There’s nothing quite like that sickening metal on metal grinding noise that signals it’s time to get a brake job. There’s no way around it, and I knew that as soon as I stepped on my pedal yesterday after filling up with gas on my way home from Detroit. It’s a hideous sound I’ve heard all too often, and it’s never cheap to hire someone to make it go away.
I go through so many cars, I thought I’d replaced the brakes on this one. I guess not. It’s all a blur after a while, and after thinking about it I realized it was my last rot rod, the one that got rear ended at 60 miles an hour. The car is shredded, but it has a new set of brakes.
Too bad for me. I guess I get left holding the bag again. All used cars are time bombs, it boils down to the ability to get rid of them before the timer goes off. I almost pulled it off this time, but now I’ve got to keep it a while to make it really pay off. It’s all a gamble.
This particular auction mobile has been great. I stuck minimal money into it and driven all over the place. Since the first of the year I’ve put 32,000 miles on it and was hoping to make it to the end of the year and rerun it through the auction. I put two tires on it and had some welding done on the exhaust. I also had it tuned up, but other than that it’s a cherry.
No, wait a minute. I did have some front end work done from a friend of Jim McHugh’s and that cost $500. That’s how the cost of a cheap car can skyrocket and end up turning a perceived bargain into a money sucking lemon. Maybe it would be better off to invest in a better car, but my credit has been shot for years and this is how I’ve chosen to survive.
Still, it has over 200,000 miles on it and it’s just common sense that sooner or later I’m going to have to get something fixed. Today was sooner than I expected, but I took a risk and had the brakes replaces all around. The mechanic looked at the whole car and said he thought it would last indefinitely, and it would be a good investment so I rolled the dice.
I’ve got ship work coming up and that will be great for making the car last, as I’ll not be using it at all. It doesn’t look that great, but it runs quietly and has a good stereo. That’s a big deal with me, and it meets my needs. I just don’t want to have a car payment hovering over my head every month. I’ll save up my money from the ship and pay cash for a car.
I was up in Milwaukee because I had an appointment with my old friend Robert Deglau to help me piece together local radio and TV jingles and commercials for the background music at the ‘Schlitz Happened!’ show. He’s a production master, and I knew he’d be the right man for the job. He dug deep and got a list of some great stuff that blew me away.
He barbecued some chicken and burgers and we went into his studio and it took me way back to my childhood in about two minutes. He loved doing the project, and I’m thankful we hooked up again after 35 years. He said it was for a reason, and I think he’s right. He’s very talented in production of audio and video, and I can see him being a vital part of the show as it develops. I’ll take the brake job hit because working with Robert will pay off.
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