Paintless Dent Removal News

The experience my wife and I had buying our Honda Pilot with help from the Internet is typical of what more and more people are finding: you can save a lot of money doing even part of your search here. We saved just under $4,000 and got the exact car we wanted.

We’re not the only ones who are doing this. Our next door neighbor just bought his wife a brand new convertible. Like us, he had to fly about 1,000 miles to pick up the car, then drive it home. He’d do it again in a second. He also sold his wife’s old car on-line. I should mention that he’s in his 70s. A co-worker recently bought a used car from a private individual in Kansas City who he found on the internet. He drove the car to the top of Pike’s Peak on his way home, completely delighted with his find. You can do it too.

Even buying our car on-line, we still spent a lot of time at local dealerships test driving cars we were interested in, then looking at the different color and package options for the Pilot once we decided on that. We felt bad taking so much of our saleswoman’s time until she explained that she sees a lot of people like us who are trying to decide what car they were going to buy somewhere else. She assured us that she had at least as many people from other parts of the country flying here to do the same thing.

We spent a lot of time shopping locally before we looked at Honda dealerships on-line to find the best deal. We narrowed our search to dealerships around my wife’s family in Indiana. We were planning to visit them about the same time we planned to buy our car, so it worked out well for us to pick it up and drive it home.

One other thing. We limited our search for the Pilot to Honda dealers. We probably could have found a slightly better deal going with a car broker, but my wife wasn’t comfortable with that. She figured a dealer could be counted on to be trustworthy; in our case, she was right on. Our neighbor and the co-worker I mentioned both bought their cars via the internet, one from a broker, the other from a private citizen. Neither had any problems. I understand that this can make some people nervous though.

Once you’ve found the car you want and have a plan of attack for finding the best deal, there are several more questions to answer—is it better to buy the car or lease it? My wife is a pro at saving money, so we were able to pay cash for the Pilot. (That check for 27 grand is the biggest I’ve ever written!) Financing is a whole other issue we didn’t have to deal with. We have dozens of links to help you with both of these issues though. Then there’s insurance, selling your old vehicle and getting the license. Our links will help you with all of that.

We had a great experience buying our car and want to help you have the same.

Good luck!

http://www.buy-your-new-car-online.info/

So you now have the car of your dreams. You’ve sunk a huge amount of time and money into restoring it and keeping it in pristine showroom condition and running smoothly.
But wait a minute- winter is coming. You want to drive your car in the snow, through road salt, sand and corrosive chemicals? I thought not. You want to store it for the winter s inexpensively as possible? You also want to be able to put it back on the road with little or no hassle and have it ready for spring in the same condition it went into storage in? Read on.
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Indoor storage is, of course, the best way to go. And it’s really your only option if you are going to be away for a couple of years or longer.

You don’t need a garage, as indoor storage facilities are plentiful. Most “mini-storage” type places will gladly rent storage spaces big enough for vehicles. Additionally, try to find someone who can “exercise” the vehicle every month or two. Although it’s an additional expense in your vehicle budget, proper long term storage will save you money on restoration when you’re ready to drive your dream car again.

You can never be too clean for storage, so the first thing you want to do is clean the vehicle. Wait for a dry warm day and give your car a complete wash and wax. Be sure to get the underbody as clean as possible too- particularly wheel well areas. Any dirt will hold moisture and combine with air, causing rust propagation.

A thorough cleaning is in order for the interior, also. Use a shop vacuum or household vacuum cleaner, getting into all the little nooks and crannies. All crumbs, pizza crusts, French fries etc. must go. Otherwise small creatures will be drawn to it and make their home inside your vehicle.
To go the extra mile, a good carpet will help discourage them. Do all this early in the day to allow time to dry before putting the car in storage.

Take the spark plugs out and put some oil into the cylinders. This prevents cylinder walls, pistons and valves from rusting. Regular motor oil is fine or get a spray can of fogging oil from a marine supply store. Turn over the engine by hand half a dozen times to ensure the oil coats everything.
Next apply a little anti-seize compound on the spark plugs and reinstall them. Make sure the gas tank is full. This will decrease the amount of water available to be absorbed by the gasoline.

For the electrical system, remove the battery cables (negative cable first) and lift out the battery.
Wipe the battery with battery cleaner to take away any moisture-holding dirt or grease. Place the battery on a clean, dry surface, like a block of wood or a stack of bricks.
Now hook up a trickle charger. These are designed to preserve the battery’s charge over a long period of time. While the battery is out, inspect the battery rack for rust or corrosion. Clean and repair any damage as necessary.

Lubricate hood latches, hinges and door hinges white lithium grease to keep air and moisture out.
Have a look at the brake fluid. Brake fluid will soak up moisture from the air, causing your brake system to rust and corrode. Get it flushed and filled with clean, fresh fluid if it hasn’t been done in two years or more.
Check the coolant level- ensure it is topped off to the proper level. Also check the coolant’s protection level. It should be low enough to protect the cooling system from winter temperatures.

Because rodents and other small animals like to chew ignition wires and wiring harnesses, stuff clean rags into the engine air intake, fresh air intake under the windshield and tail pipe. A neat trick a mechanic told me about is to get a big box of mothballs and spread them out around and under the car- for some reason the smell works wonders at keeping undesirable creatures away.

Tires are prone to developing flat spots if the vehicle will be sitting for longer than five or six months. To prevent this you should get a set of four jack stands. Jack up the vehicle and place the jack stands under the lift points of the vehicle (usually the lower control arms or under the frame) If you have a dirt floor, place pieces of 1″ plywood under the jack stands to prevent them sinking into the dirt.

Remove the wiper blades from the wiper arms to prevent them from becoming glued to the windshield and leaving marks.
The last thing you need to do is- nothing!
That’s it. Lock up and enjoy knowing your precious car is sleeping in suspended animation, awaiting your return.

About the Author

D.Demetre is an author and webmaster at http://www.caroom.us, where you can read about car restoration .

Biography
by MacKenzie Wilson

Before Jack Johnson perfected his rock star ways, he was a champion surfer on the professional route with a sponsorship with Quiksilver. It was a life that was second nature for this Hawaiian native, for he began chasing waves as a toddler, and by the time he was 17, he was an outstanding athlete on the Pipeline. However, Johnson was also testing his other creative outlets — one being film and the other being music. It was during his college years as a film student at University of California at Santa Barbara when Johnson began writing songs. He and old mates, Chris Malloy and Emmett Malloy, produced a surf cinema documentary entitled Thicker Than Water, in turn spotlighting Johnson as a talented cinematographer as well as a burgeoning singer/songwriter. His peers in and around the surf circuit praised his work and Thicker Than Water received props in Surfer magazine for Video of the Year during 2000. The follow-up surf flick The September Sessions also earned the Adobe Highlight Award at the ESPN Film Festival that same year. Still, Johnson steered away from a blossoming pro sports career and stuck with music — something that would soon earn him additional honors. G. Love & Special Sauce quickly took notice to Johnson’s lazy blues stylings, which also molded folk and hip-hop for a modern rock twist, and included Johnson on “Rodeo Clowns’” from G. Love’s 1999 release, Philadelphonic. Johnson’s four-track demo also caught the ears of Ben Harper’s right hand man, J.P. Plunier. This was surely mind-blowing for Johnson, for Harper’s college rock mainstay Fight for Your Mind was one of his favorites and remained an inspiration. Aside from Plunier’s production work, Harper also added his lap steel guitar work on Jack Johnson’s sultry debut, Brushfire Fairytales (Enjoy Records) in winter 2001. Two co-headlining tours followed throughout spring and summer 2002; Johnson’s sophomore effort On and On appeared in May 2003. Stateside dates with Ben Harper followed in June and July. A third album, In Between Dreams arrived in March 2005.

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