Child Safety Seats

" > wrote in message
...
> On Feb 26, 8:02 am, "dwight" > wrote:
>
>> > You had an '84 5.0? I never knew that, or least remembered that.
>>
>> The 84 was a bad mistake in saw-it-on-the-lot-had-to-have-it. I don't
>> know
>> why I bought it, other than the timing was right, financially. It was
>> used
>> (abused, apparently) and an automatic, gun-metal grey on the outside, but
>> I
>> had been out of Mustangs for a couple of years, so I bought it.
>
> How old was it when you bought it?

You ask a lot of questions. Okay, here we go... I believe I bought it in
1988, sold it in '91.

>> As I recall,
>> the '84 had all of 175 HP (or a whole 30 less than the '93), but it could
>> move.
>
> GT or LX?

It was a sad precursor to TFrog - same LX hatchback, but an automatic. (See,
I STILL don't know why I bought it.)

>>One thing I'll never forget is the plastic cross-hatch grille, which
>> was always a BITCH to clean. This is also the car that reinforced the
>> notion
>> that I should have a mechanic check out a used car before I buy. Of
>> course,
>> it's also the car that made me swear NEVER to buy another used Mustang.
>> (Sorry, CFrog - you were an exception.)
>
> The CFrog was a low mileage car, right? How did you find it -- friend,
> classified, spotted a for sale sign while driving by?

It's hinted at on the website: www.tfrog.com/cfrog. I did look at quite a
few 5.0 convertibles, after selling off the Princessmobile. The ones in good
shape were asking too much, the ones asking not too much were not in good
shape. I found it online (autotrader.com, or one of those), and the seller
was in New Jersey, just across the river. We met in Philadelphia (neutral
ground) so I could see the car, and I pretty much bought it on the spot.
Funny how you don't notice things, until you actually own the car... As I
was driving it home from Jersey, I saw that the windshield was finely
pitted, as if someone enjoyed tailgating dump trucks. There was a spot on
the hood that looked like it was repainted - poorly. And a slight
indentation right at the "5.0" on the left fender made me think the car had
been smacked at some point. Still, it's been pretty good for the last 7
years. And I just did finally have the windshield replaced with brand-new
glass. Oh, and I hit a deer, which made an even BIGGER indentation right at
that same "5.0" badge. CFrog had slightly less than 75,000 on the clock when
I bought it, and just recently topped 150,000.

>> I had one relatively good year with it. The 2nd year, the entire cooling
>> system had to be replaced - radiator and hoses. The 3rd year, the
>> electronics started going haywire,
>
> Those are odd things to wear out from being abused. (Typically it's
> transmission, brakes or engine problems.) Unless the previous owner
> was a "modifier", and in this case a bad one.

The car was cursed. It's possible that the previous owner did NO maintenance
on the thing at all (like, oh, flushing the radiator) and I ended up paying
the tab.

>> I got three speeding tickets in the span
>> of 12 months (which put me in PA's Assigned Risk pool = $$$),
>
> My older brother once received three tickets in one evening -- in only
> about 4 hours time. He had a "hotted up" '72 Chevelle and had just
> installed some new wheels and tires, and the local authorities,
> apparently, found it to be irresistible. The first ticket was for 15
> over. The second 10 over. He then came home to inform my mom and
> dad. After the discussion, he had but one trip do for the evening and
> that was to take his girlfriend home. My parents parting words were
> 'keep it slow, you can't afford to get anymore tickets." 30 minutes
> later he had ticket three -- for [slow] rolling through a stop sign.
> Three tickets, three different cops, in two different towns. Needless
> to say, not a good evening for my brother, or my parent's insurance
> rates. Also, needless to say, he quickly found himself on his own
> policy.

Definitely true that trouble comes in three's. I haven't been ticketed
since. I've been pulled over twice recently, but I don't think the police
knew exactly how fast I WAS going (one seriously lowballed it, before
sending me on my way with a warning). It's kinda nice being an old fart. I'd
have to go WAY out of my way to get a speeding ticket, apparently.

> and I sold the
>> car to the first guy with $3,000 in his pocket. I spent a year in
>> Purgatory
>> (a 1984 Chevy Cavalier station wagon) as punishment, along with a
>> Kawasaki
>> 650 cruiser.
>
> My brother's purgatory was his beloved Chevelle parked in the garage,
> and sitting behind the wheel of a rusted/crashed '68 Dodge pickup, a
> vehicle that later would became my "winter beater." (Never has there
> been such a cobbled-together, rolling wreck. (A cop who pulled me
> over for loud exhaust and partially non-functional blinkers was even
> astonished at the amount of dis-function and "band-aids" it sported.
> And even more astonished when I nearly ran him over during a parking-
> brake test. The plea bargain was I'll rewire the blinkers and fix the
> exhaust, in exchange for being able to drive it until Spring when I
> promised to junk it. Luckily and surprisingly, for me, he
> agreed.)

This paragraph got me thinking about my previous life ('72 Pinto, '74
Mustang II, etc.), when a repair was something that could be put off until
it became necessary. Driving with a snapped clutch cable. Not "real sure"
that I could stop with my worn brake pads and scarred rotors. Stupid stuff
like that. Hell, these days my daughter just has to look at me funny, and
she gets a full set of new tires for her Focus. I've learned to respect
replaceable components and preventive maintenance. In hindsight, it's a
wonder I'm alive today.

>> When my insurance rates came back down to normal, it was the
>> magical year 1993, when we bought both an Escort GT for Jean and TFrog
>> for
>> me. The entire first year with TFrog, the motorcycle never came out of
>> the
>> garage, and Jean finally convinced me to sell that off, too. I had no
>> qualms
>> about that - I had TFrog.
>
> Didn't you have a time when you thought about getting another
> motorcycle?

I think "motorcyclist" is kinda like "alcoholic," in that you never are
cured. I think about buying a new bike every Spring (my annual itch is
coming soon), but Jean has made it very clear that she will never sit on the
back of a motorcycle again. For myself, I would look again at cruisers,
something above 750cc certainly. I'd always hoped that she and I would
cruise the highways on a Goldwing, which we saw a lot of up in New England
one vacation, but it doesn't look like that's going to happen. (I even
pictured our matching leather outfits, too... ) Since selling off the
Kawasaki in '94(?), I've never seriously look at bikes. What I have looked
at lately, I haven't really liked. And Harley's are out of my "toy" range.
For $10,000+, it would have to be my ONLY mode of transportation. Hah!

>> Jean's Escort became my son's car (he trashed it), and she moved on to
>> the
>> Mystique. The Mystique became daughter's car, when Jean bought the first
>> of
>> her Escapes (2004, 2007, now 2010). All the while, TFrog is still the
>> best
>> automotive decision I'd ever made.
>
> It's weird how some vehicles just click with their owner. My '76
> Dodge stepside and the LX both had that magic.

Yep. It just fits me like a well-worn shoe. Whenever the two Frogs are both
broken, I picture trading them both in on a new V6. As long as one is
running well, I'm pretty content. But when I can finally get TFrog into the
garage for a two-day marathon of buffing and waxing, I just fall in love
with the thing all over again. That's my baby. I did promise that car a home
for life. I'm still married to my first wife, too, so it's possible that
TFrog will be with me until I die. And that, of course, would **** off my
wife...

>> Think about it... TFrog was already two years old when I first started
>> posting in newsgroups.
>
> Back when there were scores of trolls and regulars, one of which who
> wouldn't stop lambasting the then new Mustang for under performing
> compared to competition.
>
>>And it's sitting outside this morning, waiting to go
>> for a romp.
>
> I miss the smallish, intimate dimensions and very appealing
> "crudeness" of those Foxes -- it's a combination the new ones lack.
>
> Patrick

That's it. Raw. Compared to today's rides, TFrog is just raw. Not a lot of
creature comforts (even fewer now, after 18 years as a daily driver), just a
large engine in a small, acoustically horrible chassis with plenty of go.

dwight