stuff i think

long time coming....

We got the '01 Mitsubishi Montero the weekend ZB was born. It had 25,000 miles on it. Zion had none. Since then, we've had it west to the Rockies, east to the coast, south to Florida and all points in between. Twice. It has served us flawlessly. After four years and two months, it's just short of 140,000 and really needed a little maintenance, so this week we gave the ol' girl a makeover.

First, we replaced the windshield that has been cracked...for the last eighteen months. The crack started small at the top right and worked it's way southeast until it was nearly corner to corner. The new windshield makes an amazing difference - I never realized how you sort of instinctively 'look around' something like that. Now we can actually use the whole windshield.

Next, we had the truck detailed. Four years with three growing boys has taken it's toll. The seats were steam cleaned, the wheels brushed up, and the exterior waxed. The front fenders and hood took the wax better than the rest of the truck because those parts are about a year newer than the rest of the truck. Don't ask, but be careful in the parking lot of the Walmart in Blue Springs, Missouri.

Finally, we installed a new timing belt and water pump. The old water pump was fine, but getting to the unit takes an act of congress, so once you've got the timing belt out it's prudent to go ahead and do both. Our friend is a mechanic here in Tennessee. He asked "have you changed that out yet?" I said "Uh, no. Should I?" He suggested we were already about fifty or sixty thousand miles into some sort of grace period, so we went for it.

I guess we can't complain...considering how far we've driven it and only put in gas and oil.