Summary: Due partially to the economy with people finding it harder to get financing, demand is down for new and used cars. Right now some great deals on slightly used cars can be picked up, even at the new car dealers.  This 5.3 V-8 2007 Impala SS loaded with 40,000 miles was picked up at a great price ($14,500) at Gordon Chevrolet in Tampa Florida. The leather was a little worn and honestly a little plain – too much grey was used on the interior. By getting this car at a great price, we budgeted enough money to snazz up the interior a bit. That’s where our local upholstery shop comes in. Cimo & Cimo’s Upholstery shop has a location in Tampa Florida, they will reupholster just about anything, from hot rods to yachts. Installing window film is a large part of their business too. Who in Florida would invest in a new leather interior for their car and not shade it from the sun? This article has before and after pictures of the plain grey and the two tone leather after it was installed.

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Courtesy of Brainstuck.com

Big three auto makers bubble is soon to burst, the question is should the Government bail them out? What is the best tool to use when it comes to their situation? What would your grandparents suggest? And what guarantee do we have that they won’t come back again later knocking on our door, begging for money like a drug addict in the middle of the night. What remains obviously apparent is that without bankruptcy, the big three will not be able to re-negotiate their obligations with the unions. No doubt, the unions have done their job of getting every dollar that they could for their members. The problem is, they may have just priced themselves out of a job.

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Cutting nails short keeps dirt from getting underneath – still stains

The picture above is of a neglected thumb (Not a nasty middle finger). Our hands are the most valuable tools we possess, it makes sense to protect them. I remember when I first started turning wrenches, you were a sissy and a wimp if you were afraid to get your hands dirty. I used to be constantly exposed to grease, oil, mineral spirits, carb cleaner and brake clean. I recall working I in a 10 bay shop, with the bays lined up in a row. Many times I was 6 to 9 bays away from the nearest sink, where we washed our hands. I would many times use brake clean to spray off my hands, to save time. In addition I  was frequently washing my hands with cleaners and hand soaps that would dry my hands out allowing the grime to easily work it’s way deep into my skin. Needless to say, my hands were constantly stained. The only time my hands would really come clean was when I went on vacation, especially to the beach. After a week away from dirt and grime, my hands in the salt water frequently for that week, my hands would finally get back to normal. My wife would always comment “your hands are so clean”.  Then back into the grease I would go until another year passed and it was vacation time again.

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Photo coutresy of Nashville City Paper

Dave Ramsey is becoming more and popular these days, especially with the troubling financial times we are finding ourselves in. Dave Ramsey is a financial expert and writer, his most popular book is called The Total Money Makeover. He’s earned the title of financial guru by learning the hard way about finances and the risk of going head over heals in debt. Dave was leveraged in real estate investments to the tune of four million dollars over twenty years ago. As fate would have it, he lost it all when his short term loans were sold and the new banks demanded payment before it was possible for Dave to deliver. This experience has caused Dave to change his thinking on loans and personal finance. He now advises people to pay debt off and cut up the credit cards. I personally like his country boy, down to earth, shoot it to you straight mentality. Dave Ramsey reminds me of a teacher that I had back in high school. Frank Gentry, my old marketing teacher, had a similar laid back teaching style. Dave Ramsey’s lessons encourage you to think and grow. Few teacher’s names are remembered years later in life unless they have truly affected your way of thinking and how you view opportunites. Dave, like my old marketing teacher is definitely a “glass is half full” type of guy. If your sick and tired of living your life “pay check to pay check”, then you’ll definitely want to listen to what Dave has to say.
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Will a $150 hydrogen generator turn a 97 Saturn (Beater) into a miracle water car!?

Myth Busting.  Those of you who read our last post titled Is Hydrogen the Answer to America’s Rising Fuel Costs? know that I am skeptical of the claims found on the Internet, like Run your car on water and Save 57% Fuel & Double Gas Mileage. But after speaking to the aftermarket warranty inspector mentioned in that post, that thought it was plausible and he was willing to install a hydrogen generator on his 08 Civic, I figured I would give it try as well. Although the guys he talked to are sure that their hydrogen generators definitely work, for me seeing is believing. Even Popular Mechanics is also going to be testing a hydrogen generator to see if increased mileage claims can be verified or debunked. Even grown men have to play sometimes, right?

$150 Plus shipping. The kit I ordered from HydrogenGarage.com arrived sooner than expected, it basically consisted of a water filter canister (like for home use), stainless steel plates, threaded rods, nylon washers and steel nuts. The directions, that are available on-line in pdf format, were simple to follow. There were a few typographical errors, but they made up for that with plenty of good pictures that made assembly easy.

Prior to assembly. The instructions said to clean the threaded rods and stainless steel plates to remove any oily residue that may be present and to scuff the stainless steel plates by sanding them with 60 grit sandpaper to create a cross hatch scoring effect. After sanding the plates you clean them again prior to the assembly.

Plates attached. Once the plates were assembled, the next step is to put the plate and rod assembly into the canister and test it, out of the car. The Hydrogen generator is said to produce brown gas, I see why they say brown, the water turned brown within minutes after supplying power to create the electrolysis. 

Finding room. It was a tight fit in this little car. The washer fluid reservoir was removed to make room for the hydrogen generator. Power was supplied from a switched/fused source. The directions say that a spark arrestor or bubbler can be used, however I decided to run the 1/4″ vapor tube directly to the air intake.

Testing the gas mileage. To be honest I thought there would be little difference in mileage with or without the Hydrogen generator, but I couldn’t have predicted the actual results. This is what happened. So, I started my trip-ometer at zero and filled the tank up. After driving 102 miles with the Hydrogen generator on, it took 4.189 gallons to fill the gas tank up. I divided the miles by the gallons it took to fill the tank up and came up with 24.3 miles per gallon. I then reset the trip-ometer and with the Hydrogen generator turned off, drove 100.8 miles. I filled up the fuel tank again, this time it only took 3.28 gallons to fill up. After calculating the mileage, I found that the car got 30.7 miles per gallon. I actually got less miles per gallon with the Hydrogen generator on! Uh, is anyone interested in a slightly used Hydrogen generator? 

The Internet is littered with seemingly unbelievable claims, like “Run your car on water”. What does this mean? Pour water in my fuel tank? I must admit, until recently I’ve been a skeptic and have attributed all this Internet hype as another scam that only the gullible would fall for. After thinking about it though, all major car manufacturers are developing and testing hydrogen cars today. Most talk of the need for infrastructure providing hydrogen filling capabilities at gas stations. At the time of this post there are only a few filling stations that dispense hydrogen in the US.

Yesterday when talking to a car warranty inspector friend of mine, the subject of hydrogen fuel came up. He was very excited at the prospect of adding a hydrogen generator to his 2008 Honda Civic. He recently downsized from a Honda Accord since his job requires him to drive many miles everyday, he’s always looking for ways to save on gas. The Inspector was like me, he never really listened to all the talk about running your car on water.

After-all if it is too good to be true, it usually is. Besides, we are both Master auto technicians and have heard it all throughout the years. He changed his way of thinking and was now open to the idea. He had been doing warranty inspections at a couple of repair shops and found that there are auto technicians that were running hydrogen generators on their personal vehicles. Now this changes everything, no longer only Internet hype he could actually see the hydrogen rise from the clear containers. The process involves putting an electrical charge in the water which creates electrolysis and this act releases hydrogen gas that rises and can be ran by a tube to the engine’s air intake to be burned along with regular gas. One of the guys at a repair shop he was visiting, said he has increased his Mitsubishi Endeavor’s mileage by 10 mpg. So far he has noticed no drive-ability problems, no check engine light, just increased gas mileage. He theorizes he has no computer problems since he still uses gas to run his car and only supplements the fuel supply with hydrogen. The other mechanic drives an old Chevy pick up with a 454, (without a vehicle computer) he’s using a similar hydrogen generator and has plans to go all Hydrogen. Converting to all hydrogen may prove to be much more difficult but if he succeeds the rewards could be great.

To date, there are no hydrogen generators that are pre-assembled that I have found. There are many plans for sale that may or may not work. The success most likely will depend on the plans and the mechanical ability of the person following the directions and performing the assembly and installation. This can be very dangerous since the hydrogen is obviously flammable. To be very clear I am not endorsing or selling any of the hydrogen generator kits that are available. However, I am considering purchasing a hydrogen generator kit for myself, I will keep you posted. Be sure to check out the video below.  

Predicting future oil and gas prices is highly uncertain with the volatile global markets.  The puzzling question today on everyone’s mind is if the time has come to lift the ban on US oil and gas drilling and if the risk is worth the potential reward.

With gas prices currently sitting at $4 a gallon, Congress is again wrestling with proposals to allow drilling in now-restricted portions of the eastern Gulf of Mexico, Atlantic and Pacific.  President Bush estimates that an extra 18 billion barrels of oil – equivalent to the nation’s current oil production for the next 10 years would be available from drilling in areas currently banned.  Although there’s uncertainty as to how long it would take to begin production, this would allow us to reduce our growing dependence on oil imports.

With today’s technology, the risk of a drilling disaster is greatly decreased, but environmentalists worry that drilling in these areas would pose a threat to beaches, wildlife and coastal-based economy if a spill were to occur.

Is drilling a high-risk?   The first offshore oil production platforms went up off the Louisiana coast in 1947 and over a half century later, with 3,203 offshore oil platforms in the Gulf of Mexico studding her coastal waters, the 20,000 miles of pipeline provides a quarter of America’s domestic petroleum, all this without having caused a single major oil spill.  This record stands despite dozens of hurricanes including the two most destructive in North American history, Camille and Katrina. 

A study by LSU’s Sea Grant College shows that 85 percent of Louisiana’s offshore fishing trips involve fishing around these offshore oil rigs.  The same study found 50 times more marine life around an oil production platform than in the surrounding mud bottoms.

So the decision on whether or not to drill offshore in the United States will ultimately come down to whether Congress and the President decide which is more important, environmental endangerment or  the severe economic issues of the day.

Recently my brother had a dead battery, so I took my jump box to his house to jump start his car. It’s funny how some things are second nature when you’ve done it a thousand times. He had already tried using his new bargain booster box that he had just bought at a local parts store. The less expensive jump boxes usually only have continuity on one jaw of the cable clamp. The better quality jump boxes, like the JNC4000 or JNC 660 have power on both sides of the jaws. When there is power on both sides of the jumper clamps it makes it much easier to get a good connection when jump starting a car. Anyways, my brother properly attached the red battery jumper clamp, from my jump box to the positive side of the battery first. And he knew not to clamp the black jumper lead (from the booster box) directly to the battery’s negative terminal, because a small spark from connecting it there could ignite the vapors from the car battery and cause it to explode. But he made the mistake of hooking the black negative cable from the jump box to a bolt that held a small ground cable to the body of the car. This can force the small gauge body ground straps to carry excessive amps and possibly cause a melt down.

It’s always better to find a good size bolt head on the engine to connect the negative jumper cable to. For more detailed instructions and warnings see Jump-n-Carry’s pdf instruction manual. A foot note, my brother now knows the right way to jump start his car….and not to leave the dome light on all night.

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Has a slowing economy along with climbing gas prices affected auto repair shops for better or for worse?

As gas prices increase along with almost everything else, most people will inevitably be keeping their cars longer and that means more vehicles with more repair needs.  But, does that mean automotive repair shops will have an influx of work to do?  That depends…

Shops rely on people to bring in their vehicles for oil changes where they hope to find additional auto repairs that will help them turn a profit.  However, with tougher economic times encroaching, many people who would normally bring their vehicle in for a simple oil change will be choosing instead to change the oil themselves and save a few dollars.  People will be more willing to drive their vehicle without air conditioning or take the rise of not getting extensive brake work as long as the vehicle “stops”.  Bare minimum crucial fixes combined with a hope-for-the best mentality will keep many repair shop’s profits down.

On the flip side, because more people are driving older vehicles, many are making repair purchases with more of a preventative mentality by keeping their car in good working order so it will “last”.  So although there might be less work to be had, the shop owner who is able to offer competitive pricing along with having an honest reputation will most likely be the one who drives more people into their shop.