billh wrote in message <80sqpj$nu9$1@holly.prod.itd.earthlink.net>...
>30 ways to know you own an old truck:
>
>1.  The odometer has 15,000 miles on it, but you aren't sure if it means
>315,000 or 415,000
>
>2.  The employees at all three local salvage yards know you by name.
>
>3.  You block no less than five weekend hours a month for maintenance (even
>if only a friendly visit to the salvage yards).
>
>4.  You know exactly where each like truck is in all savage yards within a
>fifty mile radius, and you know each salvageable part on each truck.
>
>5.  You are thrilled when you finally realize a 10% improvement in gas
>mileage...all 1.2 miles per gallon.
>
>6.  You think your truck is great.  Another repair needed?  The truck is a
>piece of crap!
>
>7.  You can immediately diagnose that new "funny" sound under hood and know
>exactly how much it is going to cost you and which truck in which salvage
>yard has the parts you need.
>
>8.  You gave up on the chassis electrical system.  Everything required by
>law works, but you'll accept that it is easier to live without an A/C
blower
>than running down the ground.  It'll finally heat up or cool down on the
>highway anyhow.
>
>9.  You'll spend $300 repairing or upgrading the suspension, but you won't
>spend $15 replacing the door weather strips.  If you turn up the stereo and
>open the vent window just a tad, you don't notice the whistling sound
>anyway.
>
>10.  You'll spend all day Saturday on a drive line component but won't
spend
>15 minutes adjusting the vent window locks.  A couple of match books or
>pennies will tighten it up quite nicely.  Why take the danged thing apart?
>
>11.  You don't think twice about drilling holes in the cab interior or the
>bed.
>
>12.  A fairly extensive tool box is in the back.  You never need it unless
>it is not there.
>
>13.  All road trips are planned with repair time added in.
>
>14.  The card board box beside the tool box contains spare parts.
>
>15.  When your wife gripes about the money you just spent on parts, you
>quietly explain that the truck has still totally cost less than 10% of her
>new vehicle.
>
>16.  You threaten to buy a new truck, but your wife balks, knowing you'll
>just buy a "better" old truck.
>
>17.  You stop at the Ford and Chevy dealer to pick up the new truck
>brochures, knowing you'll never cough up the $20 grand for a new truck.
>
>18.  Your truck drives like a truck.
>
>19.  Your truck looks much better from the driver's seat than from outside.
>
>20.  You talk about painting, but know it'll never happen.
>
>21.  You replace the tires with really high quality brand name rubber and
>increase the trucks value by 20%.
>
>22.  Your knuckles always hurt, and your finger nails are never quite
clean.
>
>23.  You cuss the design engineers at least once a month, especially as you
>rip the skin off another knuckle.
>
>24.  You refuse to own or rent a house with its own well.  You prefer city
>water as you are never quite sure what your truck is releasing into the
>ground water.
>
>25.  You dread inspection time and start worrying three months early,
>especially the emissions test.
>
>26.  It is never locked.  Who'd steal it anyway, though you secretly hope
it
>will disappear so you can buy that "better" old truck your wife dreads so
>much.  Then you realize the tools and parts in the bed are worth as much as
>the truck and you change your mind.
>
>27.  Based upon sound only, your kids know your home when you round the
>corner at the end of the street.
>
>28.  Normal wear parts like brake shoes, calipers, and shocks become
>unacceptable purchases to your wife, yet she just spent $75 having  her one
>year old vehicles interior detailed.
>
>29.  Duct tape and electrical tape are considered good things, actually the
>best of things.
>
>30.  You won't degrease the nightmare under the hood or chassis.  You are
>afraid of what you might find.  You'll fix them when you must, you just
>don't want to know right now.
>
>
>