Wednesday, December 23, 2009

Go figure.

3 months ago Battlecruiser passed inspection.  I never got it registered, I needed to drop the insurance on it and park it for the winter.  So, todayBC I brought it out to get inspected.  With old cars, there’s always the anticipation of it being rejected, for a number of reasons, and even though it passed only 3 months ago, and hasn’t been used since then, I was a little anxious.  So when I saw the REJECTED stamp on my paperwork, I was running through my mind the things that could go wrong while just sitting, and guesstimating how much it was going to cost.

Imagine my surprise when it failed because the wiper-washers weren’t working.  As a matter of fact, most of the system was removed by the previous owner in order to install a second, backup battery.  It’s not something someone would steal out of the car.

So, tell me why, two years in a row it can pass inspection without any wiper-washers, and then  all of a sudden this time they notice?  Guess it all depends on who is doing the inspection, and what kind of day they are having.

I brought the car home, jumped in the Subaru and went down to Pep Boys to see if they had the stuff to fix it.  I knew pretty much nobody would have original equipment parts for that system, so I just wanted to get a universal, after-market system.  The guy at the counter looked at me like I was growing a 3rd arm out the top of my head.  I had to explain the whole situation to him before he figured out enough to send me to someone who actually knew cars*.  This is how I discoveredcarquest CarQuest down on 3rd East and about 22nd South.  I walked in there, looked around and immediately felt like these guys knew what they were selling.  I asked one of the guys on the counter about and after-market wiper-washer system and he said “Jes a sec.”, wandered off and came back 5 minutes later with exactly what I needed, short one piece.  I found a vacuum hose T which looked like what I needed and asked him if it would work with the washer system.  Instead of “dunno”, he said that it sure would, since the systems are basically the same.  $55 later I have just what I need to get the car to pass inspection, just need daylight back so I can see what I’m doing when I install it.

sartin

 

 

*My brothers and I have often discussed how to work in a car parts store these days all you need to know is how to read a computer terminal.  The days of “Well, I got the part for a 1971, but if ya just drill an extra hole in it it’ll work for a ‘68” are long gone.

3 comments:

A Paperback Writer said...

It's always so refreshing to find someone who knows what they're doing.
However, it was nice that the one clerk was able to admit ignorance. That is a good quality as well.

Pedro said...

Don't you love when you ask a question at one of the parts stores and the guy gets the scematic out and wants you to point to what you want so he can look up the part number. I long for the good old days when you asked for a part and the guy gave you the history, how many models it applied to and what you could substitute for it if you needed.

Max Sartin said...

That's why I immediately fell in love with CarQuest. It just reeked of that kind of knowledge. I could be wrong, but I don't think so.