004 Grand Am with 160k miles my wife drives.

The last couple of years when I've rented cars my biggest peave was how small the rear window was. I guess they don't want you to see shit when you look behind you. :x

Sudden Sam wrote:

Diego in Seattle wrote:The last couple of years when I've rented cars my biggest peave was how small the rear window was. I guess they don't want you to see shit when you look behind you. :x

Can't be any worse than the '72 Mach I we had. Damn huge window was almost flat. Maybe an inch to see out back there.

I remember those. Sure looked cool as fuck when I was 9 years old. Now I realize it was just another example of ford in their marketing genius turning a small very popular car into a fukking barge.

War Wagon wrote:I test drove a Fusion. Probably the nicest, smoothest ride of any car I've ever driven

I bought a 2010 used with 17K miles on it back in October, added wheels, tint and another 9K miles… Love this car!

Someone put wheels on a Fusion?

Did you come up with the idea while you were nailing your cousin?

Dinsdale wrote:Someone put wheels on a Fusion?

Did you come up with the idea while you were nailing your cousin?

Right up there with the window tint. Car has great rims and sub's, but his kid ain't got no fuckin diapers.

Fuckin styling ride. Probably looks good in the janitorial service parking lot.

Let me guess... that is some Mexican eating joint it is parked outside of ?? Just sayin..the stucco and lights give it away.

Must be one of those "turner's"..dude who keeps turning around in the parking lot to look at his ride.

Derron wrote:
Right up there with the window tint. Car has great rims and sub's, but his kid ain't got no fuckin diapers.

Remember, I spend about half of my time (or so) in St Johns -- ain't a hoopdie goes by without rims and tint... and often hydraulics.

Dinsdale wrote:

Derron wrote:
Right up there with the window tint. Car has great rims and sub's, but his kid ain't got no fuckin diapers.

Remember, I spend about half of my time (or so) in St Johns -- ain't a hoopdie goes by without rims and tint... and often hydraulics.

I pass through that hood about 2 times a week about 8 am. I suppose most of the playa's and their rides are still chillin about that time. Across the bridge and over Fessenden and then the fuck out of there. Gets me past that 45 fucking minute wait on 26.

Derron wrote:Across the bridge and over Fessenden and then the fuck out of there. Gets me past that 45 fucking minute wait on 26.

When I'm there, I'm about 3 houses off Fessenden.

Yup, St Johns is an easy place to get to the far northeastern parts of town. I can be on Marine Drive in about 5 minutes or less, cross over I-5, then can go 15+ miles all the way to Troutdale if need be, without one freaking traffic light down a nice scenic drive. And if I have to go to the SW parts of town, it sucks donkey balls.

Dinsdale wrote:

Derron wrote:Across the bridge and over Fessenden and then the fuck out of there. Gets me past that 45 fucking minute wait on 26.

When I'm there, I'm about 3 houses off Fessenden.

Yup, St Johns is an easy place to get to the far northeastern parts of town. I can be on Marine Drive in about 5 minutes or less, cross over I-5, then can go 15+ miles all the way to Troutdale if need be, without one freaking traffic light down a nice scenic drive. And if I have to go to the SW parts of town, it sucks donkey balls.

I go to 194th that way. 1 hour and ten minutes from my compound in the west. If I go by "freeway" up to 1 hour and 40 minutes. Thank you to ODOT crack smoking engineers and all you liberals who think the "train" and bikes are the way to go.

Heading to Schnitzers this morning with a load of "money." Ferrous steel is at $ 257 per ton, and I have about 2.5 tons on my dump trailer.

R-Jack wrote:

BSmack wrote:Likely built by non-union labor as well.

Do you want the jobs in America or not?

Post of the year candidate.

Sudden Sam wrote:I must be gettin' too old for this board.

That's what wolfman said

Derron wrote:Ferrous steel

I'll turn a blind eye to that one.

$ 257 per ton

$257 is nice. Since I just ended up having to haul off a bunch of metal scrap. I don't go out of my way to get hold of scrap, but I often have to haul it away from jobsites anyway, and let's see... pay a couple hundred bucks a ton at the dump to get rid of it, or have someone hand me $250 a ton... tough call.

Last time I did it was about a month ago, and it was $220.

Although it seems odd to haul metal around for any other reason besides getting a tweeker's next fix, at $257, it becomes a socially acceptable activity.

Guard rails should start disappearing from the highways again at $257.

And those old junk cars become a little more valuable at $257.

And since we're dropping tons of brass and lead all over the Middle East, that shit is through the roof.

But you can't sell scrap out your way? I guess NoPo has some serious scrapBODE then. If you're just hauling scrap, Quantam (I think they're called) right at Denney and 217 in the Beav generally pays as good as anybody else.

Dinsdale wrote:

Derron wrote:Ferrous steel

I'll turn a blind eye to that one.

Slip of the mind. I was thinking I get better for ferrous than steel, and ran them together.

Although it seems odd to haul metal around for any other reason besides getting a tweeker's next fix, at $257, it becomes a socially acceptable activity.

Connections here is the key word in sourcing it .And being able to load it in a dump trailer. I am thinking I have a good 2.5 tons may 3 on this load. The black dudes at Schnitzes look at me with envy when I run that bed up, dump it and leave before they have 1/4 of their load off.

But you can't sell scrap out your way? I guess NoPo has some serious scrapBODE then. If you're just hauling scrap, Quantam (I think they're called) right at Denney and 217 in the Beav generally pays as good as anybody else.

Not lately. They were $ 215 last time I checked about 3 weeks ago. For the extra $ 150, a simple run over Porn Pass is well worth it. And it puts me in close proximity to either Rock Creek or Helvetia Taverns on the way back.

I was under the impression that scrap prices were down during the recession, uhh, scuse me, i mean great recession. sounds like they might be on the way back up. and yeah, i'll bet some industrious tweekers with battery powered impacts could have a mile of guard rail snapped up in no time.

what's copper bringing these days? that shit was like gold a few years back.

smackaholic wrote:
what's copper bringing these days? that shit was like gold a few years back.

$ 2.20 a pound this morning. You can take a 5 gallon bucket in and make enough to get drunk and have dinner.

Steel was down a bit...$ 251 a ton this morning. I went 2.3 tons for a niccceee check of $ 577.30. Starting to pick up more scrap tomorrow.

Batteries going at .25 a pound..I have about 10 years worth stacked on a pallet..

Derron wrote:

smackaholic wrote:
what's copper bringing these days? that shit was like gold a few years back.

$ 2.20 a pound this morning. You can take a 5 gallon bucket in and make enough to get drunk and have dinner.

Steel was down a bit...$ 251 a ton this morning. I went 2.3 tons for a niccceee check of $ 577.30. Starting to pick up more scrap tomorrow.

Batteries going at .25 a pound..I have about 10 years worth stacked on a pallet..

sounds like a nice score, derron. where do you come across all your bounty?

smackaholic wrote:
sounds like a nice score, derron. where do you come across all your bounty?

People want shit cleaned up..I clean it up and haul it away. I collected some old rigs, some scrap off job sites, thrift stores that get stuff "donated" to them that does not fucking work, truck beds, pick up beds, old wheel's, batteries, shopping carts I pick up on the street that get left out by the curb by the lazy fucking Mexicans.

Find places out in the country that have a lot of iron type shit around...construction companies going out of business..just a ton of places. Old metal desk are the fucking bomb...250 # each, nobody wants them, old ranges and stoves, micro waves..

Been getting a load a week...that helps on the income thing a bit.

smackaholic wrote: what's copper bringing these days? that shit was like gold a few years back.

Enough, apparently. Good friend of mine arrived at her business this past Monday only to find that the tweekers had snatched two 5-ton HVAC cooling units from the side of her building...

Fuggin' freaks.

'Round here, they'll pay you cash for ferrous scrap (but you still need ID), but there's a law that says for nonferrous, they pay by check, which is held for 3 business days, and then is mailed to the address on your ID.

Slows the once-rampant tweeker theft down.

Dinsdale wrote:'Round here, they'll pay you cash for ferrous scrap (but you still need ID), but there's a law that says for nonferrous, they pay by check, which is held for 3 business days, and then is mailed to the address on your ID.

Slows the once-rampant tweeker theft down.

And they take a complete description of you, the vehicle and trailer, and have you on very high quality video.

Friend of mine, a local nurseryman, lost over 500 brass sprinkler heads in two nights one winter. Another farmer friend held 2 tweekers at shotgun point when he caught them stealing aluminum irrigation pipe, and a local school district lost some aluminum bleachers. The law has made a difference finally.

KC Scott wrote:
71 was the year they started getting ugly..........

Granted the styling starting in 71 was a bit ...different...I have a 72 coupe. Like this one pictured. Mine has coke bottle matte finish mags, a hood scoop to hold my stock Ford high rise drag pack manifold..

It was not my first choice of years, since I have owned a 67 and 68 fastback years ago, but when I saw the add for a 72 coupe needs a bit of work for $ 800 I was interested. Got there, looked at the car, figured about 4 hours of work to get the engine going, added the wheels, a little bit of clean up body work and we were going down the road. The manifold alone was worth about $ 650. Dude I bought if from had to get his old lady off his ass about paying more storage on it, so the deal was easy.

This is not my car, my very similar.

One of these days, I'll get my ass in gear and get mine cherry again.

But you think a 72 is a "bad" Mustang?


Try one of these:




Mine doesn't have the spoilers (thank goodness), and has the white slotted rims. Other than that, same car, same color. Less than 50k on it, but definitely needs a little work.

That's not a Mustang II.

74-78 were the II's.

That's a 79 or 80, I believe.

Dinsdale wrote:One of these days, I'll get my ass in gear and get mine cherry again.

But you think a 72 is a "bad" Mustang?


Try one of these:




Mine doesn't have the spoilers (thank goodness), and has the white slotted rims. Other than that, same car, same color. Less than 50k on it, but definitely needs a little work.

Outside of the questionable styling on the II series...ahh... a 302 V-8 with the 5 speed on that 76 "special" they came out with was just a bit of fun.





Buddy of mine bought one..and not being a complete gear head like me, he really did not know how to "drive " the car. We are out riding around one night, a few beers, and way more than one toke over the line, dude looks over at me and says how do you do a burn off in this car ? I say " I can't tell you brah..I have to SHOW you"

So I wrap that bitch up about 5 grand, side step the clutch in 2nd gear and just fucking fried his tires. A couple of times...he says do it again... so after about 6 good roasters..dude thinks he has the hang of it and started doing it pretty well. Wasted that set of tires over the next 10 days.

KC's car is the start of the fox series. Dual headlights until 90 I think then singles. Fuckin OSP has the police special 1992 model and it is based out of the Salem office. They bring it out about once a year and still use it. Pretty squirrely cars and fun too.



Don't know about the 4 cylinder thing..I see them at Sunset Speedway at Banks every summer...but racing is fun with about anything.

People crack on the II series, but they have design input from a long line of Mustangs, the Maverick, some of them fuckin Aussie cars too...No matter what, a V-8 in one of those is going to be some fun.

Now this is some fun racing. Just not for the financially challenged.

I always try to hit the classic races at Portland. Back about 11 years or so, got to visit with Chrissy ( MILF) Edlebrock in the pits, and Vic too. They were runing a Mustang and Camero in road course. 160 fuckin mph in the straights, loud..dry sump pans, very expensive racing, but looks to be a blast. And actually legally versus some of the street shit I used to do.

Dinsdale wrote:One of these days, I'll get my ass in gear and get mine cherry again.

But you think a 72 is a "bad" Mustang?


Try one of these:




Mine doesn't have the spoilers (thank goodness), and has the white slotted rims. Other than that, same car, same color. Less than 50k on it, but definitely needs a little work.

my first car was a '74 "mach 1"

somebody should have been shot for sullying that proud name on such a POS. it had the solid lifter v-6 that sounded like a sowing machine. what a pile. my grand dad attempted to talk me out of buying it and going with a 67 stang 6 cylinder 4 (or possibly 3) on the floor. but, i had to have the "mach1" cause it had a tach!!!! everybody knows cool cars have tachs. should have listened to gramps.

KC Scott wrote:The Blue stang was my first - I beleive it was an 81
The Black one was an 82

I considered everything with a 4 cyl a II till they did the make over in the mid 90's

after reading up a bit Dins was right with the official dates of II series even though 3 series was equal shit

third gen stangs while not the greatest car ever made, was a huge improvement over the dos which was essentially, an overweight pinto.

as for the v-8 mustang II, i am fairly certain that it never came with a 5 speed until the third gen. pretty sure that '76 was a 4 speed.

Sudden Sam wrote:He got rid of it to get the '72 with A/C.

The '78, with a glass roof and black plastic seats is a real hoot on a hot day.