Wow! Where Have I Been?

Doing nothing, but it took all day.

Going nowhere, but I couldn't reach it.

Wrenching on the Lovely Harvey's car mostly.  Doing the maintenance that needed done.

Tools are investments, not expenses.  They make a tire rotation free.  They make an oil change with synthetic $45 instead of $100.  They make a timing belt and water pump change $150 instead of $600.

Some may quibble about comparative advantages and the value of my time.

I don't put a dollar value to my time unless I am doing something for someone else.  Then they are paying me that dollar amount, be assured.

What I do know about wrenching on my own cars is that the job is done correctly.  This is because I don't do most of these jobs very often, that means the reference materials are out and handy.  I don't get complacent about them from endless repetition.

I also get to chose the parts I am going to use and can see that I am getting what I paid for.  I learned this the hard way with the Biscayne.

Moog makes front end parts for the B-Body called "Problem Solvers" they are beefier than the standard components and thus last longer.  I paid for the problem solvers several times, marveling that they sure didn't last but rationalizing that they'd lasted longer than the standard parts.  Wrong.  I was getting standard parts!  Last time around I bought the whole tie-rod center link assy, installed it myself and paid for an alignment.  Still good three years later.