Car Show Cont.

On the last post, The Fuzz showed a few of these spiffy motor vehicles that were at the Car Show.  Well, he has a few more pix and this is the place for them.

So here goes…

In the BMW district…

The guy that was restoring this one said it was made by a refrigerator company!

It does kinda look like it.

A look at the interior…

And then…

"Under" the hood.

And for a bit more of German engineering…

How about a Porsche?

And now a look under this hood…

Look familiar?

Remember these guys?

And here's one more just…

For the road!

Car Show

This past weekend there was a car show in conjunction with some other festivals in town.

There were a lot of cars there.

This one was pretty much limited to European vehicles.

There were a lot to look at and it kept The Fuzz occupied for most of the morning.

And so just for fun…

Here's a few pix!

A lot to look at…

And one more…

The Fuzz has a few more.

But this post is pretty full already, so he'll leave them for next time.

Lineup

And here is that bit of color The Fuzz promised…

The Fuzz found this lineup in one of the alleys and couldn't resist playing with it.

Maybe he has too much time on his hands.

First One Ever

Some years ago, The Fuzz and His Sweetie purchased what was to them, at the time, a Luxury Vehicle.

Well, time moves on and that guy was starting to give just a little bit of trouble.

There was a small problem of the battery draining on occasion when parked overnight.

The Fuzz had determined that the alternator was in fact charging it when running.  So now it was a question of tracking down the culprit.

Gone are the days when car repair was a simple matter of a bit of wire, or perhaps a few whacks with a hammer.

So rather than dealing with on-board computers and the like, it was decided to take a trip to the dealer's own little shop.  

And sure enough, these people were familiar with the situation.

And while it was not possible to determine the cause without extensive testing, they were aware of a good (50%) guess.

And it turned out that at least in this case, it was a good guess.

But this affair did suggest that considering how much out-of-town driving The Fuzz and His Sweetie were planning, it just might be time to think about a replacement vehicle.

They had been impressed with the service at this local dealer in the past, and were a bit fond of the model they had.  And it had given good service.  

So they decided to find a newer one.

Well, one thing led to another and they thought—

"Why not test drive a new one?"

And one thing did lead to another.

It may seem to have been a foolish move, but considering their age, travel habits, and the warranties involved…

The Fuzz and His Sweetie now have their first ever…

Brand new…

2017 model Luxury Vehicle!

And The Fuzz is happy to report that this Brand New Luxury Vehicle survived it's maiden voyage through the mountains to Charlottesville VA and back.

What's Missing From This Picture?

Well, maybe you had to be here.

But the missing object (X) had been around our Home in the Woods for awhile...

And had made a few cameos here at Kinda Fuzzy from time to time.

As well as being featured on at least 1 occasion!

But perhaps it's best not to go into that at this time.

Suffice it to say that after giving great service to multiple family members, this vehicle's time had come.

And so with a neighbor in need of cheap transport, and not being put off by a bit of work, this tough little guy is headed back out into the wide world.

(At least that's the plan.)

Naturally The Fuzz's Sweetie is happy to be shed of the thing.  And it must be admitted that he is too.

But...

There was another complication to the affair.

With the impossibility of keeping one of the windows up, some of the kitties had made a home in there.

So now a replacement would have to be found.

Since The Fuzz and His Sweetie are down to only one dog these days, she had the idea of recycling one of the doghouses into a cathouse!

She also suggested mounting it on a stump that was conveniently located near the shop - and their feeding area.

So here we have it.

Just to note...

The Fuzz and His Sweetie had a safe and relatively uneventful trip home from the beach, enjoying some nice country roads, and family hospitality along the way.

Reality Check

So...

What exactly do we have here?

While The Fuzz and His Sweetie are enjoying their stay here at the beach, life is not without it's complications- even here.

For example, on their way back from a trip to the grocery store they stopped to check out a new donut shop.

When they left, it was discovered that their "Fanbelt" was history!

Rather than getting towed to a shop-

(The Fuzz has few tools with him)

-They had the car towed back to the hotel.

Because their Certified Mechanic Daughter actually lives nearby!

 She had to wait until she was off of work of course, but picked up a new belt on the way out to this remote island.

Here's another less doctored pix of the belt.

 

It was pretty much busted.

Kinda worn out to be sure.

The Fuzz should have caught this before it happened.  But that's the way it goes.

Well The Fuzz is happy to report that the new belt went on with little trouble.

And then they all rode into town for a Delicious Gourmet Dinner!

More on the Mountain

The Fuzz was not the only one up there.

When he reached the top of The Devil's Staircase he stopped for a bit to rest and let his bike cool off a little.

He could hear someone winding through the gears below on their way up the mountain.

So he got out his camera for an action shot of the bikes.

But it wasn't bikes!

It seems it's not just bikers who enjoy this route.

And here's a classic that Our Fuzz saw a bit later that day.

 

Somehow it's hard for The Fuzz to think of this as an

"Antique"

Body Work

A while back, whilst a family member (who will remain nameless) was attempting to master the Art of the Straight-Drive, this poor vehicle had an encounter with a tree.  Of course, this was blamed on the tree - but we won't go into that here.

Although the car still drove fine, it became impossible to open the hood.  The fender had been jammed against the hood, and probably other stuff as well.  The Fuzz tried prying it open a few times without success.  So with the crummy weather and all, he just decided to give it a rest.
Well, not having any good excuse to put it off any longer, he decided to give it another try.

This time he tried a different approach.  He got out his shiny new come-along, and a couple of crowbars.  The crowbars would have been the simple solution, but they proved ineffective.  Next he found a place where he hoped the damage would be minimal, and attached the cable to the fender.  The other end of this handy piece of equipment was chained to a nearby tree.  (We have a lot of them here in the woods.)  And after a series of pulls, and repositioning, Voila, an open hood.

The hood latch is even working smoothly.  Of course now The Fuzz will have to find a way to fix the turn signal light well enough to satisfy the inspection process.

Headliner

Wow, it's September already!  And a week since our last post.  Oh well.  But The Fuzz and His Sweetie have not been idle here in the woods.
A while back, whilst on a trip to party with the young'uns, The Fuzz and his Sweetie noticed a disturbing trend in their Luxury Vehicle.  A glance in the rearview mirror reveled that what had been a minor case of sagging headliner had become a major case of sagging headliner, and worse.

A quick stop was made at one of the many convenient Auto Parts Stores for some supper spray adhesive.  Having arrived at the destination, The Fuzz and His Sweetie proceeded to shoot a lot of glue up in there.  Then they pushed the fabric back where it was supposed to be.  It was a little wrinkled, but hey, it was up there again.
Unfortunately this fix was only temporary.  With another trip on the agenda, another quick fix was made.  This time Gorilla Tape did the trick.  (The Fuzz strongly recommends this product)  And it did hold.  But the center was still saggy, held only by the dome light and other fixtures.
The Fuzz thought briefly about seeking professional help for this, as it appeared to be rather intimidating.  But a visit to YouTube produced a helpful video of a man performing this very operation on an almost duplicate of this very vehicel!  So The Fuzz And His Sweetie figured that they would remove the headliner, and paint it, thus removing any chance of this occurring in the future.
Since many of these newfangled cars are equipped with airbags, The Fuzz thought it would be prudent to disable this safety feature, which can kill you, by disconnecting the battery.

He had lots of help*.

Next, The Fuzz and His Sweetie went to work removing the various fixtures that held the headliner in place.

This operation went surprisingly well.

The fabric is glued onto a plastic (The Fuzz guesses - all this stuff seems the same to him) form, which can be removed in one piece.

Here is a look at the headlinerless passenger compartment of said Luxury Vehicle.

The headliner was cleaned with wire brushes, and painted with Kilz.  This stuff is great.  The Fuzz's Sweetie even used it to paint over vinyl wallpaper in the Not-so-new Trailer.
The main challange here was to keep those "helpers" off of it until it dried.  The Fuzz had to finally stand it up on edge.  (Fortunately the little paw prints didn't show through on the finished project.)

Next the color was added.  This turned out pretty well also.

And here is a look at the headliner, reinstalled.  Total cost- less than 10 bucks for paint!  Let's see that come loose.

*A Techno-Tip - These guys come in handy when you need something to wipe your hands on!

Some Official Looking Mail

A while back The Fuzz found this bit of Official Looking Mail in the mailbox.  Not wanting to fool with it at the time, he put it in the drawer where these things go.  But this is not the sort of thing one can put off forever*.  Here in The Great North State, every thing motor-vehicle-like has been put into one huge messy file, and one can not renew a tag without a vehicle inspection.

Well The Fuzz's beat up little motorcycle will pass an inspection, as long as nobody gets too fussy about things.  Actually, it is mechanically sound, although it looks like crap.

And so with the weather looking tolerable, he put on his leathers and headed into town.

Things went fine and his little bike was entered into the state-wide system as rideable, and not a traffic hazard.

Rather then sending the paperwork back to Raleigh, he opted to simply ride over to the tag office and take care of things in person.

And that went well also.  Since he was already out and about, he  decided to take the long way home, and ended up freezing his tush off! 




*Although it must be confessed that the Outlaw Fuzz has ridden with dead tags at times!

End of the Stick Shift?

Whist checking out what's going on in the world out side our Home in the Woods, The Fuzz came upon this.

End of the manual transmission?

This is disturbing.
The Fuzz has often thought that one that can't drive a stick, can't really drive! But here's what they're saying. (From The Detroit News)

"...like the powerful V-8, the stick shift — or manual transmission, common to beloved muscle cars and older vehicles — is fading into the annals of automotive history..."

"...Sales of vehicles with manual transmissions have hovered around 4 percent the past two years..."

But take heart. There are still a few of us left.

"People who drive a stick demand to participate in the driving and control the car's movement to the absolute greatest degree possible..."

"...With a stick shift, the car "becomes less an appliance and more an experience..."

Of course, the shameful truth is, that even Our Fuzz, drives an automatic at work. But of course no one pretends that that is for fun.

Let's just hope this doesn't happen to Motorcycles!