My car was hit in the rear passenger side. I’m picking it up tomorrow from the body shop. What sorts of things should I look for to see if the repair has been done correctly?
check and see if you can tell where the new and the old paint meet up ,also look for high spots in the body work or low spots,look for any over spray that might have gotten on trim or anything,if you can get a side view of it,make sure,there’s no sanding marks showing up in the paint,if you don’t see none of this you should have a pretty good job done on it,look at it real good in the outside light also fluorescent lights will change the way things look,good luck on it i hope it turns out ok.
Archive for September, 2009
I have no experience as a mechanic, but I always wanted to learn car repair as a hobby, like replacing engine blocks, restoration, complex things.
The thing is, I am pretty bad at math. Do you need a lot of advanced math for working on cars?
I have done high school and intro college math.
Simple math is all you really need. Physics is a small plus. Understanding how a system has a lot to do with simple physics.
In your opinion, which companies can you trust when it comes to common automotive replacement parts like engine oil, oil filters, air filters, spark plugs, etc.?
Do you recommend a specific company when it comes to replacing a specific part? For example, K&N for the best air filters, Mobil 1 for the best engine oil, etc.
I forgot to add this:
Are there any companies one should avoid?
for oil: Valvoline, Castrol, Mobil
oil filters, Wix, Purolator, Baldwin, (Napa, motorcraft, ac delco are reboxed and made by wix and purolator)
air filters: Wix, Purolator, K&N
spark plugs.. NGK, AC Delco, Motorcraft, Champions for dodge and jeeps only, denso’s are ok, but NGK’s are better.
best air filter for performane, K&N.. Airraid is very good too, and costs less.
best oil.. all a matter of opinion. mobil 1 is good, factory fill for a lot of cars. I prefer Valvoline Synpower though.
ALWAYS AVOID FRAM! Avoid pennzoil and quaker state.
any cheapo filter is probably a fram.
why? fram oil filters have a cardboard backing plate that breaks off under higher pressure, and it never fails to break off, the filter then becomes an obstruction and the pump has to work harder to push oil through it. during this time, can take 30 seconds to 20 minutes, the valves will click and clack.
when they stop, the oil is finally pushing past the filter.
fram is just low quality. their air filters are ok, but if their oil filters have shortcuts in them, why waste time with them as a company for?
on the Ford trucks that use the cone style filter, there’s a plastic nose cone that’s glued to the tip, well I’ve seen that break off and plug the air filter hole. Go fram!
Oh.. there is NO GOOD FRAM FILTER. If you must use fram, at least use the tough guard, it’s made differently and isn’t jacked up like the others.
pennzoil and quaker state used to put parrafin (a form of wax) in their oils. you can see damage that wax can do if you tear an engine down.
Nice huh? but today, I simply don’t want to waste time buying an oil that took a shortcut.
Valvoline for life!
I commute using mass transit in the NYC area and was wondering in all the terror attacks on mass transit across the world what are the most popular cars in a train to get attacked? The first? The last car? All the cars at the same-time? Answers from professionals are welcome
An attacker will typically choose the most crowded cars. However – they frequently will go with the flow of the crowd when entering cars to plant the bomb because their main priority will be to avoid being noticed.
The really sad thing is that the NYPD screwed up the investigation and tipped off the suspects while we were still gathering information. As a result – terrorists are going to have to be released because they were able to destroy evidence before the search warrants were processed.