The Adventures of a Man Driving a Truck with 350,000 Miles Part V(Reassembly and I’m Stupid)

by | Jul 25, 2024 | LifeSkills, Right to Repair | 106 comments

Part IV

OK, I now have the interior disassembled and painted, but before I put it all back in, I am installing a vinyl carpet. Cloth in a truck always seems wrong, plus my carpet was faded and stained. Once I pulled out the carpet, I figured it would be a good time to install a little sound insulation.

Nasty Carpet
Nasty Carpet

Automotive sound insulation is expensive, but on a show I watched, Garage Squad, they would use self-adhesive home insulation and it was half the price. I went to Lowe’s and picked up 2 rolls.

Starting to come together
Easy install
So much work
So Much Work

Installed the insulation and padding, then got the vinyl out of the box. It was creased pretty badly, so I laid it out in our guestroom overnight. I read the instructions and they said to remove it from the box immediately to avoid creases. I had had the box for 3 months at this point. The next day, I laid it out in the truck and it was still creased. Once I aligned it and drilled holes for the seat bolts, I started on the creases with my heat gun. I also bought a roller and got most of them out.

The grinder is pushing a fold flat
Vinyl Floor Going in

That’s just a trick of the light, the whole carpet is the same color.

Working diligently, I was able to get the whole thing to lay nice and flat, although there is one spot that got too hot and if you really look, the grain is a little distorted.

Unfortunately, I did not take any pictures once I got it flat, but it looks pristine.

Now it was time to go back to the dash. My $1,000 Ebay lower dash went together really nicely

$1,000 of pain
I hate Dodge for this

The upper dash pad went on perfectly and looked like a brand new dash should look.

This was so much more work than I thought it would be
New Dash

Shot that with the adhesion promoter and then a few coats of black. Everything was fine until I started to put some of the parts back on. My storage cubby and the airbag controller wouldn’t fit. After asking on CumminsForum I figured out that my lower dash was from and early 2nd Generation. In 1998 Dodge updated the interior on these trucks.

No longer fits
Mismatch

I ended up having to buy an early airbag controller, luckily the connector was the same. I also lost one of my 2 power outlets. Got everything attached and then put the whole thing in the truck.

Progress!
Coming Together

I haven’t done anything with the hole above the “new” airbag controller yet, I think I will stick a piece of plastic over it and attach my Bluetooth receiver to it. I have a real nice Clarion Stereo with JBL speakers, but when I got it installed, I did not have a smart phone, so I “saved” $20 buying the version with no Bluetooth. I now run a $25 Bluetooth receiver into the AUX inlet.

I put all of the assorted plastic in the truck on the doors and the rear floor. While I was at it I also replaced all of the weather stripping.

Now it was time for the center console. I never liked the factory rubber boots that were on the 2 shifters, and I always liked the older style ones. I replaces the boots with ones from Stronghold Shiftboots.

Then I put a new Wet Okole seat cover on the rear seat to match the front and installed the front seats.

FINALLY!
All New Interior
She looks so good
Finally Finished

I was enjoying driving the truck around and felt the turbo had broken in, so I started getting on it a little more. She would get up and go and then the engine would start clicking and it felt down on power. Once it was fully up to 194 degrees, the noise went away, but the power wasn’t where it should be. Here’s where being an inexperienced mechanic made me feel like an idiot. Because it was making the same noise it that had shown me a bad turbo before, I assumed the turbo was bad. I assumed this even though there was no shaft movement.

I redid the valve lash and it was still good, so that wasn’t the culprit.

On Cumminsforum, one person told me to check for exhaust leaks, but I didn’t see any soot marks anywhere around the manifold. To me it had to be the turbo. I remembered that after I had installed the turbo following an install video, I saw in the instructions for the turbo it said to run the starter with the fuel pump disconnected until oil was GUSHING out (it was bolded in the instructions). All I did was to dump a bunch of oil through the turbo with an oil can while spinning the impeller by hand. This reinforced the idea that the turbo was making the noise.

I called Power Driven Diesel and they did have a rebuild kit for the turbo. $150 later and they sent it to me. After rebuilding the stock turbo, I had an idea of what I was doing and all 3 steps were pretty easy(removal, rebuild, and install).

Easier than it looks
Disassembled PDD Turbo
All Put Back Together
Ready for Install

While it was apart, I didn’t see any sign of damage or scraping anywhere, but since I had the rebuild kit, I replaced all of the parts that were in the kit. When I reinstalled it,I made sure that I oiled it following the instructions by aving my wife crank the starter while I watched the turbo drain until I was happy with the amount of oil coming out of it.

All back together
Ready to Roll

When I went for my first test drive, I gave it some gas and as soon as the turbo started building boost, THE CLICKING CAME BACK. Rebuilding the turbo did nothing!

To say i was frustrated would be an understatement. Just to be thorough, I checked the valve lash again and it was all well within spec. I figured I would have to take it to a mechanic for professional help but a little voice reminded me about the exhaust leak that one guy had told me about. I did a visual inspection and still saw no soot, but figured I should make sure so I put my long 10m wrench on the first bolt. The weight of the wrench as I adjusted my grip was enough to turn the bolt! I heard Adam Savage say, “Well there’s your problem”. Then I tightened up all of the bolts. 8 out of 12 were only finger tight.

Once I tightened everything and stopped feeling like an idiot, I took her for a rip. Earlier I had said that I liked the turbo, but I didn’t love it. Well, now, I LOVE it.

Here is a quick video of me driving at about 1/2-3/4 throttle. She is so much fun and yes, I know it’s slow compared to a sports car, but something about a 6,500 pound vehicle moving like that brings a smile to my face every time I roll through the gears.

I have changed the name, Tundra suggested “Lola” and I liked that, but it never seemed to fit. Now I call her the No Good White Trash Ho, because she has cost me a lot of money and my wife is jealous of her.

And just for fun here is my Husky on the day I got him in September and on his birthday June 18th

About The Author

ron73440

ron73440

What I told my wife when she said my steel Baby Eagle .45 was heavy, "Heavy is good, heavy is reliable, if it doesn't work you could always hit him with it."-Boris the Blade MOLON LABE

106 Comments

  1. Sensei

    Fun read. If I remember right you now live somewhere without lots of road salt. I never get to see anything this old here in NJ.

    • Nephilium

      Every once in a while you see a classic on the roads around here… in summer. They get stored in garages for the rest of the year.

    • Gustave Lytton

      The Johnny come lately whiners got the state DOT here to start using salt. Assholes.

    • ron73440

      She was originally a Texas truck and when I fist looked underneath, I was amazed.

      Being from PA, I had never seen a truck that old that clean.

      I live in SE Virginia, and it doesn’t snow often.

      I was told they didn’t use salt, but the first time I drove my truck in the snow, I found out otherwise.

      I put POR 15 rust encapsulator on the springs and leafs, they were the only damaged parts, and will never drive in the salt again.

    • Dr Mossy Lawn

      My Wife has a 2006 F350 diesel in NJ.. The bed didn’t last 10 years, so we put on an aluminum flatbed. The transmission cooler lines rusted out, twice. The tank strap rusted. The running board mounts rusted. The rear shock mount failed. The cab body is going… less than 100K miles.

      Now this isn’t just NJ… my 07 range rover shows very little body rust, it did have brake line corrosion leaks. The coatings on those trucks are subpar. My other car isn’t a winter car so I doesn’t get to see the salt.

      • Tundra

        I had a 2003 Tahoe that was absolutely bulletproof. Except for the body and suspension components. 250K on the clock when I got rid of it. Original engine and tranny. Had it been a CO car I’d still be driving it.

      • ron73440

        My first truck was a 2000 , very similar to this one except it was an automatic.

        It only had 135,000 miles on it, but it was terminal.

        The fuel tank FELL OFF, tranny lines and brake lines rusted out, the body corners were gone.

        When I took the toolbox of the bed in preparation to trade it in on this one, I realized the bed was being held together by Rhino Liner.

        My wife kept telling me I was in an unhealthy relationship with it because I tried so hard to save it.

      • Fourscore

        My ’99 F150 MN truck went to AK in 2021 with my grand daughter, had about 120 K on it. Though it was garaged every night it was ravaged by the salt. I’m told the people in Fairbanks claim never to have seen such a rusty vehicle. Engine/trannie are great but the cosmetics are sorely lacking. AK doesn’t use salt or at least not much.

        The ’04 looks a lot better but beginning to get red around the wheel wells.

    • R C Dean

      Tucson is covered up in old cars, relatively speaking. Its fun to see them on the road.

  2. Gustave Lytton

    Pretty dog and pretty truck! My new truck makes my eyes roll when I think about it. 405hp and 6.57 0-60. Faster and more power than the sports cars when I was a kid. And I can haul all the lumber I need.

  3. The Late P Brooks

    It’s detonation.

    Oh, wait…

  4. Sean

    How much of a difference did the sound insulation make?

    • ron73440

      The engine is still pretty loud, but the stereo sounds cleaner so there seems to be much less road noise.

      I thought about doing a sound level test prior to, but did not.

      • Sensei

        Part of the thing with unpleasant noise is that the frequency is more important than the actual sound pressure level. Lots of these treatments are designed to attenuate those frequencies more than reduce sound pressure levels significantly.

    • R C Dean

      I was looking at doing something about the noise in the FJ. I basically noped out at “completely strip the interior”, but I recall a couple of things I saw:

      The quality of the sound insulation makes a big difference.

      You need to leave no gaps – zip, zero, nada.

      There is absolutely no way I would tackle a project like that, ron.

  5. slumbrew

    “Rebuilding the turbo did nothing!”

    All I can think of

    Nice write-up – I’m starting to get a little nostalgic about our old Honda and am tempted to put more money into her than she’s really worth to keep her going.

    • Tundra

      It’s all about cost per mile, Slum. Unles the body is shit it’s almost always worth keeping it going. Just take a gander at the sales tax on a new car. You can buy a lot of Honda parts for that.

    • ron73440

      I’ve got about $30,000 total in this one.

      That’s a lot of money for a 23 year old truck and if I get in an accident, there is no way I would get fair value.

      But for that much money, I have a really nice truck and could not get close to that level trying to purchase a newer model.

      • Sensei

        You can look into getting what is called “agreed value insurance” for the vehicle.

        Usually it is done for lower annual mileage collector cars, but given the age this very well may qualify. The issue would be how much mileage they allow.

        Worth the web search at least.

  6. The Late P Brooks
    • R.J.

      Rust. I just rebuilt one side of a year old Leatherman Arc. What made it rust so bad? Never had that happen in a multitool before.

  7. DEG

    Now I call her the No Good White Trash Ho, because she has cost me a lot of money and my wife is jealous of her.

    🙂

    Excellent work!

  8. Mojeaux the Lazy Yenta

    From one 350,000-mile Ram owner to another, 😭

    You have the patience of a saint.

  9. Tundra

    Excellent write-up. I still like Lola, but it’s your truck 😉

    Then I tightened up all of the bolts. 8 out of 12 were only finger tight.

    Shit like this seems to happen every project I work on. Something isn’t right and instead of going to the simplest fix I start replacing shit.’

    Pup looks awesome!

    • ron73440

      Apparently, with a new exhaust manifold they will work themselves loose a couple times before they set.

      I re-tightened them again on vacation because the clicking noise came back.

    • DEG

      Shit like this seems to happen every project I work on. Something isn’t right and instead of going to the simplest fix I start replacing shit.’

      It kinda happened to me with a clutch job I did on my first car. The ground strap attached to a bolt holding the transmission bell housing to the engine.

      I didn’t tighten that bolt enough. I noticed my lights flickering. I poked around under the hood wondering if there was an obvious problem with a connector or something like that.

      Then I saw the bolt holding the ground strap had worked out about half way. Oops.

  10. CatchTheCarp

    I watched your vid, is it normal for a diesel to belch out that much black exhaust while shifting gears? Nice job on the interior! When I was in the military I was riding in the front of a 5 ton 6×6 with a turbo. At a stop sign the driver said watch this…. he ripped thru the gears and got 3rd gear scratch. If I had not witnessed that I would have never believed that was possible.

    • ron73440

      Being an older truck with less engine tech, the bigger injectors and turbo makes it smoke some, but it clears quickly once the turbo lights.

  11. The Other Kevin

    I love these articles. And I admire anyone who has the know-how and the guts to tackle something like this.

    My Honda is 10 years old, and I’ve decided to drive it to 500k miles. (I have seen Accords to 1million). I’m having friends help me with fixes. Recently I needed a new CV axle and a few friends didn’t want to tackle it. But one who’s a mechanic for FedEx took it on, and it was a joy to watch him work. Had the whole job done in under an hour, and that included a quick trip to AutoZone to borrow a torque wrench. (PS it really wasn’t a scary fix).

    • ron73440

      I did front struts and axles on my Saab, not hard at all.

      • violent_k

        Ron, If you don’t find the grill for your 9-3 I may have one for you.

    • Trials and Trippelations

      Same here. I wish I knew more about cars. I think the plan/hope is to keep the F150 forever and try to keep the Focus going longer than possible.
      Definitely ditching the Durango when it conks out though.

    • Tundra

      A real faactory repair manual is a good investment.

      These tend to be better than Haynes

      You may also be able to get one through Honda. I prefer hard copy, but electronic will be cheaper.

      • ron73440

        I have the FSM (Factory Service Manual) on my garage tablet and home computer.

    • SDF-7

      I’m at 496k on my 2003 Monte Carlo now — I’m pretty sure I’ll hit 500k driving back to California next week. Regular engine work, pretty sure I got the transmission rebuilt once. Surprisingly don’t remember changing shocks or struts… it has been a really, really solid car.

      But unfortunately I lack an adorable husky pup. Given I can’t imagine how miserable a husky would be at 110+ F in California summers, that’s for a reason. 😉

      Nice writeup, nice pics Ron. You’re a better man than I fighting the dash (I did it for an ’80 Monte Carlo once… I hope to never do it again.

      • ron73440

        I love the 80’s era Monte Carlo SS’s.

        I was always partial to the black ones with red trim.

  12. The Late P Brooks

    Apparently, with a new exhaust manifold they will work themselves loose a couple times before they set.

    A dab of red high temp silicone (not loctite) on the threads usually helps. It also makes them a whole lot easier to get off in the future.

    • ron73440

      I used anti-seize, but that sounds like a better option.

  13. juris imprudent

    I’m reminded of the scene with Lucifer and Gabriel in Constantine: “looks like someone doesn’t have your back anymore”.

  14. The Other Kevin

    So it looks like that cousin that was living with us will be officially moving out this weekend. She’s been alternately staying with a friend and an aunt after we asked her to pay rent (which she did for 2 months after living here 18 months). We have a few hints she might be shit talking about us to the rest of the family. I would hope they know us better. That rent would have come in handy, but it has been a lot quieter around her without her chaos. She is currently unemployed, just broke her foot, and is trying to cheaply build a house on some property she bought last year. Thus she it would seem she needs a free place to stay.

    As Mojeaux said recently, these situations never end well.

    • ron73440

      It sucks when you get punished for trying to help someone.

      • Sensei

        No good deed goes unpunished.

      • The Other Kevin

        Agreed. If she had just contributed something all along, we’d still be fine.

      • Nephilium

        There’s only so much you can do to save someone from their own worst impulses and decisions… especially when they refuse to take any of the blame.

    • rhywun

      Oof. I had (emphasis on had) a friend who owed me a ton of money try to freeload off me after I thought he left town. Felt guilty for saying No for a long time but I think I made the right decision.

      • The Other Kevin

        I don’t feel bad for trying to help. But as Mrs. TOK said, the worst part is we helped her for so long, and when we needed help she couldn’t get away fast enough.

  15. Timeloose

    Great work Ron. The interior looks mint.

    For those of you who frequent the Zoom calls, you might have seen my Ranger in various states of disassembly. I spent the better part of the past winter and early spring doing rust abatement, rot patching, and repainting/sealing.

    I started my efforts with a mechanically excellent truck (drive train) that had what appeared to be some minor rust issues. Fast forward a few inspections with the lift and I found rockers that were poorly patched and bondoed (with rot in many places), a bed with a few square feet of rot, and a frame with some severe surface rust.

    The bed is was unavailable except from scrap yards and most were as bad if not worse, the rockers could be sourced, but it requires a huge effort to remove and re-attach the new ones, and the frame was still “OK” if I could slow down or stop further rust.

    I found bed patches, but the horizontal runners that support the bed were severely rotted as well, so I had a fabricator bend me some sheet metal to match 2 new ones for ~$100. The rocker panels were beyond simple patching, so I went with a stop gap cover that will allow inspection. The frame and body were treated to rust removal, abatement, and sealing.

    My process for rust is the following:

    Wire wheel loose and flaky rust using a angle grinder, clean all oil and contamination using a degreaser, paint and convert/abate with a product called Corroseal, and then apply a very durable rust proofing paint (Chassis Saver). The Corroseal works like magic and you should use it over a well rusty high surface area finish for best results. It converts the Iron oxide to magnetite and provides a primed surface. The Chassis Saver is a very durable polyurethane that can be used as a final paint. For further protection against salt you can add a final coating like Fluid Film.

    I did all of this to maintain a 15 year old truck that I want to keep for a while. I don’t expect it to last forever, but it was a proof of process for me. The process was worked out by a friend of mine who has 5 or more classic trucks (80’s- 2000’s) at one time that have held up very well.

    • ron73440

      What year Ranger? Any pics?

      My brother used to have an old one with the three on the tree.

      That truck was a lot of fun to go through the woods in.

      • Timeloose

        2007 XLT 4.0L with a 5speed manual. It’s a hoot to drive and is very capable off road.

        I’ll try to add some pics to the Forum.

        I forgot to mention the reason it was so messed up with rust was that the previous owner liked to not wash the undercarriage after off-roading. I found about 5 lbs of mud and sand in the rockers.

        The best thing that you can do to keep rust at bay on a new vehicle in the salt belt is to run it through the manual carwash. Spray that thing down (especially the under carriage and wheel wells) at least once a week in the winter once the salt starts to fly.

      • Tundra

        Looks beautiful! Nice work.

      • ron73440

        Nice, I tried the rust converter on my 2000, but the rust went too deep.

        When I drove it to the dealer for the last time, one of the leaf spring shackles broke and it knocked $500 off the trade in price.

        I had painted this one with the converter, so from the outside it looked fine.

      • ron73440

        I do like that ranger.

      • Timeloose

        Thanks Ron and Tundra.

        My shackles were replaced at some point. There will be some rust that will eventually win around the cross member where the torsion bars are mounted. That will be the end of this truck.

        Rust repair is not even attempted by body shops these days. If they can’t replace the panel they don’t want to do it, even with the rocker replacement, they didn’t want to do it. They consider it restoration and the price doubles or triples.

      • ron73440

        Rust repair is not even attempted by body shops these days.

        All they want to do is insurance work.

        I called many shops and wound up with 2 that would even look at my truck and give me an estimate to repaint her.

    • trshmnstr

      Im in the evaluation process with my ’04 Silverado. I bought it for $6k last fall, immediately put in another $3k to get it to pass inspection (and a few other things while they had the front end apart) and now I’m trying to figure out what needs to be done.

      Its rusty most everywhere… Worst on the rockers and in the bed. It can’t be aligned because some of the bolts are so seized. The front ABS sensors are throwing an error, so the hubs likely need to be replaced. Everything plastic is starting to fail as it ages out.

      OTOH, it runs like a dream for having 205k miles on it.

      • trshmnstr

        Oh, and the AC blows hot air and the power steering craps out at low speed. Plenty of projects on this one.

      • Timeloose

        Trashy, I had to replace the front hubs on the Ranger. They came with both bearings, abs sensors, and fresh new lug studs. They were surprisingly easy to replace and cost about $100. Separating the hub from the steering knuckle was difficult, but a chisel and hammer at the seam helped to separate them. They were incredibly rusty.

        No more ABS pulsing prior to coming to a full stop and no more bearing noise.

      • ron73440

        Rust sucks, even with Dodge’s crappy plastic, working on this truck is a breeze compared to the rusted out 2000.

      • Tundra

        Haha!

        I had to do a hub in the Tahoe and needed a fucking sledge to break it loose.

  16. The Late P Brooks

    Every time I pull the dash out of my truck, less of it makes it back in.

    • Mojeaux the Lazy Yenta

      Mine’s so brittle it caved in completely. I’m probably just going to leave it alone or get a dash cover.

    • ron73440

      None of this dash is original.

      The upper and lower parts disintegrated on me.

  17. ron73440

    I didn’t add this to the article, but the airflow for A/C wasn’t quite right.

    It would come out of the center vent only and the windshield would fog up a little.

    We were OK with this until summer hit and we went for a 4 hour drive each way and were just miserable.

    That had to be fixed before our trip to Pennsylvania.

    I had to remove the dash AGAIN and discovered that I had tightened the blend door too much and didn’t check it to make sure the door moved easily like the instructions said.

    6 hours of work for a 5 minute fix, but now I have ice cold A/C going for me, which is nice.

    • R.J.

      He stole DeSantis’ boots.

  18. Timeloose

    I’m about to tackle the heater blend actuator and door on my Ranger. The easiest way to replace the door is to dremel out the bottom of the heater duct break off the old door and insert a new one. Then you need to tape or glue the duct back together. I’ll do both, with a plastic welder and follow up with tape if needed.

  19. Sensei

    “My regret is that we didn’t say we would stay up there until the mission is complete, but I’m very confident we have a good vehicle to bring the crew back,” Nappi said.

    Just sit right back and you’ll hear a tale
    a tale of a fateful trip,
    that started from this tropic port,
    aboard this tiny ship.

    Astronauts stuck in space for 49 days by malfunctioning Boeing spacecraft can’t return home for weeks

    https://nypost.com/2024/07/25/us-news/astronauts-stuck-in-space-for-49-days-by-malfunctioning-boeing-spacecraft-cant-return-home-for-weeks/

    • Suthenboy

      And the DEI clown show goes on

    • Drake

      I’m shocked that Elon hasn’t offered them a ride home.

      • trshmnstr

        I’m sure he has, but they’re not giving up on this for some reason. IMO, they should have it do an autonomous re-entry to be safe and send up a crew dragon to rescue the stranded people.

    • Gustave Lytton

      *looks at current exchange rate*

      Meh…

    • rhywun

      China had a reputation for charging tourists _less_ when I traveled there in 2001.

    • Timeloose

      Might be time to make a run to Osaka for some Seiko and Oriental watches.

      • Necron 99

        Evil, I have been drooling over Spring Drive Grand Seiko since I first saw one on YouTube. That sweeping second hand movement mesmerizes me.

      • Timeloose

        I’ve been looking at cheapo Timex reissues lately and bought two of them. They are sharp and well made.

        I got the Q Timex 1972 Reissue 43x39mm Leather Strap Watch

        And I’ll be getting the Mystery Dial or the Marlin® Automatic 40mm Leather Strap Watch next.

        https://timex.com/collections/mens-vintage-inspired-watches

      • R C Dean

        Ooh, nice watch, Evil. Really nice. I don’t like the overcomplicated ones. Although I would like a moonphase watch some day.

      • slumbrew

        I had a custom strap made as a gift for a friend’s Grand Seiko.

        Might pull the trigger myself.

        https://www.combat-straps.com/

      • Tundra

        I would post a pic of my Garmin, but I don’t want to show off.

      • R C Dean

        Slumbrew, when the Big Dumb One killed a Gila Monster in his yard several years ago, I badly wanted to get at least one watch strap made from the skin – that pebbled black and orange is completely distinctive, although a little over the top for me. Sadly, because they are an endangered species, it doesn’t matter how they died, you can’t do anything with them.

        So I threw him in the trash. The Gila Monster, not the dog.

      • slumbrew

        Such a waste, R C Dean.

        The guy who does the custom straps is in Montreal & may have different laws, but then you’d probably be guilty of some international smuggling violation.

        I get the rational for the “doesn’t matter how they died” part (too easy to cheat) but it’s still a waste.

    • JaimeRoberto (carnitas/spicy salsa)

      When we were in Russia the tourist prices at museums was about 10x the local price. My wife can pass as Russian and is more willing to bribe her way in through a side entrance, so we often got better than Russian prices. The people at the ticket booth would take one look at me and point me to the tourist line. On the other hand she almost got arrested at the border for not reporting foreign currency, while the border guards completely ignored me.

  20. Mojeaux the Lazy Yenta

    Husband’s going to go donate blood today so he can enter to win a new Ram.

    • Ted S.

      Second prize is a ewe?

    • slumbrew

      Your dude is like Teela Brown.

      Start saving for the taxes on that prize.

      • Timeloose

        Nice Ringworld reference!

      • R C Dean

        When my hospital would do its big annual raffle fundraiser, there were a bunch of cars in the prize pool. They would all come with a cash kicker for the taxes.

  21. Suthenboy

    Wife ranting about olympics
    What was with the tranny dude at the olympic torch ceremony thingy…I barely paid attention now I want to see what that is about.

    • Suthenboy

      never mind. found it.

    • Suthenboy

      When I was about 12 my friend Nathan _______ came over to spend the weekend with my brothers and myself. He had a blast. He was a city boy and had never slept in the woods, swam in a creek, swung on a vine…eaten wild game cooked on a campfire. I also taught him to shoot with a Remington youth model 514 .22. He loved it.
      When his father came to get him and found out about the shooting dad was very upset. Nathan’s father and the dude in that article (along with a ton of other left voting Jews) I think of as inscrutable Jews with their heads up their asses. WTF? Why would any Jew not have a gun all of the time or vote for people who want to disarm them? They have their heads up their asses in denial, that’s why.

    • Not Adahn

      Two things:

      “I hope this isn’t offensive,” one of them asked, “but how did he know you were Jewish?” In truth, he didn’t. In this man’s twisted worldview, perhaps anyone who challenged him, or simply existed in this part of town, was a despicable Jew to be set upon and attacked.

      He immediately slammed on his brake,threw the bike aside and stormed toward me, his eyes bugging with rage. I tried to apologize, but he was already wound up. “You f—ing Jew pig. I am going to kill you and your animal,” he screamed. In seconds he was upon me, spitting at me and hurling “Jew! Jew! Jew!” while pummeling my face.

      I managed to deflect the worst of his assault, but punches hit my neck and wrist, and another grazed my cheek as I jerked back. My instincts were all defensive. I was also worried about the dog, whom the man tried to kick. I managed to yank Biscotti away and dashed across the bridge to the reservoir running track, but not before he ripped my shirt.

      “No dogs allowed up here,” a passing jogger scolded me as I tried to call 911. I looked up and unbelievably, there was my attacker again, back on his bike and coming at me on the cinder path, shouting “You can’t run, Jew. I’m going to kill you now.” I turned to run as fast as my 70-year-old legs and a bewildered Schnauzer would take me.

      I call hoax.

      • Sensei

        This guy has written for the WSJ for years. Not saying it couldn’t be, but he has little to gain here and much more to lose.

      • R C Dean

        “You can’t run, Jew. I’m going to kill you now.”

        I like to think that if I saw that happening, I’d clothesline the guy right off the bike as he went past me.

      • Not Adahn

        Here’s the thing: We know that first quoted sentence is completely unsupportable unless the author has telepathy. So that demonstrates he’s willing to take liberties with facts.

        The second part is where a frail septugenarian who has difficulty physically handling a schnauzer fights off a younger attracter in rage mode one handed then outruns him. Since we know from the earlier bit that the author is willing to fudge things in order to make a compelling story, this increases the implausibility of the self-defense described to the level of incredible.

      • R C Dean

        He also needs a different dog. I’m imagining the instantaneous transformation of one of the Dean Beasts from goofy doofus to homicidal rage machine if somebody jumped me or Mrs. Dean like that.

      • R C Dean

        “I was driven to the police station in Central Park and interviewed by an on-the-ball detective, who pulled surveillance video of a man fitting the description I provided—orange baseball cap, salt-and-pepper beard, dark jeans, likely Middle Eastern appearance and accent. A park surveillance video camera showed him riding a CitiBike just yards from where the attack occurred at 6:13 p.m., exactly one minute after my 911 call.”

        Unless he picked the guy out of the crowd, and then called in a fake attack planning to pin it on a passerby, I’m thinking not a hoax. Although I’m not sure where the “likely Middle Eastern accent” comes from in a visual ID.

    • EvilSheldon

      “They are not like you.”

      Read it, understand it, internalize it. And the next time you reach out and contact someone on the street, think back on this lesson. It was a cheap one as such lessons go.

    • slumbrew

      “Whoops”