Vannin' Home Forums General Discussion Readers Rides Clean Francine - 2000 Astro LS AWD

I had a '86 Safari and that thing was my little go cart .... 4.3 ran like a champ for yrs till I gave it to the ex and she blew the heads off it .....lol

You left the door open for so many jokes there I don't even know where to begin!

Oh I bet you do

Well nothing exciting today as it's 40 FREAKING DEGREES outside. YACK!

But the Safelite guy came and installed the new windshield, so that made me quite happy.

Big crack across the driver's view


If it were a bit warmer, a no-windshield drive would be fun.


All done

Nice!

Well I have a local friend that brought me some external thread lug nuts with caps for putting on my new center caps, but they were too small, UGH!

Talked to a local garage that a friend used to work at and he recommended to me, they are going to do the head and intake gaskets for $1,500 and send the heads to the machine shop to get double checked. I'm sure the heads are fine, but always better to be safe than sorry. I'm going to see if they would mind slapping in the upgraded injector spider while they are in there to save me the time & trouble down the road.

I'll try scouring the junkyards for some lug nuts and caps as most of the online sites I see want $3-5 each. Good grief.

This is the injector spider upgrade I've been looking at:

Motor Man Fuel Injection Link

On today's episode of "My Hillbilly Life" we learn that mountain folk like a good fight just as much as any big city boxer.

So yesterday was a bit of a sh#$show and now I have to replace the passenger mirror.

Civic is still in the shop waiting on rocker arm adjustment. Been in the new shop for 2.5 weeks after the Honda dealer tried telling me I needed a new motor because the sound was coming from the bottom end, yet they never even checked the rocker arm clearances which it why I took it in to begin with.

Anyway, as soon as the Civic comes home, I can get the Astro into the shop for head and intake gaskets. I tried ordering the upgraded spider injector from motorman, but they had a few employees get Covid and aren't able to rebuild the injectors at the moment.

So super long story somewhat shorter, we've been having a problem with a handful of early 20 somethings thinking our small suburban street is a nice drag strip and drift practice track for their souped up imports. I've spoken with a couple and gotten them to knock it off, but one of them lives on the street behind me, and likes to argue and get mouthy about the situation.

Our street has about 6 or 7 houses with young kids that like to ride their bikes through the neighborhood, and the kids can't even do it anymore because of all the ridiculous speeding. Seriously doing 65-70 in a 15 zone every single evening and during the days on weekends.

Anyway, I blocked dude's brother into his driveway with the Astro yesterday morning and told him to knock the crap off. About an hour later older brother (early 20s) comes over to my house to apologize. I accepted, shook hands, then his apology turned into a passive aggressive order telling me not to block his brother in anymore. He then proceeded to get really mouthy.

I told him the best thing he could do would be leave my property and go back home. He was being a smart ass about that and not leaving so I shoved him toward the road and told him again to hit the road. He got mad and punched the passenger mirror, shattering the dang glass all over my interior.

Of course breaking things on my property didn't go over very well, so that followed with me forcefully walking him into the street and working on his head for about 5 minutes and brutal and hard. When I realized the kid had bitten off way more than he could handle and I might end up hurting him pretty badly, I got him to pick up his shoe that had fallen off during his beating and limp his way home.

Cops showed up, talked to me and the neighbor that called the cops, then went to talk to the kid. He told the cops "I should have just stayed home and not went over to get my head beaten on" Ya think?

Now I have to go to the magistrate and get a warrant for restitution or some such thing to make the kid pay to replace the mirror he broke. Thankfully, this has been the first week of no drag racing on my street or nonsense except for his brother that morning. Kids should be able to ride their bikes again safely soon.

I scraped my knuckles and knees while he was trying his half hearted MMA moves attempting to take me down and put me in some sort of lackluster choke hold. LMAO! Poor fella has to be having a hard time with headaches today though.

Hopefully it will end their. You have to remember you are not always home. It reminded me of a similar situation many many years ago. My mistake was I lost my temper and the kid was 17.
I spent the night in the pokey; not so much for the fight; but the conversation with his mom and dad of my " future plans " if their kid showed up again on my street.

I know what Rusty would of said : " If you listened to some James Taylor; you wouldn't be in this situation " !

I kept it professional and to the point until he bashed the mirror on my van in my driveway. On my property destroying my property, not smart. Aside from shoving him toward the road when he didn't take my warning to get home the first time. I admitted that mistake, but I wanted him to carry his nonsense on home and leave us be.

I told the cops I wasn't interested in any further charges, aside from replacing my busted mirror, so long as he and his friends now know to keep the darn speed down in my neighborhood. I'm quite sure after all the knots on his head he will be staying on his property from now on. I honestly felt a bit bad about banging on his head like a bongo, but if you can't have a responsible argument with someone without pitching a fit and smashing their stuff, you deserve a few bumps and bruises.

Word is the kid is on probation and living with mom or grandma for dealing meth or some such garbage and getting busted, so hopefully the heat of the law breathing down his kneck a little more lately will make him settle down a bit.

And yes, I could always use a bit more James Taylor in my life. Spent the rest of the weekend listening to Mr. Taylor and Jim Croce with my kids, doing yard work, and home repair stuff. Great quality family time with all three.