CA puts registration tags on rear plates only so its not that.  Seems pointless to me, just another revenue stream for the DMV.

Dad?

ehh, its just the express (one touch up) - not like its a real effort to hold the switch for the few seconds it takes for the window to go up.  Its not like the window doesnt work at all.

Who cares? Not like anyone is gonna sit back there.

PND - Prejudicial No Dice - I hated working on these damn things with a passion. Used to perform smog tests here in CA and these things were one of the WORST. As part of the test, if timing was adjustable we had to check it. On this you have to:

Just the engine. The 3 and 6 guys have used the Fusion 2.5 - so have the Miatas (thats more involved from what I have read). My ‘08 5 engine directly interchanges with an ‘06-09 3 so most all of this swap applies to me as well. You have to swap the intake, front cover, oil pan and valve cover from the old Mazda engine…

Glad you are running away from those dipshits. It doesnt look like a particularly fun job but definitely doable. The factory procedure says you have to remove the passenger driveshaft - not sure if you can get around that but it does seem fairly straightforward.

WHAT? My estimating system shows that alternator lists for $462 and is a 1.8 hour job (not sure what year and model you drive - I looked up an ‘18 Abarth). Even at dealer rates and adding a very generous 2 hours for diag time that job is $1200 MAX.

Fellow 5 owner here. Failed head gasket last month at 170K. Opted to replace it with a 2015 Fusion 2.5 which is sitting in the back of my truck waiting for the fun to begin. Both my rear regulators work fine but I wouldnt spend $300 a side to fix them either.

I found one of those that made “animal sounds” on one of my trips to Pick and Pull.  Bought it for 5 bucks and wired it on my granddaughters Power Wheels Jeep.  She thought it was GREAT.  I see its still available https://www.amazon.com/Animal-Police-Rainbow-complete-Microphone/dp/B000YAWKL8

Haha yeah - those non-halogen ones used an 1156 stop lamp bulb. Threw practically zero light. My car was blue and I replaced the lenses with blue plexi which I thought was pretty cool - until I got pulled over and politely told by an officer that red and blue front lights were not allowed.

What I remembered about those is they’d get saturated with fuel and a good backfire through the carb and FLAME ON!

I have one on my old Ram 1500 and it does make good noises - perfect for bombing out Teams calls when I get stuck working while on the road.

Put a glasspack muffler on my high school car - 1979 Fairmont 302.  All 125 hrsprs!

Yup. Had several of these in my collection.

Agreed.  Reluctant ND.

That’s an awful big floor shifter for an AOD and most of those “vacuum lines” are either heater hoses or air injection lines. 

The other thing that damn near killed pinball machines was video game “conversion kits” that became available after a standard wiring harness (“JAMMA” - Japan Amusement Machine Manufacturer Association) was adopted by most of the industry. An operator could take an older game that wasnt making money and at a price…

Inside, there was a spot for auxiliary gauges that wouldn’t look out of place in a Z but were also pointless in that they showed oil pressure, voltage and instant fuel economy.

Yeah, new machine production nearly died out about a decade ago. Back in the 90s when I was in the biz, nobody bought them for home use. Now the majority of new machines never see commercial use.