Roger:
Smith Barney as an institution and all that I knew at the Washington D.C. & Bethesda Md. offices should be taken and thrown in prison (actually a pool of liquedfied bovine waste would be better). I had two accounts with them in the eighties/nineties. I got scared when my account executive never contacted me or returned my calls but four to six others were calling me every two hours about the NEED to get in on their latest "deal". They weren't large accounts (never had time to transfer anything in because of all the phone calls) but when I closed them they said that I owed them money(?). On non-margin accounts with no fees???. They took everything (thankfully it was not a lot). Used to have a different "broker" call every few months to seek restitution for a bout the next five years, I think.
Sleaze balls, dirt bags, scum buckets: Smith Barney be thy name.
But in the end we are lucky to still have our Vettes. There is something sublimely erotic/sensual in driving with the top off on back roads through the Shenandoah Valley in late spring. No aches, no pain, vision good, the air is clean and fresh. The only issue is getting in and more troubling out of the C4.
Regardless, thanks to the picture tutorial I can now follow what the mechanic is chatting about.
John:
A very small world, I can't believe the places in this world where I have run into folks I knew in high school/college and other places in the past.
Yes, the Westinghouse Muncie transformer plant was a very unique facility. For a long time it was considered a national security asset. I had an opportunity to visit almost all of the Large Power Transformer manufacturing plants and repair facilities in the U.S. and Canada. There were physically larger facilities, one or two newer ones etc. but nothing like the Muncie facility. It was the lowest cost per KW manufacturing facility in the world. After purchasing the GE Large Power Transformer (LPT) business they were for a brief period the premier manufacturing site for the unique LPT product. I think I visited the plant in for the last time between 90-93. If I could find my diaries I could tell you the date, time, and personalities I met with over the two days I was there.
Interesting to note that what brought Westinghouse down was another mortgage disaster that the Corporate finance guy got suckered into while the Chairman of the Board and CEO was to busy raising Lamas on his estate outside of Pittsburgh. (HMMmmm, he should have gone to jail as well as his finance guy, and perhaps the entire Board of Directors). After ASEA Brown Boveri (ABB) bought the business from Westinghouse I suppose that they couldn't justify the facility since they only professed to be a world supplier but really at the time they only were concerned with Norther Europe and the U.S. Market. The first ABB CEO of the business lost his job over his opposition to the liquidation of the plant. He had vision. The third thing he bought when he was transferred to the U.S. was to purchase a Corvette. (My kind of guy.) I think he is still here in the U.S. someplace in Arizona from California.
Sorry to go off topic. My parts did not arrive yesterday. So will see if they come tomorrow. I will get my mechanic guy back and I will note exactly how he uses the picture tutorial's insight into doing the job of changing the "bushings, etc. if it will help.
Charles
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