MIATA MIATA MIATA MIATA MIATA MIATA MIATA MIATA MIATA MIATA MIATA MIATA MIATA MIATA MIATA MIATA MIATA MIATA MIATA MIATA MIATA MIATA MIATA MIATA MIATA MIATA MIATA MIATA MIATA MIATA MIATA MIATA MIATA MIATA MIATA MIATA MIATA MIATA MIATA MIATA MIATA MIATA MIATA MIATA MIATA MIATA MIATA MIATA EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!

Okay, okay, so. It's a 1990 (first model year sold in the states!) with a build date of late '89, so its collector value should appreciate nicely, and it's amazingly almost entirely stock, the only modification is a modern radio. It's been very well taken care of, was basically the previous owner's restoration project turned daily driver for his daughter before he reacquired it, fixed it up again, and sold it to me because he has another Miata already. It's got a little over 200k miles, but the timing belt was replaced at 190k so I won't have to worry about that for a good while. In addition it has a new clutch, shifter rebuild, new driveline, new catalytic converter, new paint, a bunch of other things I'm forgetting, I have a list though.

But most importantly it is very very fun. The taillights say "zoom zoom" and they are correct, it is a zoom zoom. Zoom zoom go zoom do zoom thing. I already had a lot more fun driving this than the NC, I got used to the clutch and 5-speed shifter a lot more quickly, and with actual sidewall on the tires the handling is fantastic without being uncomfortable. The drive home had like four roundabouts and I've never had so much fun in a roundabout. My dad got to drive it too and approves, he remembers the first time he ever saw one when they came out and wanted one ever since. It did not disappoint. He'd never gotten one because he needed something practical, but I do not need something practical, so now we both get to enjoy mine!

I'm planning on continuing with Hagerty insurance for this since it is technically a classic car and I've been pleased with their insurance for my T-bird. And since I carpool with my dad every other day this will only be driven 2, sometimes 3 times per week (and not in the winter), making it not technically a daily driver, so that should be fine.

During the family zoom call yesterday my dad showed the car to everyone, and they all want a ride in it now, except my aunt who doesn't think she could get in unless the top was down so it doesn't feel claustrophobic. It's a roadster, the top being down is a foregone conclusion

There are a few things I need to look into though, the top has a tear in it which has been patched and doesn't leak, but that'll probably have to be replaced not too long from now assuming it can't be patched endlessly. Also has a tiny oil leak somewhere, not large enough to leave spots anywhere or British car levels of leakage, and not super concerning. I'll just have to not put off checking the oil. It's not any of the main seals or the o-ring, just... old car things. Automatic rustproofing.

Another thing to think about is what to name it... I could continue with the pattern of naming it after Friends characters/birds like Phoebe, but no birds quite fit it and calling it Joey doesn't quite fit either. The most popular girls name in 1989 was Jessica, Jess might work. The option I'm currently leaning towards though is "Misty," because when my dad saw a Miata for the first time he thought the "a" on the badge was a cursive "s" and called it a "Mista." Thus, Misty. That name has a fun story so I that's what I'm going with, its name is Misty now.

Anyway I am very happy and excited and eager to enjoy my new car Thanks for the advice y'all have given in my car search, which is thankfully finally over with a happy ending.

I’m going to BSU! After my somewhat miserable experience at a machine shop, I realized that while I can work in a trade job, it’s really not something I want to do for the rest of my life. I want to be on the design end of things, not just repairing or manufacturing something someone else designed. Because of my bad experiences at college during the pandemic, I had come to believe that college wasn’t for me, but lately I’ve been realizing that that particular college and digital media major wasn’t for me - but a different college and major still could be, and I don’t have to bear the stress of a pandemic on top of all that now either!

So, a few weeks ago I applied to Boise State University. They have an excellent mechanical engineering program with a large focus on automotive engineering, which is exactly what I want. And the best part? My dad is a teacher there, and immediate family members get a discount on tuition, so I can actually afford to go! I’m aware of how incredibly fortunate I am to be in this position, and I’m determined not to waste the opportunity.

In the time since I applied, I’ve been reviewing trigonometry so that hopefully I won’t have to take as many math classes before I get into the really interesting stuff. It’s a lot more interesting now that I am actually looking forward to using it!

I can’t wait to start this fall

I interviewed for an apprenticeship at a machine shop which has a good reputation, and after a very quick interview I got hired! Yay! I start on Monday and I'm super excited to learn how to use all the things. Machining is cool

The cherry on top is that it's a four-day work week so I won't have to worry about having time to rest or work on projects, and I'll be able to go on weekend vacations with my family this summer. The pay during training isn't super high but that's fine, my cost of living isn't high either, I'm more interested in the knowledge and experience I'll be gaining. Getting paid to learn via an apprenticeship sure beats the crap out of paying to learn at college anyway.

I also should be able to afford a second vehicle to supplement my Thunderbird in a few months, so I've started looking around to get an idea of what's available and... everything affordable nowadays is gonna have 200k on the odometer, huh. I'm just gonna cross my fingers that a manual Civic hatch pops up when the time comes to seriously look for something I guess. I like my sister's manual Civic coupe, so the hatchback version of one of those would be perfect.

But yeah, life milestone unlocked, first "real" job. I technically ran my own business for 7 years, but that made less than minimum wage at the best of times with a 6-day work week (including some 10+hour days), but this is the first time I've ever interviewed for a job working for someone else. I'm excited to see how it goes

I've mended something!

Today I started and drove my car for the first time in over a year. I am so happy right now, like, it moves. Under its own power even! It still needs a lot of work to be roadworthy, the turn signals are still broken and the power windows are sketchy at best, and my radio is not in the car anymore. I have lots of electrical work ahead of me, which I must admit I'm not comfortable doing without the help of someone who actually knows how to do this.

But mobility fricking rocks. I can drive this thing around the neighborhood without turn signals at least, and that should keep fluids circulating and whatnot, which is a lot better than just sitting like it's been doing.

At long last, Phoebe the Thunderbird lives again :,)

Also shout out to my neighbor Bob who lent me some starter fluid, that made cold starting it a lot easier.

@Shop-Teacher Petition to make this the new banner:

@Shop-Teacher

EDIT: I added "Contigo" to his little mug.

First of all, I AM OKAY! I have no injuries, no whiplash (okay maybe a little), no bruises or anything, I am just a little shaky from adrenaline, but Phoebe the T-bird is a little worse for wear, to say the least… Secondly, how this happened is that on the way home from the farmers market, a truck in front of me slammed on the brakes, and I had enough room to stop behind him. However, the lady behind me just happened to be looking at some flags on the nursing home across the street, so in that moment of not paying attention, she did not hit her brakes and hit me instead.

Her car is worse off than mine: Her airbags went off, but she had only minor injuries and didn’t go to the hospital. She was very apologetic and it was clear to the police what happened, so I shouldn’t have any issues with being blamed for anything. When my parents arrived we prayed for healing for her, and she said it made her feel better, so that’s good - my first question after we had pulled over was if she was okay, and it looks like she will be.

After the accident, my gas tank was leaking, but the firemen were able to patch it with some putty, and miraculously Phoebe ran well enough that I was able to drive her home. According to my parents, even the taillights and turn signals still worked. However, the steering felt heavier so the alignment is clearly off, and I heard and felt strange clunks from the rear suspension, accompanied by the occasional squeal of the tires rubbing on something, so yeaaah she ain’t healthy.

To make light of a bad situation, I took full advantage of the fact that the accident punched holes in both mufflers. Car sounded like a freakin’ speed boat on the way home! Maybe I’ll have to replace them with some rowdier ones later… That thing sounded gooood.

One of the witnesses of the accident said he works in auto body repair, and assured me that this should be fixable and probably isn’t totaled. I’m certainly hoping so. The right rear fender is crunched pretty bad and the bumper is very bent, so she’s gonna need a lot of bodywork for sure to un-bend things, but overall I think there’s still hope. It’s a tough car, and I still want to see it fully restored. This may even be the literal push I needed to get that done.

Now to get insurance all dealt with… eugh.

Oh also the lady who hit me’s son is a car guy and super chill, so I invited him to Oppo. He has a cool Civic and I hope to see him here soon Also this key holder is my “Contigo Mug” equivalent, it was hidden in the impacted zone and found on the ground by a fireman. It’s certainly been battered, but it’s still intact and works, very solid product! Ima keep using it for sure.

This is my new TI-84 graphing calculator. It’s a fancy one with a color screen and a rechargeable battery and I can program in Python with it if I want to, but most importantly, it’s teal

This is more than a little overkill for my purposes currently, but I figure if I’m gonna be an engineer, having a nice calculator will be nice and I hope to get many many years out of it. Since I have basically no textbooks to buy this semester, I felt like it was worth it to splurge and spend that budget on this.

Today has been very long, and very terrifying. This friend of mine is a good guy, just has a LOT of emotional baggage, and some serious trust issues. I helped him through a hard time in high school, and I'm one of the few people he does trust, so of course he called me today to talk about how the world is out to get him and he wants to end it all. I thought he had been doing better, and was not prepared for this bombshell. I did everything I could to convince him suicide is never the answer, but he didn't want to believe me. Thankfully, he mentioned that one of the parents of the family who's adopting him happens to work at my college. I couldn't convince him to talk to them, but I knew they needed to know what was going on so they could help. I was able to track them down after my friend hung up on me, and after I explained the situation, they were able to have the sheriff go check on him. He's in a mental hospital now, where he'll be safe from harming himself. I hope he starts doing better. Poor guy's been through a lot.

Until today, I've never had to try and convince someone not to kill themselves. That was terrifying. Thank God his parent works at my college, otherwise I don't know if he would've gotten help in time.

I need a hug, a couple birthdays, and a drink.

The pixel art program I'm using is set up for making little animated gifs, so I gave it a go. I think it turned out pretty well for my first try at doing anything like this!

It's animated at 16 frames per second and there are 16 frames total, a large number of which are just duplicates to give the major phases (lights down, lights up, lights on) more time to be seen instead of everything just moving constantly.

This was super fun to make

@MybirdIStheword The air cleaner in mine looks like this: I don't think it's the kind you're looking for and I don't have a spare, but I imagine these should be easy enough to find in a junkyard.

@Huzer I saw a few falcon-Rancheros during my used car search, most with the straight six and a 3-on-the-tree, and all temptingly affordable. If I were looking for an old truck to do truck stuff with, I'd love one of those, preferably with a swap to a later 300 straight six for maximum power and reliability.

@HFV_Junkyardin That Ranchero is aggressively American and Australian at the same time. I love it. I want one with a supercharger sticking out the hood for no reason.

@Roadkilled And I know which one I'd rather drive. But really of all the Rancheros, probably one of the Falcon-based old ones would be my preference. Or a '57 because I do like the style of the '57 Fords.

@MisterButtercup That would be a first gen (67-69) Camaro.

@ranwhenparked As a lamp, probably yeah. You'd have to refill it from time to time of course, but being able to flip a switch and ignite awesome torches on the walls is totally worth it.

@bbg2d The gas it gives off when burning is non-flammable and not any greenhouse gas I recognize, but I don't know if it's a pollutant I don't recognize. It ain't CO2 though.

@ash78 said in How much is 50k miles worth......:

100k stigma" that affects almost all brands that don't end in -yota or -onda.

Shoot, that dashes my plans to buy a steeply depreciated 100k-mile Pagani Zonda

@CoolMinivan-Nobody I've heard that around 100k miles is when Kias and Hyundais start breaking as that's how long they design them to last reliably. As I understand it, that's mostly plastic engine bits that ought to have been metal getting old and cracking from all the heat cycles. So, you might be in for a fair bit of maintenance, but it should mostly be stuff that isn't the end of the world to replace, just mildly inconvenient. Probably not as inconvenient as replacing a head gasket though for what it's worth. Certainly I don't imagine all that potential maintenance to cost the difference between the 50k mile examples and that 113k mile example.

@theturbomrt "The authors estimate the “energy penalty” for the electrochemical generation of the fuel to be about 4% under best-case conditions, so that seems doable."

However...

"Theoretically, the ionic liquid fuel could be used in any type of vehicle. However, there are still questions that need to be answered before it could be commercialized. The fuel would need to be tested in various types of engines, and its efficiency would need to be determined."

Also...

“This would definitely be more expensive than the way they currently manufacture fuels. These compounds are not normally produced in bulk, but if they were, the cost would go down,” Zachariah said.

So efficiency seems fine, but they have no idea how it would perform in an engine yet and nobody's really mass producing its components yet, so it's currently not as cheap as gasoline.