My Black Brick

While contemplating tinting the back windows of my brick a friend told me that if I only did the back windows, without also doing the rear passenger windows, the car would look like a panel truck. It reminded me of the sweet family wagon Mel Gibson drove in the first Mad Max movie. My memory must have failed me because it wasn’t a wagon at all. In Australia in the early 70′s manufacturers like Holden made panel vans. They were 2 door El Camino-esque trucks with a cap on the back. Unlike 3rd party caps these were well integrated into the body and formed a big, covered, often windowless rear end.

I painted my front rims a couple months ago and they’re still looking pretty good. The image above shows them sanded, masked and ready for paint. I document the process after the jump…
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I’m looking to reallocate some money in my 401k and came across an interesting bit of info on thestreet.com. Auto parts makers and garages have been doing well despite, and probably because of, the economic downturn. I’ll assume this is because drivers have an economic incentive to just get their cars fixed when parts wear out, rather than disposing of them and bringing a new vehicle into the family.

From The Street:

Car-parts shares tend to rise in line with stock-market indices on up days, but also gain on down days because of perceived safety…

Advance Auto Parts has opened 57 stores during the past 12 months, capitalizing on elevated demand for aftermarket auto parts, a recessionary trend that has lasted longer than analysts expected.

This trend of good news inside of bad reminds me of the attitude of an old friend who worked in auto body repair. Rain and snow and ice always made him happy because he knew he could make some good money fixing all the dings, dents and carnage that resulted from dangerous driving conditions.

In trying to find out if my vehicle has EGR or not I discovered a site that decodes the Vehicle Identification Number for many Volvo cars. I discovered my brick has “Super Ultra-Low Emissions” and was built in Gothenburg, Sweden.

Volvo VIN codes on Wikibooks