Road worthy

(Sorry for the half picture. It was cold out there...)

I've been working for the past couple of weeks to get Adam's truck into compliance with the Motor Vehicle Department standards so it could be driving without Drew pulling people over in it. (And towing it away.) It finally got done today, I got the plates late this afternoon, but it wasn't the straight road to approval you would expect:

• I had to buy a 2 week temp permit to drive it around. I guess they figure if the vehicle can't be made to pass inspection within 2 weeks, it's not worth being registered. It worked out ok, if I had all the ducks in a row 2 weeks ago, I would have missed out on the new license plates.
  
• The tinting needed to be removed. By the time I figured out how to do it properly, I had it half off. The second half took 10% of the time the first half took.
• I took the thing in for the inspection, they added 3 more things for me to do.
• Replace the windshield wipers. This was a piece of cake.
• Install mudflaps. I wanted to find some really cool set of mudflaps, but couldn't. By the time I started looking around, it was too late to order something off the internet. I settled for a very subdued picture of some mountains, etched into the mudflap. There were already holes in the wheel well where mudflaps used to be, I thought this would make it easier for me to install them, but it's hard to put in mudflaps when a big giant tire is in the way. My cordless drill couldn't get in the right angle to screw them in. None of my screwdrivers were the right size. I couldn't find my little angled screwdriver thing until just now, it's sitting here next to the keyboard. (10 hours too late...) I took a socket wrench and a phillips screwdriver bit, and made my own angled screwdriver.
• Replace the muffler. I don't know when the tailpipe came loose from the muffler, I suspect it was when Missy took it in for an inspection in July. It really explains why the truck was always so loud when I drive it. It turns out the muffler was a custom job, with 2 tailpipes coming out the back. The guys that did the inspection wanted me to do the muffler with them, but they kept trying to talk about a 'high performance' muffler (I assume this is a muffler that gets to your destination before you do.), but it sounded like they were headed for their high pressure sales environment, so I asked them to back the thing out of their bay. (They also charged $50 an hour labor, I didn't know if this was a good rate, so I wanted to talk to some other places. On Monday, I tried to go to Midas in the morning. I asked the guy inside the place if I could get a ballpark estimate on a new muffler. He told me I needed to have an appointment for that. (They get your car up on their lift, and try to pressure you into doing it with them, I'm sure.) He asked if I wanted to schedule and appointment for later in the day, I told him no. Eventually I ended up at a new Meineke. I went in to ask for the ballpark estimate, the guy came out, looked under the car, then spent the next 30 minutes trying to figure out exactly what parts were needed for the replacement. He looked all through his muffler book, he called a couple of people on the phone, that sort of thing. He finally figured that the best thing to do it bring the muffler out from the converter, and bring out a single tailpipe. (The original configuration for the truck) The parts had to be ordered, he thought they could be ready to go Wednesday afternoon, I could call him as late at Tuesday evening to say yes. Meineke has a flat rate labor charge for mufflers ($65), which was a big plus. After talking with Adam, I called them back, and took the truck in Wednesday afternoon. I went back at 5, they weren't done. They had trouble connecting the thing, and were something like 6 inches short on the pipe they had. The auto parts delivery guy came at 5:15, after he drove off, they realized that it was the wrong pipe, and it was too late at night to get the right one. They had the tailpipe and stuff pulled off, but I drove the truck home anyway. On Thursday, Missy and Steve drove it up to his family's house. I'm sure their eardrums were rattling both ways. (It's something like a 2 1/2 or 3 hour drive.) On Friday I took the truck back, it took them 3 hours to get the thing finished. (The right sized part didn't work either. They had to bend a pipe on their own to make it fit.) I'm glad for the flat rate labor charge, it ended up being $10 an hour...

• After I took the truck back over to the other place to get the inspection certificate, (they wouldn't let someone come out and just spend a minute looking at the 3 things, they made me come back in an hour and a half. I think they are still bitter I didn't pay them to do the muffler.) then went down to the motor vehicle office to get the plates. The guy entering it in said the VIN on the computer didn't match the VIN on the inspection. (The computer had an X, the cert had a Z) We went outside to verify the VIN. He looked at the door and the dash, they both had a Z, not an X. I was suddenly wondering if I didn't know my Z's from X's when I was filling out the paperwork. The guy had to go to the back to look at the original paperwork. They hadn't just processed the title, which was good, because I would have had to wait for the title in the mail so they could fix it. It turns out that the girl who was entering things in 2 weeks ago when I was getting the temp tag put in an X instead of a Z. That's forgivable, they are right next to each other on the keyboard. Anyway, he fixed things on his computer, and I got the plates. (A brand spanking new design, by the way.) The plates are on, the truck is good to go, finally. ($350 and 2 weeks later, including about 15 hours of time I spent on it.)

(Not the real plate number)

The only thing left to do is fix the tailgate. (Just to get rid of the strap on the back of the car) The mechanism behind the handle is stuck in the open position. This is a big reason why it opened up on Missy and Dad on the freeway. I need something fairly thin I can stick in there, that's strong enough, and will let me open it from there to try to free it. Like a big giant pair of needle nose pilers. I tried WD-40 a couple of times, but so far it hasn't come free. The tailgate is fastened with some torx bolts, I could find my torx set of drivers at the time. (It was also sitting here by the computer, but ti's dark outside now.) I might try taking the back side of the tailgate off tomorrow and seeing if I can force the mechanism apart so it works again. For now, I took my screwdriver and pushed the mechanism over to the right, which engages the latch on the right side. I think I can get it at some point here.