Happy of Mothers’ Day to Karen, Sue, Anna, and Deborah. Our gift to you this year is that we all did safety-related repairs today.
Since we finished finding cars yesterday, today was focused on fixing and tweaking and errand running in preparation for the first drive tomorrow, including a major haul at the Harbor Freight.
George had described the driving quality of the Jeep as “alarming,” so it went to Pep Boys first this morning. He maintained that he had shorted the purchase budget as much as he did so he’d have a sizable repair budget and would know that the most important bits were in good shape. I think he just wanted to get out ahead of yet another repair bill nearly the size of the purchase.
Evan spent the entire day on the Rover. Its curiosities are many. He replaced the headlight which blew again two hours later, repaired the rear wiper and front sprayers, fixed the latch in the rear jumpseat, and “tried to replace the wipers but that didn’t go well.” Also, the tape deck ate the tape adapter he bought to play music from his phone (yes, those are still for sale, pick them up at Pep Boys in the bargain bin). And this afternoon, I caught him reading the manual, not the service manual but the drivers’ manual that comes with the car that explains what all the buttons are. He also had two of the tires replaced.
Red got most of its work done yesterday afternoon, but I followed up with a wiper replacement, discovering to my surprise that the sprayers do actually work, and ferrying folks around on their errands. I do still have this giant subwoofer in the back that I don’t want, but Josh included with the sale. It isn’t hooked up and I have no interest in doing so, but it’s just in the way. I don’t even know anyone with a subwoofer. … Do I know anyone who wants a subwoofer?
Today’s field trip was out to the Pick-a-Part junkyard for some lift gate struts for George so that he can open the back gate without it crashing right back down. Junkyards are always a lot of fun. I did find two 4Runners out there, but they had already been picked clean.
Pep Boys called George back, all I heard him say was, “Yeah, that’s about what I was expecting.” Then he walked over and explained that major suspension work was being replaced and that his power steering pump couldn’t be flushed because the hose had what the mechanic described as a “hemorrhoid” and none of the replacement hoses he ordered were long enough, so clearly a previous owner re-positioned or incorrectly replaced the pump. Also, the rear right shock was seized (so, almost fully extended and not collapsible, which is why his car felt like a wobbly table at a restaurant where one of the feet is too tall).
This evening, we did a lot of installation work for cameras, navigation, and various creature-comforts in preparation for tomorrow’s first drive. George discovered that the gross seat-covers on his front seats weren’t necessary, just an unsuccessful attempt to mask seats that didn’t match. Then he ruined it with this thing:
Tonight ended with dinner at a sushi place in downtown Sacramento and a quick run to Safeway for water, road snacks, and more caffeine. Tomorrow we head from Sacramento to Topaz Lake, which not very too far. About two hours, a test drive.