El Camino (Sur)Real

LATimes

It's a car. No, it's a truck. Whatever it is, it's back.

General Motors has jumped into the auto industry's retro trend, unveiling a half-pickup, half-muscle car amalgamation bearing a striking resemblance to a long-lost classic: the Chevy El Camino.

The original El Camino, along with the nearly identical GMC Caballero, has indubitably earned a niche in popular culture, with references in songs by dozens of bands, including ZZ Top, and appearances in plenty of movies and TV shows, including "My Name Is Earl." During its last three years of production, it was built in Mexico. The band Ween called it an "Aztec machine speeding to the light."

But much of the affection has fallen into the tongue-in-cheek variety, and Nerad wonders if the car will appeal only to those who might have owned an El Camino, say, 25 years ago. "Maybe you're just mining that vein and then the vein runs dry," he said.

I'm queer for El Caminos. You want vein? Take it. Make mine red to offset the pallor brought on by no blood.

New Blood

The only thing that is permanent is change.
The new generation of car designers is already making their mark and showing their stuff to us old farts now and they have some wild ideas for getting us down the road in the present and near future.

The New York Times has an article today that introduces the cream of the crop.

They also have a slideshow to accompany the article with the pictures of the young designers they are introducing.
Take my word for it, you want to click the link to see the picture of the interior designer that works for Lincoln, trust me.

Good kid ...

So it's Sam's 19th Birthday tomorrow. You've heard me singing her praises here for a year and a half, and her parents are proud of her for all she's done. As a surprise they bought her a Nissan Pathfinder (1998 - 42K miles) and gave it to her today. First thing she does is run up to the shop to show us.





She's been beating her daddy's 20 year old Chevy Silverado pickemup around, to work at the shop, to work at the grocery store, and to school every day. She's one happy little camper.

Once again, the shitty pics are thanks to my phone, sorry.

Where I work* ...

Mrs. W calls me today. "F-man, I'm hearing a noise from the back of my car when I hit the brakes. I don't have time to leave it with you, but could you look at it quick to make sure it's nothing life-threatening?"

"No problem," I say. "Can you bring it up now? I got the lift open."

She says yes and arrives 10 minutes later. I take the car for a quick spin and sure enough, the rears are noisy. I figure it's dust buildup and bring it in. Sam lets me in and I tell her to put it up in the air and take the rear wheels off. Mrs. W is standing there as Sam puts the car up on the lift and the conversation goes something like this.

Mrs. W: Who's this pretty girl?

Me: This is Sam.

Sam: Hi! (waves)

Mrs. W: How did a young girl come to work here.

Me: She came here on an internship program with the local high school.

Mrs. W: She's in high school?

Me: No. She graduated and she's going to college now but we can't get her to go away. It's been a year and a half and we can't get rid of her.

Sam (from the other side of the car): Suck my ass, old man.

Mrs. W: You're teaching her well, F-man.

Me: Thank you, thank you very much.

*Part of an ongoing, semi-regular series.

Stir it up

I got this picture from my pal Bev with the title "How Real Men Use Post-its".



I respectfully suggest to Fixer, Harry, et al, that this system could possibly be modified to avoid making rookie mistakes involving twin redheads Windstars...

No one's immune from confusion. Once upon a time (signifying a fairy tale, even if true) I had a work order to rebuild a Yamaha Enduro engine. I took the engine off the shelf and stripped it down to the crankshaft assembly. Everything looked good, down to new gaskets and clean oil, brand new in fact, so I asked the Service Manager what was up. That's when I found that the next guy down the bench had rebuilt it earlier that day and I had grabbed the wrong one.

Oops. Happens to all of us.