How old is your rig?

[CharlesHarris]

MB:

Coyote primer applied in a thin overspray which does not obliterate your current dark blue base, but places heavy speckles over it will appear light green at a distance, then you can overlay flecktarn or leaf patterns over that modified base using darker forest green, brown and black, yielding a 4-color pattern similar to the TC5-200 1970s pattern used in Germany before the wall came down, which you might be familiar with:

https://olive-drab.com/od_mvg_camo_tc5-200.php

[Pete Grey]

If i painted my motor like that i’d never find it again.

[Mortblanc]

Back in the 1980s I did a 1963 F-series in three color green, black, brown but it had a green base to start with. It turned out very well and I drove it for ten years cammoed out like that.

I did have to watch my driving though. People would look right at me and then pull out at intersections like I was not there!

It took me a while to figure out that I had done a really good job on that paint.

[Mortblanc]

I had to make the 25 mile trek to town Tuesday to fetch a new refrigerator.

The Jeep is all I have that is endowed with a trailer hitch at this time. I managed to blow all the coolant out of the system on the trip. I blamed it on a bad thermostat. The one in there was probably the factory issue.

It was giving fluctuations in temp on the road, up to 220f, and blowing the coolant out the bypass hose, so the radiator was not plugged, the water pump was working and apparently the thermostat was not opening properly.

Yesterday I replaced the unit and today we will find out if my diagnosis was correct, since I have to take the old fridge to the recycling center, which is a 30 mile round trip and should test the system nicely.

That is one of the things one faces with these old rigs, something is going wrong constantly, and most of the time suddenly.

[Pete Grey]

One british vehicle with a habit of boiling up was the MGF, the recommendation was to remove the thermostat jiggle pin and drill the hole a little larger. This allows some coolant flow even if the thermostat fails to open.

You should be ok with a new thermostat, i bet you tested it in boiling water first, i always do.

If the problem continues you could flush the whole cooling system, i use a coolant called 4life which boils at 180C (350F).

I used it first in my MG midget and now in the BOV. It also gives frost protection to -40 plenty good enough for UK winters.

[Mortblanc]

I did not test the thermostat in boiling water. Due to it being at least a decade old it needed replacement if there was the slightest chance it was posing a problem and the cost for thermostat/gasket/glue was less than $20 US and the repair took all of 30 minutes.

I made the trip with no incident. Everything seemed to remain at under 200f where it belonged and no fluids exited the vehicle that I could tell. I will need to drain the water that is now in the system and replace it with proper coolant/antifreeze.

However, on the way back from the dump I rolled the window down, then up, and something popped. The window slowly fell to open position and stayed there. I have worn out the power window, which depends on a plastic screw for control. That screw is now in pieces in the bottom of the door panel.

A replacement regulator is already on order. As I said earlier, when these rigs hit 20 years there is something going wrong all the time.

[Pete Grey]

Over here we don’t drive the distances that you guys have to, as we live on an island smaller than some of your states. I would say average mileage here is 10,000-15,000 per year including shopping, commuting etc, retired people probably less than half of that, fortunately this means our vehicles don’t get the punishment yours do, we are lucky.

[Mortblanc]

One of the problems in trying to find a good used vehicle over here is the extreme mileage most vehicles endure. Most vehicles will have 100k on them by their fifth year and a 10 year old rig with less than 175k is unusual.

In this environment we find out what vehicles have the longer life spans with the least major repairs at any given age.

If you wait for a couple of years to buy a vehicle and allow the depreciation to be your friend the vehicle will likely have 80k miles and be just in time for all its major service cycles to kick in. Belt replacements, timing belts, ignition sensors, spark plug replacements at $100 per plug. By the ed of a year you will have paid out the difference between new and used in maintenance.

So we look for the 7-10 year old rigs, still in good shape but sporting 95-100k miles and all the replacement parts already cycled through. That will give us another 5-7 years of good use with only occasional repairs.

I had been driving the Ford for 4 years/30k miles and had spent less than $1000 in repairs.

The Jeep is on its double cycle. 175k miles, so everything that should go out at 70-80k that was replaced back in the day is going out again, plus all the things that were over engineered to last a lifetime have lasted their lifetime and are now breaking.

I always claimed that I was going to run the Jeep until the wheels fell off, but I am now having difficulty keeping up with the repairs. On the way home from buying one repair part another part goes out!

[Pete Grey]

Our daily runabout citroen is 17 years old, i bought it privately when it was 3 years old with under 5000 miles on the clock. It belonged to the mother of an acquaintance when she passed he just wanted what it was valued on his books £3500 (cash) dealers were asking over £5000 at the time.

Over the years other than tyres, brake shoes and pads, wiper blades and timing belt, parts that wear, the only part to actually break was the drivers door lock. I suppose total cost around £600, ever time i use it i realise what a bargain it has been.

The camper van being commercial vehicle based, parts last longer, and at 16 years has cost a lot less, two tyres, wipers and a speed sensor, perhaps £400 but it cost a lot more.

[Mortblanc]

Spent an hour replacing that window mechanism this afternoon. Rain almost caught me in mid-repair.

The repair part included the entire unit with a new motor.

I spent the next two hours playing with the old electric motor, which was still good.

Like any true prepper I could not bear the thought of throwing away a reversible 12v electric motor.