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Feb. 28th, 2018 03:39 amA few weeks ago, I had to put a new radiator in Ai. This wasn't really a surprise to me, as the original one lasted well over 230k miles, and the replacement in 2004 lasted longer. Recently I had looked at the prices of replacement radiators and seriously considered doing a pre-emptive replacement. Well, looks like that decision was made for me, and if I did replace it before failure, I wouldn't have been wrong. Fortunately this was discovered while still in freezing weather which made overheating much less likely.
Funny thing is, that sort of timing isn't unusual for her. If a part is going to fail on her, it tends to break when the time is right to replace it anyway. Or at least it doesn't break at the worst possible time. That's just how she is.
Anyway. The first time I did that repair, it was a bit messy because I was replacing it outside on a rough and lumpy parking pad. This time was messy in a different way; much of the hardware involved put up a lot more of a fight. Yes, there were broken bolts that needed drilled out. Much of the work this time was done at night anyway, but this time it was in a garage, so that's an improvement. All told, the price of the parts cost less than $100.
I won't lie, there are other things that will need done in the near future. Cars that have half a million miles and are old enough to buy drinks in a bar will need work. Some of it's easy, some of it has me going into unfamiliar territory.
I'm not going to worry about "what if this" and "what if that". Sure, I could put thousands of dollars in parts and a bunch of hours of work on her and then she could get destroyed in a wreck soon after. Shit happens. Can't worry about that, because then nothing would get done, cool stuff wouldn't happen. I could have asked the same what-ifs back in 2002 or so, but then that was 300k miles ago. I look at it this way: She'll let me know when it's time.
Funny thing is, that sort of timing isn't unusual for her. If a part is going to fail on her, it tends to break when the time is right to replace it anyway. Or at least it doesn't break at the worst possible time. That's just how she is.
Anyway. The first time I did that repair, it was a bit messy because I was replacing it outside on a rough and lumpy parking pad. This time was messy in a different way; much of the hardware involved put up a lot more of a fight. Yes, there were broken bolts that needed drilled out. Much of the work this time was done at night anyway, but this time it was in a garage, so that's an improvement. All told, the price of the parts cost less than $100.
I won't lie, there are other things that will need done in the near future. Cars that have half a million miles and are old enough to buy drinks in a bar will need work. Some of it's easy, some of it has me going into unfamiliar territory.
I'm not going to worry about "what if this" and "what if that". Sure, I could put thousands of dollars in parts and a bunch of hours of work on her and then she could get destroyed in a wreck soon after. Shit happens. Can't worry about that, because then nothing would get done, cool stuff wouldn't happen. I could have asked the same what-ifs back in 2002 or so, but then that was 300k miles ago. I look at it this way: She'll let me know when it's time.
