Author: Francisco

Youthful Intentions

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Diego came home from school yesterday and insisted we could start a band and play guitar. He has been somewhat intrigued with music since we saw Jack Black’s movie (Tenacious D in \’The Pick of Destiny\’). As for me I picked up Camille (a black Fender Squier that I bought in college) and started jamming a few power chords. The guitar needs some fixing, but it’s custom Carvin pickups still sound great after all these years. Both kids have been showing an interest since I started strumming every now and then. In fact, I ordered a new Valve combo amp and it should be getting here today, so it will be interesting to see how good Camille sounds on a moderately good amp. My new guitar is still backordered and won’t be arriving any time soon. It’s going to be a Gibson Les Paul Studio, the same one from my wishlist actually. I’m pretty stoked about it.

The whole guitar thing has made me feel a little rebellious at times. I haven’t really listened to music in a long time, and I think it is about time I make more accommodations in my life to enjoy music, and I’m not just talking about buying an iPod, but really record some notes and create something. The artist in me isn’t dead yet. Life can’t be about computers and politics, it has to be about something better than ourselves.

On another sidenote, I’d like to welcome Kevin, who posted his first web blog post here on Olaguez.net. Kevin is a good friend and I look forward to reading his take on things. Until next time, Keep On Rocking In The U.S.A.

Disassemble The 94 LeSabre Dashboard

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This weekend, I needed to change the stereo in the Buick LeSabre. Since I’ve never did it before, I had to figure it out and while the Internet has lots of information, instructions on how to actually remove the dashboard from a 1994 Buick LeSabre are actually hard to find. Here are some notes on the process:

  • First you will need a 7mm socket, a long philips screwdriver, a flat screwdriver, and possibly a small flashlight if you don’t have good lighting.
  • Next open the glove compartment and both doors to the car.
  • The faux wood panels are the easy part. Just slightly pull them up and they should snap out of place.
  • Now the main black dash cover is one long piece. For this you must unscrew several retainer blots, most of which are hidden behind the air vents. Using a flat screwdriver carefully press down on the air vents from the top, then turn them sideways and they should come out.
  • Behind each of the air vents you will need to remove each of the retainer bolts.
  • With all the retainer bolts out, you can pull up on the black dash cover and remove it. You might have to move the shifting arm out of the way in order to get enough clearance.
  • This should leave you with a bare dash and access to several more bolts that hold the stereo in place.

When putting back the dash, make sure you do not overtighten any bolts as this will cause the plastic dash pieces to crack or break.

Ford Truck Man

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Yesterday I dropped by the Ford dealership in West Liberty and bought a replacement for the Buick LeSabre that the deer destroyed. It’s official now, I’m a Ford Truck Man! Between the F-150 pickup and our new used 2000 Ford Windstar, we have converted to a Ford household.

In some respects I will miss the LeSabre. It had a comfortable ride and lasted nine years. It did go through a transmission service and other costly repairs (replacing the struts alone costs about $900), and then there were the alternators that I went through every two years it seemed. But the LeSabre had a comfortable ride on the interstate and it did get up to around 110 MPH on a couple of occasions. Alas, it had close to 180,000 miles and was showing its age, mostly in the interior.

Katryn insisted on a minivan this time around, because she wants to fit an entire basketball team in the car, and because we are tall people; and if we ever have that third child, (nope, I’m not planning on it yet!) or that family dog she keeps talking about, we will need plenty of room. I tried looking for a used minivan and found the quest quite daunting; the dealerships have plenty of small cars and SUV type vehicles, but I can’t afford a Tahoe and if you look at the Explorer and Trailblazer, they are actually smaller in length than the F-150 pickup. Even though I’m not totally sold on Ford, I wanted to try a non-GM car this time around and found the Windstar to be a good fit for what Katryn wanted. It has moderate leg room for six foot tall people and when I test drove it, it handled a little bit better than the F-150. Last time I drove a Blazer, it pretty much drove like a pickup truck, so I was expecting the minivan to be equally slow, but it actually is a bit smoother and acceleration is decent too. The combination of price and the good condition the minivan was in, made for a good deal and so I ended up buying it on the spot.

Overall it was a good deal. I ended up paying pretty much KellyBlueBook value for it, but I did not really care too much cause the minivan had only 72,000 miles on it and the car dealer was nice and not pushy unlike other Ford dealers I’ve dealt with. I would recommend buying from them again. During the summer I had their service mechanic tune-up the F-150 and he was pretty nice too. I much rather drive the 15 minutes to West Liberty, Iowa and feel comfortable, than take it to the big Ford dealer in town any day.