Blog
Vehicle Flip Chronicles. Lessons Learned. Strategies. Tips.
Engine Stumble at 297k Miles
With 297,215 miles on the clock of our 2010 Expedition EL it was presumably time to change the spark plugs. Having bought the vehicle used for $4,500 with 273k miles already on the clock there was a laundry list of things we could change preemptively but I figured...
A 50cc Toy for the Kids – Part Two
Before reading on, if you missed part one you can read it here. Knowing that the atv had leaked gas all over the box of my truck from when I hauled it home I told my son that he would need to start taking off all the plastic and whatnot so that we could see the guts...
A 50cc Toy for the Kids – Part One
Little Machine – Part One Last fall/winter I was hunting Craigslist for a good deal on kids ATV’s for our family to keep up at the family cottage. As you would expect, finding a good deal on a kids ATV is no small feat. Typically those little machines are nearly...
Repairing the Victory Clutch
This is the second Victory I’ve owned in which the clutch cable snapped right at the clutch perch. From my previous Victory I’d already done a fair amount of research on replacement cost and found that the factory repair option was pricier than I cared pay. The...
An Exciting Clutch Cable Failure
I had an interesting ride to work on the Victory the other day. All started out well and good, like every other ride in to work, but about two thirds of the way into the ride it got interesting. As I accelerated away from a traffic light and reached my left hand...
Knocking Off the Ugly
I had bought the Victory in a wee bit of disrepair. Mechanically it was pretty stellar, except for the rear shock, but multiple painted sections had bubbled and pealed paint. Almost all of these sections were either zinc or aluminum cast components, the drive belt...
Fixing a Victory Blown Rear Shock
Initial Assessment The first time I threw a leg over the Victory and sat down I could tell something wasn’t quite right about the rear suspension. I conducted a bit of a seat of the pants test and the feeling I got was that it would compress and rebound much...
Loosening the Seized Tire Carrier
Before I had even purchased the Jeep and was looking it over with the current owner I had noticed that the free end of the tire carrier was not latched to the bumper. When I tried to latch it to the bumper it did not move, at all. At the time, the current owner...
How to Restore a Hardtop and Fender Flares
In January 2019 I purchased a 1997 Wrangler Sport that had been very lightly used for the past 8 years or so. It had essentially just sat outside in the sun and gotten a bit cooked. As such the black hardtop had become a faded grey and the fender flares had also...
Sticking with What You Know
I’ve come to find that the repair and service of vehicles is much easier and simpler once I’ve learned specific vehicle platforms. Every vehicle has its “known issues” but it takes time to obtain that knowledge and really figure out how to diagnose them...
Dealing with Depreciation
What will your vehicle be worth when you go to sell it? On the day you purchase a vehicle it has an immediate assessed value, but as time goes on that value will decrease, or depreciate. Depreciation is the loss of value in the vehicle over time. The rate of...
Buying a Used Car from a Dealer
A couple months before my wife was due with our third child we decided to buy a minivan. We bought a one year old, used, Chrysler Town & Country from a dealer. Our thought process was that we’d buy a relatively new minivan so we’d avoid losing on the...