One of the saddest things is seeing a car rotting away. Road salt and sometimes neglect turns what were once awesome rides into rust buckets with an uncertain future. But what do you do? How do you deal with a vehicle that might be too far gone?
This morning, Lewin published an article about a rare International Scout II that is rusted out beyond belief. This thing is so crusty that the vehicle’s manufacturing plate will probably fall off in a couple of years. It’s in such a bad shape that there isn’t a single panel that’s okay.
What do you do about it? It’s sad, but TheDrunkenWrench is correct:
Restoration is easy.
Spin off and lift the oil cap, back out the rusted-out Scout, then slide a better scout underneath, re-install oil cap.
I mean, a real restoration would essentially involve replacing basically everything, anyway. Would it even be the same International anymore by that point?
This morning, Matt wrote about why GM laying off over 1,000 software engineers is another bad sign for the so-called legacy automakers. Citrus makes a good point about infotainment systems:
The thing with automotive software is that at the end of the day you’re only going to notice it if it’s bad. That’s why Carplay and Android Auto are generally all people want – it’s good enough and basically seamless, and nobody actually adjusts anything that requires going into a sub menu more than once.
David Tracy wrote about how the BMW M5 has a lower grille opening so large you could place a couple of sizable hats in it. I know we’ve asked this before, but what in the world is going on at BMW right now? V10omous says:
How is BMW so bad at making cars that are both functional and reasonably decent looking? I’m not even asking for gorgeous; I know compromises need to be made for the sake of performance.
Put another way, why is Cadillac able to make a sedan with similar power without looking so weird?
Rivers wrote a piece about a report that the Ford Mustang is likely soon to get an off-road variant and a sedan. What should Ford call these? Mikan says:
They should really call the four-door a Falcon – even if it’s ‘Mustang Falcon’ – in a nod to the model’s roots.
Or even ‘Mustang Futura’ or ‘Mustang Sprint’…?
Brunsworks hits even harder:
If you’re gonna name it after a horse AND a bird, why not cut out the middleman and call it the Pegasus?
Have a great evening, everyone!
The Scout of Theseus
It may be an apocryphal story, but I read that during the Vietnam War, in order to make the losses look not so bad, if a helicopter crashed and at least one part was salvageable, they would rebuild a new helicopter around that one part. I have to admit, it wouldn’t surprise me if that was the truth or close to it.
I don’t quite understand the total love-in with Android or Apple Auto. I find the app buggy and inconsistent. Granted some of the blame lies in the vehicle’s underlying UI, but I get tired of the app’s inconsistencies and idiosyncrasies. I don’t like that I have to be tethered to the vehicle. When I stop for gas my loyalty “card” is on the phone, so I have to untether, interrupting the interaction with the car. Sorry, but the constant plugging/unplugging is a royal PITA. I’d rather have a dedicated interface free from the tyranny of having my phone be the constant narcissistic center of the universe.
A lot of them are becoming wireless these days for the experience.
I personally like that I can pre-plan a route, plug in to my car, and the route just pops up, ready to go.
I also like that my streaming service is ready to rock with my playlists at my fingertips.
Seeing as it’s a TSSA requirement for me to turn off my engine while refueling, I find unplugging my phone is irrelevant at these times since I’m outside the car, with the ignition off. So I fail to see how that breaks the experience.
My parents have used this method of restoration twice. First replacing the rusted out 1998 BMW e38 740iL with an 01 740iL. Then 14 years later replacing the 01 740iL with an 01 740i because the second one had rusted out beyond repair.
With the 01 740i, my mother has promised to stop driving it in the winter, and so far she has kept her promise.
Salt sucks.
I’m glad I was correct on the resto, cause I got it REALLY wrong in the tire argument under the cybertruck article!
Look! Up in the sky! It’s a black helicopter!
Dude, what happened to you?
Our boy went down the rabbit hole. Hopefully he will find that 100 mpg carb down there.