I can’t believe it’s been over two years since that fateful day: March 32, 2022 — launch day for the humble auto website you’re reading right now. The Autopian. Lots has changed since then, lots has stayed the same, and lots is currently in flux. One thing that will forever remain is our site’s desire to get feedback from you, dear readers. You are what make this site work. You motivate us every morning to crank out the most Double-E articles (Entertaining, Enlightening/Educational) we can think of, and we are forever grateful. Anyway, let’s chat!
It’s been far too long since we’ve done one of these “Let’s Talk” articles with you wonderful readers, so we’ll try to do them more frequently moving forward. If you want to tell us what you’ve enjoyed about our site, what you loath about it, what you’d like to see improved, or if you just want to hang out and learn more about us authors or tell us more about yourselves, please head into the comments and bang on those keyboards.
Jason is in the hospital trying to figure out what’s going on with his recurring fevers, Matt and I are recovering from a huge week at Pebble Beach and Willow Springs Raceway (where Matt worked with our video guy Chris to organize the most epic shoot involving the 2004 Ford Shelby Cobra Concept (Codename: Daisy), a Dodge Viper, a C6 Corvette ZO6, and an original Shelby), and Mercedes is gearing up for her first international trip ever! Thomas is hopefully… you know what, lemme just ask Thomas. He always has cool stuff going on, often involving the ultimate duo: Good Food And Good Cars. From Thomas:
Oh gosh, my weekend plans involve writing some road tests, going for milkshakes at one of Toronto’s oldest ice cream shops, catching the Italian Grand Prix, figuring out what pieces I want to enter for the annual AJAC journalism awards, and possibly driving an original Series 1 Lotus Elise.
What do you have going on this weekend? What feedback would you like to give us? Let’s talk!
I keep seeing Reader’s Rides every so often and supposedly there were email surveys sent out to members for consideration in this feature. It’s a little self-serving to be asking this but I’ve never received any such survey in the two years I’ve been a member. I’m not sure I qualify anymore considering the most recent one was a guy with like 3 911’s or something, but it’s nice to be asked.
I don’t think I saw one either. Not that my collection is big dollar, but it’d easily qualify for the “eclectic” class if that was up for consideration.
Eclectic is 100% up for consideration! I have a couple in the works that are definitely in that category. Are you in the discord? Feel free to find me there if so, if not let me know and we can still get in touch to talk about a write up!
Looks like you must have joined when we weren’t doing them, so I don’t have a survey from you but would still love to get you on the list!
What do you mean you don’t qualify? It’s not a competition!
I love 911s, but tell me about your Saturn SL1!
I’ll do a new one next month! We are slowly catching up.
I thought I had missed out too but ultimately I was interviewed and it was published. I enjoyed the opportunity and I hope more members will have it too. And my collection anything but high dollar; eclectic, maybe.
Are you in the discord? If so feel free to hit me up there, I preceded the 3 911s by a Prius and an old van, so my main objective with the Members’ Rides posts is variety. Sorry we haven’t gotten to you, but I would love to work with you on a write up!
If you’re not in the discord, still let me know and we will get in touch to start talking through a write up. Sorry we haven’t gotten to you yet!
I am not unfortunately, I cheat enough time here while at work as it is! 😀
Haha no worries, I found your survey from when you first joined and will be reaching out soon. Gotta hear how a Yugo and a couple firebirds ended up in the same garage!
Just emailed you, if you don’t see it, check spam as apparently my messages often end up there for some reason.
Leaving work soon to go camping before school starts for the kid.
hopefully I get to go to Unleash the Archers and King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard concerts next week.
Everyone have a great weekend!
Oh man King Gizz. I want to see them soooo bad.
Feels like I want to know more about the Aztek. Maybe I haven’t been paying attention. Maybe I just have an unhealthy fascination with a weird Pontiac.
I should do house work. BUT, I’m also in Canada and that means we’re screaming towards the dreaded “winterizing the Miata” time. So I’ll have to get the car out and drive this weekend instead.
I sadly got brake cleaner on the tailgate plastic trim and it CHEWED through that and whitened it. D’oh!
So it’s an Aztek doing old Aztek things now
Don’t know if Nick told you, but we tried to grab that missing back door trim triangle from US Auto last week and broke every clip off it trying to get it off the car. That’s going to be a hard piece to rescue unless you glue it on.
Time to break out the satin trim paint!
My favorite farm show. Steam tractors. Steam trains! Non-steam tractors. Non-steam trains! Old West shootouts. Old cars! Farm things. All sorts of stuff!
Looking forward to it!
While it’s all good stuff of course, a special thanks for Aedan’s pieces on NASCAR. The motorsports stuff may not be as popular here as say debating EVs, but I really get a kick of them – the knowledge he imparts makes me look forward to the weekend’s racing all the more!
He has done a great job making me somewhat more interested in go fast go left. One of my best friends loves Nascar, so its cool to see a little behind the curtain and discuss that stuff with my buddy.
I’m here for this
I have surprisingly few plans for the weekend- Visiting the in laws on Monday, dropping the mustang off for balljoints sunday (Dont judge me- I hung a new exhaust, replaced the steering rack bushings, front brakes, struts, and swaybar endlinks last week. I just dont have it in me now!), and cleaning up the CT. Kind of nice to enjoy a long weekend with few plans! and T-3 weeks until we leave on our roadtrip to Grand Teton, so prepping for that! Gotta make some jerky.
For the site, my only few thoughts- can there be some sort of ‘officialish’ meets next year around the country? Im sure autopian car shows would be a grand ol time! and I do enjoy the ‘guess what part these cars share’. More of that please!
I feel that. I used to do everything myself, but man I am burnt out on repairs right now. I hope to get back to it eventually, but I have been paying for too much lately because I just don’t have the motivation right now.
I can’t believe I’m back in the stupid hospital. I’m here because I had a high fever for the past 4 or so nights and because one of my grafts was infected and had to be operated on back in May, they take fevers very, very seriously. The good news is my main graft is fine! if it was infected, that’d be as they say, “catastrophic.” But it’s not! Still, they seem determined to find out what’s causing these fevers and I guess that’s wise but honestly I just want to get out of here. Uggggggggggggg. anyway, I hope everyone else’s long weekend is way better.
Best of Luck Jason. Keep up the fight!
Hospital stays are the worst. Good luck staying sane.
Hope you feel better and get out of there to at least enjoy some of the Labor Day long weekend.
Best of luck Torch! Sounds like a mixed bag of news, but you’ll get ‘er squared away! If they have to operate, ask for custom taillights.
Hope you get over this soon Jason!
Get better soon, Jason!
Best of luck. Maybe try going to the smart hospital next time.
Is that the place Mercedes takes her cars when they get sick?
Get better Jason! I hope it’s just something minor and they get it figured out.
>:( You are legally forbidden from dying under Parsh Law, section 4.2, subheading Beetle. It’s the law. (Parsh law.)
Did they give you a punch-card yet? How many more visits until the next one is free?
What a way to spend the long weekend! (._. ) Hope they can finally get this figured out for you.
Stay strong Jason! Chin up, pants down, and all that good stuff.
“We can rebuild him. We have the technology.”
Think of it this way, you’ll have plenty of free time to “Rev your Onan”.
Feel better!
Get well soon Jason!
I hope the nurses find you a good bed neat a window with a good viea. Being otherwise healthy during a hospital stay is objectively a good thing, but makes it a lot easier to be bored, right?
Glad they got to it before something bad happened. You might say Uggggggggggggggg, but this is good that they took care of it. Look, you’re under warranty. let the maintenance happen.
Oh crap, it’s a holiday weekend! That snuck up. I still have so many plans for this summer…
This weekend will be focused on trying to talk myself out of buying a ’74 Superbeetle that’s been sitting on display for a month or so.
Eh, go for it! 😉 The idea of a purely analog vehicle like that gets more and more entrancing to me every year.
True! It’s an affordable listing but I keep getting mixed signals from the spousal unit. It would be nice to have something I can actually work on.
I’m hoping my local bike shop will have my Sturmey-Archer 2 Speed Coaster brake Kickback hub installed on my old wheel so I can take my bike in to have it installed as well as a Topeak rear rack.
I used to collect the 3-speed bikes! I’m still not sure I understand how those hubs work; are they planetary gearsets?
To my non-engineer eyes the 2 speed appears to be a very simple one but yes. Posted a teardown pic and parts diagram image in the Planes-Trains-Bikes section of the Discord that I found via a Google image search.
Kickback hubs have always interested me (and retrodirect), but I never tried one. I have a SA 3-speed coaster and what I heard about them feeling draggy was accurate. Tried lighter weight lubrication, but didn’t help much. Of course, the bike it’s on is also pretty heavy and draggy, so I’m not quite sure how much of that is actually the hub.
The bike I’ll be having the 2 speed coaster brake kickback hub installed on currently has a Shimano cb-e110 single speed coaster brake hub. Once the new one is installed I’ll do my best to compare it to the previous coaster brake hub. However I am increasing my rear cog size to 24 tooth for a lower first gear, so pedaling force will be harder to compare, though brake feel and effectiveness should be close enough to compare.
I’ll report back in the discord and possibly in this thread as a reply to you if I remember.
Cool. My 1912 race bike has a single speed coaster and doesn’t have that drag feeling, but it’s a race bike, not a ’64 middleweight with some extra weight on it from the custom stuff. Geometry isn’t massively different, but the weight is (20+ pound difference). I had ridden another 3 speed SA years ago, but I was a kid and don’t remember what it was like.
Way, way back I took a bicycle repair training class. The final was to re-assemble a 3-speed kickback hub that was in pieces. I actually think it was a 5-speed, but decades ago memories are faint.
Keep up the good work!
Chilling out at home this weekend doing some house projects. On PTO all next week.
NEXT week/weekend, because I am not insane enough to do it on a holiday weekend, driving from my place in Florida to my place in Maine for a few weeks, coming back the first of October. Friend of mine is flying in from Seattle to do the roadtrip with me, stopping to see another mutual friend in NC and doing the Smithsonian thing in DC along the way.
Love a good east coast road trip! What’ll you be driving up?
My ’14 MB E350 wagon. “Der PanzerWagen”
Loaded to the gunnels both ways. Building a new house in FL, so I have stuff to take up to Maine and a ton of stuff to start moving to FL that I will now have room for down here. I HATE this drive, so only do it when I have crap to haul, otherwise I fly.
Plus since the wagon will be in Maine where I have a lift, it’s getting it’s transmission fluid changed while I am there. Can’t wait to get doused in German Unicorn Tears doing that messy business..
Outstanding choice! Those S212s are marvellous highway warriors.
S212 in this case, but they truly are superb automobiles. Though I don’t love it the way I love my BMWs, it is a lovely way to do the miserable drive up and down the coast. They just do everything well.
That sounds like a great trip!
Fingers-crossed it goes smoothly! So far so good, I’ve done it about every other year since I bought my place in FL eight years ago, and twice last year (ugh).
I’ll be road tripping Boston to Bar Harbor about the time you leave to go back to Fl. Looking forward to it – I’ve never been to New England.
Great time of year to go! Hopefully a good season for leaf peeping, and the color should be good DownEast by then. I actually went to undergrad further up the coast in Machias, ME. Bar Harbor is awesome, make sure you go up Cadillac Mountain.
I have a photo of my Fit’s computer reading 999.9 mpg coming down from Cadillac. All of Acadia National Park is wonderful. I believe you need reservations now.
Bar Harbor and points south to Ogunquit are just amazing. Be sure to drive up and down each peninsula instead of just taking Rt. 1. Boothbay Harbor, Brooklin, Port Clyde, just so many small towns and gorgeous nature. I think Maine is my favorite state and I’ve been to 42 of them…except for that winter thing.
Oh, and Portsmouth, New Hampshire is one of my favorite towns, just below Maine’s southern border.
Thanks for the tips!
You’re welcome…enjoy!
We’ll be on the road at the same time to the Carolinas, but primarily to drive the Skyline Drive and Blue Ridge Parkway the whole way back to Tampa.
Excellent choice! My wife and I drove about 80 miles of Skyline Drive a year ago when we rented a cabin in Luray, VA. You can’t go too fast, but the scenery is incredible. I didn’t want to go back home to NJ.
Thanks for your post. We’re getting excited! The hurricane forecasts look good for our trip too.
I am building several free-standing flower boxes for my mother’s garden, watching a couple college football and WNBA games, reading Keanu Reeves new novel (who knew?), and hanging out at home with the macaw. Mostly I’m avoiding driving anywhere.
Finishing up building the dual 2.25″ exhaust on my ’65 Falcon. The 289 just didn’t sound right barking through a 2″ single after I finally got it running.
Oh, and getting a haircut.
Clamping it all together or welding?
Welding. Got a generic dual Summit kit for a ’65 Mustang, an X-pipe, some flex joints, and some stainless tips. *Most* of it is together loosely and then I’ll pull it down and weld it solid. More fab work than I planned for.
Like a boss.
most haircuts only require a scissors, or, at most, a brazing torch
Yeah, if you’re a novice.
No chainsaw?
Glad you haven’t lost your sense of humor, in the hospital, Torch. Hope you are out and feeling better, soon.
I’ll be doing some maintenace on my truck and getting stuff together for a road trip planned in a couple of weeks. hopefully some bike riding too, but the weather may not cooperate on that. Other than that and the weekly house/lawn maintenance, probalby not much, gardens mostly done for the year, major summer projects are over, kinda my first weekend to relax in a while.
The site’s great, It’s probalby been mentioned (and explained), but I still wish we could post pictures.
What’s the truck?
This is my new(er) gladiator, so it’s my “nice” vehicle, but not reallyl the most interesting one. Still needs an oil change and a few other things prior to the 3000 miles trip though.
Respect.
Eh the other options were 95 mustang with no ac or a 92 yj with a wobbly ball joint . So the jt is practically a series 300 land cruiser by comparison
Love everything but please stop locking the “what are you wrenching on” articles behind the paywall.
I’m fine with not hearing Jason’s new trick to identify a headlight. Or the trick to save some car insurance. Hell even a review about something newish is fine to lock up.
But the wrenching threads? Come on. We all have projects and more importantly advice for others and their projects.
So keep doing what you’re doing, just stop locking up the wrenching threads behind the pay wall please.
I mean, there is another solution for that…
But I want projects…. I like to wrench… 😉
There’s another commenter here with the handle “cheap bastard” but I’m thinking it might be more accurate for someone else…
Just closed on a house today. Ive spent enough recently.
Congratulations!
Here’s a preview of our Labor Day sale, $20 off! https://autopian.memberful.com/checkout?plan=97472&coupon=hardlabor
Taking the kids to a baseball game, mowing the lawn, trying to deal with my second yellow jacket nest in as many weeks (this one devilishly awkward to get at), grilling, maybe even taking some end of summer drives to nowhere.
I went to a Dodgers-Orioles game (it was Filipino Heritage Night, and my partner is half-Filipino) last night. Shohei Ohtani went 0 for 5, but we still won. It was awesome.
Which game are you going to?
My work was supposed to have an event at the local minor league game, but ended up just giving away the tickets informally.
I no longer live near my favorite MLB team, so the minor league games with kids’ activities and cheaper tickets are the best anyways.
My favorite baseball games I ever went to: Toledo Mud Hens games. Minor League ftw!
That was the name of my son’s little league team LOL
Chiefs for my original stomping grounds.
Minor league baseball games are where it’s at. So much fun, and you’re not a mile away from everything like at a big park. Feels more like you’re a part of an event.
Yellowjackets are little bitches that need eradicated – i feel ya!
They found a crack about 1/4″ wide between the masonry of my garage and the metal panel of the eaves, which is of course facing back toward the house and right above the side garage door. So 10 feet above the ground, not a lot of room to get up there, and no way to easily get the poison inside. Ended up buying a long wand for my sprayer and professional grade insecticide and will try to get up there tonight.
Spray foam?
Lock them in
Lol, I did that to a ’54 Buick I had sitting outside and the bastards climbed in through a rust hole and built a nest under the rear seat. Had not idea how big it was a the time so I foamed the rust hole up. They all came out into the interior and died. Later on I pulled the seat out and the nest was the as big as a basketball. Glad I didn’t discover that by accident!
yeah, they will literally find the smallest gap in grout, masonry or caulking and get into the cinderblock. I remember just standing outside of it and spraying army-marksman style as they came out, dumping a giant pile of poison into the hole then sealing them in Cask of Amontillado style last time I had to deal with them
Had the same problem when I lived in the Southwest. They’d suck water from my pool to build their nests. Found one nest in our roof plumbing air vent. That was a fun afternoon trying to kill them. They ended up just setting up new housing at the neighbor’s house and still used my pool as a waterhole…They suck!
You get my vote for the Poe reference.
“trying to deal with my second yellow jacket nest in as many weeks (this one devilishly awkward to get at)”
Send in a drones:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=O08sy0fSkv8
And kill them with fire!
https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/drone-flamethrower-wasp-nest/
That video is awesome. I wonder how one would deodorize the drone to rid it of all the angry wasp pheromones.
I find industrial enzyme cleaner is amazing stuff.
Or better yet leave the pheromones where they are and let the wasps do their worst. Its not like they can hurt the drone and if they’re attacking the drone they’re getting chopped to pieces.
I have no plans other than I need to catch up on a lot of missed sleep. Last 3 weeks have been hell of a lot of hours put in at work. I’m owed a full week in PTO for the overtime on top of my regular PTO, but I currently don’t have the time to use it.
I’m sure looking forward to laying on the couch this long weekend and just slipping in and out of REM sleep 🙂
If it’s any help, I have a spare PTO in my 1954 Willys.
Bwahahaha!
I could prolly use it just to help me out of bed in the mornings lately 🙂
I’ll be driving down to OKC to pick up my daughter’s car (2013 Fiat 500) to bring home and sell. Last weekend, I went down to OKC to help her buy a 2017 Buick Regal that she loves very much.
So can I list the Fiat on here or what?
What color? How has that thing held up over those 11 years?
It’s a beautiful metallic red. We bought it in 2018 with just over 7k miles. In the intervening 6 years, she’s put about 70k on it, and it’s done really well! The interior still looks good, the paint still shines, and it still starts right up and zips around like it did when we bought it!
BTW, the car’s name is Francesca.
Dealing with an abscess, thinking about Johnny Hockey and his brother killed by an asshat drunk driver in NJ, figuring out which games besides the Buckeyes to watch this weekend and getting ready to clean out a fish tank. Also working on my bathroom and my ’78 Beetle Cab if the parts come in
What’s going on with your bathroom?
Finally retired, so starting to tackle some remodeling projects that I have put off after 30 years in page-me-at-2am-IT work
Will this remodeling involve a large sledgehammer or pry bar?
It might, rabbit, it might. Wanna save the terlet. but will be destroying the 1987-era scalloped sink/countertop
Its a small half-bath to prove to myself I can successfully do any home remodeling without completely borking it, before trying to move on to bigger projects.
A smart move.
I’m about to head to Pie ‘N Burger in Pasadena.
Cool to know some of the old Pasadena haunts are still there! Went to college down the street. But haven’t revisited Pasadena for at least a decade.
Haller if you do!
Sure thing!
Staring dejectedly at the Z4; going for a homemade pizza date at a friend’s house; my Monday plans are in jeopardy as another friend’s wife is sick and prolly blowing up the whole plan of “have people over.”
Like legit-homemade? Dough and all?
I think so! The guy likes to make pasta from scratch, so I’m expecting this to go all the way
Oh wow. Brick oven and all?
I’ll find out tomorrow and let you know! We’ve never visited their house before
I believe the sun will rise, stay up in the sky for a while, and then retreat, probably towards the west. Beyond that, we’re open.
BTW, thanks for a fantastic community!
I’m curious about these recurring fevers for Jason. A few years back, I blew through my HSA deductible right at the end of the year with recurring fevers that the doctors couldn’t explain. I had to diagnose myself with Tick Borne Relapsing Fever which was confirmed after tests and was quickly solved with antibiotics. Hopefully they figure out what’s going on with Jason soon.
The family is going to go to my dad’s favorite pizza place. I asked my dad how many times he’s been there and it turns out he’s never been there, he just saw something about it on television.
Hope it lives up to his expectations…
Just traded my gorgeous 2024 4xe Wrangler in on a 2010 Kia Soul, bit of a sad day, but hey, it’s a stick!
I don’t know if you saved a headache or not, but at least the Soul won’t be as bad if it does ever break.
Plus, discs and pads are cheap!
Much cheaper at that!
Why the change? (btw I’m all for it; stickshift baby!)
Jeep was a lease, so luckily I was able to hop right back out without too much of a dent. Father in law got diagnosed with stage 4 cancer, and with no real retirement, savings, or pension, my mother in law is going to have some trouble affording her mortgage by herself. They haven’t asked for any help, but that 600 a month Jeep payment needs to go bye-bye so I can help if needed.
But yeah, I honestly don’t know why everyone dogs these things, for a $2000 econobox, it’s delightful! Have you ever driven a stickshift soul? The gearing is fantastic.
One of the last 3-pedal Souls was on my shortlist just before the pandemic, I ended up with a stick Honda Fit.
How’s the insurance on it?
My premium actually dropped about 30 a month from having the Jeep on it.
I’d love to drive one someday!
A Wrangler 4xe seems like a reasonable exchange for a Soul. They’re usually pretty tricky and expensive to get back.
I was offered a fiddle made of gold for my soul.
I had to decline as my job has destroyed my soul.
I will most likely continue to re-work my way through Airwolf episodes on blu-ray until I hit season 4.
Outstanding
This weekend should be a comedy of errors. My parents are taking out their new camper for the weekend, which means I’m going to get to laugh at how many things can break in a weekend.
Then I get to fly to Seattle to test a new camper that many of you were excited about some time ago. I’ll just say it’s big and orange!
Your family this weekend.
I once thought about getting out of Off-roading as a hobby, so i could stop spending money on things that break constantly.
Looks like camping isn’t the move for me lol!
LOL! In theory, you could have a better time with a little fiberglass camper, but any typical unit is like a boat. It seems like my parents are busting out at least a thousand bucks just to take their darned units on a short trip.
I’ve yet to delve into true luxury. I’ve had a Smittybilt rooftop tent that I’ve used for about a decade. That tent and a bed full of firewood and a couple coolers has given me a lot of good times for basically free!
It’d be a lateral move, thought with less adrenaline.
Campers are almost as bad as boats. With far worse build quality on new ones.
My folks got into camping when I was in high school, I successfully avoided ever going with them. But the one time I drove their first one, a diesel GM pickup with a huge slide-in, the Old Man was directing me parking it and had me back right into a post at the end of the driveway – ripped the poo tank out of the thing. 25 gallons of you-know-what all over the driveway. And he could not say a WORD. It was epic! That lead to a series of Suburbans with ever bigger trailers behind them for about 15 years. I still have a soft spot for Suburbans.