Doing it Professionally

This fellow is adding the base plate to the Honda CRV.  It doesn't look like a car without its front fascia, which is laying on the floor behind me as I took this.  I can never hold the phone steady, and there is no shake correction like in a real camera, so the Android picture is not clear, but you get the general idea.

He quickly told me that the saws all that is suggested in the instructions is impossible to use, and that most folks that attempt to do this at home have to seek professional help.  He is using an air compressor powered cut off wheel grinder.  I have an electric model of this tool, but my wheel is 5 inches around.  Again he indicated that he was using a 3 inch wheel in order to get back into the frame material where he needed to be.

He said that he had disconnected the air bag sensors before he started all of this work so they wouldn't accidentally fire off.  The sensors are on the back and bottom of the bumper that he is grinding on in this picture. Setting them off would be a bad day indeed!

Experience, there is no replacement for it!  He has done these all day and knows exactly what problems he had last time, and more importantly how he solved them.  Since the car was over there at starting time this morning, as we took it last night, by 9:30 when this picture was taken he was about half done.

I decided to have them install the light kits in the tail lights and wire the car from the back to the plug in on the front of the base plate.  They have all the parts and again have solved exactly where to drill the light assembly and not get themselves into trouble with having room inside the housing.  Of course all this expertise didn't come cheap, as my bill was over $800 when we checked out.

They were done by about 1 PM with the wiring and all.  I removed the front arms from the bar, and put them in the back of the car.  You could hardly see the tow bar as it is below the front bumper fascia.  But by getting down on your knees and it was right there to hook up to.

I didn't order the actual tow bar from them, as they were over $200 higher than drop shipping it on the internet.  But I did buy a coiled connector cable, which I think is too short after I have thought about it.

Anyway, we are that much closer to having a Toad!

Later in the afternoon, I went to my favorite computer store, Hyperteck here in South KC and purchased a cheap laser printer for under $100.  It has a fairly small foot print and can be used until it requires a new cartridge.  At that point a new cartridge may well cost as much as another new printer.  I think they quoted $65, which was within 20 of the entire machine.  We have a throw away society now, and laser copiers and the like are labor repair intensive.  This is just a black and white printer without any bells or whistles.  It runs from your Windows operating system, and had drivers for both Mac and Linux.  It is a Samsung product.

We are spending money like crazy here, and that always makes me more than nervous, but Uncle wants a Tax Return, and I need to get busy and at least do an extension.  That requires a working printer!

And then tonight I went over an purchased a Turbo Tax disk from Office Depot.  This is a curiosity as the basic program is $39.95 on the internet and you have to download it to your machine.  But purchasing the disk and packaging for future use in a carry home package like a DVD movie is $29.95 at the store.  Once loaded, it went right out on the internet and downloaded another 16 meg of additional upgrades. I knew this from doing the returns last year, so I included the stop at the store in my other errands.

That's enough productive work for one day!!!  The insurance people never did call me back, so I am thinking they will be very backed up for a long while here in KC.

Retired Rod