Eleanor

Ask anyone who knows me and they will tell you my favorite type of car is the Ford Mustang. But there are several different styles, models, and years that some can almost be like totally different cars than others. But what is my favorite Mustang? The 1967 Shelby GT 500 Mustang is by far my favorite car or Mustang ever. I honestly wouldn't care to have any other car if I had this one. Not Even a Ferrari, a Porsche, or a Lambo.

The 1967 Shelby GT 500 Mustang is most known for its role in the movie Gone in 60 Seconds.
At least that is when I fell in love with it. In the movie the car is not just any other car. Her name is Eleanor. Yes, the car even has a name! Eleanor is what most Mustang enthusiast and just about any car freak will call the 67 Shelby Mustang. She earned the fame well though by taking the spotlight in the movie.

Gone in 60 Seconds not only has my favorite car in it, but it is my favorite movie. It has been ever sense the first time that I saw it. Nicolas Cage plays one of the main roles in the movie. And believe it or not, he is my favorite actor. Angelina Jolie, Robert Duvall, and Giovanni Ribisi also play main roles in this movie.

The movie is basically about a car boosting operation. Which is just a huge organized car theft operation. Memphis Raines (Nicolas Cage) was a retired car thief. He left town to start a new life because he didn't want his mom or brother to get hurt because of him. But his brother Kip (Giovanni Ribisi) followed in his brother's footsteps and started stealing cars, which is exactly what Memphis did not want.

Kip ended up messing up a job for the guy he was stealing cars for, and was in big trouble. Memphis found out about it and he knew he had to help save his brother. Before he knew it he was doing the one thing he swore he would never do again; boosting cars. He got a bunch of old friends together that used to work with him when he stole cars. They called a bunch of people and had people assigned to certain tasks, such as picking locks to cars, and using different techniques to start them with out keys and that kind of stuff.

After he got every one organized, Memphis only had one night to steal 50 cars, or his brother would die. They gave every car a name to be used as a code so they would not give their operation away. The name he gave the 67 Shelby Mustang of course was Eleanor. He saved the Mustang for last because it had a little sentimental value because he had history with this type of car.

They ended up getting the other 49 cars on time. But the mustang was a couple of minutes late, and in terrible condition by time he got it to the loading dock. Memphis had to out run cops in his attempt to get away with the car, and damaged the car pretty good. So the boss of the operation was still going to kill Kip. They took the mustang and crushed it in the ship yard. (This is my least favorite part of the movie).

At the end of the movie the cop that was trying to catch Memphis and lock him up for good, ended up letting him go. They ended up killing the boss before they got to his brother. Eventually Memphis got a surprise, which was an old beat up 67 Mustang. It wasn't near as pretty as the original Eleanor. But with some work it would have potential. But I don't think it could make up for the horrible part where they crush the car.

What the Fuel Pump!

A couple of weeks ago, as mentioned in the previous post, I was having issues with my car. I ended up taking it in to the Dealership this week to get it checked out. I had to leave it with them for a couple of days so they could get a good look at it. So the guy that drives the dealership's shuttle was nice enough to give me a ride back to campus.

After two long days I finally got a call from them. The mechanics had diagnosed it and traced the problem to a bad fuel pump. I was actually surprised because initially that is what I thought it was before I thought it was the computer system. So with a new fuel pump on order I was going to have to wait another day.

Yesterday it was supposed to be done and ready to be picked up, which was good because I had stuff to take care of. But, there was a mistake in the part order they made. They ordered the fuel pump, but they are now required to change some other part with it. Ford recently changed this rule and they used the old order code instead of the new one, which gave them only the fuel pump and not the other part as well.

They did let me go ahead and pick up my car yesterday when I needed it. It was nice to have it back. I was in a good mood to have my car back so I took it by the car wash and got it all cleaned up while I was out.

I do have to take my car back today in a few hours so they can finish the job. So that means I'm going to have to sit there for an hour while they fix it. But at least they will finally be done and my car will be good to go!

Problems With The Newer Models?

Anyone who has read any part of my blog can tell you that I am in love with Mustangs. Well actually if you just took one look at it you would know that. I don't like to admit it much when I do find flaws in them of course. But I have found some. Some of these things come from personal experience too.



I seem to have trouble with just about anything expensive I have or buy now. For example, my 1100 dollar Dell XPS laptop computer. I have had trouble with it from the beginning. Come to find out just a couple of weeks ago, my operating system was corrupt, and all my software was as well. And they said they knew that by things that my computer was doing from the start. Not something that happened to it overtime. So I had to pay 500 dollars for it to be fixed. The warranty apparently doesn't cover anything that was wrong with it. BS!!



Anyways I have had issues with my car as well. It is only two and a half years old but it still has problems. Over the summer my car started doing weird things like automatically turning off the TCS (Traction Control System). And at the same time it would tell me that my brake fluid was low. This just happened randomly and for seemingly no reason at all. I took it in to the Ford dealership and they never found anything, until I caught it when it was actually doing it and they looked at it then. Come to find out the master cylinder was bad and was messing with the computer in my car. That would be why it was randomly doing those things.



They fixed the problem and it has been OK ever sense, until last week at least. I was pulling off my road, and my gas gauge went from over half a tank to empty in like a millisecond. And as I got on the gas it felt like I had half the power as usual in my car. I thought this was really weird and couldn't connect why the two would happen at the same time, at least not in a newer model car. So I stopped at a gas station and let it sit, and when I started it up it was fine and the gas gauge went back to half a tank. It has been fine ever sense.



I am taking my car in this week to get it checked out and make sure it is OK. The only thing that I know it could be would be a glitch in the cars computer system, or maybe a sensor. I'm not a mechanic by any means, but if it was something mechanical it wouldn't act like that and then just seemingly go away. I love the new mustangs, but I do think that there were some kinks that were not worked out in them. I did some research and found that other new Mustang owners had problems with fuel sensors and things like that a lot. Well I am just going to hope for the best and thank God that I have warrantly left on it!

Lost Foam

One of the classes I am taking here at Purdue is MET 143. It is class about different metals and materials that are used to cast and mold things. It is called Materials and Processes. It pretty much teaches you what different metals and ceramics are used for, and what type of molding processes are used to make them. For example, die casting and lost foam casting. I think it is a really cool class because we get to do a lot of hands on stuff in the labs like welding and pouring hot melted metal into molds we made.





For the lost foam project, we were given a block of foam and had to carve out any design or object we wanted. What you do is take the finished foam carving, and bury it in a special molding sand and then pour the molten aluminum metal into the mold.





What happens is that the 1600 degree aluminum disintegrates the foam, turning it into nothing but steam, which is released into the vent hoods we work under. The melted metal takes the shape of where the foam used to be. After it cools down you can remove the solid piece from the sand. You then have the metal version of the foam shape you carved out.





The design I decided to go with is the running Mustang emblem. I sketched an outline of it on the foam and just used a knife to cut it out and it didn't turn out too bad really. I actually missed the lab last week where we started the casting process, so I probably will only be able to finish it if I do it on my own time. But if not I will just have to keep my foam carving of a Mustang. Either way I thought this was a cool project.

This by far is one of my favorite classes that I am taking. So far we have made a propeller, and a pulley by making green sand molds of them. Right now we are actually learning how to weld which I think is really cool because I have never done it before. So I actually learn how to do a lot of new things in this class. That's why I'm in college right?

TRANSFORMERS

So most of you have probably seen the movie Transformers before. If you have then you know about all the cool effects that seem to make robots able to turn into all kinds of cool cars. One of these robots, named Barricade, transforms into a Mustang cop car. Personally this is one of my favorite parts of the movie.

Anyways there is a man by the name of Jesse Vigil who ownes a 2007 mustang. He also has a young son that loves the Transformers movie. One of his son's first toys was the Barricade mustang from Transformers. Well he got the great idea to make his Mustang a replica of the one on the movie. He mostly did this to make his son happy. It was just something he wanted to do for his son after he got back from fighting in Iraq. Of course his son loved it. What little kid wouldn't want to ride around in a transformers car?

Jesse didn't see any real problems in doing this to his Mustang, even though it makes his car look like a cop car. He was making his son happy and riding around in a pretty cool car! But you could only imagine what the cops in his area thought.

The police were very defensive about this. They pulled him over several times and threatened to give him a ticket. But they couldn't technically give him a ticket because he wasn't trying to impersonate a police officer. As long as he doesn't try to pull someone over, or enforce the law using his car, they can't really do anything about it. The first amendment protects him from getting a ticket in this case.

I am not real sure where I would stand on this. I can see why the cops wouldn't be very happy about this. But is he really breaking the law? I am going to have to say that as long as his intentions are good he should be allowed to keep the car like it is. It would be different if he was using the car to his advantage and actually impersonating a police officer. But it seems like he just wanted to have a fun car and make his son happy. This is really hard for me to make an opinion, just for the fact that I can understand both sides to this story. In the end, I think they should just leave him alone as long as he is not bothering anyone.

Another Ticket..This Sucks!!!

I am terrified of being pulled over, like many other people. When a cop gets behind me I look in my rear view mirror more than I look at the road in front of me. I know this is normal for a lot of people, but I haven't always been like this.



Last March I got my first ticket. I was driving on a two lane highway and there was a car in front of me with a mattress on top driving under the speed limit. As usual, I was in a hurry and I went around them. It was a perfectly legitimate pass. I waited until no cars were coming and the yellow line was dotted on my side. When I pass someone I usually do it as fast as possible because it can be uncomfortable to be on the wrong side of the road. Little did I know there were a couple of cops up ahead waiting for a speeding car to go by.



Well I got clocked while I was passing the car. How messed up is that? Honestly, who doesn't speed when you do this? I'm pretty sure everyone who does this wants to get around the car as quick as they can. That seems like the safest thing to do anyways. I honestly didn't know they would give you a ticket for speeding when passing a car like this. But he claimed that he could. This seems a little unfair to me. I sped up to about ten over, and when I got back over I slowed back down. Anyways I got my first ticket that night and was not very happy about it at all.



I have finally decided that I have bad luck with cops. I got pulled over again two weekends ago on highway 52. This time I can see why I got pulled over. I was doing 77 in a 60. I honestly didn't think I was going to get a ticket because the police officer was being so cool about it at first. He spent the first ten minutes talking about sports, and how he liked my car, and he even joked around about me being on my way to see my girlfriend. But when he came back to my car he had a ticket in his hand. I was extremely let down, because I think I said "please don't give me a ticket" about 200 times while I was waiting for him to come back to my window. And well, the rest is history. I now owe Tippecanoe county 130 dollars.



Now this one I could not believe. Last weekend I was on my way back here to Purdue. I had just left my girlfriend's house and turned on to the main highway and as I did I saw a cop going the opposite direction I was going to go. This reminded me to drive the speed limit. Next thing I knew I had flashing lights in my mirror. I was confused because I didn't do anything wrong that I knew of. Well he claimed that I had a headlight out. I told him to take another look and he did. Sure enough I didn't and he let me go on my way. I just thought it was ironic to get pulled over for nothing a week after getting a ticket. So OK, they win.... I will drive the speed limit!

Black on Black?

OK, so I mentioned in the last entry that I busted one of my new rims. I'm not quite sure yet what I want to do as far as replacing it. My options are to keep the ones I have, get the other one fixed or replaced, or to wait a while and buy a new set. I think that I want to keep the ones I have for now and eventually get a new set of rims.



I was looking around, and there are endless sizes and styles and finishes. It is really hard to pinpoint which would look the best. At first I wanted to go with chrome on whatever design I decided to go with. But the more I looked into it, the more I've started to like black.



The ones in the picture above are about what I'm looking for. They are not too flashy and they still have that torque thrust, muscle car look, which is kinda what I want to go for. I can't make up my mind about the black on black deal though. I think it will look good, but can't make a decision. So I was wanting to hear some of your opinions on this. If you have an opinion about this just leave me a comment about it and tell me what you think. I would really appreciate it.

Busted!!!

I had my car for about three months before we moved into our new house. It just so happened that one of my new neighbors had just bought a new Mustang GT around the same time as me. I was instantly amazed when I saw his car. He didn't just have a GT, but a Saleen supercharged Mustang GT with a sick body kit. Not to mention the twenty inch chrome mirrors he had for rims. The whole car just looked simply amazing to me. I know this may make me seem unappreciative of my new Mustang, but I have to admit I was jealous!





Well to get back to the point, he had just bought these new twenty inch chrome torque thrust rims for his car. So what was wrong with the ones that came on his car? Nothing at all. They were eighteen inch polished aluminum (not to be confused with chrome) Mustang GT rims that were an upgrade of the ones I had. So of course I saw them sitting in his garage when I went over to look at his car.



He had seen me drive by in my car and new I had a mustang too, so he mentioned the fact that they would look pretty dang good on my car. Which is exactly what I was thinking the whole time. And the funny thing is, I new he would try to sell them to me, and I was hopping that he would try to.



They were in perfect condition seeing that he only had the car for a few months and wasn't even using them anymore, so I was definitely interested. My dad tried talking me out of it of course. That didn't work though, I was already set on them. I went a few weeks without really showing much interest in them, and then later found out that my dad had bought them from the guy as an early Christmas present. I was PSYCHED! I rushed over to his house right after school and he helped me put them on. And I was impressed. I liked them a lot, and I got my dad to admit that they looked good too. That took a lot for him to admit that I was right.



Well the whole point of this story is so I can tell you want happened a few weeks ago. You may notice that the rims on my car in the pictures are not quite the eighteen inch polished aluminum ones that I was so proud of. Tragically, I was driving along in pretty bad icy conditions, and I started to loose control of my car. Right as I turned my wheel to save it, I hit a pothole. Of course I hit the pothole with my wheels turned to the side. The end result did not make happy at all to say the least. The right front rim hit the pothole at an angle, therefore the rim itself not the rubber, hit the concrete crater that was positioned nicely in the middle of the road. It busted a piece out about four or five inches long. The piece completely broke off.

There was really not much I could do about it. It actually happened on what used to be Walmart property. Which was then sold to our local Metropolis mall. And right before this happened they sold it to some random company in Texas I had never heard of. So I gave up on trying to blame it on private property owners. Luckily I still had my original rims and tires still sitting in my garage with brand new Perelli tires on them. So ideally I am using them now. I will probably look to get my busted up rim fixed or replaced this summer. But the ones I have on now are starting to grow on me a little bit, so who knows I might just settle for the ones I have on now.