I’m not religious, but I’m not antireligious either. I was trying to sell my old sunfire and only got responses from scrappers with low ball offers. Until someone lowballed me for a good cause. A church held a youth group party and my sunfire ended up the star attraction. It was a good feeling to see it go out with a bang. Well… Lots of bangs…
I donated it for their use, and will scrap it out myself.
German but living in Amsterdam for 10 years now. Some 8 years in Dublin before that.
Another bike day: meet at Blueys in Santa Monica, drive to PV, then to The Brews Hall in Torrance:
Sick Camero rolling through
And met the goodest boy, Bean
Ohh Myy Mee- I LURV BEAN!!!?!
Ruhrohh-
When the meth head broke into my truck I think they tried to man-handle the door handle first before resorting to breaking the glass, as after that day the door handle required more gusto/travel/flex than before to open. It was starting to crack on the inside.
I finally remembered to get a replacement, but not only that there is an OEM upgraded metal version.
The timing of it arriving is amazing, the handle juuust busted this morning.
Pretty good vid of what will be involved.
Kinda bummed I didn’t think to order some sound deadening/Amazon generic dynomat to throw in there “while I’m in there”.
So peeved right now.
I’m currently going through some crazy Smog check drama. I have an old 1st gen Tacoma truck with the super uber legal TRD supercharger. Its not installed on the factory floor of Toyota but is a TRD option dealerships would install. Its Magnuson built and either they or TRD (or both in some joint effort thing) paid the $$$$$ to have it tested by CARB (cali air resources board) and given an OE number (and sticker that installs in the engine bay or hood) showing it is in fact legal and passed all smog testing protocols (not your smog center, but the special center that tests for fumes emitting from gas caps, injector seals, various load emissions- basically the same place that wised up to VW cheating and busted them).
This truck has been S/C’ed for about 20 years and in CA all of those years, passed with no issues all this time (first owner and now me).
I’ve now come along a tech that fails the visual as there is no clear part number on the S/C itself to associate with the EO number and EO letter.
This is enormously frustrating but to the tech’s point, as ALL of these setups been “technically” illegal all this time?
Tempted to make a YouTube vid of documenting this adventure- partially to be possibly cathartic, and partially because in this day and age of bureaucracy there really is ‘no voice’ when you call countless call centers, support lines, customer support web portals etc. If a vid started to get steam maybe it could possibly get things in motion to fix whatever in the system is broken- because something is diffidently broken:
Either:
Smog tech is right and tens of thousands of Toyotas are illegal and thousands of techs are in violation as TRD, Toyota, CARB etc really messed up with the implementation (needs a clearly visible part number) all throughout that 6 digit $$ process.
OR
This tech needs to get served some authoritative remedial training and some kind of compensation to me from CA for all of this unnecessary trouble (and the non-refundable tech inspection of $50).
Cathartic or functional-- Go for the rant
IF it was CARB, being all sortsa pr!ckish [instigating CashForClunkers sequel?–> JDM Edition?]
This could also be affecting, whole lotta other 'Yodas [soon], that got Magnuson / TRD SC
Being a major automotive entity two fingers down throat, they would’ve made formal declaration
…I’m more inclined that Techie, being the pr!ck here
Then again- it IS an older vehicle [can apply for classic/historic status yet?]
Could applying truck, under a off-road title, soften regulation(s)?
Its not old enough for classic, even with the year ‘goal post’ movement being lobbied by Jay Leno.
Yeah its probably the Tech and I’ve started the process to schedule with a state referee- you call their 800 number just to schedule a phone interview with a ref then an in-person. State ref appointment guy said two solutions are either a label for the S/C or getting smogged by the ref. I’m actually hoping for the former- a “f you, smog me” sticker to future smog centers. And even with either I will still keep pressing CaliEPA and ARB that they need to fix this situation- be it Toyota messed up with part number labeling, or CaliEPA messed up with EO letter articulation, or that tech needs some remedial ‘license on the line’ training.
I see really cool vid potential here, I’m just lazy + 1.5 jobs. We’ll see.
As long as it has the CARB EO sticker visible on it I wouldn’t see why it would fail visual. I would honestly go to a different shop 
If I just wanted to be done with it, I agree.
But there is a teachable moment here for someone, and its not me, I did nothing wrong, truck has product and documentation in accordance with TRD/Toyota/Magnuson and the Tech has his training so someone somewhere is wrong and it should get fixed. Maybe this tech is the chosen one and found a huge issue with TRD products (they failed to stamp part numbers on the superchargers) or maybe this tech needs some education.
I’m setting up an appointment with a state ref and have emails/tickets with Toyota/TRD, Magnuson, BAR etc. Like I said there is a teachable moment here and its not applicable to me.
It would be interesting to know the equivelant energy in gallons of gasoline of material and labor and associated energy to produce a vehicle. Then a comparison could be made of fuel used to drive a slightly less efficient old vehicle compared to a newer vehicle of the similar style and what the savings might be.
Hope that made sense…
I asked ChatGPT;
" The production of a new Ford F-150 truck involves a substantial amount of energy, which can be translated into a gasoline gallon equivalent (GGE). While exact numbers vary based on materials, factory efficiency, and supply chains, we can estimate this based on lifecycle analyses and energy inputs for vehicle manufacturing.
\frac{110,000 \text{ MJ to } 150,000 \text{ MJ}}{120 \text{ MJ/gallon}} = \text{~917 to 1,250 gallons of gasoline equivalent}
This estimate includes energy from mining raw materials, processing them into components, assembling the truck, and transporting it to dealerships — but excludes the energy used to fuel the vehicle during its lifetime.
Let me know if you want a similar estimate for an electric vehicle, or a comparison across vehicle types."
Now I have to figure out the 40 year amount of fuel used. I know my 1977 Ford f250 with a 460ci motor got ~12mpg (imperial), 10mpg (US). My 2006 Dodge Ram 1500 with a 5.7L gets 22 l/100mpg
I would also be thinking, with the sh!t-poor recycling/reclamation/etc., still going on today
Working up a new slate of materials, every couple of years [the typ. buyers]
Also NOT including, the lesser quality const., with recent vehicles
[either experiencing a bad gen., or is running joke BAD]
Versus changing up fluids / belts / occasional hard bits…
Muhh Dino-UV, is probably gonn’ venture… 50k gals of dino juice
