While I still agree that it’d be nice to be a little more loose, I disagree that the site isn’t already elevated from the others. It absolutely is. The hardcore tech sites are full of irritable grumps who have answered the same “when does VTEC kick in yo” question 3 million times and react angrily when it gets asked again, and the unmoderated general sites are full of the kinds of posts we saw when car complaints first started getting cross posted here.
This is the best car site on the internet. Can it be better? Sure,that’s true of everything. But it’s already pretty great by comparison.
I was ready to drop off this board a couple of times. One time I had asked if anyone had experience with epoxy paint for a garage floor. I was particularly interested in what brand a person had used that worked well. I stated that I had used an expoxy garage floor paint, followed them directions exactly including etching the concrete with muriatic acid, but the paint didn’t hold up. I was looking for responses on what products had held up. I had responses that indicated that I had not followed the directions on applying the product.
Another time I entered in to a discussion about the overall repair costs for different makes. I noted my own experience that over 100,000 miles, the repair cist on the 2006 Chevrolet Uplander that I owned was less than the repair costs I had incurred on my 2011 Toyota Sienna that I owned that replaced the Uplander. The Sienna had to have a water pump replacement that cost $975 parts and labor. I was immediately criticized for not naintaining the cooling system properly on the Sienna. In fact, I had changed the coolant according to the owner’s manual.
I know there are people that become rabid if anyone suggests that someone would have a problem with the make of car they like.
I think about the rivalry between Indiana University and Purdue in the Old Oaken Bucket game. There are rabid IU football fans and rabid Purdue fans. However, riots don’t break out at the game because the fans have nipped on their bottles they sneaked into the stadium so much that they don’t even know what happened on the field. Maybe some posters need to have a couple of drinks before going after others on this board.
The ’ Ask Someone ’ posts are not any better than it first started . It might even be worse . I wonder how many times Carolyn has asked for more info and never heard back , I still say it is unfair to her .
Yeah, I remember those and quite a few more. The old chicken crossing the road thread, Coopmeister, Nette and Hugh G (I’ll leave the rest off) caused quite a bit of a ruckus back in the day…
Well yeah, that’s my question. I’m thinking about next summer doing mine. Been looking at the Rocksolid. Problem is I sealed the floor 20 years ago so not sure if it will work. I think I could lay ceramic down for about the same price and I know that would hold. The problem with the plastic stuff is rolling a jack over it and winter slush. So I’m really undecided. Of course Mrs. Bing thinks I’m nuts and I should just clean the garage up-but what’s the fun in that?
Don’t you need to clean the garage up to pour a new floor? I’m hanging in there with the original bare concrete floor. It’s 20 years old and still looks good.
I waited a while before saying anything. @irlandes, I hope you take some time away and maybe come back in the future. I turned off your notifications.
When I’ve mentioned the possibility of expanding the forum to include a general discussion section, the folks at Car Talk Plaza have been very consistent that we should stick to cars. Digressions are fine and can be very funny and fruitful! I am always curious to see where your discussions take you. But before you invoke the freewheelin’ Tom and Ray, please remember that they always came back to cars and the back half of the show was never 30 minutes about where Sears went wrong.
I forget who was saying it above, but I too have noticed that when the disagreements happen here (particularly political ones) the interactions are sharper and nastier than I’d come to anticipate from you over the 11 years I’ve been here. I also take a content-neutral approach to regulating the political commentary; seems everybody is just happier not discussing it when the threads devolve into flame war. But surprisingly even some of the mechanical discussion gets very dismissive toward the poster rather than the content.
We don’t know why some people leave, but I think it is my responsibility to try to make new people want to stay and think they might get help. To those of you who don’t like some of the harshness you’re seeing from others, please: speak up.
That’s nothing a session with a diamond grinder won’t solve. And that’s a good idea anyway if you’re going to do a floor - that way you know that all the oil and grease from the years of wrenching has been eliminated. If that stuff remains, your floor will fail.
That said, this is one area I usually suggest going with the pros. The stuff you get from the big box stores isn’t as good as the stuff they can use.
I’ve got a friend who did Rock Solid about 15 years ago. Within the first three years he was already seeing patches peeling up - hot tire pickup. And that was on a floor in a new garage that had never had cars on it to contaminate it. I had Garage Floor Coating do my floor 3 years ago and it still looks brand new - and a relative did his floor about 10 years ago also with them, and it looks just as good as mine.
Mrs. Bing probably doesn’t realize how much easier cleaning is with an epoxy floor, either. Instead of scrubbing at that oil stain for an hour, you just wipe it up with a paper towel.
Yeah I think I’ve seen them at the home show. Gets a little pricey though for three stalls but I really am not too enthused about doing it myself either.
@irlandes I certainly hope you at least stop by once in a while if we can’t persuade you to stick around. Your post are enjoyable and I have learned from them. Glad to hear from CSA, I have not seen Cigroller or Transman for a long time, I miss them, they always had good insight, as do you Irlandes.
Always take things seriously, never take them personally.
lol … good story. Reminds me of a post I made just a few weeks ago. I mentioned a problem a friend of mine had told me about, a problem w/their new Corolla. A buzzing alarm noise , and for no apparent reason. Turned out it was the forward collision avoidance system doing it. There was nobody in front close enough for there to be a collision , so it was just a false positive. Not an uncommon thing, another poster in a different thead reported the same thing. Someone here replied “George, tell you friend to stop tailgating!!” Then followed a serious of posts about the problems w/tailgaters. Since this is an opinion forum, my thinking is everyone is entitled to voice their opinion as long as it is at least slightly on topic, so I had no complaints.
Internet forums are a great thing imo. The best way for folks w/a common interest to get together and chat about topics, especially when few people in your local group of friends are interested in doing that. But the downside is that the meaning of the poster isn’t always clear b/c there’s no vocal intonation clues. So someone may be kidding, and someone else may think it’s a serious and negative comment. Another common misunderstanding is when someone offers their opinion, and someone follows next with theirs, which is really just another idea offered for consideration. The second poster isn’t usually saying the first idea is wrong, just that there’s another idea to consider. But sometime the first poster takes offense, feeling the second poster is saying the first idea is incorrect.
I assume I started here in 2007, I had been retired for 12 year and had never used a computer until I decided to buy one so I could use online banks. Still not very comfortable using one for anything complicated. I can get more done with one 5 min. phone call that a 45 min. “chat”.
I started listening to Click and Clack in the late 70s or early 80s when the only place I could find it was on WBBZ or was it WBZ? on a late Sunday night re-broadcast. They were still renting bays in their shop to do it your selfers. I could only get it when I ran East out of Buffalo so Sunday night I always chose an east run if I could get it.
As far as politics, a pox on all their houses! I see everyone looking for evidence that supports what they already believe and no one looking for truth.
Carolyn,
Please do what you can to prevent a political forum. I have seen far to many who were once friends with each other become enemies when given the opportunity to post freely on one. I have always been politically moderate. I tend to ignore the campaign lies, do my own research, and vote for what I determine to be in the best interest of the people sometimes disregarding political parties. I intend to continue doing that. I come here to learn since my formal training and professional experience in auto mechanics ended around 1980. I tend to ignore insults from cyberspace because they don’t really know me and I don’t really know them. I hope irlandes still returns now and then.
It’s good to avoid political forums but these days there are dangers that some of our most favorite cars may be priced out of the market because of Washington political decisions as a result of excessive protectionism.
Otherwise I would say avoid political discussions.
I’ve looked into it. A new floor is easy to do. An older floor with oil stains - not so much. Depending on the staining you may need to have the top 1/32" of the cement grounded off.
When I retire and build my retirement home…I’ll put down the epoxy coating BEFORE the first car is ever parked on it.
My most recent house, the garage floor is very smooth concrete. It is VERY slippery when wet. The fools that laid it didn’t broom it prior to curing. Good for sweeping out, very bad for slippery conditions. I’ve been thinking about an epoxy coating so I am curious, how does your epoxy floor perform under those conditions?
Quite well. The outfit I used has 3 different levels of traction available. In the final coat they include traction material that makes the floor bumpy. I chose the middle level. At first it was overly effective - I actually scraped my hand on the traction material while turning a leveling leg for my garage cabinets. Once you’ve driven/walked on it for a few weeks, the rough edges wear off and it’s just a pebbled-feeling surface. You can still slip when it’s wet, of course, but not nearly as much as on bare concrete, especially if you keep it clean of things like sawdust which tends to fill in the gaps and make a smooth surface.
