I will vouch for the importance of good, long, gloves. Some years back I was using some POR-15 to coat some rocker panels but managed to get some inside the gloves I was wearing. Once it dried, pumice soap and paint thinner failed to do anything. Took several days for it to peel off.

I would add an addendum to your second to last point: Don’t pursue a master’s just to ‘get a masters’ unless you know what you want to specialize in, and especially don’t take loans out to do so until you’re ready. I know a few engineers who took out loans or mortgaged their house to get a masters, but a few specialize…

Also, he technically doesn’t own the land he’s storing all of these on. While he seems to have good relations with his landlord, god forbid something happens and he needs to move or gets asked to downsize the flock out of the blue. If it were me, I would limit the number of basket cases as much as possible until I had …

That, and one does not see a roadworthy Comanche in SE Michigan too often these days.

Given the age I’m thinking the latter, or perhaps it did have a serial number that’s since been consumed by the tin worm; I seem to recall this one was pretty crusty when David got it.

That sounds about right. Most sub-$500 cars I’ve seen for sale around SE Michigan frequently have some serious engine, transmission, or structural carnage going on (sometimes all at once), never mind the other neglected or failed parts. Junkyard engines, trannys or some angle iron and a Hazard Fraught Harbor Freight…

That, and I’m curious if the fatigue life of the thermoplastic truss matrix would become a concern in an MTB or hard urban use (potholes and poor pavement joints) application compared to slower commuting on well maintained pavement. I imagine there’s a reason plastic wheels and rims (I’m not counting carbon fiber here)…

Yeah, I was going to say it sounds fairly common for our area. I do know a few people on the far end of the bell curve who live just south of the Michigan-Ohio border and commute up to Milford or Brighton daily. When one considers property values, taxes, possible family commitments and how frequently many of us in the…

Not all of it is rote manual labor, and much of that had been automated where economically feasible for decades. There is also a fairly large amount of skilled trades involved in different areas, who are the more highly-paid workers (Joe Blow the dashboard installer isn’t bringing in $90k/yr; that would be the…

The other part of the ‘overpaid’ misconception is the UAW workers who were bringing home 90-100K+ were skilled trades (patternmakers, draftsmen, etc.) who only brought that kind of money in when they were working 60+ hours a week. John Q Doe the assembly line worker doesn’t make anywhere near that.

The vast majority of Imperial Japanese Navy wartime records and logs were destroyed prior to their surrender, so not much chance I imagine.

...the ringtone is always Jimmy Buffet or the BeeGees or something cranked to maximum volume, it always takes them a bit to realize it’s their phone going off (again), and it takes yet more time for them to remember how to mute the ringer, even though they just did it five minutes ago.

I humbly suggest fried lake perch and home fries (or some other breakfast-adjacent starch or savory dish). Them’s good eatin’.

To be fair, he hasn’t (yet) rolled anything over in his yard, though that requires a vehicle able to move at a fair pace first, ruling out most of the Tracy fleet...

in Ohio

Most states have lax or no inspections whatsoever, so we don’t have that minimum threshold of ‘roadworthiness’, especially in northern states that salt the roads in the winter. Not to mention not having to consider tax stamps most places as far as I know, either. A car that cheap is usually on its last legs.

Hey, those are good roads. There’s at least an entire lane free of potholes! The flooding is necessary for distributing silt to urban farmland and is no way indicative of neglected drainage.

I’ve worked in a couple different automotive supply sectors, and like it or not overall the tide is still towards automation, but obviously subject to many factors. It’s not a question anymore of ‘Is a human better at this task?’ than it is ‘Is a human the economical choice?’, like your friend said. However the market …

Many years ago I did a brief stint as an unpaid intern at a Li-ion battery manufacturer that was seeking to break into the automotive market.

*Results may vary. Not to be taken literally or orally. Void where prohibited by law or common sense. Contains chemicals known to the state of California to cause cancer. Use other than directed is a federal offense. Not shipped outside the contiguous United States. Processed in a plant that uses peanuts. See…