Geeto67

If you have the right vehicle it might not be an issue to take them on the journey. Make a real family vaca of it. When I was real little and my parents were broke, I saw the world out of the back of a 60's Buick Skylark 2 door, including several trips to Florida and Wisconsin. I was going to suggest something like a Jeep Cherokee or GC but a) everything in your price range is 200K+ miles, and b) rotted up to the door handles. Also much like the ford Exploder and Dodge durango it will probably be boring as hell to drive and miserably falling apart at high mileage. I would actually suggest you look at this but I wouldn't wish a 4cyl jeep on my worst enemy: http://columbus.craigslist.org/ctd/5034127096.html

oh...and you need to daily drive whatever you get for like 3 weeks before you go just to shake the bugs (both literal and figurative) out before the long haul.

+1000 Did both tires on my Jeep and Audi this year and honestly it was way better service I ever got at any tire store. Super impressed at how fast they were too.

Do you? I don't mean to be a dick about it saying it that way but let's be realistic here - a $2000 car now is basically the equivalent of a $500 college beater in the 1990's. It's the shitty, old, high mileage, oddball car territory. I hate to say it but you may be looking in the word of mouth territory where someone has a $3K-$4K car that they cut you a friend price of $2K on. So let's talk about the real parameters for what you need from this $2000 hooptie. It needs to make basically a 1000 mile drive - the sitting around not running it will do after that is inconsequential because that all depends on your prep. But you are traveling with two young children and a wife, whom I am guessing is probably not as up for the type of comedic car adventure that comes from walking 6 miles down a highway. So, off the top of my head here is what you need this car to be/have/do: - have working AC - new tires - no suspension issues - be in excellent mechanical shape (no slipping trannys) - Working brakes that are recently serviced - be easy to locate parts for and fix cheaply - be easy enough to fix roadside in case something happens - have a spare - be reliable - be comfortable - be clean to that end I am going to again suggest the RWD Caprice, Roadmaster, and Fleetwoods from the 1990s because they are about the only thing in the price range that has the potential to satisfy most of your list. 1000 miles in a cheap honda civic/camry/corolla is going to be 1000 miles too far in a compact car with screaming kids. Anything german isn't going to cut it mostly because a) german cars aren't cheap to fix unless you go back to early 1990s, b) they aren't as reliable as you think any more and most have a lot of deferred maintenance. I know your wife is probably not on-board for these kind of shenanigans where you are driving the automotive equivalent of a beluga whale to FLA, but you either need to figure out how to get her on board, increase the budget, or give up. Just harsh reality man. You do realize that the VW you are trying to replace with a $2000 car is itself a $2000 car on CL, right? I mean that Irony isn't lost here. I'm all for helping you any way I can, including going to whatever meth farm you have to travel to go look at a car so don't take anything I have said here as a negative. I just think your only shot is thinking outside the box of vw/honda/toyota and to really grab something odd and fun.

I will admit that looks better than most, esp the ones that end with little screaming chicken decals, but it's just not my thing. I remember when the 4th gens were new cars and how much they tried to "retro" them with things like rallye stripes, screaming chicken hood decals, houndstooth interiors, etc... Instead of just letting the cars be their own thing in the f body lineage. It makes sense with the new car since that is a retro model from tires to roof, but the 4th gens were so uniquely styled it always felt like GM was trying too hard. The ws6 t/a is already a very aggressively styled car, I've always felt adding anything on top of that is just too much. Either way it's a really nice clean f-body.

bad ideas part II: Wood grain + LT1 + rear facing seats: http://columbus.craigslist.org/cto/5000553641.html maybe you don't like wagons: http://mansfield.craigslist.org/cto/5026950694.html maybe you do: http://chillicothe.craigslist.org/cto/5000117784.html it's already been to FL And back: http://columbus.craigslist.org/cto/5039180659.html I fully think you need to embrace the terrible-ness of driving a $2000 car to FLA and go for the gusto if you are going to do it.

Only because it ties in with our redic conversation from the other day: think of the fun you'll have driving this to FLA: http://dayton.craigslist.org/cto/5049032384.html Your kids will never forget it. you can totally blend in FLA with this: http://columbus.craigslist.org/cto/5050806866.html or lift your budget and be the coolest pimp in Boca: http://dayton.craigslist.org/cto/5039970255.html there are quite a number of these 80's full sizer's for right around your budget: http://columbus.craigslist.org/cto/5010351204.html http://columbus.craigslist.org/cto/5001173169.html totally worth paying extra for: http://columbus.craigslist.org/cto/5027952152.html now I am just waiting for the call from your wife for fueling really bad ideas.

Good for you, Stripes on a 4th gen TA just look tacky (white with blue T/A special editions excluded).

It is an Owosso Motor Car Company built Pulse. These cars with motorcycle wheel and outrigger configurations are called "autocycles". The cockpit was made from the molds of the original BD200 that Jim BeDe created to build his BD5 jet. There was a silver 1987 one at the Nutter Hardware vintage bike meet in grandview in may. There was another company called Litestar that did the same thing (using the bd200 molds) and made almost the same vehicle with minor differences. They are usually powered by motorcycle engines: litestars used hondamatic 400cc engines and yamaha 400cc engines, Pulse's used 400cc yamahas, and then Goldwing GL1100 engines after that. All told there are about 350 vehicles produced. The one clay, wes, and I saw at nutter hardware was a GL1100 powered one. They are as close as you can get to driving a jet down the street without the pesky flying lessons and jet aircraft speed. here is a good site if you want to learn about them: http://www.autocycles.org/index.html

Big Bike Shop downtown. I mean it's not a knuckle, pan, or shovel but I am pretty sure they can figure it out. they are down the street from A.D Farrow.

are you going full STi spec? or is it still going to be a mildly hopped up wrx. The one disappointment I had with the 04-07 body style is they never did the STi as a hatch back and it would have been a really awesome car if they did.

$9K without the reach around.

I know for recording in the past I have hung "eggcrate" panels up. But that is more to kill unwanted echos and reverberations than to keep sound escaping from the room. http://www.acousticalsurfaces.com/acoustical-foam-eggcrate I can recommend a heavy door with a seal at the bottom though - you'd be curprised how much sound can go through a hollow core door and the open slit at the bottom.

What did Tom Hatem say? I always see the neatest cars there and I know he does the mechanical work on some of the local SCCA BMW race cars

I've never heard of a corvair engine spinning a crank bearing. I've seen one with a bad rod bearing once but that's it. Usually the fan belt breaks and they overheat and heat seize. Or someone runs the engine out of oil. The only way to work on a corvair engine is to pull it out of the car. If you are a beefy dude you can probably lift the engine yourself.

1960's = lots of drugs.

I used to have a running corvair turbo flat six engine in my garage in ny. My dad threw it away when I moved. I had a 1966 Monza vert and never got around to swapping it in. Point is, corvair engines are cheap. There is a running 66 four door on CL that is at $1k best offer, betcha it would make a hell of a parts car.

also I haven't tried it yet but here is a link to a PDF of the bentley manual for E36's: http://www.bimmerwerkz.com/forum/3-series-e36/bmw-e36-bentley-service-manual-pdf-67601.html

The Cams do not need to come out to service an M42 engine. The head bolts are designed to be accessed with a 3/8" torx and an extension. The only time the cams would need to come out to remove the head are when you drop a bolt or a washer into the cam valley. Re-timing them is a little tricky though since 1) the valve spring pressure will move the cams once you release the timing chain tension and also because the engine sits at an angle in the engine bay. M42 head gaskets pop often and there are a million topics of it on the forums. Here is a write up Clay that I thought might help you mentally walk through it. You are welcome to my bentely manual but I caution you it is for an E30 so it covers the pre 1992 M42 engine which is slightly different. http://www.bimmerfest.com/forums/showthread.php?t=443336

There are a lot of joke answers like this here, but when I lived in New Orleans a buddy of mine used to answer the door with his cock hanging out of his fly. He would be really polite, smile a lot, and wait to see how long it would take for them to realize it. Some right away, some it would take a few minutes. After 2 weeks nobody dared come to his door ever again. People do a lot of stupid things in their 20s. But yeah, just get a "no soliciting sign".

Fixed it for you. A CAT 797 dump truck has 3,211 hp but I wouldn't call it a rocket ship. Everyone testing these things reports 16 second 1/4 mile times. Still, what's the over/under on how long it takes before ford's interior quality begins to annoy you? I'm kinda disappointed this recent purchase didn't end in something more bonkers.

I still think your T-stat was shot, based solely on the fact that the vents were blowing hot air and the car was overheating and system was not circulating as well as it should have been, even with the bleeder open. Anyway, glad to hear the car is back on the road.

Except that you end up driving a fusion. Nobody wins when that happens.

1984-2001 Cherokees (not Grand Cherokees)

If you are in the SF area, I highly recommend a walk through Muir Woods. It is right up PCH and beautiful. Wife and I did it for our wedding anniversary in 2009 - borrowed an electraglide and rode up PCH for a day wandering around the redwoods. Then we hit stinson beach because we wanted to see real dead head style hippies and then headed back to SF. It was wonderful.