Adding Pizazz!!

After my ranger was a total loss, I decided to replace it with a 2005 F150 extended cab pickup. This truck is red with gray trim at the lower part of the body, chrome bumpers, and chrome wheels (from the factory). Many of the more expensive trucks have some type of wheel-well moldings of a contrasting color or chrome – this one did not. I thought my truck needed a little more “pizazz” from the side view.

After shopping around I chose chrome fender /wheelwell moldings purchased from a local parts store for about $80.00. The four moldings came with a sheet of instructions and a package of screws and clips. Because of my automotive experience, I knew the screws were to hold the moldings on and holes had to be drilled into the sheet metal lip of the wheelwell opening – but nothing was mentioned in the instructions about this or the purpose of the clips and there is no picture the procedure.

You must hold the chrome to the lip of the fender so you can drill through the molding holes (pre-drilled) once it is in place.
The instructions said to drill a 1/8” hole and screw in the screws provided. The bad part of this instruction is that the screws are much smaller than the 1/8” hole you were instructed to drill in the body. Solution= bigger screws or change the 1/8” bit to a smaller bit.
I think the finished product looks great. Well worth $80.00 and 45 minutes installation time.

Wreck

What happens when a working man on the way home meets a ‘meth user’ in a borrowed car?
I was traveling a stretch of highway that I have traveled twice a day for 18 years but I was not prepared for what was traveling on the other side of the hill at a high rate of speed on the wrong side of the road. All I had time to do was think, “Oh, God help.” He did.
We hit hard on the drivers side spinning my ford ranger out of control, across the highway, through a ditch, up a steep bank, and back into the ditch.
Some of the damage to my vehicle:
* both air bags deployed
* the radio separated in the dash flying to the back of the cab
* windshield broke
* drivers front wheel brake and steering was ripped from the truck
* drivers door was ripped from the body at the lower door hinge
* crushed the extended cab lower quarter
* tore the rear tire from a badly damaged left rear wheel

The other vehicle had similar damage. The driver and passenger were both arrested. The high-on-drugs (authority's description) driver said he must have blacked-out and did not know what happened; however, the passenger was alert enough that he tried to hide the digital scales and drugs.

Thank God, seat belts, and air bags we survived with no serious injuries!