Which one

[MadGypsy]

tomorrow I am going to buy




1990 Chevy Cheyenne Dually 3500 (Heavy Duty)
180,000 miles

quote: "This truck will last for a long time. Well taken care of."

or



1996 Chevy Van G20 (cargo)
miles not specified

quote: " Motor runs good need 2 door handle fixed . Clear title."

---

I don't know which one to get. I had a G20 before and it was excellent but, I always wanted a heavy duty truck and this one looks like something on it's way to a Mad Max sequel. Normally this would be a no-brainer for me - "Van it is." but that truck is awesome. The only thing I don't like about the truck is how wide it is with the extra wheels but, I don't like that the van is a long van either. My G20 wasn't cargo, it was more like express (ie about 3 feet shorter in length, but identical to this one in every other visual way).

I know I am going to end up with at least one of these tomorrow so maybe you would like to suggest which one.

[Phenom]

Truck.

Why would you want a painter's van? with unknown miles?

Also I've heard of large vans like those tipping easily even at 35mph. That's the 15 seater I'm talking about but this doesn't look like a 15 seater, but ya...I used to drive similar vans for my previous job as security. they sucked even compared to a minivan .

I know it's not a 15 seater but here's one of the informational videos we had to watch so we'd know the dangers of these vans:

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ih0LuwvZd9U[/ame]

The van in your picture looks 2-3 feet shorter so I don't know how much safer it makes the vehicle.

[MadGypsy]

Why would you want a painter's van?

Cause I'm a painter with 17 years experience and every tool known to man?
Paint NOLA

That would be my first guess anyway...

@link - All I need to do is change the phone number and make a CL post, and I am back in business. However, that is not all I am going to do. I made that little site years ago and it's OK but I can do way better. I'll be taking the sitephyre core to make a sort of blog site that will be appended to what is already there.

The blog will be simple. I'll do a task, take pictures from beginning to end and then explain it. It will be almost a "how to". This will A) add even more value to my reputation and B) allow me to monetize some portion of my site with a reason for people to keep coming back.

I could easily sell paint and tools right from that site. I built a wrapper for Amazon stores a long time ago that allow me to de-amazon my entire store. I could pretty easily reconfigure it to work with any affiliate program. I am already a Sherwinn Williams and Benjamin Moore affiliate, so those programs could be wrapped in my Brand Hijacker.

@Brand Hijacker - no brands are actually de-branded, it simply allows me to break out of their premade ugly stores and present something much more interactive and visually pleasing. If I wouldn't have just deleted a bunch of example versions I had floating around, I would give you an example. I had a lot of random projects sitting on a 000webhost account, I decided I don't like or trust 000webhost anymore so I deleted everything.

In short, Imagine searchable image walls that interact with the mouse as opposed to little sad html pages.

[MadGypsy]

Maaaan, it sucks. Van guy lives like 200 miles from me. I was not aware of this. However, I will still be buying this van. Now that we know we are nowhere near each other we set up the plan to meet in a different way. So, really I just have to wait one extra day. I'm so friggin impatient though.

Also, I have 3 days off but I feel like today was completely wasted and tomorrow will be spent on this van stuff, so in my warped perception I have 1 day off and that doesn't make me happy. Imma try and program the hell out of something tonight and make up for my entire day being wasted...errr backup, I saw my father today and hung out so not really wasted, but it's wasted in a "goals" sense.

Anyway, tomorrow at 4 o clock that van will be mine and by Spring Imma be self employed again. Funny thing is, I just got a pretty respectable raise at my job and now Imma quit...lol. Whatever, I'm not even sure how I ended up being a cook in a bar. I'm a house painter and I will die with some paint on me.

I will probably miss my job or have "break up" syndrome when I first walk out the door though. It may just be some shitty cook job in a bar but it's a VERY busy bar and everyday is hella challenging. If I'm not trying to keep <15 minute ticket times within a wave of thousands of dollars worth of orders...I'm trying to juggle 3 or 4 positions simultaneously within the midst of hundreds of dollars worth of orders. In short, move as fast as you can move for 7/8 complete hours straight, and walk out the door with the kitchen in a state that nothing ever happened, ie immaculate. Which is of course why I just got almost 50% more pay, plus tips...

Good enough, now imma give myself a 200% raise and go restart my paint business. It's gonna be the Spring of Me. Bet.

[Mindf!3ldzX]

hell, atleast your buying two less tires whenever the time comes

[MadGypsy]

haha...no doubt, bro. I had an opposite view about the extra tires. I was thinking it would be really hard to get a flat that is crucial in the back. Almost like the spare is already attached... and I have 2.

[MadGypsy]

RAWG! I have to wait til, TOMORROW to get this fucking van. The guy had good reason why it isn't happening today and the way it's going to happen tomorrow is gonna save me a 400 mile round trip, so I should be grateful, but I'm getting hella annoyed.

It was going to be - he brings it to me, I buy it, bring him home and then come back home. Now he is gonna bring it while his fiancee' follows him, drop it off and I don't have to drive anywhere. So that's really good, but that doesn't change the fact that I'm hella impatient.

Oh, the miles are 140,000 which is really low for a chevy. My last G20 had over 200,000 miles, all original parts, and it ran like a dream. When I totaled it I had somewhere around 240,000 and it was still running like it did at 200,000 up to the point of impact.

The fucked up thing about that accident is it could have been completely avoided if I just wouldn't have stopped to get coffee. The same hot coffee that spilled all over my lap due to a pothole, causing me to become very distracted (and in pain) and hence accidentally swerving into oncoming traffic. I ALMOST got back out of the way too, but the guy that hit me was an undocumented citizen that didn't even have a DL, and for some reason he didn't even attempt to hit his brakes.

He just plowed right into me. I could even see the look on his face when it happened. It was a mixture of absolute stupidity and wonderment as to what will happen when 2 vehicles hit each other head on. Actually, I take that back. His look was one that indicated it wasn't even registering in his brain what was about to happen. He even had the ignorant compulsion to say that he didn't see me. Riiiight, he didn't see a gigantic white van in broad daylight on open highway.

Oh well, tomorrow I will essentially get my van back and I can't wait. If I have to drive this dodge one more week Imma freak the hell out. It's the most miserable driving experience you could imagine.

Get out of my fuckin country!

I'm not saying I wasn't at fault. I'm saying that chances are high that a legally licensed driver probably could have compensated for my mistake and avoided an accident altogether. Instead, I get nailed by someone that had the reflexes of a turtle, absolutely nothing going on behind his eyeballs, and no business driving in the first place.

[MadGypsy]

I finally got this van. It's a beast. Engine, tranny, alternator, starter, power steerng, etc - all working perfectly. The paint is immaculate. Paint alone this looks like a new vehicle.

The "bad": It's mostly minor stuff. Some door handles need to be repaired, the passenger side rear-view mirror wont hold it's position. There is no heat or air but I can't remember the last time I had a vehicle that had that anyway. The radio is shit.

Really I only have 2 concerns and I wont be concerned any longer by next monday. The steering wheel has too much slack, I'm thinking the linkage is worn. NEW TIRES... needs them badly. The current tires aren't falling off the rim or anything but they are definitely ready for replacement.

The engine purrs like a kitten but its pick-up from a full stop is sad. I'm thinking it needs the carbon flushed from the engine ($170).

So carbon flush, tires and figure out how to remove the slack from the steering. Id say that for an $1800, 18 year old vehicle I couldn't expect to do better than I did.

I have one mistake in an earlier post. I said the vehicle had 140k miles. I must have seriously misheard this guy cause it has 408,000 miles. I know what you are thinking "WTF!!!!" lol. But you would be saying that cause you probably drive the new fancy looking pieces of shit they build these days that would never make it to 400k. I drive a chevy that was made when America made cars that refuse to ever die. This vehicle is giving me ZERO indication that there is ANYTHING wrong with the engine or tranny. It's so quiet I thought it died while I was waiting for a light, it did not.

Maybe it's not the original engine... I really don't know. I also really don't care as long as it keeps running.My insurance went down 40 bucks a month too. So, if I keep this vehicle 4 years the insurance savings will essentially pay for it.

[JDSTONE]

best of luck doing your own thing with getting back in to painting hopefully you can land some property management companies or something and have a few big accounts. when you (or any one) work for your self you can grantee your boss will always be a slave driver and a dick head! lol

[Sza]

[MadGypsy]

hopefully you can land some property management companies or something and have a few big accounts

You just described my worst possible nightmare. The kind of jobs you get from property management is so ghetto I would rather starve. I like working directly with home OWNERS on real houses. Rolling/Spraying apartments is bullshit work.

when you (or any one) work for your self you can grantee your boss will always be a slave driver and a dick head!

I refuse to hire anyone. I would murder my employees if they started making up their own paint rules... and all employees make up their own paint rules. I don't just put paint on things, I usually do full paint restorations. This means there are a lot of extra steps and they are very important steps, but employees skip them or do them poorly.

When I am done you won't even find a brushstroke,... much less old paint "feather sanded" and left in every single solitary corner. My standards are way too high, so I just do the work myself and charge a fortune.

A fortune that not one person has ever complained about paying. Before I got super sick and was gonna die and all that I actually had the best job ever. I painted houses, working for myself and got paid right to do it. No pressure, time constraints or bullshit. I just went to work everyday and did what I am really good at. I am going to get that back.

I started that business on a bike with a CL ad and a little sad amount of hand tools. I repeat, I would show up to peoples houses on a bike and hand them an estimate for $19,000.

I have a reliable cargo van now and every possible tool I could ever need...plenty of ladders (even scaffolding). I am going to get my job back. The bottom line is, it never had anything to do with how many tools I had or what my transportation status was. It was my attitude. My attitude of dead seriousness to work for myself. My attitude that 10's of thousands of dollars to paint your historic* New Orleans home is not ridiculous at all. My attitude that you will not get better results than mine, and radiating some hella confidence in that statement.. I have those attitudes again

*historic - I don't think I have ever really painted an historic home, but almost every house I have ever painted was erected and decorated as if it was one. By decorated I am referring to like "roman" columns holding up the balcony, etc...

stuff like this but smaller and/or not as overdone. Lol, that house has a window in the roof that leads out to a balcony... that's a bit more than I would generally encounter.