[m i a o w] the cat

Secondhand 300TD Mercedes - $3,800*
Roadworthy assessment - $66
Tools and parts required - $500
M learning to be a Mercedes mechanic? PRICELESS.

And, meet the favourite torque tool and the new brake rotor/disc he just fitted to the front right wheel:

M has repacked the wheelbearings, replaced the rotors (brake discs) and replaced the brake pads and sensors. All this took him only two hours - the main time involved was the three or so hours spent going in and out of Cranbourne for parts, tools and (M says) coffees. (He didn’t mention all the time he had to spend on t’internet learning how to and how not not to do all this stuff - so I think I’ll add a good six hours of study in there too.) This is all part of our evil plan to never own a car that is too complicated to work on ourselves (note how I include myself in this, even though I am only mildly Humber savvy and until this week had never owned a car with power steering.)

Oh! And the wrecker had the kickplates that were missing which go on the car interior wall to the right of the accelerator (same on the passenger side) and the other panel that was missing from underneath the steering wheel, which is just to hide all the wiring etc. nicely. They are brown; but we have some black vinyl paint to do them over with so they match the rest.

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*Note that I don’t add in the cost of travel to and from Tassie, which was actually about $350 purely because the Spirit of Tasmania spew boat is so goddamn EXORBITANT and only good for transferring your car or catering to your fear of flying.

BROWSE / IN TIMELINE
« Please send the healing vibe!
» My cups overfloweth…

BROWSE / IN 300D
« It arrived!
» Post-holiday malaise

COMMENTS / 3 COMMENTS

Can I borrow M to renovate my house? I’ll bring him back with all his tools… I’ll only need him for say two-three months…

kartar typed this on Aug 31 07 at 2:11 pm

Not to cast any nasturtiums on your fiscal status, but the amount of beer involved in an extended lease out of M would probably cripple you. And that would be a shame -although I do have to say that while the baby bonus advance covered the car and most of the travel, we’ve now started to eat into our boat fund money… so the possibility of leasing out M may still arise.