High Mileage Tales of the Undead!

It came as a bit of a surprise recently when we were called to do some plumbing work on a few train cars. Interesting stuff, never worked on train cars before. It's like working on a long tube shaped house made of stainless steel. We have been there on and off for a few train car restorations, they call us for the addition of sinks and toilets, water lines, whatever they need to add to the train cars.
You can't just send anyone there, so it's myself and the boss, we handle the trains.

One guy is watching us work and asking some questions like he knows what we're doing and I don't know, he's running wires so an electrician couldn't possibly know anything about plumbing rules. We're a bit touchy about someone telling us how to do our jobs, but we dismissed it. Later on that day, we were finishing up and the guy is talking about how he goes all over the country doing these trains and he shows us his phone with pictures of a steam locomotive that he restored all of the steam lines. Gauges, valves, specialized tubing bends, it was very nice work and I told him that. I guess an electrician CAN know how to plumb. Alrighty then.

Now that we're all "buddy buddy", he says his truck, which I noticed in the parking area and was a rusty pile of shit, that it has nine hundred and sixty thousand miles on it. 960,000 miles!!! I say "Oh bullshit, lets go out there". Several guys follow us because they want to know if he's full of shit or not. I take a look at the thing and he pulls out the Columbus Ohio paper that just did an article on the truck! Holy shit, I have to take a closer look at this thing. 960K miles? On something American? It happens with over the road diesel lorrys all the time but an "F" series pickup truck? Nope- it was legitimate. Check it out:

http://www.fmxpaulgrenade.com/sitepics/nov15/frd1.jpg

http://www.fmxpaulgrenade.com/sitepics/nov15/frd2.jpg

http://www.fmxpaulgrenade.com/sitepics/nov15/frd3.jpg

http://www.fmxpaulgrenade.com/sitepics/nov15/frd4.jpg

http://www.fmxpaulgrenade.com/sitepics/nov15/frd5.jpg

http://www.fmxpaulgrenade.com/sitepics/nov15/frd6.jpg

http://www.fmxpaulgrenade.com/sitepics/nov15/frd7.jpg

http://www.fmxpaulgrenade.com/sitepics/nov15/frd9.jpg

He bought it brand new, 18 years ago. I asked him why he's kept it running, was it a personal challenge? Was it sentimental value? Why keep it going? He said that it was because he knew more about this engine than Ford does. He's a very intelligent guy and it's a good thing I wasn't into diesel engines or he would have unwittingly just created his new best friend, that's for sure. I listened to him talk for 20 minutes and I've learned a few things. I told him to be sure to share that knowledge because it's rare that one person has so much of it. Interesting how in only a few hours your opinion of someone can change so greatly. That dude is smart.

Speaking of smart- have a look at this dog:
http://www.fmxpaulgrenade.com/sitepics/nov15/tubbed.PNG

No idea whom the bloke in the tub is.

Lol at the picture. 920k is galactic miles. My BMW has done 178k I think it's got a few more miles in it but not another 700k!!!! He must have replaced every bearing on that thing at some point to make it that far, especially on a Ford!!!

The engine, transmission and rear end are all original. Everything else has been changed several times is what he told us. I could have sat there and listened to him talk about that truck for another hour but I had to go. My truck has 146k on it and there is no way it would last that long! 960K! That is nuts! I bet it drives like shit. hahahaha

Circa 53k a year. That's a lot of miles he does!

My trusty tank (volvo 850d) had 343k on it when it was written off by a bus. Every year it'd go in for an MOT, every year I was convinced "it'll be it's last" and every year it'd prove me wrong.

Volvos are indestructible, my father in law has an s60 d5 its 13 years old, galactic miles and looks like a hunk of junk but just won't die!

I remember in the 80's if a car had over 100,000 miles on it, it was done. If it had 130K on it, it was a miracle! The odometers never had that sixth digit because they didn't expect the car to last that long!
Cars didn't start to last in the states until around 1996. It's easy to see which make and model of vehicles are junk and which ones are runners by scanning the for sale ads and the low price sections. I consistently see the same types of cars that need an engine, transmission etc. but are of the newer model years.

I like to get about 200k-225k out of something if I can and then basically give it away because hey, I got my money out of it in miles. This guy? as smart as he is, that's crazy. After a while I'd like to drive my 53,000 miles a year in something that didn't smell like a fart.

Lol too true at the fart smell, you would think he'd have got bored of it bearing in mind he must spend well over 1000hours a year in his car!