Saturday, July 11, 2009
Mello Yello
Just call me Mello Yello! I am now the new owner of a new used 2005 Colorado Z71 that happens to be Yellow! I got her two weeks ago from today and finally got the dealership to give it a good wash (on a rainy day), so I took some pics of her. I had a pretty bad experience with Ed Payne Volkswagen out of Brownsville, TX and even though I would get 100 dollars for a referral I would not recommend them to anyone. Yes, I got bad credit and I did have a hard time getting a car loan BUT Ed Payne was not the only dealership willing to work with me, but they were the only ones with a truck I liked. My friend Rob says to never talk numbers with friends about a car you purchase so I will just say that they were selling this truck a little high for what it is but I was also just wanting to get into a truck really bad so I over looked it after getting shot down by them at the low ball figure I gave them. In the end, they sold it to me for 1000 dollars more then what I had offered but supposedly it was because the bank was taking a chance with me. On test drive, what I really did not like was the interior. It is a gray color, when I like dark colors. My first Colorado was a Dark Gray so I liked that. Secondly, the interior was dirty and had not been cleaned by the dealership. When the deal was done the salesman said he would pick up the truck the following Monday to have it washed. Did he do it? NO! What he did do, was harass me at work (Adri can attest to that) about calling some 1-800 number for a new customer interview or something. I thought this was to evaluate the salesman so I waited a day to do it. Turns out it was to verify information on me and on the truck. Turns out the bank thought the truck had leather, sun roof, and power seats. So when I called the following Monday to see about getting the truck detailed all I got was a call back the following day to come in to sign some more papers. Man, I was a little angry. On my way home, I called the sales manager and let him have it about not getting my car cleaned, no full gas tank and just about being disappointed about it all. He apologized a lot, promised to clean it, fill up the gas tank, but I still had to come in to sign more papers. Well, when I finally went in today to sign the papers it turns out they wanted me to give an additional 1000 dollars because of the mistake THEY did when they submitted the wrong information to the bank. PFFFFFT I was ready to leave the truck there and walk home when they finally said they would eat the 1000 dollars. So guess what? My payment went down about 30 bucks. That's about 1400 dollars off the truck loan. They washed the truck, and removed some of the stains in the upholstery but will have to take it in somewhere to have it done right. Here are a few more pictures: |
Sunday, October 19, 2008
19 and a Coop
 I don't care what Juan thinks of Mini Coopers, they are so cool and NICE!I want one! Awesome on gas I hear. These are a couple I have seen in town.  |
Tuesday, October 07, 2008
On The Seventh Day It Was Good
 Well, we took a stab at trying to fix my noisy flywheel again and after a lot of praying and after lots of oil we got it going. :-)Juan didn't want the Vette to defeat him so he came by after work to have another look. We were thinking the worst. A bent or cracked flywheel. We were also thinking that maybe the new bolt he put in there was sticking out to much and hitting the cover that goes below the flywheel. So we took it off, which also requires unbolting the starter. The only clean part of the cover you see in the photo is where A bolt was hitting it. He put the starter back on and after starting and test driving the car the noise was gone so, Juan took a hammer to the thing and straightened out. When it went back into the car the clatter was gone. whoo hooo!!! Thank God! Oh, and no I didn't clean this thing before putting it back on. I'm sure most would. |
Monday, October 06, 2008
Day Six and Out of Gas Already
 No, not out of Blogging gas. Out of gasolina!! Well, I had never gotten a flat on the road and I had never run out of gas before and within Six days I have done both!After work, Juan was working on my flywheel problems and we thought WE got it fixed. That was not so because as I went to pick him up to get him some Pancakes for working and bleeding so hard I heard that dreaded sound return. I did not even make it to his house though. Within two blocks the Vette died! I ran out of gas! I have run the Vette way below Reserve but maybe having her jacked up like that threw the gauges off. After we put gas in it, and after Juan heard the sounds of the flywheel, he lost his appetite. :-(. But hey! At least now I am not that scurred to drive it to the shop. And since it is dark out I am not sure if there is a black cloud over me. |
Saturday, October 04, 2008
Day Four A Bolt
 A bolt very similar to this is causing much trouble for the Corvette. The bolt in the photo is actually the replacement for the one that some how unscrewed it self from the flywheel. The original bolt probably stayed behind in Juans truck.Hopefully tomorrow this bolt will be holding the flywheel in place. :-(  |
Thursday, October 02, 2008
Two for One on Day Two
 Day two of my photo a day for October and it is a doozy already. The rear passenger tire on the vette has been losing air on cold days but before I left the house this morning I checked it and it looked good. Not good enough 'spose because as I am taking an exit for work she is shake, rattlin' and rollin'. She has been doing that for awhile on so I thought no big deal but it never stopped shaking. So I pulled into Exon and the tire wouldn't hold any air. I don't have a spare so I left the vette at the Home Depot parking lot. Rob later took care of it for me. He even donated a tire, temporary!! God is good! Thanks Rob! This second photo is of Juan's truck with my moms new, used refrigerator in the rear. My mom called early this morning that her fridge had stopped cooling. She asked if she could have my little fridge which I have at home in my garage. I told her yes but when I had a moment I emailed Juan if he had one there at his work. He said he would get back to me. I started to then have a really crappy day and at around 4:30 I had enough and went back to my office to rest and to calm down. That is when I found the email from Juan that he had a fridge for my mom and that he asked his boss how much for it but his boss let him have it for free since my mom doesn't have much dinero. Praise God! My eyes got all watery. So glad I went back to my office. After work, I picked up the vette from Home Depot and headed to Juan's work to take the fridge to my mom. My mom was expecting my little fridge and she was very surprised to get this thing. :-) God is good. |
Sunday, February 24, 2008
Muffler Delete
| After church last week I was lusting after Juan's new truck so when I got home I was looking at Trailblazer SS videos to redeem myself. While doing that I found a video of an SS TB that had its muffler removed and it sounded pretty good. So Friday after work I went and had mine removed. Below are some pics and video (with sound) of the end result. I brought the muffler home with me because the procedure is reversible. I think I like it. So far everyone who has heard has liked it. It's different. |
Thursday, May 10, 2007
SS Trailblazer
 I will have to dig up the old post I made about the Super Sport Trailblazers I have been drooling over for the past year. I tried to get one last year but the bank wanted a ridiculous amount of money down to get a decent monthly payment. So I gave up on it and moved in to my home.Well, almost one year later the dealership where I got my Colorado had a few more SS Trailblazers in stock but I never went down for fear of rejection. But then I started eyeballing this silver beast off the highway and I was so tempted to go in and see what they can do for me. On the last day of March, a rainy day that is, I went down to the dealership and after 6 hours of being there I drove home with her.  It is a 2007 Chevrolet Trailblazer Supersport. Or SS as we simply call it. Why is it an SS. The LS2 Corvette engine under the hood! And also the suspension, wheels, and other cosmetics not found in standard trailblazers. Its awesome, and I love driving it. It already has 1900 miles on the odometer!! I cant stress how much I love it. I love it to much!Anyway, I took a long time to finally blog about her but here she is.   |
Tuesday, February 13, 2007
The SparkPlug Dilema
Saturday, February 10, 2007
2007 - Year of the Corvette
 So, I almost never make new years resolutions and I know its already February but I stated this back in January. This year will be the year that I drive my Corvette as much as I did back when I got it back in '99. It has proven not to be as easy as hopping in and going. My first problem started when it wouldn't start. A simple jump start solved that but then it started to happen pretty frequently until it didn't want to start anymore. Luckily, it was in my driveway where it died. I had just jump started it, reversed it out of the garage and then the whole car went dead in the driveway. A jumpstart with my truck nor Rob's battery charger would start it. Had to push it in. So there it stayed for a few days. I removed the starter and had it checked but it was good. Had to have Rob put it back in because I just couldn't do it. I also replaced the positive battery cable. 70 dollar battery cable!! Rob suggested it was the battery that was to dead to jump start so we brought over his Optima battery and the vette started perfectly. So we went out and bought a new battery. And new problems arose. Firstly, my right headlight would not flip all the way open. Secondly, my alarm was not arming, and Thirdly my stereo opened half way and quit working. (its a hide-way kenwood stereo). I dislike seeing Corvettes with the lights up so this was a big no no. My dad and I had repaired this headlight motor when I first bought her but now it seems to have broke again. In fact, the only way I could get this headlight to move was to switch the connection to that of the left headlight. So, that tells me that I have a bad headlight motor relay and bad motor. So, I had to leave the headlights up because it is to costly to replace the module and repair the motor at this time. I then took it into D-Tronics where I had the alarm and stereo put in. My alarm had went into whats called Valet Mode when we switched the battery. In Valet Mode the alarm will not arm but the doors still lock and unlock with the key. This feature is used when working around the car and you don't want the alarm going off all the time. A simple press of a button places the alarm out of Valet Mode. I couldn't find this button before but they relocated it. And it was a burnt fuse behind the stereo that prevented that from working. All the work was covered under warranty so it wasn't a complete waste. So this past week I have been driving the car daily. Yesterday I took the day off and I planned on changing the spark plugs, balancing the tires, and doing a wheel alignment. It did not go ALL as planned. I only managed to change 7 out of 8 spark plugs. I couldn't get one of them out. So that one stayed on until I could have someone try it. I got the tires balanced but decided to put off the wheel alignment til next week. And I am glad I did because I was going to take it to a shop that I now found out is not that great. So, today I was telling Rob about my spark plug so he gives it a go but the plug broke in the socket. So now the vette is rendered a paper weight until we can get the rest of the plug out. It is turning out to be a pretty interesting Year of the Corvette but, it is all worth it because I love driving her. It cheers me up and Lord knows I need that. |
Sunday, November 19, 2006
My First Car
 Was cleaning out some boxes today and came upon a bunch of stuff I would like to blog about.This my first automobile. A 1985 Chevrolet Camaro IROC-Z. It was pretty to look at, from a distance. Good from far, but far from good. It was a mess when I bought her and a mess when I sold her. The only thing cool about it, in my opinion, was the color, Corvette Yellow. Maybe that is why today I like certain yellow cars. Anyway, this is the best angle of the car. |