Wolf's Den

Going... Going... Gone!

Tue, 23 Jun 2009 15:03:50 GMT

This is- WAS- the Demon Truck. A 1986 Chevy S10 Tahoe 4x4. This PoS cost me roughly $2500.00, about 4 years ago. Well, that's what I BOUGHT it for.

When it was all said and done, the stupid thing ran me nearly $7,000. Yeah.

Let's break that down, shall we?

Initial price- $2500.00

10 days after buying, front seals on tranny go- $1500.00

A week later, the temp gauge goes out, causing the radiator hoses to need replacing as well as the temp gauge. There's another $50.00. On top of THAT, as we're heading home from North Carolina after going back down to get the fool thing, the starter in the Banshee Car goes out. So by proxy, there's another $300.00. I hate North Carolina.

A month after getting that fixed, the oil pressure gauge, gas gauge AND battery gauge go haywire. Come to find out, the idiots in Warsaw, North Carolina, where the tranny went out, didn't know what the hell they were doing, so the wires to those particular gauges got wrapped around the driveshaft and chewed to pieces. Yeah. And a fuse blew.

That cost a case of beer to replace the fuse, cut the wires and tape to the inside firewall for when/if I ever wanted to fix them. That was the day I was told that the camshaft was walking, and not to bother putting too much money into it, as it wouldn't last long. $8.00 for the beer.

I should have sold it right then.

One year later, as I was getting ready to make the final payment on the PoS, the fuel pump goes out. With a full (22gal) tank of gas. $600.00 right there.

6 months later, after the first really good, heavy snowfall, I get to use the 4 wheel drive for the first time. Less than a week later, the torque converter goes to pieces, causing the tranny to burn out. Another $1600.00.

THEN it develops a brake line leak. Ok, fine, I give up on dumping more money into it. Brake fluid is cheap.

A year after THAT, the distributor gasket seal blows out, dumping all my oil on the ground as I'm driving down the road. I manage to limp it back home with Mark following me.

After trying to get the distributor off, and giving up because it's right against the firewall, it sat, in the driveway for a year and a half.

Not any more.

Yesterday, I called a auto parts place that hauls away old and junk vehicles.

At 745 this morning, they came to get it.

Going...

GOING...

GONE!!

Man is the driveway empty. WooHoo!

And now, I won't have to listen to the FiL bitch that we haven't gotten rid of it yet.

Goodbye, Demon Truck, you pain in my ass. I won't miss you one bit.

Today has been one big day of major suck with an interesting note.

Sat, 23 Aug 2008 01:45:03 GMT

So we go out to the car this morning for Mark to go to work, and I can have the car for the day, to go get groceries, etc. And... it won't start. We had to get a jump from the neighbor. I hope it's just the battery, as I've said before, we need to consider getting a new one as this one was looking rather ragged.

We get to Mark's work, he turns it off because he wants to make sure the car will start again for me.

It won't start. The battery should have been recharged by then.

He ended up taking a sick day, so we could go get a new battery. Yeah, there went the extra money we had set aside from this week.

We went grocery shopping with what we had left, got only what we needed or would run out of in the next week. We did good, I must say.

Get home and my damn cell phone is ringing. My father in law had wanted me to call him yesterday, only they weren't home. So he called me back today. Apparently, when the bro and sis in law were up in New Jersey last weekend, they mentioned my thinking of selling the Demon Truck to a junkyard.

He wanted me to consider donating it to Goodwill or an organization similier. I'd already thought of that, when I first thought about getting rid of it. Only Goodwill and similier around HERE, won't take a non-running vehicle and it's not worth it to me to fix it. Kelley Blue Book only goes back to 1988, the Demon Truck is a 1986 model, so I can't even really get a market value on it, essentially it's worthless.

I have also considered calling up the local high schools and seeing if they have any shop-type classes that might be interested in it. Told him all this. Well, he had a name/number of an organization that apparently takes vehicles in any condition, running and non. Hmm. Ok, worth checking into to see if they're in my area.

Then he said, well, you consider donating the Truck, I'll give you $3,000 towards a new vehicle.

I looked at Mark, my jaw dropped. Then I explained that we weren't planning to replace the Truck with getting ME a new vehicle, but that sometime in the next year, we hoped to trade in the Car for a newer vehicle. So he said he'd give us the $3,000 towards that if we wanted.

Wow. Just wow.

So now I need to look up this organization he gave me and see if they're in my area, as well as go get a new title for the Truck.

So lately, I've been really missing Dante. Just her companionship in general. Really wishing it was January already so we can start looking for a Rescue pup. Been trying to come up with a good name for our next Akita as well, one that would sound relatively nice in Japanese, to keep with the naming thing we had with Dante-Inu (French-Japanese for Devil Dog) and to go with the fact that Akitas are Japanese dogs.

Well, I had thought 'Phoenix' would be a good name. 'Phoenix Rising' would be even better. Hmm, let's translate that to Japanese...

Phoenix- Fenikkusu Not bad, ok, not great but, we can work with it. Let's continue...

Rising- Joushou, Kishou, Shinkou, Botsubotsutaru, OR Ryuuki

Err, yeah... No.

Any combination of Fenikkusu with ANY translated Rising just... doesn't work for us. Bummer. Just doesn't sound good.

Back to the drawing board. *sigh*

Patience is a virtue...

In that regard, I finally was able to get a couple good, clear shots of the newest resident. He still needs a name, despite being here nearly a month. He thoroughly enjoys the 30g fish tank-

He is currently mad at me, if fish can be, as I used a flash on that shot. Otherwise he looks likle this when the light is low-

Eventually, I'll come up with a name.

Dear Demon Truck...

Thu, 29 Nov 2007 20:40:47 GMT

Why must you be hating on me today???

Why???

You've been soo good for months, and hnow, when I have Christmas shopping to do.. you act up.

You knew we had spare money, didn't you? That's why you did it, isn't it?

Damn Truck.

No love,
Me.

So I'm heading over to Mark's work, cause the bank is a pain in my ass (BofA) and I need him to cash the damned Christmas check from the Inlaws.

I get half way there and the Demon Truck starts smoking. So I called Mark up and said I'm pulling it over, something's wrong. Funny thing is, it was right by the same gas station where I'd run out of gas over a year ago. Heh.

I thought I'd found which gasket seal it was. We limped it to the Auto Zone a block away, replaced that seal, and dumped a quart of oil in.

Then we limped it home. It was sounding rough, way worse than usual. Mark calls me up and says whatever the problem is, it's causing the fluid to just 'run out the bottom'.

Get it home, take him back to work after cashing the check, do some running in the Banshee Car, and come home..

In the process of putting a piece of cardboard under the Truck to try to determine where the leak is originating, I realise that the ENTIRE bottom is coated. Just soaked. With what appears to be oil (we hope).

So while Mark is positive it's a gasket seal, and I'm only 75% sure, the Demon Truck is out of commission for awhile. Until we figure out what seal gave out anyway and whether it's worth fixing.

I told Mark, if it's the head gasket, I'm emptying the Truck out and calling a junk yard to come get it, cause it won't be worth fixing. He agreed.

On a good note, 75% of my Christmas shopping is finished. Heh.

I need a Demon Truck icon, methinks.