'Nother noob

[bobbo]

Hi, My name's Bob. I'm a 21-year-old journalist and I drive a loaded (sunroof, leather, etc.) Prairie Tan 98.5 Mystique LS with 92k miles. I got it 2 months ago for $1,500 b/c the jerk who had it before broke some interior trim and the sunroof motor was shot. Mechanically it's perfect, it just needs some love haha. I've been fixing it up as time goes on, and it's coming along really well.

I found a junkyard with over 20 Contiques in it yesterday when I was bombing around the countryside after the boss gave me the afternoon off. Not a bad number for one yard, seeing how Ford didn't make a million of them. So I've got parts out the whazoo:).

Well, take care everyone, and I look forward to talking to y'all

Peace
Bob

[Tony2005]

Welcome :)

[LUCA]

Welcome Bob. Where are you from?

Good luck with the new Mystique. :)

[xdetroitx]

welcome Bob, it good to see the numbers on this site are still growing. i would like to know where that junk yard is because i cant find crap and good luck with the mystique

[bobbo]

Hey again. I'm from Western New York south of Rochester about an hour or so (well, at least when I'm driving haha). The town I live in is called Hornell.

The junkyard is Troups Creek Auto Parts Corp. in Troupsburg, a really small farming community close to the PA border. They have a ton of stuff there, and the cars aren't picked over too badly, either. There's another good junkyard nearby called Bennetts, but they only had 4 contours when I was there last.

After work today I washed and waxed the Merc... it's so shiny now haha. I also installed a temperature gauge/clock on my overhead console, removed the cracked LS badges and put on 24V DOHC ones off of a 99 Taurus, and cleaned the interior out.

Just a thought for anyone... if a journalist offers you a ride in their car, it's only because your car broke down/crashed/exploded into a fireball. We keep too much junk in our cars. I've got a hard hat and reflective vest (for storm damaged areas and construction), maps, about $5,000 in camera equipment, a computer, reporter's notebooks EVERYWHERE, coffee cups, tissues, books (incliding a Haynes Contour book and the AP Stylebook) and about 50 pens in my car, and that's just the front seat. Oh yeah, and that's not counting the candy bar wrappers, pizza box and chocolate milk jug from the festival I covered three weeks ago...eek:shocked:... at least I took out the body armor.

I'm not as bad as most journalists or 21-y-o guys I've met, though. At least I shake out the rug and run the vacuum occasionally.

Well, I'll ttyl everyone... can't wait for this dumb probation-thing to end so I can post some of the questions I have, like how to remove the grill on my Merc (there's two screws underneath the grill which I don't know how to get to) and what all I need to do to drop a power antenna in my car...

Take care,
Bob

[Black 98 CSVT]

i've actually been to that junkyard before. nothing great when i was there (around a year ago). im originally from Tonawanda, NY by the way

[bobbo]

Well, they didn't have any SVT's, but a good share of the cars at least had V6's, it was about a 60/40 split of ATX vs. MTX, so they had lots of things that interested me at least:).

There was this really riced out Contour, too. It made me want to cry it was so bad. The trim was all red, and it had a 5" red stripe all the way around it (from the same rattlecan). I'm going to the yard again next weekend to grab some stuff for my sister's ailing 96 GL and my dad's S10, so I'll take some pics to show y'all how scary this car is when I'm down there.

Tonawanda, eh? My last roommate in college was from Pendleton, and my mother's from the Southtowns (East Aurora, Wales Center).

I'm going to go change some spark plugs and do some other stuff today, so I'll see y'all around,

Peace
Bob

P.S. Here's two pics of my car that I took yesterday afternoon, for those who are interested:
http://www.nikonians-images.org/galleries/data/500/merc_1.jpg
http://www.nikonians-images.org/galleries/data/500/merc_2.jpg

[RawBurt]

I wanna see the interior, haha.

[mystiquevltwin]

Welcome!

Nice to have another journalist here!

[bobbo]

Just for you, Burt...
http://www.nikonians-images.org/galleries/data/500/merc_inside.jpg

Notice the lack of old newspapers and food wrappers... I've been behind my desk all week (thank goodness):)

mystiquevltwin: Where do you work?

[mystiquevltwin]

mystiquevltwin: Where do you work?

Well, right now I'm just an intern at the Pittsburgh Post Gazette...but hopefully that will change.

I'm also a fourth year photojournalism student at Point Park University (right down the road....)

[bobbo]

That's a really good newspaper (and a lot bigger than mine haha). When I did my internship in Pennsylvania, I read it every day, oh, and I got drunk with some of their staff last year at the Keystone Press Awards at the Harrisburg Hilton:).

Sounds like you're on your way to a great career with that on your resume. Kudos on the P/J, too...that's what I wanted to do until my editor's drove me into submission saying that I know how to write too well to focus on the photos all the time... I feel bad for my neglected Nikons, which have sat in my Domke more often than not :(.

C'est la vie.

Good luck with your Merc, too.

Bob

[mystiquevltwin]

Thank you :)

I really love the photo aspect, rather than the writing but both are cool.

[LUCA]

This may interest you Bob:
http://www.contour.org/ceg-vb/showthread.php?t=19724

A chance to meet a few CEG'ers in your area. :)

Not sure if you are able to post outside of this forum, but you could send a PM to one of the members that will be attending for more info.