Several Helping Hands

When you give an inexperienced teenager a vehicle ten years or older, he'd better hope that he has mechanically inclined friends, or friends whose fathers fix vehicles for a living. When the ex hubby gave Justin, our sixteen year old son, old blue, the 1992 Nissan Frontier, with 250,000 miles plus...I just knew we were in for a world of needing helping hands.



My only knowledge when it comes to vehicular repairs are fixing flat tires, adding oil, maybe changing spark plugs, adding other needed fluids and possibly changing out windshield wipers, other than that, I've not a clue.

A few weeks ago, Justin and Daniel came home from an overnight camping trip, with my son telling me, "Hey, mom...the engine is running hot." I let the engine cool off a bit and then had a look under the hood. (this is quite comical when you think about it) Not really knowing what I was looking at, I decided since the spray from the radiator seem to be exiting the cap, that all that was required was a new radiator cap, but told my son to also pick up some stop leak as well.


We did that little bit of fixing and lo and behold...no dice, the engine was still over heating and fluid was ejecting at an alarming rate! Those of you who understand engines probably already know what's wrong with old blue...yep, the water pump. So, one of Justin's friend's father, who just happens to repair vehicles for a living, picked up the pretty little part and is outside as I type right now, repairing old blue.

Here is the tricky part. I'm on a limited budget and my son, doesn't have a job. What in the world did he possibly work out with his friend's father? I've found out that in exchange for fixing old blue, Justin owes his friend's father a day's hard labor.


Which reminds me of another friend who needs some helping hands. Remember Steve Doeung? I'm sure if an attorney could come forward to lend a helping hand, that we'd be able to figure out an agreeable exchange. Free advertising? We got a network of people that with one word, your name could be everywhere in hours. How about it? Anyone out there willing to lend a helping hand?