SAmadei

Problem is, that the horse pollution was matter that was already in circulation. The pollution that cars kick out is emissions that had been sequestered deep in the ground for millions of years. Of course, at this point, its something of a moot point, as in some cases, such as a recent test of emissions from Mythbusters, IIRC, showed that a brand new F-150 was actually emitting cleaner air than it ingested. Licenses and fines are not a problem. You could get tickets in the past for "overdriving" your horse. But you didn't lose your horse license over it. The problem is that with public transportation being a problem for 90% of the people out there, and any number of judicial excuses, many unrelated to driving, to revoke your license to drive, it instantly puts a person in a position where they're ability to work a proper job or go to school is affected. Wasted manpower that can eventually become a draw on our society.

No less so than to drive a pickup with the tailgate down. If you drive a vehicle that has its plate disappear with the tailgate down, I'm sure it would give the police a reason to hassle you. But you can get equipment tickets on brand new, unmodified OEM cars, too, if a cop is in a bad enough mood. So far, I never got pulled over for it, but I don't like such grey areas.

I'd imagine something like that wouldn't be legal by the '80s-90s.. I'm not talking about the light, per se, but the swivel up license plate. Both the '80s Crown Vic wagons and the '91-on B-bodies wagons have the fold down tailgate with the license plate on it... how is that a legal solution, knowing full well that people use the wagons with the tailgates down?

First, driving is NOT a privilege, but it is supposed to be a right. You have the right to travel. It is your lovely government that fooled everyone years ago by trading in your horse for a car with a bunch of limits, then legislated the horse into impracticality. Second, in the end, the government is going to dupe you into using self driving cars by making manual driving such a hassle that its not enjoyable or worthwhile. Writing laws so you always have to yield to the self-drivers. Programming traffic lights to turn green for self-drivers, etc. It once was a government run by the people, now its a government that controls the people, generally by slow deception. For example, the laws in the failed SOPA are going to get passed. If not as SOPA, than as PIPA or CISPA (which is currently succeeding) or they will be installed piece by piece as riders on budgets and other boring, everyday legislation.

Its amazing that 1949 GM and Ford came up with this, but 1990's GM and 1980's Ford didn't. That's design by committee right there.

The Firebird? That didn't need a head gasket, the Cherokee did. The Firebird needed frame repair when it was all said and done. (I know, I know. I've had a billion cars, etc., etc.) Oh, Jeez... right building, wrong floor... I meant the Camaro. The Camaro at one point was rumored to need a head gasket. I was thinking you had two Firebirds. Yeah, but if its reasonably shiny in the end, someone will plunk $20K into buying it. If he's a few grand out, that's the price of playing the game. OTOH, I don't think an restored/modified Opel GT would sell for more than $10K. But you could easily find yourself 15K underwater or more getting it to that point. That's a high cost, especially when you're young and have less savings to spend in the first place. Exactly, but they work out (sometimes incorrectly) the finances within a magnitude before getting too deep.

"Homemade AC installed"... that sums up that CL ad. I think you need to work on easier projects before attacking ANY Opel GT. Every Opel GT I ever saw had serious rust problems and parts are very hard to find... if at all. So they will be expensive and will still require work. Body patches will need to be made from scratch. Almost any project is going to require an engine rebuild, which isn't going to be cheap, unless you do it yourself and also have to knowledge to tell the machine shop EXACTLY what you need done. You didn't even want to redo the head gasket on the Firebird. And in the end, you will have a car that is worth a fraction of what the Firebird or Regal could have been worth. And if you metabilization starts to slow down and you gain a few pounds, you won't even be able to drive it. Dream it, get it out of your system, then find a more reasonable project. I like Opel GTs, too... but Opel GTs needing restoration are cheap for a reason.

It recently was "ugly green day"... first saw a 4th gen Trans Am in neon snot green... but was unable to get a shot of it... but I did catch this snazzy seafoam green Cavalier with black stripes.

I first heard of it through my Pontiac group reading, so it will always be a Pontiac to me... especially with its obviously Pontiac styling. It was a few years ago, via the net that I heard it called the Buick or GM Phantom... and at that time I realized, its not really badged as anything but a Phantom. Every photo online I can find online appears to have a red arrowhead, but its too blurry to be sure it not something else. If anyone has a link to a clear image of the badging, I'd like to see it.

What the heck is the green car supposed to be? Looks like it trying to be a '68-'72 Nova, but the drawing looks more like something from Holden. If this is supposed to be a Nova SS, it is the worse representation I've ever seen. Edit: You answered it before I finished writing my post. I thought it looked familiar, in a foreign-kind of way.

Ah, Bill Mitchell's final project. The 1977 {Buick|Pontiac|GM} Phantom.

For 2011: 28,067 Cooper/S Hardtop 4,964 Cooper/S Convertible 6,844 Cooper/S Clubman 16,683 Crossover 57,511 Total Too early to tell for the 500.

This was a feature I wish the last of the B-bod wagons had. I must have ran around 100 trips with the tailgate down before I realized that one could not read the rear plate like that. My previously owned B-wags had them in the bumper.

Since last summer? More like 3 years ago. Ever since we had the wet winter that led to a 7 acre lake in the backyard... then drought, warm fall, giant snowstorm, a slight return to normality, cool summer, Hurricane Irene, warm winter, drought, hot spring. Mid-Atlantic has been nuts lately. I'm not longer surprised by anything.

If they are dedicated CNG vehicles, I would imagine their value will be inversely related to the time left on the tanks. Check the notice on the fuel filler door. 1998-on tanks are good for 20 years. 2007-on tanks are good for 25 years.

Tiny rear doors. Bah. If your going to do that, reverse hinge them for a larger opening.

This. Actual conversion can be had for sub $1K if the "need" from EPA did not exist. We're only speaking DIY conversions here, so the EPA is not really a cost factor here. $1000 gets you a CNG kit for a V8, but does not get you tanks... and the tanks are expensive... generally due to safety issues related to the aging of the tank. 64 cents for a "gallon" (Gas Gallon Equivalent) of CNG should be pretty compelling.

FatMat doesn't seem to be getting good reviews. Appears to not stick well and has a nasty odor, as it is closely related to roofing materials.

You have to refigure your numbers. DIY CNG conversion is going to cost you more like $2500-$5500, depending on what tanks you use. Cheap tanks are likely small or have expired, or will be soon. If you have cheaper price quotes, please post them. OTOH, I have seen CNG vans and pickups going cheap on some parts of the country... $3K-$6K, but the tanks are also rapidly expiring on these, as well. Its still a question to me if having expired tanks are enforced. Also, I would try to avoid the home refueling, as my mileage is not really enough. I can buy $2.20 GGE (gas gallon equivilent) at two stations within 10 miles. Takes reportedly about twice as long to fill up as gasoline. My friend with a E-350 who delivers stuff, puts about 300 miles a week on the truck. On gas it gets about 12 mpg... so 25 gallons of gas per week... at $3.80, $95. A similar CNG van would get 11 mpg... 27 GGE, at $2.20 GGE, $59. For a $4000 truck (or conversion), it takes about 102 weeks.... slightly less than 2 years to pay for itself. For him to use a home refueling unit, it changes things. A GGE is 114,000 BTU... 1.14 Therms. South Jersey Gas appears to be roughly $0.57 a therm right now... that's about 64 cents a GGE... so for the same 27 GGEs needed, it would be $17.28... but now he would have a $4000 truck and $5000 refueler... saving $78 a week, would take 115 weeks, slightly more than 2 years to pay for it. Of course, he actually has more trucks, so he could get more mileage out of the refueler... but I'll stop there.

Harbor Freight has Powder coating supplies... likely at a cost more in line with home users. Eastwood has a lot of colors and better equipment, but Eastwood stuff if higher quality and more cha-ching. Personally, I would always DIY it, as dropping off stuff and working on some else's schedule doesn't usually work for me. As for powder coating rims black... well, I just am not into the black rims thing... IIRC, it makes them disappear, and I might as well have black steel wheels. OTOH, I love when cars have body colored rims... even if that was a late '80s, early '90s kind of thing.

And I love the skeg fins and entire tail treatment on the O-61s. Sure, the front is meh (still better than '60 or '62, IMHO), but the bubbletop and rear treatment make up for it.

More at http://www.autoblog.com/2012/04/23/scion-xb-XD-models-getting-the-axe/

So that means the Honda Accord is 5 years of "C&D 10 Best" better than the 3 series.

Those old hubcabs have a bad habit of disappearing after hitting a pot hole, so its more likely they lost them. If they were selling them, I think you'd see a $15 set of plastic Pep Boys caps. They need to visit the hubcab pyramid in Weymouth, NJ.

Well, don't bother asking them about wheels. I got a 4th grade response to my request for a quote: "WHEELS ARE ONLY THING WE DONT DO". The Dalek's are one of the top antagonists for Dr. Who. EXTERMINATE!