Category: Cars

About 3 hours to Chiang Mai

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Justin Yoshida’s location@2:26pm,12/26 Huai Rai, Den Chai, Phrae http://m.google.com/u/m/AL6Y8s

Everybody warned us about the long, windy mountain roads on the way to Chiang Mai, but they aren’t bad at all. I guess it’s because there isn’t a hill in sight standing on the tallest building in Maha Sarakham (my uni’s admin building). I’m moblogging this and eating with Mina right now, and we are in the windiest roads of the whole trip.

The scenery in these mountains looks a lot like Japan, except for the abundant banana trees. I’d rather be sliding around these corners in my old Silvia with speakers blaring ADF instead of bouncing around in a university van, but then again, who wouldn’t?

BTW, Max and Mina are being veritable angels so far.

Car update

The Crown is running better than it ever has before. The problem wasn’t the alternator. It was missing six little spring-loaded push pins that bridge the tops of the spark plugs with the coil packs.

Having this fixed after trying to figure it out for two years is indescribably liberating.

The other car is still in the shop, awaiting new boots for the right side A-arm. Today is the king’s birthday, so everything is closed; repairs will continue tomorrow.

Two batteries, two alternators, one radiator

We’ve been having a run of bad car luck as of late. A couple weeks ago, a cop from Khon Kaen backed into our parked Cefiro and broke off the front license plate holder. Nam saw it happen from the pediatrician’s clinic across the street where she had taken Max for a booster shot. She took it to my pal Ot’s shop and got it replaced (on the cop’s dime, of course).

The very next day, I lightly clipped a scooter that was running the wrong way down the street and crossed in front of me as I was waiting to turn out. The young female rider must have known it was her fault, and didn’t even stop. Ot was pretty surprised to see my car needing a new plate holder again and gave me a pity discount (the 2-in 2-days special).

Yesterday, we found out that the radiator which we replaced on the Cefiro 2 years ago was already rusting through in several places. We had it replaced, because Nam had to use the car today to go to Ubon (3 hours one way) and translate for her aunt’s fertilizer company. At the same time, we were having power issues and I had noticed slowly dropping battery fluid and corresponding hairline cracks on the battery body after the car came back from repairs for the crash. Not wanting Nam to break down on a long trip, we also replaced the battery. I was pretty sure it was a battery issue, because we’d had the alternator replaced a few weeks ago.

Nam drove the Cefiro up to Ubon with her sister today as planned, but on the way back, they lost almost all electrical power. They struggled back to Ot’s shop, where we bought the battery, and he had an electrical specialist come in to take a look. He took a look and declared it to be a faulty alternator. We’d had it replaced by a solid backyard mechanic named Yon, so we took it to him to start on the claims process with the supplier. By then, it was time to pick up Max, so I got him and picked up Nam at Yon’s garage and took them home in the Crown.

At home, we were readying the house for my mom’s arrival tomorrow. I had to run out and pay some bills that Nam had intended to take care of, but was unable to due to car problems. It was dark by the time I actually left the house, and there was something funny with my car. It was struggling to keep running, and I thought the headlights were quite dim. Oh shit. But the bills needed to be paid, and I needed to head to the other side of town to update our bank book first. So I kept the old Crown running through sheer willpower and curses to that dastardly mongrel in the sky. She got me there. I stopped across from the ATMs, found that the goddamn update machine was out of order, and walked back to the car. It wouldn’t start, and the cranking was real weak. Dead battery. WHAT THE FUCK YOU FUCKING PIECE OF FUCKING SHIT FUCK SHIT FUCK SHIT FUCK. SHIT!

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I stand in solitude as I compose this post. My phone’s display burns into the night, and nary a soul will aid in killing the mosquitoes that are biting the hell out of me.

I am waiting for the good mechanic Yon, who was working on my other car when he got the call to come save my ass in this one… I can find no wifi signal to share my loneliness in this foreign land…

Yon has arrived with a spare battery, and now we shall see what further expense motorized transport hath incurred this very day.

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Next day: So it seems both of my cars will require new alternators. The Cefiro has a new battery (which is in the Crown now so I can get around today, even though it’s not being charged by the alternator); the Crown probably needs one as well, since the current one has been completely discharged a few times, which isn’t very good for it. The new radiator in the Cefiro seems to be fine. But. I need a car to pick up my mom tonight in Khon Kaen. That goddamn dastardly mongrel in the sky and his impeccable timing…

If Yon can get his hands on a new alternator for the Cefiro, I’ll be really happy. But that depends on a lot of things to be lined up in a short time, like the supplier accepting the claim against the original part, there being a replacement one somewhere very close, and for that dastardly mongrel in the sky to keep out of my shit for the rest of the day… The alternative is to load a spare battery in the Crown and replace it if the one installed gives me grief (headlights run down a battery fairly quickly. I can only say, UNGH.

The Accidental Motorcycle Thief

The other day, I wanted to go for a quick lunch at the canteen (cafeteria), so I asked one of the students interning for the Japanese course if I could borrow her scooter. She gave me the key and told me where it was parked, along with a description. She said the license plate number was 85, and that it was a 100cc Honda Wave, with a manual transmission, in gray.

I found the 100cc manual Honda Wave almost immediately, but noticed that the license plate was actually 58 and that it was blue with gray accents. I chalked it up to the student remembering it wrong, or me hearing it wrong, and decided to test it by trying to start it up: No problem. I rode off in the direction of lunch, happily upshifting with my foot in this age of boring automatic plastic bi-wheeled conveyances.

When I got back on the scooter after lunch, the key was harder to turn. I had to work at it a bit. Then, when I got back to my building, I couldn’t turn the key to the far left to lock the steering column. I tried for a few minutes doing the jiggle-turn maneuver, but finally just gave up. When I went back to my office, I told the intern that I couldn’t lock her bike and asked if she’d had problems with her key, but she had no idea what I was talking about. A warning sign flashed briefly in my head.

“You said your plate number was 5-8, right?” I asked.

“No, I said 8-5,” she said.

Uh-oh.

I  looked down at where I’d parked the bike and saw a girl wiping tears from her eyes, our building’s custodian trying to console her, and a security guard talking into a walkie talkie.

I went down and apologized, and in the end, everyone except the victim had a good laugh about it (she was still in shock at having her scooter stolen). I felt bad for making her feel bad, but also because the first time I stole a bike, [A.] it was only 100cc, [B.] it required no skill because of the worn lock, and [C.] it provided zero exhilaration because IT WAS A TOTAL ACCIDENT.

sunny rain

A couple weeks ago I was engaged in the never-ending battle to figure out why my Crown hates running cold so much (Next step: Replace coil pack and plug cables, plus various tweaking with components expensive to replace but cheap to check/clean). I took her out on the Sarakham bypass that’s close to our house and runs for a couple unimpeded kilos in a straight line. It was a glorious sunny day, dry and hot, and I was running with all four windows open.

As I started up the bypass, it suddenly started raining, though there was hardly a cloud in the sky (weather like this always reminds me of Hawaii for some reason). Luckily, I was headed into the wind, so not much rain got inside the car. By the time I was halfway through the run, something curious happened. The rain hitting the hot asphalt started steaming and the entire highway was enveloped in a dense fog. The thing is, I was completely alone on the road and I savored that moment of having it all to myself. As I cruised with windows open and wipers on, the wind blew the fog into dancing spirals that parted as we passed through. When I got to the end of the bypass, it suddenly stopped raining. When I got to school, the janitor sweeping out the parking lot saw my car and asked if it was raining.

I said yes and thought, just for me.

Daddy needs money for a new clutch

Luckily, a rush editing job came in and daddy is going to do an all-nighter. Mommy took the kids to grandma’s house and our house is quiet and lonely. Max’s new fish and newer freshwater crab are playing tag, but more about that later when I have more time. Daddy is doing a job related to the Rockefeller Foundation, and that has absolutely nothing to do with the ROC (“yeah, number one clique here”), yo.

Chris Pongpitaya’s Supercar Knockoffs

…Because nothing says genuine 911 like a spoiler the size of a Cessna wing (and judging by the height of the hood, front wheel drive as well).

(thx Mark)

This video intrigued me so much, I had to dig around a bit. Here’s the juicy bits:

UPDATE:
Here’s some alternate contact info I found; I have no idea if it’s correct.

Chris Pongpitaya Schoenes Co.
229/3-4 Soi Akamai 7, Sukhumvit 63
Bangkok 10110 Thailand
Phone +66 2392 4177

My other, much-neglected baby

The Kujira Crown is still my daily driver; driving in heavy rain everyday with no power steering, no hand brake, fairly torquey rear wheel drive, and Max in the front seat (in his new, larger baby seat) is a challenge, but it’s cool driving such a unique car every day.

Here’s a photo from the other day when we had to dispose of a dead body in the woods:

Although the lighting in this photo masks it very well, she is in great need of a new paint job, which when done properly will entail sanding everything off, fixing several holes and rust patches, and cutting out and patching the hopeless areas with sheet metal and bondo.

What color? My love for black is tempting me to say to hell with the fact that it will be like sitting in a microwave and just go for it, but I’m also toying with the idea of gunmetal gray or dark metallic silver. Or bluish silver. Or hell, even just brown again – I never thought I’d own a brown car, but it suits this car pretty well. Oh well, I have plenty of time to think about it since all the money saved for the new paint job has long since been used on diapers and milk and medicine and toys and clothes and whatever for my other, un-neglected babies. <sigh.>

UPDATE: This is what my MS-60 Kujira Crown looks like now: http://cosmicbuddha.com/2012/03/the-toyota-kujira-crown-reborn/