Dear Tom and Ray:
I own a 1979 Chevy Chevette with no floor. I'm a single nurse trying to make ends meet - in this case I'd like to make the sides of my car meet! I put down a couple of pieces of sheet metal, but they've succumbed to gravity and fallen through the holes. My car has 102,000 miles, and it's all I'm likely to have for a while. It's going to get cold soon. Is there anything I can do? - ChrisTOM: It's a good thing you're a nurse, Chris. Those doctor friends of yours are going to come in handy when you have second-degree burns on your backside from sliding half a mile down an exit ramp.
RAY: The doctor friends may be able to help you if you scrape yourself or catch cold because of these holes, but you'd better befriend some undertakers in case you ever get into an accident in this thing. This car used to have "unibody" construction, which means that the floor IS actually the frame. Now, it has "out-of-body" construction, which means it has absolutely no structural integrity.
TOM: If you get hit by anything - even an overweight bicyclist - this car will disintegrate around you. I know it's tough to make ends meet, Chris, but you can't keep driving this car as is.
RAY: If you want to keep it, you have to do extensive structural repairs, which involve welding cross-members to what's left of the unibody. But given the age of the car, and the fact that it's a Chevette (not one of the world's greatest cars to begin with), our advice would be to get another car.
Dear Tom and Ray:
I own a 1983 Ford LTD that I would like to keep as long as I can. It has one big fault. I dread driving this car in very hot weather, because after several stops, the temperature light will be on when I restart the car. According to my mechanic, the car has enough coolant, the thermostat is all right, and he now says, "It's the nature of the beast." What do you think? - Viola
TOM: The question you don't answer for us is whether the light goes out right after you restart the car. In very hot weather, it's not unusual for a car to get very hot right after you turn it off. That's because when you turn the engine off, the cooling system shuts down too. If you stopped at the post office on a 90-degree day to mail this letter to us, the engine could be much hotter when you came out then when you went in.
RAY: If the light goes right out, it's probably just the extreme outside temperature, but it could be an early sign that your cooling system is getting blocked up. If it only happens on very hot days, and if the light goes right out, your mechanic is probably right.
TOM: If the light does not go off right away, however, this beast of a mechanic is leading you down the garden path. Regular overheating will do serious damage to your LTD.
RAY: If the light is staying on, have another mechanic flow test the radiator, and check the temperature sending unit, the fan, the fan clutch and the water pump for starters. And until you get it fixed, don't stop to mail any more letters; especially to us!