Luckily my wife and I are both
“Four days away, and I want to be home” kind of people. we never go too far to where we can’t get back.
“Four days away, and I want to be home” kind of people. we never go too far to where we can’t get back.
Build Thread 1978 Fairmont. I bet somebody back home’s thinkin’…I wonder why he don’t write..?
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- Mar 2, 2015
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My cousin lives in that hell hole and loves it. PM me and I'll connect you to him. He always asks me to let him know if I know people that are there on vaca. He runs his American business from there. ( what a life ! )
He wants our whole family to move there. Offered to charter a private jet. Smh. Place can't be that bad.
He wants our whole family to move there. Offered to charter a private jet. Smh. Place can't be that bad.
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In reality, its beautiful. Different from most coastal destinations in Mexico.
Its on the west coast, and in the central time zone. The sun stays up till 9.
The biggest difference is the mtns that are all around.
The town has a good bad...Getting from the airport to the touristy part of this town requires that you ignore the fact that this is still a very poor country. The townspeople that support this beautiful place probably live in the midst of all of the squalor that you drive past to get here. The plane ride is the equivalent of 5 hours, which is about the same as time spent in the car driving from Birmingham to any gulf coast destination.
Except...Covid.
You gotta have a mask on the entirety of the trip..you get your temp scanned here, you get your temp scanned there,..and once in Mexico.........
WTF!
500 people all getting off different carriers at the same time, all trying to get through immigration, then through the Covid screening, and then through Customs..makes you seriously wonder what the fck you were thinking when you decided to fly out of the country.
But that all changes when you get out of the cab...this part of PV reminds me of Spain. English is spoken almost everywhere ( albeit a little broken).
The food is great, and really affordable.
But..if you aren't a "liberal, live and let live" kind a guy, you won't like it..
This place is also very gay. It literally flames.
But, (and here is the shocker for most of you...)
Im completely OK with that. I have a kid that's gay, and even before that, always had the mindset of "you do you" with regard to sexual orientation..so NBD.
Its still a great place.
Its on the west coast, and in the central time zone. The sun stays up till 9.
The biggest difference is the mtns that are all around.
The town has a good bad...Getting from the airport to the touristy part of this town requires that you ignore the fact that this is still a very poor country. The townspeople that support this beautiful place probably live in the midst of all of the squalor that you drive past to get here. The plane ride is the equivalent of 5 hours, which is about the same as time spent in the car driving from Birmingham to any gulf coast destination.
Except...Covid.
You gotta have a mask on the entirety of the trip..you get your temp scanned here, you get your temp scanned there,..and once in Mexico.........
WTF!
500 people all getting off different carriers at the same time, all trying to get through immigration, then through the Covid screening, and then through Customs..makes you seriously wonder what the fck you were thinking when you decided to fly out of the country.
But that all changes when you get out of the cab...this part of PV reminds me of Spain. English is spoken almost everywhere ( albeit a little broken).
The food is great, and really affordable.
But..if you aren't a "liberal, live and let live" kind a guy, you won't like it..
This place is also very gay. It literally flames.
But, (and here is the shocker for most of you...)
Im completely OK with that. I have a kid that's gay, and even before that, always had the mindset of "you do you" with regard to sexual orientation..so NBD.
Its still a great place.
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Well another good month behind me. An idea of what kinda play money im going to have for the "future" transmission conversions' next purchase.
When I buy something this expensive, and if i can, I break the entire purchase into smaller bites.
The trans itself was/is the big bite.
1600.00.....for a used 6 speed
I put it on a 0 interest credit card.
I'll make small payments till I get to the end of the 0% interest period, and pay the remainder of off.
The adapter is the next big bite, at 950.00.
I Pay for it directly out of my checking account.
That still leaves a stupid amount of money left to spend before I can ever start to consider the swap:
I have to get a clutch pedal assy mounted. I do not intend to use a cable, so the factory quadrant won't be reused. Im going to mount a hydraulic McClod type master cylinder/slave cylinder and use a hydraulic T/O bearing for a T56.
Thatll cost something like 500.00 bucks.
I'll need a clutch...IDK yet what that will be yet, but looks to be something like 600.00
I'll need a shifter..IDK about that yet either, but that looks like another 300-400.00.
I need a yoke for the drive shaft, and ill probably have to have a new drive shaft made, as the current pig in the tunnel is so long, chances are its too short already.
Thatll be 300-400 more dollars.
So.....all toll when you add it up...very close to 5 grand to put this used 6 speed behind the 2j. The existing stuff should net me back maybe......1500-2000.
This better be worth the hassle.
When I buy something this expensive, and if i can, I break the entire purchase into smaller bites.
The trans itself was/is the big bite.
1600.00.....for a used 6 speed
I put it on a 0 interest credit card.
I'll make small payments till I get to the end of the 0% interest period, and pay the remainder of off.
The adapter is the next big bite, at 950.00.
I Pay for it directly out of my checking account.
That still leaves a stupid amount of money left to spend before I can ever start to consider the swap:
I have to get a clutch pedal assy mounted. I do not intend to use a cable, so the factory quadrant won't be reused. Im going to mount a hydraulic McClod type master cylinder/slave cylinder and use a hydraulic T/O bearing for a T56.
Thatll cost something like 500.00 bucks.
I'll need a clutch...IDK yet what that will be yet, but looks to be something like 600.00
I'll need a shifter..IDK about that yet either, but that looks like another 300-400.00.
I need a yoke for the drive shaft, and ill probably have to have a new drive shaft made, as the current pig in the tunnel is so long, chances are its too short already.
Thatll be 300-400 more dollars.
So.....all toll when you add it up...very close to 5 grand to put this used 6 speed behind the 2j. The existing stuff should net me back maybe......1500-2000.
This better be worth the hassle.
Who would want this guy gone. You learn something every day with him. Any of you gay guys can chime in now , feel free to let us know.
What did I miss? Why change to manual? I personally prefer a manual, but understand that usually turbo cars are better off or faster anyway with an auto.
Been considering a trip there recently. I do like Mexico but have not been to the west coast yet. Gay people don't bother me at all but pushy street vendors are another story and the touristy trap places seem to always have them. I did get a really nice hand made leather scabbard for a lever action in Mexico from one. Enjoy your trip!!
You should have come to Hawaii. I would have let you drive my coupe and blow out the catalytic converter.. 
Day one in the books..
2 more and a wake up....
Pushy Street vendors are one of the problems, shop keepers that absolutely won't let you so "No, just looking" are the only negatives so far.
Jalisco is the region where all tequila is made, and it so happens that PV is in Jalisco. Needless to say, tequila is a commodity here, right along with jewelry, leather, and linen. I went into a tequila store looking for a boutique brand I read about on the in-flight mag,..and got sat down and "educated" about a local brand instead.
The experience was fun. The guy was funny, and once he knew that I'd fck around was all the more entertaining.
I ended up selecting a whisky barrel aged anejo. And the guy tries to sell me the 750ml bottle for 200 usd.
"I knew you were a crazy guy" I said. "I said to myself when I walked in, ill bet this guy is crazy".
The tequila guy asked what I meant, and I said you MUST be crazy if you think I'm going to pay 200usd for a local brand.
He came down.
Still too high.
He came down.
By the time we were at 100, ( which is still fcking crazy) I tell the guy I can't pay that. I asked if he had a smaller bottle, ( which he of course did)...the price was now 75.
I ask him how could he expect me to pay full price for the small bottle, when he had discounted the big bottle by half?
That confused him.
I agree to pay the guy his price.I likened it to the fact that he worked for it, and he was fun. When I make a car buying experience a fun experience, and I work for it, I expect to get paid too.
The freakin cork breaks off in the bottle.
2 more and a wake up....
Pushy Street vendors are one of the problems, shop keepers that absolutely won't let you so "No, just looking" are the only negatives so far.
Jalisco is the region where all tequila is made, and it so happens that PV is in Jalisco. Needless to say, tequila is a commodity here, right along with jewelry, leather, and linen. I went into a tequila store looking for a boutique brand I read about on the in-flight mag,..and got sat down and "educated" about a local brand instead.
The experience was fun. The guy was funny, and once he knew that I'd fck around was all the more entertaining.
I ended up selecting a whisky barrel aged anejo. And the guy tries to sell me the 750ml bottle for 200 usd.
"I knew you were a crazy guy" I said. "I said to myself when I walked in, ill bet this guy is crazy".
The tequila guy asked what I meant, and I said you MUST be crazy if you think I'm going to pay 200usd for a local brand.
He came down.
Still too high.
He came down.
By the time we were at 100, ( which is still fcking crazy) I tell the guy I can't pay that. I asked if he had a smaller bottle, ( which he of course did)...the price was now 75.
I ask him how could he expect me to pay full price for the small bottle, when he had discounted the big bottle by half?
That confused him.
I agree to pay the guy his price.I likened it to the fact that he worked for it, and he was fun. When I make a car buying experience a fun experience, and I work for it, I expect to get paid too.
The freakin cork breaks off in the bottle.
I thought about that.You should have come to Hawaii. I would have let you drive my coupe and blow out the catalytic converter..
A catalytic converter doesn't care what combo its in, or what engine is in front of it. MOF, The fact that the converter failed is just as suspect to it being a janky ass as it is any other mitigating condition.
Use at your own peril.
And while I appreciate it. Hawaii is juussst a little farther west than Puerto vallarta..
Yes...in a good liquor kind of good. Good as in Sweet tea good, or Dr. Pepper good not so much.
I honestly can't say I prefer any of it to a soft drink, but soft drinks don't get you drunk.
^ = Normal People. How the other half live. YRMV, but for dis Exterme Southern-er, any real soda pop or OEM Coca-Cola or Pepsi is my drug of choice. After doing a line of Coke with 496 Killer Joules per Big A $$ Glass...I feel Nearly Normal.
When I was there the " locals" cannot believe we "gringos" drink rot gut like Jose Cuervo...
I am old enough to remember when it was considered " the good stuff".....
I haven't been to the west cost of Mexico yet. I've heard it's beautiful. I'm in training right now on a bigger airplane that might go out that way, so I might see it soon. That's why I haven't been on here much. The 6 hours of training, and 6 hours of studying every day is getting to me.
Saying Mexico is a poor Country is misleading. I'm sure the tourist towns that are dependent on service jobs are still very poor. However, the industrial cities like Leon and Monterey have come a long way. I remember when I started going to these places around 2007, and it was long drives through neighborhoods of tar paper shacks to get to the city center. That's all gone now. Massive factories everywhere. The hotel in Monterrey over looks the highway, and 4 out of 5 cars are less than 3 years old. I mean, they are Kias and Corollas, so nothing spectacular, but people actually have some semblance of middle class life now.
Kurt
That rot gut made me feel terrible for 3 days when I was a teenager. 37 years and it still turns me off to think about.
Well Kurt, not the case here. This is a fairly big city ( 225k pop). The "resort", and the city are easily discernable. Families riding on motorcycles, "third world" looking blind guys walking the streets at the intersections, beggars that make our domestic street corner homeless guys look like they got it good.
Electrical wiring strung haphazardly from one place to another to the houses that you drive by that from the air look like a bunch single room boxes.
And thats just what I saw on the cab ride in.
Im sure to your point that the resort has dramatically improved the lives of the residents as a result of the opportunity this place gives them, but there is a defined DMZ the lets you know that you're "not in Kansas anymore" when you're entering/leaving this area.
Some of these condos exceed 18mil for a single family dwelling. The one we're staying in would cost 550k to purchase.
At the same time, if all you want to do is live in this part of the city, with its own plunge pool, but no view, you could buy a very nice 2/2 for less than 100k. ( We've looked, trust me).
But just like all equatorial destinations, the season here is winter months only..the rest of the time humans melt here.
Oct-may is the great time here. Strong Pacific winds sometimes made it so cool you almost felt cold in a short sleeved shirt standing on the 3rd floor. But go down into town at street level, where that breeze aint blowing, and you get reminded that its 80 degrees/70% humidity after a short walk about.
You should see Jamaica, it's even worse. The resorts around Montego Bay have high walls around them so you don't get shot. Speaking of which, why are you worried about the Rona. You not get your jab yet? I thought Bama had plenty of vaccine.
Kurt
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