1st Gen. Lunch Table - General Discussion

This idea is to put this up there and lock the tonneau down for strength - and cut and hinge behind the rack or trim the tonneau to allow tailgate access only.

cutting and hinging the tonneau has all types of challenges. Trimming the tonneau, not so much - except for loading

 

I don't have to worry about the spare in its original location anymore. When I ran a cross bar between the shackle hangers, that was that.

 

There’s lots of room for activities down there when the spare is gone!

 

So much room!

 

Off subject, but recently sold my in laws BMW Z3. They were the original owners, so was thinking about posting it on bat. Asked her to bring any paperwork they had over and she rolls up with a huge stack of papers and multiple folders. They were the type that whatever was suggested by the shop, they got it done. Tens of thousands in receipts! Anyways, I was cleaning it up and wanted to take a picture of the tool kit and spare. I was looking all over the place for this thing. Gave it a Google, and sure enough these cars were not equipped with a spare! Somebody was asking about it on a forum, and the answer given was that no discerning BMW owner would be caught changing a flat.

 

MIL had a Z4, Moms got an X3. No spares, run flats are standard. My mom also has thousands in receipts. Can’t imagine owning a vehicle that needs that much $$$ repairs in less time than I’ve owned my FGT. They are not well sorted. Lots of electrical problems and oddly, the transfer case on the AWD systems is a major fail point for all of the BMW’s. Costs $6k for the part plus labor.

edit: and when I say thousands, I’m talking $12k plus in the last 6 years.

 

Haha! I believe it! Seemed like every trip was 1k or more. They could have easily traded in for a new one when out of warranty and been ahead. I was shocked by the all the forum responses, saying BMW owners were above changing flats. These assholes were not joking, dead serious. Would pay to see those guys squirm in the same room as a best gen owner.

 

Right?? I’m above being helpless, hopeless and clueless. If some other schmuck can do it, so can I. My reasons for doing most of my own work on vehicles and house is that:
1. I’m a cheap bastard
2. No one takes pride in their work anymore. Why pay someone to do a shitty job?
3. I like a good challenge. And my wife and all her friends think it’s amazing that I can do “anything”. I’m not a genius. A little research and a can do attitude goes a long way.
4. Each project I do that I don’t pay labor for buys me more cool tools. This may be my favorite reason.

 

When the zombie apocalypse comes, or the power grid fails, some of us will survive. Some won’t have a clue. Society has made us soft. It’s ok to be nice to your fellow meat bags, but I refuse to be that soft. Country boy can survive.

 

I still have some cred to earn on this stuff. A mom got a flat after dropping her kid at our school in her Hyundai. I failed to loosen even one lug nut with her wrench. I didn't have a breaker bar or impact driver at the time. She called a real man, shows up with a shop jack in his pickup and an impact wrench, swaps out front, moves rear to front, spare to rear, done in like 10 minutes tops, maybe 7. I felt so pathetic.

 

I keep a 4 way in the truck. Had to help a fellow Tundra owner in the sams parking lot one day with over-torqued lugs. 4 way is legit.

 

Same, keep a collapsible 4 way in the truck as well. That, and a chain in case I have trouble with a trailer tire

 

My gf's SHO doesn't have a spare. It's got an "emergency inflation kit". Part of the performance package.

 

My dad has a ‘01 Z3, it’s got a donut spare, I thought they all did? It drops down from under the car, kinda like the Tundra spare.
Pretty much any later model BMW after about ‘04-‘05 they did away with spares, which I would not be comfortable with, but their quality seems to have dropped off around then too so guess I won’t buy one ;-).
We’ve had solid service in our family from e36’s and e46’s, hundreds of thousands of miles with normal maintenance and few problems, even found them easy to work on.

 

I've seen the commercials for those pills. Not my cup of tea, but different strokes for different folks I guess.

 

It's a running joke for 4th gen owners. "Does my SHO have a PP?" "Pop the hood and look!"

 

Thats a good deal.

I sold off my dewalt 20v drill and impact for like $160 a couple months ago.


Problem is that I've now got $1600+ of Milwaukee stuff.

Nice, I just got one a couple weeks ago and its pretty awesome. Picked up the straight one earlier today.

Got a bunch of 2" & 3" flap discs for it, some carbide bits. So much easier than a corded grinder or bigger battery grinder for small areas. Especially since I have no air at home.

Dewalt has a 12v ratchet now iirc, if you don't want multiple chargers.

 

Ive got an assortment of the weird bmw jacks.
One of my favorite junkyard finds when i dont really need anything.

 

The newer (or late model) BMW folks are like this.
The e36ers are like us; Gnarled hands and surly temperament and everything.
E46ers can go either way.

 

Yeah I was looking at it yesterday. Still not sure it’s as good so I don’t know but I really don’t wanna have to swap over all my tools to another brand either

 

I have a 12v 3/8 driver. Bought by mistake thinking it was 20. Batteries charge fine, same as my 20’s. In case you want it. I’d probably rather have big meat, though it was quite helpful for assembling the 500 stainless fasteners I used in my play structure.

 

Ditto.

So true it hurts. I've bitched about this numerous times on here. Pisses me off to no end. Like, wtf happened?

And it's not even the millennials who started that shit, they seem to get all the heat from the older generations about being lazy and incompetent, but it's the dudes over 40 right now who seem to be most guilty of this shit. Same crowd who failed to teach the millennials they love to make fun of how to do anything. Failures all-around.

Ditto, yes, and yes! It kills me.

EDIT: Maybe it's just a lack of "can-do" attitude that's the common person's problem? Confidence is probably a prerequisite also. But When you have HOWTO videos on doing virtually anything and everything at your fingertips, there's no excuse other than, maybe, "lack of tools", IMO.

 

One good excuse, “can’t focus because my kids interrupt / distract me”

I only hire out very specific jobs with clear measurable deliverables. Or to very specific people I have infinite trust in. Everyone else I assume is not going to do the quality I want. I’ve had good luck with that plan. But the task list stacks up.

 

Lack of motivation and being raised to throw everything away. These fuckers can figure out their new smartphone, but can't figure out a light bulb. It's a motivation problem derivative of a lazy lifestyle.

 

Laziness is learned or inherited, a product of lazy, shitty parenting IMHO.

You glanced on a fundamental piece of the problem, I think. The last couple of younger generations grew up in a digital world, with a digital focus, they were never forced to touch analog stuff. I think a number of us here spent at least part of our life at a time when almost everything was analog.

- Analog phone.
- Analog radio.
- Analog TV (UHV and VHF knobs, guess who got to be the "remote control?")
- Analog toys.

Being a teenager in the 80s/90s was probably the perfect sweetspot .... coming of-age during the major transition from analog-everything to digital-everything. Those who did experienced both sides of the coin: You knew all the analog shit that came before and how it worked, plus you slowly ingested the digital as it evolved and rolled out.

Folks age 60ish & up right now got stuck at the analog end of the spectrum, many missed the digital boat.
Folks age 30ish & down right now got stuck at the digital end of the spectrum, many missed the analog boat.

I can't help but think this is a major factor. I can't agree with you more on the "being raised to throw everything away", also, but can't help but think that again is a parenting failure from the 'boomer' generation.

I fail to understand what he hell happened with work ethic from the older tradespeople. It's illogical to me that I can't find someone who specializes in a trade who'll do better work than I can do myself.

 

I'd just add: I look at guys like @Tundra2 and it gives me hope yet for the future.

The fact that there are people in his generation with a passion for getting down and dirty with analog stuff, willing to dig in, not afraid to learn, it's promising!

 

My wife is always asking me where I learn to do things. there are no excuses for people who refuse to learn anymore. I'd say 90% of my useful skills came from research.

 

I dunno why this garbage popped in my head while reading your comment, but it did.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8bhYMnHb5JY

 

One thing to remember is that the generation before you complained about your generation, and the generation before that, and before that. Change will never stop. Just because things are different doesn't mean its always bad. People who refuse to embrace change will always be left behind. You make good points but leaning into changes has always helped me.

Some things are intolerable, but I try to lean into things.

 

Good point. I'll say, you may be unusual in that regard RE: change. My path in life has led me to believe humans, as a species, love change about as much as housecats typically love water. Most hate it and will do anything they can to avoid large concentrations of it. There's always an exception, but they seem few and far between.

I personally love puzzles and challenges. I don't think that's necessarily normal for humans, either. But it's fundamentally how and why I've learned to do all the stuff I have over the years. Then again, growing up in a poor family that slowly worked up to the middle class while I was still a kid contributed to that a lot also.