muttmobile

thanks for the suggestion but i'm not interested kennels. the leather will be fine once the seats are folded down, plus i'll have some heavy duty blankets covering the rear. just need to cover them door panels, but i'm hopping one of maxbaby's suggestions will pan out. al

plexiglass, a thick rubber sheet, or even a towel will work, my problem is thinking of a way to drape it and keep it over the door panels.

finally, a useful suggestion! (not that i don't appreciate the humor (or attempts at it )) thanks maxbaby, this gives me something to work off of. both your ideas sound great (though i don't have a dremmel). i can't quite picture the plastic accordion file holders though, so i'll have to go to an office-depot to check it out. unfortunately i'll have to wait till after christmas to shop around for this stuff since it's hell out there in the stores right now. thanks again - i appreciate the thoughtful reply. alex

i've done extensive research on this idea, but the problems are: a) too expensive hard to get the dosage right (ie, either they wake up too early, or their still out long after you get to your destination c) tend to miss when shooting and hit the cat

already got, but their claws are even worse

the mutts need to travel in the back with the rear seats down in my '01 LE, but the rear door panel tops are made of a somewhat 'cushy', soft material that will be destroyed when my mid-sized mutt balances on it with her sharp little claws in order to get her head out the window. i'm thinking of hooking something to the inside lip where the window recedes into the door and perhaps draping something from that over the door. this is my vague idea...but i haven't got it to fully materialize yet. the hooks'll need to be plastic, or coated metal so as not to scratch up the lip and window...my creativity just isn't sparking on this one... any ideas? unfortunately nissan uses nicer materials than ford (my expy has non-scratching cheap plastic door-panels that i don't have to worry about). useful ideas will be greatly appreciated by the mutts and I, al

i'm no expert, but i don't think it's as simple as that. unless you're pulling from a truck that's the same as yours the sound will likely be different since the engine and such are different.

awesome, i appreciate the help. alex

i think i noticed that copper spray gasket at the auto store, but i bought some High-Temp Red RTV Silicone Gasket Maker - what do you think of that? Will that work? Ooops, just noticed it's the Permatex brand you mentioned. I'll probably just use it since i've already got all the old gasket off and i wont need to do this again for 30k or so (and i put less than 7k a year on my cars).

thanks for the suggestions mws and 88blk4x4. i'll look for that 3m stuff next time. there was some sort of chemical gasket remover at pepboys, but they were out of it. so now i'm using the paint scraper (a mesh of bristles of some sort) attachment on my makita (suggested on another site). that's doing pretty good so far. still a PITA, but much easier than scraping with a screwdriver, but at least i'm almost done. this is my first transmission fluid change, and as usual, the hardest part is something i hadn't even thought of as being an issue.

any tips on getting these gaskets off? so far i've scrapped less than 5% of the original gasket off (and about 5% of the skin on my left hand as well). thanks, alex

glad i could help with the suggestion. yeah, i've had my fill of slimy mechanics, that's why i've tried to learn to do as much as i can myself. i once had a brake shop (before i could do my own brakes) tell me i needed $900 worth of brake repair and that my car was in such bad condition i shouldn't even drive away from the shop (this was in San Diego). well i did drive away, and that weekend i took a trip up here and brought my car to Pat's. he pulled off my wheels, told me my brakes were fine for at least another 6 months, and sent me on my way. no, i'm not the same guy who was going to buy your shocks, though when i do need replacements (for my expy or pathfinder) i'll most likely be getting bilsteins. al

socal is quite a large area...i'm located in woodland hills and have been taking my cars to Pat's Auto Clinic in Reseda for most of the problems i can't figure out myself. Pat's just got a little dinky shop and he doesn't always have the best bed-side manor or prices, but i've found him to be very trustworthy. on at least 4 different occasions he's worked on my car and charged me nothing, and he's also given me advice so that i can fix the problems on my own. but again, he's not always the best communicator, sometimes a bit gruff (i've seen him get downright nasty with a snap-on tools rep) and may leave you standing and waiting for annoying amounts of time...got to take the good with the bad i suppose. al