I can relate very well to the no money fix it yourself concept.
I live in SD which has the lowest teacher wages, lowest hourly
wages, highest number of working women, lowest per capita income,
etc.
When I bought my TD in 1967, there was no MG dealer in town. The
two closest ones were 200+ miles away. I had started taking car
of the family car when my dad died when I was 17 and we HAD to
make do. The first major work I did was to remove the head on
the Rambler I purchased from my mother, and take it in to have a
valve job done on it.
When I purchasd the TD, there was no question of how it was going
to be maintained. There wasn't anyone sympathetic in town to
work on some "ferin car" especially in SD amidst the Chevy or
Ford crowd. The closest we had to a foreign car dealer was the
Studebacker shop who were selling Toyotas to stay in business,
and I believe there was a new VW shop. My experience is if the
shop also sells US cars, the foreign stuff is just there to get
you in the door or it's the current fad.
Again, I can really enjoy your stuff, BTDT, and you also have a
delightful manner of writing it.
Blake
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