Accessorizing the Altima...

Neither Shannon or I have ever owned a "new" car before. The Altima, being a 2008 model, is the newest car either one of us has owned. Since I want it to last for a few years and it is new enough where the dealerships still carry accessories for it, I figured I need to add a couple things to it.

The first thing I added were splash guards. I don't think I will ever own a vehicle with out some kind of splash guard, mud flaps, ect. The Suburban is the first vehicle I have owned and NOT put them on and the amount of rust on the doors and rear quarter panels makes me sick. My dad has a 1999 GMC Yukon (the same year as my Suburban) and he has factory installed running boards and has NO rust on his vehicle! My old pickup (which had mud flaps) had rust on it, but not along the doors, rockers, and quarter panels! I picked up a set of 4 splash guards for the Altima at the dealer. They came painted to match the vehicle and cost about $100. The installation took about an hours and was very simple. Overall, I think they look great and hopefully will protect the paint from rusting over the years!

The next thing I added to the Altima was a trunk net. I also got this from the dealer and it ran about $20. My Mom has had one on her 1997 Ford Taurus SHO for many years and loves it. It works great for keeping groceries upright, prevents smaller items from rolling around in the trunk, and if the trunk was every stuffed full, it would keeps items from falling out when the trunk was opened. The installation just involved clipping it in!

The last thing I got for the car were new floor mats. For some reason, they had been removed before we bought it. I also bought these from the dealer and they ran about $100 also. I didn't want to get a cheap aftermarket set because I wanted to fit to the contours of the floor and clip into the factory floor mat clips that help hold them in place. The one I bought are obviously the black mats (back set in the picture) so they match the interior. They also have "Altima" stitched into the mat in grey. Very nice looking!

That is about takes car of accessorizing the Altima for now. We have talked about getting a slight tint on the windows, but other than that, we don't have many plans for it, other than driving it!

The Trans Am's New Identity

Well, if you have been following my many posts about the license plates on the Trans Am (HERE, HERE, and HERE) you know I apply for and was waiting for my new license plates. They finally came about two weeks ago!

I think they look pretty nice, considering they ARE NOT embossed and I am not a big fan of the flat, digitally printed license plates! So, for as long as this vehicle is used as a "collector" car, these will be the license plates it has. The best part is, I never have to pay registration tax again!

Bob-cap! Bob-cap!

Keeping with the forward momentum of getting summer projects done, we managed to get a couple more checked off the list over the last week or so!

First, we hired a service that does stump grinding and got the stumps removed. We had a total of four stumps, the large one from the willow tree and three smaller stumps in the northwest corner of the yard that were there when we moved in. The first quote we got was for about $1000 to do all three, so once again, I was seriously considering doing it myself. I was referred to another service in town and he charged $2.50 per inch of diameter of the stumps. So in total, it cost us $300 to have all three stumps taken out! Much better price in my mind. As you can see in the pictures below, I have a little bit of cleaning up to do, and a little work with an axe since they could only grind so close to the fence.

The next project we got done was the removal of the rock in the front of the house. The area in the front of the house had been overgrown with many bushes and filled with rock. We have managed to cut down most of the bushes over the last three years we have lived here, but we still needed to get rid of the rock. I wasn't about to hand shovel it, plus I needed a place to get rid of it. A friend at work recommend a guy who does landscaping and has always been good to him, so I called him up. He came out and said it would be an easy job. He would just get his skid loader and haul it down to the local landscaping dump. He estimated that I had about four yards of dirt and rock and figured it would only take him about 3 hours to do! He charged me $275! I couldn't say no! Maeve had a blast watching him haul the rock away. We told her he was using a Bobcat (which is a brand name for a type of skid loader and an often generalized term for all of them). She did her best to say it on her own and said Bob-cap! Very cute! She has since reformed the term and is saying Bob-cat!

So, now that the destruction is done, we have to start making things nicer! Over the next few weeks, we are going to get the stump areas cleaned out, graded, and grass plated. In the front, we are going to figure out what we are going to do for edging and get that installed, along with a weed barrier, mulch, and grass. I'm not sure if we will get anything new planted this year, but we might depending on time!

A New Horse in the Stable...

Shannon and I are officially no longer Jeep owners! Last Saturday (after a couple weeks of looking) we became the owners of a 2008 Nissan Altima 2.5S.

We had been looking to replace the Jeep for about a year, but only seriously for the last few weeks. We wanted to have an actual car again, instead of two SUV's. Something that would get better gas mileage and be more comfortable on road trips. We had narrowed our search down to four vehicles: 2007-2008 Nissan Altima, 2006-2008 Chevrolet Impalas, 2006-2008 Ford Fusion, and the 2006 Lincoln Zepher. We both didn't like the Fusion or the Zepher, so it was now between the Impala and the Altima. After a few test drives and some number crunching the Altima came out on top.

As I mentioned before it is a 2008 Nissan Altima 2.5S. It has a 2.5L, 4 cylinder engine, a CVT automatic transmission, and a nice power equipped interior. Really the only options it doesn't have are power seats, leather, a sunroof, and the navigation system. The paint it called "Sonoma Sunset" which is fancy for maroon and the interior is charcoal. It is supposed to get between 19-27 mpg in the city and 26-36 mpg on the highway. This vehicle rides great, is VERY quick, and very comfortable.

I'm sure a lot of you are thinking that you would never see that day when I owned a foreign car. To be honest, I never thought it would come either. However, the one saving grace with this car is its high quality and it was made here in the United States in Smyrna, Tennessee. Ironically enough, my Chevrolet Suburban which is looked at as a true classic American truck, was made in Silao, Mexico!

We will be taking the Altima on a few road trips this summer. The first in a couple of weeks to Michigan to visit some of Shannon's family. I am really excited to see what kind of gas mileage I can get with it!

The dealership we bought the Altima from gave us a fair amount for trade in on the Jeep, so we went ahead and traded it in. We had the Jeep for 4 years and 4 days and put about 52,000 miles on it. I had to snap a couple pictures as it sat on the lot after we traded it in. It was a great vehicle!

Our First Car Show!

Mileage: 87,536

One of the things that I was looking forward to doing with the Trans Am is putting it in a car show. Ever since I bought it, I have been very proud of how nice it looks in its all original, unrestored form (with the credit going to the previous owners!). After doing a little bit a checking on car shows, there are many different kinds. Some are Trans Am/Firebird specific, some are era specific (ie: 60's, 70's, 80's, ect), and other are kind of "all in" where anything is welcome. I figured to get my feet wet, I would first enter the Trans Am in "all in" type car show. I don't think I would be quite ready to have the Trans Am judged yet, since I am still getting to know it!

So, my first car show was held at my high school. It was the 10th Annual Thomas Jefferson Car Show! This show was open to ANYTHING that had tires. Basically you pay $3 to get in, you get a dash plaque, some raffle tickets, and your choice of where you want to park in the parking lot. Then, the cars are judged by the spectators, other owners, the police department, school board, and mayor. The votes are all done by silent ballot and totalled at the end. Really, it was a pretty simple set up.

Since I didn't want to attend my first car show alone, I asked my brother and Dad if they wanted to come. By brother was going to bring their 1969 Pontiac GTO, which had been shown at this same show a few years prior by his late father-in-law. Michael, Dad, and I spent the couple days before the show getting the cars cleaned and detailed. I think I probably spent (with Michael and Dad's help) 6 hours cleaning the Trans Am from top to bottom, inside and out. It looked great when we were done.

The car show was scheduled to start at 0900 on Saturday, May 16th. Michael and Dad were going to be meeting at my house at 0730 and then we were going to caravan over to the high school. We didn't know how many people would be coming or how early they would be getting there. We got there a little after before 0800 and Michael was the first one in line and I was the second. We got in the parking lot after about 30 minutes of waiting and set up right next to each other.

Soon after we got parked, many other cars started entering the lot and parking around us. It was amazing seeing all these amazing cars parked in this parking lot around ours! I think one of the best parts of the show is when Mom, Shannon, and Maeve stopped by to check in on us. Even though it was May, it was only about 45 to 50 degrees outside and VERY windy, but they still came out to see us! Maeve had a great time looking at all the cars and I had fun seeing what kind of cars Shannon liked! I had to take a few picture of other cars at the show that I thought were pretty nice:

BONUS: I have something REAL NICE for the first person to leave the year, make, and model (15 points total) of the 5 cars below in the comment section of this post!

After a couple hours they made the call that they would be announcing the winners. I didn't win anything this year with the Trans Am, but my brother Michael won "School Board Choice" with their car!

Once the winners were announced the show was pretty much over. It was a neat site seeing and hearing all these cars fire up and leave the lot. Overall, I had a great time and would attend this show again. It was very low stress and relaxed. Hopefully next year the weather is a little nicer and even more car show up!

Quick Trans Am Projects...

Mileage: 87,551

I started to tackle a couple little projects with the Trans Am over the last couple weeks. The first couple involved jacking the car up so I could get under it. With the Trans Am sitting so low to the ground, I needed to use a set of ramps (that the car had to be jacked up onto, not driven onto) and a set of jack stands.

Once the car was up in the air, the first thing I needed to inspect was the exhaust. Last fall when I bought the Trans Am, I needed to get it appraised for my insurance company. The place I brought it to is in the older part of Minneapolis and required me to drive into the building (garage) since there was no parking lot. As I drove up the concrete ramp, I heard a terrible scraping noise on the bottom of the car. I had bottomed out the exhaust on the sloped driveway (ramp). Of course, it did the same thing coming out. Anyway, after this incident, the exhaust system had an obvious leak in it.

Upon inspecting the exhaust, it turns out the pipe between the catylitic convertor and the muffler had some rust on the seem and split about 6 inches. I'm not sure if I caused the split, but either way the exhaust needs to be replaced. I don't know if this is the original exhaust system or not. I'm assuming it is, since the car was never driven in winter, but I guess 29 years out of the original exhaust system isn't bad!

Another task I had while the car was up in the air was finding and fixing a squeek. This squeek had been making noise since I bought the car and was kind of annoying. Every minor bump in the road would make it squeek, but it was more noticable outside the car than inside. After Dad and I "bounced" the car to simulate road conditions while driving, we found the squeek. The front right (passenger) side upper shock nut had loosened up and the squeek was coming from the rubber bushing rubbing on the shock tower! We tryed to tighten the shock the best we could and lubricated the bushing with silicone spray. The squeek went away and once I replace the shocks later this year, it will be solved for good!

The last project came later that day when it got a little darker out. Last year, I noticed one of the head lights was aimed a little high. After digging into the head light assembly, it turns out the headlight shifted in the assembly and was pointing too high! After removing the lamp. I found that it had a huge chip/hole in the glass and needed to be replaced anyway. It look a little work finding an older glass style headlamp at the gas station/repair shop, but the mechanic found one in the depths of the back storage room and $7 later, I had a new headlamp and it was aimed pointing down! While it was darker out I did a exterior lamp check and replaced one other burnt out marker light.

Now that I have some basic projects done (and speant 6 hours detailing it), the Trans Am is ready for it's (and mine) first car show! My next post should have the details!

Just Like Paul Bunyan!

As I mentioned in one of my previous posts, I had some outdoor projects to tackle this summer. The first one was cutting down a tree in our back yard. The victim is a giant willow tree. The tree was about 60% dead and just like the rest of the yard, had been neglected for years. I'm sure at one time this tree could have been very pretty, but our was not able to be brought back.

You can see in the picture above that there was quite a bit of dead wood in the interior of the tree. Last year we had a couple of tree service companies drive by the house and give us estimates to cut down and remove the tree. They came in at $850, $1200, and $1800! I wasn't about to pay that much to chop a tree down, but as much as I love using a chainsaw, cutting down trees, and chopping wood, I knew I needed some professional help on this tree so I didn't fall it on my house, fence, of my neighbor's shed! I started asking around at the fire station and it turns out one of the guys used to work his summers in college doing tree work! He had all his own gear and would help me cut it down for $25 an hour, cash! Not a bad deal!

We started at 0800 on a Sunday morning and I also recruited a couple of my friends to help. My two friends and I would haul and cut all the wood once Ed, the tree guy from the fire department dropped them.

After about 2 hours of work we were dropping the last main branch of the tree!

While we were cutting down the tree, we were stacking all the wood in three piles, one for brush, one for branches, and one for logs. We figured this would make the most sense for when we had to get rid of everything. I borrowed a tandem axle hydraulic dump trailer from a guy at work who lives down the street from me. We were originally going to use it and bring all the wood to a guy Ed knows who would chip it and burn it for heat next winter, but the guy I borrowed the trailer from wanted the branches and logs to burn in his house! This saved us two drips to the northern metro! We spent the next 6 hours hauling and dumping the wood scrap and at the end of the day we had a stump were a willow tree once stood!

So, for basically $200 and a hard days work, the willow tree was cut down, removed, and the yard cleaned up! Shannon and I are very happy with how that yard looks without it and I am very excited not to have to pick up all the branches it would drop every time the wind got about 5 mph! We are planning on having the stump (along with three others in the yard) ground down in the next couple weeks and plan on planting two or three silver maples to replace the willow! One outdoor summer project done....about five or so to go!

The Trans Am Hits the Road!

Mileage: 87,506

As you can imagine, with the nicer weather, I was VERY excited to get the Trans Am on the road again. Last year, after I bought it, I really only had a few weeks when the weather was nice enough to drive it, so I was really in need of some more time behind the wheel! After the county swept the gravel off of the two major country roads by my house, I figured it would be a good time to drive it to work. The nice thing about driving it to work is that I can park in the underground garage! The Trans Am ran great, it really made me love this car even more, just being behind the wheel.

Maeve loves the Trans Am, she calls it the "chick-a" which I'm assuming is short for Screaming Chicken, which she thinks is HILARIOUS when I call the car an animal name. Anyway, since I got the cover off, she keeps walking up to the door and trying to open the door handle, saying "In" or "Up" and I realized she must have wanted to go for a ride as much as I did!!!! So, I yanked the car seat out of the Suburban, and after about 15 minutes of messing around, I got it in the back seat of the Trans Am. So, my wife, daughter, Mom, and I took a small little road trip to see my brother about 15 miles from my house. The weather was perfect and Maeve loved being able to see up while we were driving! Seeing Maeve's face as she smiled the ENTIRE way, really made my day!