Random Thoughts... [Automotive Edition]

I saw a short bed Dodge Ram today... I’m so accustomed to only seeing long beds that this looked positively weird.
 
Down here is shortbed country. My buddy was looking for an 8ft F150 and finding one was a royal pain. Even a decently equipped 6.5ft bed was hard to find - everyone just gets the 5.5ft truck.
 
It's not really automotive, but... well, it's about something that moves a driver with the help of a motor.

Yesterday I had the opportunity to drive/ride/use a Segway. I always thought (and still think) that people on Segways look just ridiculous, and I fail to see an application in real-world traffic (just get a motorcycle or scooter ffs), but... it was fun. Really.
As part of a stag party (among my friends, these tend to involve sporty group activities before we proceed to with getting drunk), we booked a Segway parcours thingy... basically, a track was marked on a derelict industrial area, meaning uneven gravel/grass ground, including uphill and downhill sections, with slalom etc. Main challenge was to transport a water-filled ladle around the track with losing as few drops of water as possible. That really was a challenge, but good fun (and avoided the inevitable mayhem a timed lap would have meant - so only one of us fell down when he approached a steep, sudden und also suddenly gravelly uphill at full speed).

I found the Segway to be really controllable and fun to ride. And at over 20 kph, it's not exactly slow neither. The cliché application of airport/mall security does make sense to me.
The things are just too bloody expensive for private use. And I'm glad for it, I don't want to see them in public traffic. :D Unfortunately the same company we booked at offers tourist tours through our city using them...
 
Segways are dumb, one of my co-workers has one of those electric skateboards, now that's where the real fun is at, since it's RWD it can actually drift :p
 
The flex pipe on the Saab just rusted through. For once I'm glad that the turbo has a muffling effect.
 
Thankfully I get the full effect of that with the Jag and its muffler deletes, and it drones way less than letting rust do the mod.
 
Finally scheduled a time with a body shop to get the door ding on the Mustang looked at. Can't wait to hear how much this will cost me ?
 
If it's just a ding with no paint damage why don't you go to a PDR place to get it popped out? It's usually rather cheap.
 
If it's just a ding with no paint damage why don't you go to a PDR place to get it popped out? It's usually rather cheap.

Place I'm scheduled at lists PDR as a specialty on their site, but I feel like its going to need more than that - its really deep and right on the character line.

McaPRSyl.png


Also surprisingly, there are very few dedicated PDR places around here.
 
I've had one right behind the handle and they did a pretty good job, it's not 100% but like 99.5%. If your prices are about same as NY I would say expect 600ish for a full repaint.
 
I've had one right behind the handle and they did a pretty good job, it's not 100% but like 99.5%. If your prices are about same as NY I would say expect 600ish for a full repaint.

This is the "example" on their site for PDR. Doesn't look real, and I'm sure it isn't, but I'm hoping they can pull off something similar with my car.

KcHUTPW.png


And yeah, I'm expecting a high price tag, this place is the preferred place for local Porsche owners.
 
^nice photoshop!

without any kind of filler and respray, no way you get that type of ding out without any traces!
 
Also surprisingly, there are very few dedicated PDR places around here.

That's because due to your heavily salted roads and insurance penalties for reporting damage, the panels often rust out before before PDR services are engaged. :p
 
^nice photoshop!

without any kind of filler and respray, no way you get that type of ding out without any traces!

In reality they can actually sometimes do really well with that. Emphasis on sometimes; basically in a best case scenario you'd have to know where the damage was to be able to tell it wasn't just a production bobble.
 
In reality they can actually sometimes do really well with that. Emphasis on sometimes; basically in a best case scenario you'd have to know where the damage was to be able to tell it wasn't just a production bobble.

This. I've seen some PDR places perform things that I'd qualify as sorcery or black magic. A buddy of mine had a ding on a character line on his A5, got it was taken out in an hour and half and your can't even tell it was ever there. It all depends on how big and deep it is. Mine is really small, but really deep. His was rather large and pretty shallow.

I've already come to terms that the ding on my car will likely need filler and paint :(
 
Yeah, the Chrysler dealer I used to take my Jeep to had a guy they paid to come for their PDR work. I had them take out a couple from the fender on my Mustang. The only way you could tell he did anything was if you looked closely at the cracked paint underneath the clear coat. You couldn’t feel it with your finger so I assume it wouldn’t allow weather to get in. You couldn’t even tell I hit a deer after that!
 
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