Truck and Girl

Sunday, July 30, 2006

Getting a license.

I've looked into it a bit, but am confused.

The DMV website tells me:

If you are a visitor in California over 18 and have a valid driver license from your home state or country, you may drive in this state without getting a California driver license as long as your home state license remains valid.

That would lead me to believe that I don't even need a Californian license, because I still have my Australian one, and that's valid for another 10 years or something. But!

If you take a job here or become a resident, you must get a California driver license within 10 days. Residency is established by voting in a California election, paying resident tuition, filing for a homeowner's property tax exemption, or any other privilege or benefit not ordinarily extended to nonresidents.

So, ummm... am I that privileged or do I benefit that much that I need a Californian license now? Just because I work here? I wish I could vote here, but I'm not sure that's possible unless I become a citizen or something.

I suppose I'll have to talk to someone. It's just not worth the risk to do something against the law.

Posted by george at 5:30 PM | 3 comments

This needs to work.

Turns out if you leave a car sitting around for a while, the starter is often the first thing to deteriorate. Actually, I totally made that up. It was true in the case of my Bronco II.

When I went out to meet the dude who drove my truck on the back of his truck from Southern California, he was able to start the truck once, but then it conked out. I had it towed (eventually) to the Firestone on Mission. I asked them to perform a mechanical inspection (tires, brakes etc) as well as an electrical inspection (since I knew that there was an issue with the starter, because the chap who'd towed the truck told me as much).

I got a call during the operation from Donnie (turns out he's nice). He said they couldn't complete the electrical check because there was a short somewhere in the starter system (above). Not really understanding, I agreed to the additional cost. (Hate that!)



Anyway, in the end, the truck needed a new battery, a new ignition switch and a new starter relay.

Thinking all was well, I drove off. First stop was the car wash. That was fun. Pay $3 and get a high-pressure squirter thingy for 5 minutes. I started the truck again to leave, and a horrid noise came from the engine. I wondered if I had dislodged something with the force of the water, but no... I headed straight back to the garage.

As I entered, Donnie and his 3 or 4 chaps approached the whirring, smoking car they'd just fixed. Opening up the hood, we saw that the motor was running about as fast as it could, and turning off the ignition had no effect.

What does happen if a car sits too long is that the solenoid degrades and may fuse. If that happens, the starter circuit remains closed (I think), and turning off the ignition switch doesn't stop the engine anymore.



Needless to say, the boys gave me a free solenoid (installation and everything), and sent me on my merry way.

Posted by george at 8:39 AM | 0 comments

The Vein.

It seems I've hit it with various friends. A big truck, red interior, that proper noise you hear when you shut the door... Cammie, Sasha and Jeremy came in this evening to see the car and there were lots of oooohs and aaaahs.

"Can we sleep in here?"

"When are we going?"

Etc.

Yeah, baby.

Posted by george at 12:12 AM | 0 comments

Saturday, July 29, 2006

A bit of history.

Even though I had been eyeing off Bronco IIs for some time now, it took finding the dream version on eBay one day to tip me over into an actual purchase. Here are some of my thoughts about buying a car, particularly buying a car on the internet:

• Faith, hope and charity.
  It all started when I first came to Merica. I saw a modestly proportioned jeepy, SUV-y, truck-type car called a Bronco II. It had a RED INTERIOR. It was love. That was 3 years ago.
   
• Sorely tested.
  Fuck! He's skipped off to the Bahamas with my $1375! Assface!
   
• Livin' the Dream.
  I mean, we all love the environment, right?

Do you have any horror success stories?

Posted by george at 4:29 PM | 0 comments

A girl and her truck.

I have posted a few entries on my other blog about my new truck, buying it on the internet, my frustrations around that, and its final arrival.

I decided to splinter off this conversation to a separate place, in the hope of attracting readers who might be interested in a bit of Truck Talk, and potentially even in helping me with maintenance of my new baby.

Or, is it beast?

Posted by george at 2:25 PM | 2 comments