The last time I did backyard hack bodywork was on a crappy van that I kept as a junk hauler , but it needed an inspection sticker that it couldn't get due to the rot holes . I knocked out the rot , backed up the holes with chicken coop wire , and then slathered the Bondo on . After a few layers were slathered on and knocked down smooth a bit of paint hid the butchery and the all important inspection sticker was granted . The Bondo rot disguise lasted the final few years I had it till the engine died and off to "Pick & Pull" it went :D

Well I finished the body work just over 2 weeks ago. I was planning to fix the low speed nusiance ABS trips it's had since summer, but something more pressing came up...
Hit the auto window opener today at Portillos drive through and my window stopped 3/4 way down with a metalic crunch... It will open a bit farther and go back to that point, but it won't close...
I'm guessing the motor is still OK and the regulator failed... won't be sure till I get it appart tonight.

Looks like I'm going to loose an evening of watching TV and sorting Sam's manuals...

Still say you really HAVEN'T lived until you've been the Daddy of an Urbanizer. or an Excursion... Go Big, or Go Home...No how much you think you've put in either one of them rigs, you HAVEN'T really filled one up... Guarantee it..

Day after I finished the body work I got 29 file cabinet drawers full of Sam's plus a few boxes of overflow using the burban 200mile drive each way. I filled it. 3 people and all the drawers (I briefly considered strapping some of the cabinets to the roof, but didn't have enough rope and left them) that is pretty much the limit for cabin space and definitely close for the suspension (thing had a gangster lean and I had to top off the back tires). I averaged over 17mpg that trip...best mileage and closest to factory rating it's ever given me.
I did similar on the way back from the ETF in spring I bought over $3k worth of junk there and packed it as full as it would go before asking for help from a friend who I'll let choose whether to identify himself.
It's been to the family cabin a few times too... normally we come with 2/3 of what a Honda CR-V can shlep and come back with an overstuffed Honda... we've essentially done the same thing with the burban, but only because 2 of the trips I happened upon BIG TV consoles (the Sylvania slide theater and one of those big ass Corinthian CTC9s that used to live in the oval office) only 1 hour out of the way on the trip...those things eat a surprising amount of space...
I've had it near full going to swapmeets too. One Radiofest it was, me dad, my buddy Chris, and an older fellow from my local club I've done some resto work for who wanted to tag along plus 3 radio consoles and other junk to sell...I had to do 80-90 much of the way to make it semi on-time due to elderly guest being an hour late....
for all the empty commutes to work I make up for it by getting the max out of it on trips (and I still wish I had a trailer occasionally).

One word: TRAILER!

.

Only reason I don't own one is ma... I'm completely forbidden from parking one on the property.
A few weeks ago I talked to her about going to buy a 46 Olds up near Appleton and discussed where I'm going to keep it on the property (and she was surprisingly happy with it) and then a week later when I'm about to go look at it she, without reason, changes her mind and goes to war with me.

I gotta get some more money together and move the hell out...The way things are going they are going to retire broke and I'm going to hate them enough (for the BS they are doing now) to stick them in the worst retirement home I can find when they come crawling to me for help...

Nothing sucks more than thinking everything has lined up and your going to look at and probably buy a car you've wanted since you were 9 years old (and have been shopping for for nearly the whole time) then having that stopped and the weekend turn into an argument... Except maybe ones fiancee getting shot the day before a wedding.....And this ain't the first time they pulled this rotten stunt!

Yup.

Suh-Weet Oldsmobubble... Don't feel like the Lone Ranger, Tom... I lived at home for a long time after college to be a Helpful Son, did the yard, washed cars, this kind of stuff... What did it get me ? Nada. My dad made my Sweet, Loving sister the executor of the estate, & I basically ended up w/what the Little Boy shot at-Nada damn thing. I would NOT have treated her the way she treated ME, 'cause I still gotta Live With Myself. I WILL, however, hopefully someday get to tell her exactly what I think of her. She was into horses, they bought her umpteen horses over the years, tack-Saddles, bridles blankets, hospitalisations, medicines, trailers, trucks lodging at the finest hotels when they went to shows, an army's worth of hangers' on, lodging for those dead beats, trainers... There's a LOT of money in the Equine world, & my parents & sister sure as hell put their share into it... And I caught unbridled SHIT 'cause I Wasted Money by bringin' a Radidio or TV home every so often. Wastin' Yer Money, aren't you, son ?!? And I could turn off a TV or radio, not worry about it for a month, turn it back on, & chances are, it'd start sweetly singin' away to me. Do that w/a Hoss, & you'll have a smelly rottin' corpse to clean up...Horse GOTTA have 2 squares a day, LOTSA water, & it still is subject to keel over on you, for no apparent reason. And no matter how nice & loving you are to the futhermuckin' thing, it can get a wild hair, & kick the FIRE outta you, bite yr ear off, or R'ar up & possibly KILL you. A TV or radio can kill you, too, but if you use a sliver of sense around one, you'll likely be fine & dandy..

:D Sandy's post about Horses made me laugh , the Horse having a mind of it's own is the #1 reason the only Horse I ever trusted was Mr. Ed . For real , I wouldn't get on a real horse because of the whole mind of it's own thing , so I rode iron Horses (motorcycles) instead .

;) With a motorcycle there was only one brain , mine , in control of the throttle !

:) PS , Tom , I'm sorry as Hell to hear about not getting the car , "the one that got away" always sucks ....

Back when I had the body shop we changed so many of those regulators that I almost started keeping one in stock. They didn't break as often as the inside door handles, though. (though I can't remember now if it was this generation that ate handles or the mid/late 90's). Hardly ever a bad motor, always the regulator.

Thinking of old cars, I've had some I didn't keep long but it no case has there been a vehicle that I now regret owning. I liked them all one way or the other. And, yes, there are quite a few that I regret not buying.

I got it changed just fine. The motor survived, but barely. The motor just barely had the guts to close the window with the new regulator (I did try to work it closed a few times before getting the parts) so I replaced both the motor and the regulator (seems to be working good and fast albeit the factory motor was quieter). The steel bike cable in the regulator was frayed and jammed up the works (the metallic crunch I heard). It seems like crummy engineering to me using what amounts to a beefed-up motorized radio slide-rule dial string system in duplicate for a window regulator...If I had infinite time/money/motivation I'd probably try to take a gear arm mech like whats in my lincoln and adapt it.

I'm also beginning to better understand why the audio system sucks really bad (I remember renting one of these new in 03 and it sounding good). The driver's side woofer has no cone suspension left, and the coil is open...Darn thing has probably been entertaining me mostly on tweeters for the past 2 years. I think the rear passenger woofer only has bad foam since it distorts at highish volume...There is probably an intermittent voice coil or two because I've had channels lose and gain strength and change tone on me.
I couldn't find anything at the auto parts store with the same size normal metal speaker frame to pop into the plastic mount bracket...I'm going to have to shop around a bit, or hack up the mounts, but I'd like to minimize hack work...For now there is no drivers woofer...Not like it makes any difference from the last few months of there being a dead lump of metal mounted there.

Those cable-drive regulators started showing up a lot in the late 90s and I guess most everyone uses them now. Lighter weight and maybe their cheaper to make. Notorious for self-destructing, though some brands hold up better than others. I used to save the good motors when I replaced a hole assembly but found that I hardly ever had a regulator outlast a motor. One time I installed an aftermarket regulator and a year or so later the motor failed. That's when I discovered that the manufacturer used a different style gear and the OEM motor wouldn't fit. They didn't sell their motor separate so we had to replace the whole works again! I'd say as far as longevity the best you can do is keep things lubed up.

I'm not a fan of the cable regulators, the ones in 00s GM passenger cars are objective trash. The ones in my Miata are holding up 18 years later, and the metal scissor ones in my other car/truck are fine of course. All my Toyota cars had metal scissor regulators and worked fine 20-30 years later.

I've been using my Pug 505 wagon as a fragile cargo hauler lately, I took some condenser mics, stands, cables and some rackmount gear up to work for a live gig on friday, my supervisor called and said the his exploder wouldn't start and you'll have to pick up the double bass we rented for the gig (A traveling Argentine Tango Cuarteto that can't haul a bass with 'em). So I folded the seats down and had plenty of room for that 7 ft tall $30000 overgrown fiddle, not to mention the soft suspension able to float over the duke city's sh!tty roads like a magic carpet........

Damn replacement window regulator failed (this morning) in under a month after install...I'm considerably annoyed.
It came from Autozone and was a Doorman part IIRC...I gotta try and find a different brand...I refuse to be in a position where I gotta change the damn thing once a month.