Recent content by hosz

So I guess no one regrets getting a lift. You guys are going to make me go broke.

For guys with a lift, does your body hurt less after working on your car? Is the pain a lot less or just a little? It will be a big spend for me, so I am debating if it is worth it.

Do floor jacks/jack stands have a lifetime service life? I have a couple jack stands and floor jacks that are 20+ years old. I inspect my jack stands regularly. Don't see any cracks, the welds still look good. The floor jack is starting to lose its ability to lift unless I bleed the fluid...

Could the lug nuts be rusted on? How long has it been since the lug nuts were removed? I'm surprised any impact would have a problem removing lug nuts. Have you tried soaking the lug nuts in liquid wrench or Kroil then using the big red wrench? I have a 110 psi 12 gallon 1/2 hp compressor...

IR w7150. More than enough power to take off a Mazda crank bolt and rusted control arm bolt.

I bought a 30 year old 12 gallon Craftsman off Craigslist for $40. It has wheels and is small enough to fit in my car. It's oiled and runs my 2135Ti, air hammer, air ratchet, and cut-off wheel. It only has trouble keeping up with the cut-off wheel. I have to stop every 6 or 7 seconds and let...

It's because of the tax laws. The landlord makes his money from the equity he builds in his buildings. When you are a landlord, you can deduct everything spent on your rental property and depreciate it. This effectively zeros out your income and you pay no or very little income tax. So the...

Everything comes down to your own individual circumstance. For some people, buying makes more sense. Others, it’s renting. What you should NOT DO is automatically dismiss one or the other without actually calculating the cost of each. Whether you rent or buy, the basic point of all this is...

For my situation, I pay $2500/mth rent. I looked at buying in 2009/10, but even at the market bottom, buying a place with the same location/square feet would run about $3800/mth in mortgage and taxes. Housing prices have recovered a bit in my area and a similar place now runs about $4200/mth...

Refis are usually used to get a better interest rate, not to re-mortgage a home. Cash out refis were one of the reasons for the housing bust in 2008. Cash out refis were fine as long as home prices kept appreciating, but once home prices started declining, the people who took out the cash out...

LOL. This is exactly why I did not buy. And you forgot property taxes, insurance, and HOA fees.

The sole reason I could save as much as I did was because I did not buy a home. Instead of using the money for a down payment on a home, I continued to invest it. Now, my investments/savings are generating about $10k a year. I don't consider having an extra $10k a year "nothing."

If I had to choose between a nice car and a nice bank account, I would pick the nice bank account every time. The first and only car I ever got was when I started working 20 years ago. It cost $17,500 and now has over 200k miles. It still works so I never bought another one. Came close to...

When you start a business you can either incorporate or run it as a sole proprietorship. If you run it as a sole proprietorship, you do not have to pay any fees to create the business, but you are personally liable for anything that happens. You f-up a repair and someone gets hurt, they can...

I still use a Craftsman compressor with a tank that was built in 1974.