tracy waddell

Took out the center console, to upholster it.

Budster

got the HHR to our new house after spending 2 1/2 months living with the kids till we found this house. No room in the garage yet as it is full of boxes waiting to get unpacked *yikes* didn't realize we had so much stuff... I'll be throwing out a lot of stuff and giving away a lot of stuff on http://groups.yahoo.com/group/CoronaFreecycle/. If you never saw the FreeCycle site it is great, just post stuff you want to give away for FREE and there will be someone contacting you to pick it up. Keeps the trash can usable for trash.

843de

Cranked up Paddy and slogged to my office in a persistent drizzle, just heavy enough to make I-85 slippery and cause the usual spin outs and demonstrations of Olympic level hydroplaning.

Not even the Highway Patrol are immune from driving like novices in the rain, witnessed a shiny new State Police Charger do a slow 360 before backing into the guardrails...the officer was fine, but sorely embarrassed and preparing for a world class butt chewing from his superiors.

DaGrinch

Been there! Damn G60's on the back of my '71 Duster MANY years ago!

There, too! Only I was investigating a crash, went to move my car and hit a parked one! DOH!

843de

Sometimes I wish the youngsters here could really experience the awful tires we had back in the day, but then again, if they did experience those awful tires...we might not have as many members.

Many years ago I had a set of 60 series Kelly Charger's introduce me to hydroplaning, a 312 degree spin(a 360 interrupted by a fence), and a cornfield in rapid succession. Barb wire really messes up the new paint job on your Camaro, and you find corn husks jammed up in places you never thought they could get into for weeks afterwards.

The farmer was a nice guy though and he let me keep the roughly half bushel of sweet corn I "harvested" with the car, explaining that "I was young and dumb once too kid".

timehhr2

Never forget my very first time with my 1968 GTO 428 four speed - no power brakes, no power steering, no a/c with a clutch that would make your leg shake to hold it in - built for power only & still the fastest car I've ever driven despite owning a Corvette & Fiero GT after it - in snow on the expressway. Great Polyglass tires all around - replaced the original red lines - and a touch of the gas / clutch in 1st sent the back end on a sideways climb up the (fortunately) left side into the service lane - quickly figured out this wasn't going to cut it! Only car I ever owned that I had to put real snow tires on and even then it was all too happy to go sideways in snow as it was to go forward.

In fact about three years later just 3 days after getting a "perfect" paint job it snowed & trying to leave my "safe" parking spot way out in nowhere, next to poles so no one could park next to it another small touch to pullout & wham! Sideways into the poles! Then, to make things perfect, the next morning my mom wakes me to tell me she's so sorry she thinks she hit my car in the driveway. I said no - I did it in the parking lot yesterday. Then when I went outside the other side was smashed too! She had hit it! So I lived with those until spring & had it all fixed again.

Loved that 'baby goat' and his dual Thrush mufflers you could literally hear coming for blocks. Made it tough to sneak in at 5am but I got good at a power off roll home from 2 blocks away. What a great time. $.39 premium gas, a "new cassette" player rather than eight track (the rage then) and a fm converter. That goat gave us 8 great years, 92k and when I sold it to my best friend (to get the Vette) he got 3 more great years before the rust did it in. Hood mount tach and all it was retired. I see very few today restored but they still look great. Miss that guy & Blackie has to fill the void. All four cylinders.

theWolfTamer

On Friday morning my HHR got hitched


U-haul hides the plug inside the car. They didn't tell me that so I had to drive back up there on my way out of town. Lesson learned.


HHR and Baby in the "wagon" ready to roll!

(Baby is my 2005 Yamaha FZ1 in the faster blue color)

After that I drove all night to get to the Fall Gather in Arkansas; after a short nap, it was time to ride! The big group let us sleep in (my room mate arrived late too) and told us where to meet them. Only problem is between two gps and one paper map, we couldn't find the town! We made the best of it though


Later, I discovered I needed to do some work on my bike so it went back on the trailer and I cut my trip short by a day. I arrived there around 6 a.m on Saturday morning, got about 3 hours sleep, rode in the afternoon, socialized until late, then up and out of town again Sunday around noon local time. Then I drove all day and night to get home this morning right at 4.

Some where outside of Memphis on HWY 78, the HHR told me his name. Pedro!

For the record: HHR LS performed fine towing the vehicle. 1,276 miles most of them pulling the trailer. I averaged 20.5 mpg, my high was 23.5 when I spent more time looking for deer on the sides of extremely dark roads and low was 18.1 when I was making the last push from Birmingham to the house.

I really like my truck and I think blue must be the fastest color for cars too!

DaGrinch

Those 60 Series Kelly's originally were made here, home of Kelly/Springfield Tire at the time.. Then I think they moved the production to Fayetteville. I had a friend who was an account exec that got them for me at his cost.

Pray tell, why Pedro? Pack mule?

theWolfTamer

Pedro is a working man. He won't be packing stuff that often, but when it needs to happen he can do it. He's versatile. He can be comfortable in a suit and tie or tshirt and dirty jeans. He knows how to have fun but he can dress up to impress the parents too!

843de

Finally stopped raining in Carolina after 12 days straight, so to celebrate I gave the Paddy-Wagon a nice wash and detail, just love to see that critter gleaming in the sunshine.

Then I headed over to the body shop that was to repair the damage to the lower front valance, they called this morning and cancelled his appointment for the second time, so I had a "discussion" with the owner. Paddy is now booked into another body shop for next Wednesday, it seems the $750 repair wasn't "big ticket" enough for the first shop to take seriously..so screw them.

Lastly, after sliding around in the rain on the Michelin tires installed only last October, Paddy will be getting a nice set of Continental Extreme Contact DW's on Friday....I've never had a bad set of Michelin tires...first time for everything in this case.