I can't even count how many vehicles I have had during the 15 years of doing this blog. I looked back and found the first mention was back in November 2009. I was out on North Beach and had
brought "Bertha" out for the trip. Bertha was I think a 1992 conversion van that had served my family well for many years on trips from Lake Placid down to Disney World. It was also part of my fishing world making trips to the Upper Delaware as well as stops along the Jersey Shore.
Currently my rides consist of a 2003 Chevy Silverado with 265,000 miles and a 2004 Jeep Grand Cherokee with 220,000 miles. Both serve me well and have held up well for their age. Even with the repairs needed on both over the last two years I can't complain. However, I have been noticing the rust
situation a little more on both. Lauren had thrown the Jeep on the lift and I did some poking around and said I needed to pay some attention before it gets too late. I love a new truck. My last "new", not new to me, was a 1986 Dodge Ram 50, shown below up near Saranac Lake, New York in 1987. Since then it's
been a plethora of vehicles bought and sold, sunk and sold, and donated to the car cruncher. My 03' Silverado is sweet, at least to me. Since I purchased it in 2022 I have done a few things to it which have greatly increased its functionality and value. None better than a new front seat from The Seat Shop. If your arse sinks in or your seat is all beat up and ripped this is a place to get an exact fit replacement.
I had picked up a truck cap for the Silverado off of Facebook Marketplace. Bought it for $75, used it for a bit, and then sold it for $100. I just wasn't getting the use I needed for having a pickup truck. The bed of the truck, while not bad, never looked as good as the cab. There was rust over the wheel wells,
a couple of deep scratches on either side, and a bumper that had seen better days. I had seen a few pickups that had removed the bed and went with a homemade wooden bed, so why not me. What could
happen? With my father closing down the Archer Steel shop there's plenty of material down there to pick through and come up with what this project needs. They use OSHA planks when building bridges so I can use them for the sides and platform for the new bed. But first I had to get the old bed off.
There are 8 bolts that hold the bed on. I went to Harbor Freight and bought a breaker bar and some 1/2" socket extensions to be able to get to the bolts. Seven came off in 20 minutes, the one with the easiest access took me an hour and had to be Sawzalled off. Then it was off to the scrap yard where the
worker there suggested we just tip it off, rather then use the magnetic jaws of the crane sitting a few feet away. It finally came off and I was $30 richer for the effort. I taped up the taillights so I can
drive it around if needed. I'm planning on just working on it down at the Archer Steel shop in Wall where my brother can give me a hand. After some cleaning up of the frame, and maybe a new plate welded on here and there, I'll coat it all with POR 15 or something else to extend its life. Historically they same GM frames don't last that long especially living in the rust belt where road salt
just eats through any metal or steel in a few years. When they used to plow and spread salt crystals they would bounce off your car, but the new brine creates a mix of water and salt which finds every nook and cranny of your under carriage and just wreaks havoc as far as rust is concerned. Since the SS Archer is a
keeper I was thinking the new bed could accommodate it a little better then the above set up. Another goal I have is to buy one of those street legal gold carts to tool around Wildwood and Cape May. While our complex doesn't allow carts I was thinking of keeping it on the truck and then bringing it into town
and backing it off the truck and go. Hey, what could go wrong? I, of course, have been looking for a used battery operated street legal one and it's the worst time of year to be looking. It's like buying a boat, best to do that at the end of the season or during the winter. New, I just don't do new. A new to
me, well used, 2021 2500 HD with 44,000 miles would set me back $38,555. Well I guess that's not too bad.....WHAT? A three year old truck that has been here in New Jersey driving on salt brined roads for just say.....$750 a month? That's with $1,000 down and a credit score between 700-749 @ 10.14 %.
Um, no thanks. I'll weld up my current girl and piece her back together and drive her until she stops. I will say I have some buds that do the lease or new ride thing consistently and always seem to have a beauty they're tooling around in. Either they got it like that, their parents have it like that, or they can expense it out through a business. That's probably what the above 21' Silverado is, a lease turn in.
And speaking of turning it in. After the bed bolts, and the recycling place visit, is was off to Orvis Princeton to "turn it" Andrew's borrowed Helios D 9 ft. 10 wt. I got to use it one of the days in the
Vineyard and really like what I felt. I didn't need all that "Most Accurate" stuff as the wind was all over the place so my H2 9 ft. 10 wt. served me just fine. I will be buying this rod just in time for the fall. In fact, I took my $30 I got from the bed sale and added a twenty and got a $50 gift card to use when I make the rod purchase. Right now I'm $100 towards my goal.
$38,000 used trucks with 44,000 miles, $1,100 fly rods. $9 Guinness's at an Irish bar in Cape May. $25 pizzas. And dinners for four easily going $200 for nothing special at all. $4.69 for a gallon of gas on the Vineyard. A guy in front of me bought two packs of smokes in Cumberland Farms....$34 dollars in Mass. Towing a boat with a single axle trailer over the George Washington Bridge....$62.55. And it just goes on and on. I think with this new cashless world we're going to to money just doesn't have the same value it used to have. Can we go back to working hard, getting paid on Friday, and then waiting in line at the bank to have money for the weekend? We'd appreciate it that much more. Internet purchases, grabbing things at the checkout counter, all with a quick swipe and the monies gone, like it wasn't even there. Sad...and I won't even go into who has access and can track every single purchase and where every single dollar you have goes. From direct deposits, to automatic bill payments, to Ez Pass, to every single withdrawal or swipe.
For me I'll stick to a 03' Silverado, a 04' Jeep, a 98' Jones Brothers, and a 99' Lowe jet boat. I just don't know how people survive these days. How much do you have to make these days to own a house, a few cars, and a boat or two? And then we having even talked about the cost of kids and even pets?
So more more to come. What could happen?
