Roger Nelson wrote to Roy Witt:   
      
    RN> On Fri Mar-22-2013 11:26, Roy Witt (1:387/22) wrote to Roger Nelson:   
      
    RW>> FYI, my friend Harry would turn MB jobs away because he wasn't   
    RW>> inclined to work on them. He was even reluctant to take a MB for   
    RW>> free that somebody paid the towing fees on to get it out of their   
    RW>> yard. Harry fixed it, but didn't want anything more to do with it   
    RW>> and put a for sale sign on it.   
      
    RN> Well, if y'all ever come across any MBs in the mid-Nineties range   
    RN> that the owner wants to give away, I'll take them.  I can always use   
    RN> extra parts. After all, the repair manual on them for that year range   
    RN> is $140, so you can imagine what the replacement parts cost.   
      
   8^) IOW, over engineered and over priced...   
      
    RW>> Last I saw of it was when the new owner drove it off after it had   
    RW>> sat at the shop for months with that for sale sign on it. He   
    RW>> brought it back the next day, wanting Harry to do some work on it.   
    RW>> Harry declined to even listen to what the guy wanted done.   
      
    RN> I found a reliable shop here that can do the things I'm not able to   
    RN> do on the Mercedes.  I'd like it to be my Lincoln mechanics, but they   
    RN> told me the only foreign car they would work on is a Toyota.  I   
    RN> didn't ask why.   
      
   Probably for the same reason Harry won't work on MBs. Toyotas are   
   plentiful and always need repair. Which translates into work for the   
   employees and money in the shop's tills. My friend Max in San Diego told   
   me the same thing about why he would rather work on a 4 or 6 cyl car than   
   a V8. Easier to work on and the pay is the same. His favorite was the BMW   
   4 and 6 cyl...he certainly had a bunch of 3-series BMW parts cars in his   
   storage lot and wouldn't hesitate to make an offer on one that a customer   
   didn't want to pay to fix. He usually got them for the price of parts and   
   labor and turned them around because he had so many extra parts on hand.   
      
    RW>> Dunno why but any other German made cars (except V8 Porche') were   
    RW>> acceptabe to work on. The real money is in fixing Asian cars   
    RW>> because they're plentiful and so easy to diagnose and fix compared   
    RW>> to European cars.   
      
    RN> My Lincoln mechanics told me last week they can't get a response out   
    RN> of my Mark VIII's computer.  That tells me I can no longer trust the   
    RN> guy my SIL has known for a long time and has done so much for him.   
    RN> Once I find I can't trust someone, I forget I know that person.   
      
   Perhaps your Mark 8's PCM has suffered a problem that can't be corrected   
   unless it is repaired or replaced. If its a pre-OBD I PCM (as in   
   pre-1996), the only thing that can be done for it is to replace the   
   onboard chip that runs the PCM. Dunno about Ford products, but GM pre-OBD   
   I PCMs have a removable chip. BTW, that chip can be tested outside of the   
   computer.   
      
    RN>>> I liked the front seat of my '57 Bel Air.  Way more room.   
      
    RW>>> I was a high school student in that year. Not having the income to   
    RW>>> buy a new Chevy, I opted for a $50 V8 Ford. I suppose that had I   
    RW>>> followed my father's advice, I would have bought a fat body (41-48)   
    RW>>> Chevy (big back seats), but then, those weren't up to my   
    RW>>> expectations of a real car at the time...   
      
    RN> I had a difficult time getting it because I had no credit background,   
    RN> but the salesman moved heaven and earth to push the sale through.  It   
    RN> was a 2-door coupe and truquoise in color -- a beautiful car.  The   
    RN> dealership didn't have that color in stock, so they tried to talk me   
    RN> into a green 4-door sedan with the powerpack 283 engine, which was   
    RN> the same engine I had exceot it had a 4-bbl carb instead of a 2-bbl.   
    RN> I flatly refused.  When I finished with mine, it had 3 dueces atop an   
    RN> Edelbrock manifold (altered by me) and an Engel 3/4 race cam and a   
    RN> Mallory dual-point distributor.  The original short block was   
    RN> replaced with a Corvette block with 10:1 compression.   
      
   It'd be nice to know the specs on that cam...lift, duration, etc..   
      
    RN> After I had the heads milled, I could almost outrun everything top   
    RN> end except police radios.  (-:[   
      
   I did that once in my Corvette. The cop that came over the center-divide   
   on Clairmont Dr probably caught up with the Dodge Charger I was racing,   
   but never caught up with me. I dunno if he caught the Dodge or not since I   
   didn't go back to find out.   
      
    RW>> That was my grandfather's first new car too. A 1941 Chevy Deluxe   
    RW>> tudor, maroon. I always wanted that car, but he eventually traded   
    RW>> it in for a 52 Pontiac, maroon in color.   
      
    RN> The new Jeeps are somewhat of a disappointment, if you believe what's   
    RN> plastered on the Internet.  I'd like to have a Pontiac "Goat".   
      
   I just got a glimpse of a 2014 Siverado. Standard cab, shortbed with a   
   6.2L LS engine and 6spd automatic. Wish I didn't like my 'paid for' 2002   
   so much.   
      
      
            R\%/itt   
      
      
   --- GoldED+/W32 1.1.5-31012   
    * Origin: Texas Lone-Star - Texan, American, USAian  (1:387/22)