Tuesday, September 08, 2009

Ghettolicious Shade Tree Mechanic

So the Kia's radiator started leaking a couple of weeks ago... and as such things do, it got progressively worse. Radiator Stop Leak didn't work at all, and the Kia is blessed with one of those crappy radiators with the plastic tanks crimped on with tiny aluminum tabs making a repair was out of the question, so I began to look around for a new one. New radiators start at around $190... yeah right! That's about half the value of the car! (well almost... it got smacked in the rear two Decembers back and still sports a mismatched back hatch - green on black - wifey calls it her "accent door").

So with reluctance, I started shopping junkyards and found one from a Kia a year older for 85 bucks - a little more doable. Still, I'm broke, so I needed to come up with the cash. Our shed was piled high with trash bags full of cans that I'd been putting off turning in - I guess now was the time. I had so many I scored a hundred bucks - woohoo! Free radiator!

I picked up the radiator today and it looked worse than the one in my car - it also happened to be out of an automatic, so there were a couple of extra lines hanging off the back.

We got home and put the Kia up on ramps and let it sit for a couple of hours to cool off, then did the switch. While we were in there I replaced the alternator belt which looked a little tore up. My Little Princess was only too happy to help. She grabbed one of daddy's old T-shirts and dug right in. This is a shot of her putting the skid plate back on...


So why ghettolicious? Well, not only did I replace the radiator myself, I bought a used one from a junkyard, and I paid for it with funds gained from turning in beer cans... Ahhh yeah...

Let's hope it holds...

6 comments:

Arnold said...

Were you collecting cans for homeless disabled veterans? Just checking cause that would be way to much of a coincidence!

fuzzbert_1999@yahoo.com said...

Nothing like having a daughter that's not afraid to get her hands dirty. Congrats!

Kevin said...

Yep! She shows more interest in this stuff than her brother, that's for sure...

Larry said...

Excellent- particularly the father-daughter time. I've been reading John Taylor Gatto lately, and finding a lot of my own opinions reflected there about the dumbing down of kids, the hazards of age segregation leaving kids with no examples of what it means to act like an adult, etc. Plus kids typically find adult responsibilities, hands-on real life experiences to be fascinating, fun, and worthwhile.

It matters, and they know in their bones the difference between things that matter and most of the bland and nutritionless intellectual mush they are spoon-fed while swaddled in cotton at warehouse schools.

Kevin said...

Arnold, check out my interview on Channel 3...
Larry, I treasure moments like that with my kids... I only wish there were more. BTW, welcome to the blogroll...

Larry said...

Thanks Kevin. I've been checkling in on you from time to time for a while. Good to see normal people out there, especially people who can appreciate this country with fresh perspectives from whence they came.