Random Thoughts Thread

[ccap41]

15 minutes ago, oldshurst442 said:

Remember, the new season starts in less than a month... 

TWO WEEKS!!

15 minutes ago, oldshurst442 said:

During the last couple of months, Chara stated that Bruins management kinda ghosted him when him and his agent wanted to talk about re-signing.  Kinda shytty if you ask me about a guy giving you 14 years of loyal, broken jaw performances WITH 3 Stanley Cup finals, 1 Stanley Cup that ended a 40 year drought.   

Id say that the Bruins management should have been a tad more classier in handling his situation both for him and for the fans.

That's understandable and we, here in STL, are in the same exact boat with Yadier Molina and Adam Wainwright. They've both been here since 2004 and 2005, respectively, and won multiple World Series and appearances. Now they're free agents and they're just kind of in limbo as apparently nothing has been offered by the team but talks are they'd both like to come back. 

It would be nice if the team would just come out and say they're trying to re-sign them or they're letting them play elsewhere.  

Edited December 31, 2020 by ccap41

[oldshurst442]

YESSSSS!!!!

2 WEEKS!!!!  

Im just afraid of all the Covid cases that we will be undoubtedly hearing about.  The NBA and NHL had PURE bubbles in the playoffs.  This time around...     

Good luck to all the athletes, trainers, managers TV crew etc...  involved.  

 

[balthazar]

Looked at a ‘64 GP parts car today- rough; guy bought it out of a scrapyard to part out. Another guy supposedly wants the whole thing- if that falls thru I might pick up a few bits off it.

[G. David Felt]

Lovely, simply, lovely.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CJeEFVkJLdx/?igshid=p3jtei9jhjyy

 

[balthazar]

[ocnblu]

 

[ocnblu]

This little scrapper... done good! 

 

[daves87rs]

1 hour ago, ocnblu said:

This little scrapper... done good! 

 

Not bad!

[A Horse With No Name]

21 hours ago, balthazar said:

Looked at a ‘64 GP parts car today- rough; guy bought it out of a scrapyard to part out. Another guy supposedly wants the whole thing- if that falls thru I might pick up a few bits off it.

Why did you just spend 50 grand on that new truck, and why are you trying to buy parts off of that old Pontiac....$200 is all you need for a car...neat video. 

Worth watching...

 

2 hours ago, ocnblu said:

This little scrapper... done good! 

 

interesting...

2 hours ago, ocnblu said:

 

It's also available in electric....

On 12/27/2020 at 3:21 PM, Robert Hall said:

As seen in a FB group, an unusual Suburban/Accord hybrid.   Not a photoshop, apparently. 

The only reason you don't see this stuff on the road is taht you live in Nothern Ohio rather than Southern Ohio. Where I am from...we call this a Vointon county Escalade. 

[A Horse With No Name]

On 12/28/2020 at 5:20 PM, ocnblu said:

Well I'm glad it's not like a '74 Galaxie 500, the bumpers fell off of those due to rust.

They were trying to re unite to the rest of the car, which had also falen off due to rust. 

 

[Robert Hall]

5 minutes ago, A Horse With No Name said:

Why did you just spend 50 grand on that new truck, and why are you trying to buy parts off of that old Pontiac....$200 is all you need for a car...neat video. 

Worth watching...

 

interesting...

It's also available in electric....

The only reason you don't see this stuff on the road is taht you live in Nothern Ohio rather than Southern Ohio. Where I am from...we call this a Vointon county Escalade. 

Lol...yeah, I don't get out in the sticks much, I'm sure there is weird stuff out there.  Not so much here in suburbia.      As far as Balthy and his truck, I'd assume that is a business expense that he can get tax deductions for, rather than a personal transportation vehicle..

[A Horse With No Name]

 

[Robert Hall]

2 minutes ago, A Horse With No Name said:

They were trying to re unite to the rest of the car, which had also falen off due to rust.

 

Re: rusty 70s Fords, yeah, the '73-74s really rusted badly here in Ohio...in the early to mid 80s, my older brother had '73 and a '74 LTDs...the rear bumpers rusted off, the trunk floors were gone, and on one of them the radiator fell out while driving as did the rear axle (that was what ultimately killed it)> 

[A Horse With No Name]

2 minutes ago, Robert Hall said:

Lol...yeah, I don't get out in the sticks much, I'm sure there is weird stuff out there.  Not so much here in suburbia.      As far as Balthy and his truck, I'd assume that is a business expense that he can get tax deductions for, rather than a personal transportation vehicle..

I was just gently kidding with Baltazar....every time I see a GMC crew cab i get excited about getting a look at his new truck. 

[Robert Hall]

Just now, A Horse With No Name said:

I was just gently kidding with Baltazar....every time I see a GMC crew cab i get excited about getting a look at his new truck. 

The GMCs definitely look better than the Chevys.  The previous gen still looks better, IMO...

[A Horse With No Name]

Just now, Robert Hall said:

Re: rusty 70s Fords, yeah, the '73-74s really rusted badly here in Ohio...in the early to mid 80s, my older brother had '73 and a '74 LTDs...the rear bumpers rusted off, the trunk floors were gone, and on one of them the radiator fell out while driving as did the rear axle (that was what ultimately killed it)> 

They turned the snow pink underneath themselves in Wisconsin where i grew up. 

This will make 'Blu forget all about his little Fiat...

 

[A Horse With No Name]

46 minutes ago, Robert Hall said:

The GMCs definitely look better than the Chevys.  The previous gen still looks better, IMO...

The Chevy trail boss is selling like hotcakes though. 

Older Chevy truck...

 

[A Horse With No Name]

An actual RV, not photoshop...Cadillac powered...

[Robert Hall]

Lots of '66 Oldsmobile bits in there looks like...

[A Horse With No Name]

7 minutes ago, Robert Hall said:

Lots of '66 Oldsmobile bits in there looks like...

I wonder what the story of its creation is 

[Robert Hall]

3 minutes ago, A Horse With No Name said:

I wonder what the story of its creation is 

Someone bored w/ a scrap travel trailer, scrap '66 Olds, various other cars/trucks, welding gear, bondo and lots of drugs and/or alcohol? 

Edited January 1, 2021 by Robert Hall

[A Horse With No Name]

6 minutes ago, Robert Hall said:

Someone bored w/ a scrap travel trailer, scrap '66 Olds, various other cars/trucks, welding gear, bondo and lots of drugs and/or alcohol? 

What a long strange trip it has been. 

[A Horse With No Name]

Why my friend is broke...

[A Horse With No Name]

Tower bridge in London....

Cool lighthouse pic....

Canadian Wilderness....

More Canada....not my pics....

[A Horse With No Name]

Thinbking I want to visit Canada when Covid settles down....neat pic of Montreal.

Rural Canada, beautiful country. 

[A Horse With No Name]

Winipeg...

 

Once again, not my pics, but want to do cross country in Canada. 

[A Horse With No Name]

[A Horse With No Name]

[G. David Felt]

Interesting that GMC is instructing the dealers to order 40% now of the Terrain with the Elevation package which makes the CUV blacked out. Good pics and info explaining the difference between the trim levels.

https://gmauthority.com/blog/2020/12/gm-raises-gmc-terrain-elevation-edition-order-suggestion/

@A Horse With No Name Due to having done this myself, the drive across Canada is awesome. I will also say that I have now spent a total of three weeks just exploring Banf National Park and still want to spend more time exploring. So much beauty to see. Very cool to drive up to the north pole circle and enjoy 24hrs of daylight.

[A Horse With No Name]

Exactly what I want to do....

Another travel pic, love the old Chevy.

[oldshurst442]

23 minutes ago, A Horse With No Name said:

 

This scenery really speaks to me.   

And...its 'Winnipeg'.   Double 'n'   ?

Love the pics!

 

[oldshurst442]

1 hour ago, A Horse With No Name said:

 

 

 

 

On the other side of the Notre-Dame Basilica.  The square is called Place D'Armes

 

 

And the statue

Maisonneuve 

At the base there are other statues.

 

And the Bank of Montreal

 

Edited January 1, 2021 by oldshurst442

[oldshurst442]

At the rear of the Notre Dame Basilica

 

And the Aldred Building which adds to the charm of Montreal's skyline.  Montreal will probably never have the tall skyscrapers  other major cities of the world get to have, but we do have a charming skyline regardless.  

And part of the reason why skyscrapers will never be a thing in Montreal, (nothing to do with economy either...well a little bit...) but because there is a strict by-law that forbids ANY building being taller than Mont-Royal.  The mountain that sits in the middle of the island that Montreal gets its name from.  

View FROM the mountain

The two classical post-card views FROM the mountain

And the majestic mountain FROM  Saint Lawrence river.  

 Mount  Royal in English.   Mont  Royal in French.   Mont/real   

This is how Jacques Cartier came to name the mountain.  

Hochelaga is the name of this area when it was a Native American settlement. 

It became Ville-Marie when the French settlers decided to settle here after 100 years after Jacques Cartier's arrival.  Later becoming Mont/real. The name of the mountain. 

 

That little island is called Ile Sainte Helene.  A small island on the river seaway.  

[balthazar]

Anderson SC ~

[G. David Felt]

Laughing on reading this purchase of a 2007 BMW and the hell of 7 months of ownership before he took a major loss and dumped the supposedly luxury BMW Driving machine.

I Bought a Twin-Turbo BMW and All I Got to Drive Was Dad's Pizza Van (thedrive.com)

Very cool read on GM first attempt at a V8 Powered FWD Van.

The 1955 GMC L'Universelle Was a Front-Wheel-Drive V8 Van Ahead of Its Time (thedrive.com)

 

For those wanting to start a new old classic car parts business, one company All Classic Motors, Velva North Dakota has $2 million in new parts for Fords of the last 30 years for sale. You can buy the whole 40,000 lot of parts for $675,000 or buy pieces as they sell it on ebay.

There's a Warehouse Full of $2M in New Old Stock Classic Ford Parts for Sale on eBay (thedrive.com)

[G. David Felt]

Had not seen this commercial since I do not watch TV and so it was cool to see. I do understand the anger people who love restoring auto's would have about crushing an oldie truck, but have to say after reading the story, It really was not worth saving IMHO.

 

Jeep Bought His Awesome 1963 Gladiator And Then Crushed It For A TV Commercial. Here's His Story (jalopnik.com)

[balthazar]

Don't know what you're basing "was not worth saving" on.

[G. David Felt]

4 hours ago, balthazar said:

Don't know what you're basing "was not worth saving" on.

In the story they show the rusted out floor pans, frame rot, extensive rust holes throughout the body. At this point, unless you have hundreds of thousands of dollars to spend on rebuilding / buying new replacement parts, just not worth it.

[balthazar]

6 hours ago, David said:

hundreds of thousands of dollars

LOL - you couldn't put $200K+ into that Gladiator if you restored it to perfection AND filled the bed with $1 coins. I'm neck-deep in a restoration; I know.

From the article : I can say without question that Loren’s 1963 Jeep Gladiator was a good candidate for restoration, barring any unsolvable title issues. Located out West, its body appeared free of major rust or dents, the powertrain was complete, and the grille, lights and three-piece front bumper looked to be all there.

It's weird; I thought jalopnick was an auto-centric site, yet they talk about the Gladiator like they've never seen a vehicle older than 5 years old... EVER. They had to rely on the testimony of the prior owner to set them straight. The article is actually cringe-worthy from an enthusiast-perspective.

And in looking at the pics, there literally were no major rust issues- except for one small repair at a hood corner, it appeared to be all surface rust. Even the rockers & cab corners are all there & solid. Point is- this would've been an easy restoration of a Willys Gladiator; it was not an "unsavable" truck.

I understand The Way Of Things, but it's always a shame to see vintage stuff intentionally destroyed. Crush the new Gladiator- they'll make more.

[daves87rs]

Sad to see it crushed either way.....

[trinacriabob]

So, I tend to stock up on sundries and toiletries right after the new year, including travel sizes for some items, so I don't have to think about this for several months.

You know who's making money hand over fist?

The damn consumer products companies with their product lines sold in TRAVEL SIZES.

 

[trinacriabob]

@ocnbluWTF is so confusing about TRAVEL SIZES being exorbitantly priced?  I was looking for the really small Listerine bottles to put in carry-on luggage while at Walmart.  They were in different bins.  I thought they were 97 cents.  Some were in the $1.47 bin, too.  I could have gone with that.  A kid working there came by and I had him scan it.  It was $1.97!  No can do ... at Wally World?  What's so confusing about that?!?

[trinacriabob]

On 1/1/2021 at 4:23 PM, oldshurst442 said:

 

 

And part of the reason why skyscrapers will never be a thing in Montreal, (nothing to do with economy either...well a little bit...) but because there is a strict by-law that forbids ANY building being taller than Mont-Royal.  The mountain that sits in the middle of the island that Montreal gets its name from.  

View FROM the mountain

The two classical post-card views FROM the mountain

That little island is called Ile Sainte Helene.  A small island on the river seaway.  

Merci pour les belles photos de Montreal.

I can't say enough about it.  It's one of my 3 favorite cities in the world. 

It's ALL on islands!  Montreal is on an island in the middle of the Saint Lawrence Seaway.  Adjacent Laval, with almost half a million people, is yet on another island in the middle of the same river.  And, like you said, recreationally themed Ile-Sainte-Helene is on another island still, although off of Montreal's Centre-Ville (off the opposite shore than Laval) and in the middle of the same river.

I have taken that photo (the postcard view) from the overlook (the belvedere) atop Mont-Royal during autumn color so many times over the last few decades.

[ocnblu]

1 hour ago, trinacriabob said:

@ocnbluWTF is so confusing about TRAVEL SIZES being exorbitantly priced?  I was looking for the really small Listerine bottles to put in carry-on luggage while at Walmart.  They were in different bins.  I thought they were 97 cents.  Some were in the $1.47 bin, too.  I could have gone with that.  A kid working there came by and I had him scan it.  It was $1.97!  No can do ... at Wally World?  What's so confusing about that?!?

Uhhh... I was agreeing with you that travel sizes are TOO DARN HIGH.  Also, so is your blood pressure, apparently.

I like fruitcake, and for the life of me, I cannot figure out why ppl re-gift them for decades at a time.

[ocnblu]

Not sure where I read this, but I hear a lot of ppl are liking the GMC Terrain with the Elevation blackout package.  Here's one in a cool gray colour: 

[balthazar]

Another local GMC dealer had a boatload of them- plus what I believe were Elevation Acadias. Looked very nice.

[oldshurst442]

11 hours ago, balthazar said:

LOL - you couldn't put $200K+ into that Gladiator if you restored it to perfection AND filled the bed with $1 coins. I'm neck-deep in a restoration; I know.

So true.   It costs a lot to restore.  Labour intensive too.  But not as much as what dear old David was hinting at. LOL

11 hours ago, balthazar said:

From the article : I can say without question that Loren’s 1963 Jeep Gladiator was a good candidate for restoration, barring any unsolvable title issues. Located out West, its body appeared free of major rust or dents, the powertrain was complete, and the grille, lights and three-piece front bumper looked to be all there.

I read that part too. Then I stopped reading at that point.

I knew that the reason WHY they did what they did is because it was CHEAPER to buy a clunker (couple of grand) versus CGI-ing the whole thing as THAT would have cost MORE to do...

It sucks. But at the same time, if Im to understand the story correctly, the old Gladiator sat for a loooong time (without any suitors) for ANYBODY to restore it...

My opinion on the whole thing:

Even if the car vehicle in question was a 1970 Olds 442 -matching numbers at that- (MY dream machine), I wouldnt bat an eyelash about the whole thing.  Id say the same thing Im saying here.  IT SUCKS! But at the same time, nobody had stepped up to save it all this time, and since vehicles are machines/appliances, its time had come up for it to be recycled and destroyed.  

PS: If I was living in a warmer climate, Id BE restoring old cars, classics or not, as a hobby.  Sometimes Id keep them in their original state, and other times Id resto-mod them. Id do the BEST I could with my workmanship for quality and Id try to sell them. For a tiny profit at most. At cost at the very least. And Id keep the ones that fancy me.   

Edited January 3, 2021 by oldshurst442

[ocnblu]

Ford is really giving great discounts on the Ecosport right now.  4WD SE with nav, MSRP $27k, on sale for like $21k!

[G. David Felt]

1 hour ago, ocnblu said:

Not sure where I read this, but I hear a lot of ppl are liking the GMC Terrain with the Elevation blackout package.  Here's one in a cool gray colour: 

Silly Man, I posted about this that GM was telling dealers they had to increase order percentage to 40% of the Elevation package near the top of this thread.

 

[oldshurst442]

1 hour ago, ocnblu said:

Ford is really giving great discounts on the Ecosport right now.  4WD SE with nav, MSRP $27k, on sale for like $21k!

 

Im so excited. And I just cant hide it. Oh boy...the Ecosport AWD SE...with NAV I might add...is ion sale for 21K! Oh boy!  A lawnmower sized AND engined CUV. 

Im gonna run.  Run all night and day. Im gonna run 'cause the feelins' right, Im gonna run all night (and day) JUST to be in that CUV. Where I could feel safest of all. I could lock all doors. Its the ONLY way to live.  With a lawnmower sized AND engined CUV.  

And THIS is what you are comfortable with  for a future?

GTFO! 

You lose credibility every damned day...

 

 

 

Edited January 4, 2021 by oldshurst442