Driving a first-year VW Rabbit at the summit of Highway 80 in the snow. We knew we were going to sell it, so if I wrecked it, no matter, it was a pile of crap and only two years old. A large group of vehicles behind me some safe distance away. A Mercedes two-door top-up convertible coming in on the on-ramp spinning…

I worked with one of the designer/engineers of the Snake Canyon jump vehicle. The steam powered vehicle used a bundt cake pan as the material for the nozzle as it had the proper cone shape. Evel Knievel was known to be a bit panicky so they rigged his harness release backwards. They figured that by the time he needed…

When I first saw the headline, my thoughts went to, “oh crap, VW is introducing yet another proprietary charging interface”. Well, it apparently isn’t that, whew!

During the 7th month of our round-the-US and Canada honeymoon, we rolled our ‘76 VW camper bus. 45 MPH crosswind blizzard on black ice = front end blowing around resulting in us rolling in long grass with snow one and a quarter times. We landed on the sliding door side and had to exit out the driver’s door after…

After the disaster that was the first-year VW Rabbit, my folks traded it in for an early Civic Wagon. We beat the crap out of that wagon, and with the help of our local dealership, many bad things we did to it got “covered under warranty” and it was a great car. Things like my brother driving too fast through a big…

Neutral: How Are You?
Recovering from surgery while my project car is out there begging me to come and tinker. Just a couple of weeks to go until I can lift more than 10 pounds or actually drive.

Nice! My first purchase vehicle was a ‘71 Fiat 128 in the Arctic Grey (puke green) color. Great car until I found what I really wanted, a ‘67 VW squareback, which I still own some 40+ years later.

Purple!!! Be still my heart. A really bright purple too!

And her I am wondering about the semi-circular marks on the side of the camper in the header image. Are they from the struts that are left installed? How do they move up? Air flow? Do the somehow connect to the camper, did the owner just try to move them there? People (well, me) want to know!

My first VW bus, a ‘64 deluxe sunroof. Absolutely reliable, always got me where I wanted to go, but only at a max of 54 MPH. Sunroof didn’t leak and this was in Seattle. Going to get married and travel about the US and Canada for our honeymoon in a ‘76 VW camper in 1984, which we did. At the time I also owned a ‘67 VW…

When I drive a vehicle other than the F350 longbed dually crewcab, I try to find spaces that allow me to pull through and exit going forward. Even with backup cameras, it is still safer to pull forward instead of backing out.

When I drive the longbed dually crewcab F350 with the camper installed I need to find 4 empty spaces together. When I can’t find them so I can drive through, I take two and park diagonally. I prefer not backing up as visibility is a challenge. Even without the camper, I take up at least two spaces.

Bingo!

When one joins a company, and in particular the government, one takes mandatory training classes in many areas, and in ethics in particular. There is no excuse for not knowing what you can and can not do as a government employee. Chao was either given the training and did it anyway or did not take the training and was…

Seems like nepotism was yet another prerequisite to be a part of the corrupt 45** regime. On par with the 45** family.

Don’t make the mistake I made. I don’t use my air fryer for greasy stuff much, and when I do I immediately clean it out. When at one of my kid’s house I used their air fryer to re-heat some french fries. When done, I simply tipped over the basket onto my plate to extract the fries. However, a considerable amount of…

I remember that when I was a kid the studio lot tour included the part of the set used for the Ten Commandments parting the Red Sea scenes. We drove down through what appeared as a waterfall on two sides. It was cool!

I replaced the HV battery in my ‘06 Prius with a non-Toyota Dorman battery, it failed after one day, that replacement failed 6000 miles later. I got lucky and found a year-old Toyota HV battery to install. Far better than the Dorman. A year later the engine died, so I bought a ‘07 Prius with original battery. Swapped…

I purchased a Harbor Freight version of auto- stripper and it worked only a few times before repeatedly being wonky. I then went out and got a Klein brand one. Night and day. The Klein worked much better and has lasted a lot longer.

Ha! I own the truck dad bought back in ‘65, a ‘64 F100 crewcab. I learned to drive in that truck, so I have always had a truck. I purchased a ‘92 F350 longbed dually and a camper a few years ago. So, I have two trucks. I don’t drive them often and I have room to park them. When I need a truck to haul or tow, I have…