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 Donate if you're rad: https://www.revivethedrive.org Heya goons! Friendly neighborhood Adiabatic here.  You may remember me from The Shadetree Mechanic's Garage: https://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3672020 In fact, this beautiful wonderful idea started right here on Something Awful, on Page 75 of that thread with the Subaru Legacy. More details on this in subsequent posts! What We Do 1. We accept donated vehicles, with or without mechanical problems, from awesome people that have them laying around and want a sweet tax writeoff. 2. We then accept monetary donations from more awesome people with big hearts and even bigger bank accounts, who also probably want a tax writeoff. 3. We use the money to buy parts, fluids, shop supplies, tires, alignment services, and state tax inspections for the donated vehicles to get them running and up to date on scheduled maintenance. 4. We then work with other charities in the Richmond, VA area that have families who need cars, and give these cars to those families! Why We Do It We love fixing cars, and we love helping people! Almost 25% of the Richmond population lives in poverty, and over 60% of those living in poverty have no vehicle. That makes getting to a job extremely difficult. We want to help people better their lives. By giving someone a car, we can be the jumpstart that they need to revive their livelihood. How We Started I love working on cars. Always have. However, I hate working on my own cars. So I came up with the idea to buy a cheap car that needed mechanical work. A few days later, I found the perfect match online - a Subaru Legacy with a busted transmission. My lady and I rented a trailer and bought the car from a family in Fredericksburg, VA. When we got to the house to pick up the car, we met the family and learned that the Subaru was their only form of transportation and they were heartbroken that it had broken down. But they couldn’t afford to take it to a mechanic, so they decided to cut their losses. We couldn’t get this family off of our minds, to be honest, but we already had another family lined up to take the Subaru once it was drivable. So we moved forward with the original plan. In a crazy turn of events, things fell through with the receiving family… so now the Subaru was fixed, with no one to take it. We immediately contacted the original family and offered to give the car back to them. Turns out, the mom had been borrowing friends’ cars to get to and from work, so she was ecstatic to be getting her car back, and in much better condition than she could have imagined! I was telling this story to a friend over lunch the next week when my friend suggested creating a nonprofit so that this experience of blessing a family could continue, hopefully many more times. A couple of weeks later, that little suggestion became reality, as Revive the Drive was created and incorporated. This is just the beginning…. and we’re incredibly excited to see where this journey leads! So goons, come with me on a magnificent journey, where I catalog our escapades with this frankly insane idea to fix cars and give them to people who need them. Ok, cool, but what's this thread for? We had an idea that we'd send out a newsletter to the donors, and tell them what we did with their money. Those newsletters will be borne from my documentation of all the car work in this very thread! For instance, our very own sharkytm was our very first donor! He followed the Paypal link on our website and donated a cool $250 and will forever be cemented as our first benefactor! sharkytm posted:
Thank you buddy. Anywho, this thread will document: 1. The vehicles we have donated to us and their mechanical journey to rebirth 2. Our hilarious ventures in figuring out how the heck to start and run a nonprofit 3. Goon Highlights whenever yall decide to donate money, services, or time to our cause
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Dec 31, 2022 18:36
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State of the Garage I'll keep this post updated to let everyone know where we're at. Cars We are working on getting the following cars donated to us. More hilarity will ensue in trying to do this simple process, as wow are the forms lengthy and coma-inducing: 1. A 90s 305 camaro with a manual (bitchin ride for a family if I say so) 2. A chevy malibu that will randomly turn off at the most inopportune times 3. A chevy tahoe that "doesnt need anything" 4. Admin 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. Figure out donation forms for cars 11. 12. 13. 14. File for Tax exemption in Virginia 15. Figure out how we can donate more than 5 cars per year without becoming a car dealer in VA lmfao 16. Logos! Adiabatic fucked around with this message at 15:26 on Jan 13, 2023 |
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Dec 31, 2022 18:42
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Ground floor. Donation incoming. Edit: Your credit card form asks for "legal first name" and "legal last name" -- this blew up my auto-form-filler that was looking to fill first name / last name meatpimp fucked around with this message at 19:23 on Dec 31, 2022 |
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Dec 31, 2022 19:19
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meatpimp posted:Ground floor. Donation incoming. You the man! Oof, yeah, so Paypal is a stopgap at the moment. I have to manually give you a tax receipt and it also has crappy fees. I will make sure we get this fixed with our Zeffy form though! FYI we havent tested it fully, but Zeffy looks rad as a dono platform. They dont charge fees and it's optional to cover the costs. A nonprofit helping nonprofits.
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Dec 31, 2022 19:54
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You’re a good man, and this is a rad charity!
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Jan 1, 2023 12:34
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You have my wrench, let me know if you require assistance at any point!
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Jan 1, 2023 20:11
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This rules.Munkeylord posted:You have my wrench, let me know if you require assistance at any point! Same, though I'm minimally skilled by AI standards.
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Jan 2, 2023 02:39
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A well worthwhile cause!
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Jan 2, 2023 05:36
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Alright! I'll throw in a few bucks once a more permanent $$ donation solution is implemented.
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Jan 3, 2023 19:26
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This is so loving cool. Ground floor. E: For the first time in a LONG time, being deeply entrenched in the paypal ecosystem has actually streamlined a process. 
glyph fucked around with this message at 20:03 on Jan 3, 2023 |
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Jan 3, 2023 19:58
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glyph posted:This is so loving cool. Ground floor. 
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Jan 3, 2023 20:16
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Y'all are good peeps
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Jan 3, 2023 21:42
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glyph posted:This is so loving cool. Ground floor. Thanks for the dono, bud  Commodore_64 posted:Alright! I'll throw in a few bucks once a more permanent $$ donation solution is implemented. Ask and you shall receive! We're now using Zeffy and I put a dang dynamically updating dono page on the homepage of our lovely website! Garage updates incoming...
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Jan 3, 2023 23:29
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So all of you know all about my garage, being you've read all 76 pages of the previous thread. But just in case you don't, our space is a cute lil 25x40 Quonset hut in my backyard. It has a bunch of car stuff in it. And a bunch of non-car stuff in it. It's a mess.   But we're all official and bonafide now, therefore we must shape up! ...ok fine, ya got me, the missus is just real tired of looking at these dirty-rear end walls.  So we cued the music and got to work.     Turns out the garage ain't so good at expelling water...  That's fine, nothing a little time and dehumidifier-action can't fix! See? Presto-change-o cut to this morning!  ...ok fine I'll buy a mop.
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Jan 3, 2023 23:49
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woaw, that place cleans up nice!Dagen H posted:Y'all are good peeps Tyro posted:This rules.
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Jan 4, 2023 01:31
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Adiabatic posted:
Get a squeegee too. My buddies shop has the same 'water won't leave' issue. Just sweep it out the door. 
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Jan 4, 2023 01:49
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My pushbroom has a squeegee on the back side, it's super useful. Quickie makes it, iirc.
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Jan 4, 2023 03:09
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Adiabatic posted:Thanks for the dono, bud Also, will the donations names be anonymized if they ever become a scroller / publicly visible list?
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Jan 4, 2023 23:11
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Commodore_64 posted:How much do the various inspections / fees go for? How much for safety, emissions, and registration? I looked at the fee schedule on https://www.dmv.virginia.gov but am apparently to stupid or lazy to figure out what a reasonable amount would be to have the state let your fixer uppered car on the road. Sent some dollarydos. Lordy, so this opens a can of worms we've been mulling over for a while. Inspections in VA are easy - $20 for a yearly inspection, with no emissions requirements as long as you aren't next to DC. Titling and registration, then transfer to the needy? Well, the answer is "we're figuring it out still". We can receive as many vehicles we would like to receive, for free, via the IRS form 1098-C. Registering and titling those vehicles is necessary, and we're still figuring out what taxes and fees we need to do for title transfer to Revive the Drive. I think the answer is $0 due to our nonprofit status, but rest assured it's a big topic of conversation with our lawyer at our next meeting. As far as donating vehicles to the needy families, we need to figure out if we need to become a dealer, if we plan on donating more than 4 per year. Selling more than 4 per year requires a dealer license in VA, which is a pain in the rear end, even with the very excellent VA Statute 46.2-1508.1 Licensure of Certain Nonprofit Organizations. I'm not convinced we're a dealer, considering the definition in VA starts with "For commission, money, or other thing of value" and we're gifting them outright. Again, another lawyer conversation. Thank God he's pro-bono. But the normal title transfer process occurs there as well. As far as donations, there's no requirement by VA or the IRS that we disclose the names publically. Only that we have the evidence handy for audit that the donations are not coming from directors or family members of directors. The annual IRS form 990 that we are required to submit only has dollar values of donations, not donor info. We do not plan to disclose anyone's real name anywhere, and I plan to only disclose the forum name of those that post here that they've donated. Aside from sharkytm. Whoops.
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Jan 5, 2023 15:42
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Oh hey but anyways, car stuff! Got rid of the old Subaru transmission:  Got a great trade-in too:  No nonprofit money was used to buy this trailer. I bought it personally with my own money so I could use it personally.
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Jan 5, 2023 16:03
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Nice, I'm jealous, I need a nice trailer for projects.
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Jan 5, 2023 16:07
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I've wanted one for a while just for personal projects, and it just made good sense given the nonprofit. Hey so should I repost the content here with the Legacy? The repair part is documented in my other thread, but the story isn't. Figure it'd give us some good content while we wait for one of those four cars to be donated, and everyone likes a good origin story.
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Jan 5, 2023 16:45
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Adiabatic posted:I've wanted one for a while just for personal projects, and it just made good sense given the nonprofit. 
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Jan 5, 2023 17:02
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This is awesome, AI is the best.
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Jan 5, 2023 23:18
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This may have to wait..... I'm about to go use the trailer to pick up a Chrysler product. Story tonight.
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Jan 8, 2023 18:12
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Adiabatic posted:This may have to wait..... i thought you were trying to help needy people 
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Jan 9, 2023 00:06
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KYOON GRIFFEY JR posted:i thought you were trying to help needy people You know, when I got to the "Battery is below the passenger seat" portion of this ordeal, I was thinking around the same. Thursday, January 5th I get a text from my lady - her coworker's daughter has a friend who: is 17 is in a nursing program or has some sort of nursing job has 7 siblings and takes care of most of them has a mother that walks to work at mcdonalds has a second job now to pay for the ubers she has to take to get to work because she has a 2011 Jeep Grand Cherokee Laredo that won't start Unfortunately we started playing a lovely game of telephone with non-car people but I was able to surmise that: the person who charged them $200 worked on it in the parking lot but said the engine was seized and also the starter motor was bad? it sparked a bunch when they put the battery terminal on it and everything died there's a massive oil leak they've been "filling it with oil whenever the oil light comes on"  So I'm thinking this thing's toast, but might as well go out there and verify that the engine won't turn over by hand I guess. We set a date to go look at it: Saturday morning, 10am.
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Jan 9, 2023 04:22
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Saturday, January 7th The lady and I head on out to see the vehicle. First things first, check the oil. No oil. I find a full 5qt container of 20W-50 next to an empty 5qt container of 20W-50  I also find some rather important-sized bolts in the driver floorboard  Ok, whatever, we'll burn that bridge when we get to it. I dump 2qts of the molasses into the crankcase and it finally starts reading on the dipstick. I turn the motor over by hand. It's fine. I try to start it. Nothing but a click. I find the battery is currently at a whopping 4.1V. I also find the battery is for some weird reason under the passenger floorboard. I start to question my life decisions. The coworker really wants this thing working again, so she agrees to buy the $250 special snowflake battery. We go back, swap the battery out, I hit the push start button, I hear whirring like the starter's just free spinning. I also smell something burning. Alright, I pop the negative terminal off, roll under the car, and am greeted by this:  Why is the starter hanging out free from everything? Why are the bolts missing from the motor mount too? Well, at least I found where those bolts came from. Also WHY ARE THERE CHISEL MARKS ALL OVER THE STARTER AND MOTOR MOUNT Ok, time to send in the cavalry. Adiabatic fucked around with this message at 15:18 on Jan 9, 2023 |
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Jan 9, 2023 04:52
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Everyone in here knows I'm not the brightest bulb. Not quite the dimmest, but I'm slowly flickering my way there. And I've never owned a Chrysler product (yet). But even to me, that don't look right. As for batteries, might I suggest getting this charger? The recondition mode brought the battery back on my neighbor's Rogue (it was at <3V, she's still driving it on the same battery today, well over a year later), though it took a solid day to do so. Obviously get the extra warranty since, well, HF. But it pays for itself once you manage to bring one battery back from the dead. randomidiot fucked around with this message at 05:16 on Jan 9, 2023 |
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Jan 9, 2023 05:10
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Sunday, January 8th       Got it back to the garage, time to do some stuff. Bolted the starter back in. It started back up, after some hiccups and some failed starts. Kinda sounds like it's misfiring, but no evil knocks. Maybe a slight one? Oh and we also talked more with this girl, and as far as we can piece together, she paid someone $200 to take the motor mount and starter half-off, beat them with chisels, and then tell her the motor was seized. When it was just a battery. OH and that "oil light"? Turns out she meant the oil change due screen  We're gonna fix that oil leak anyway though. Looks like it's where Chrysler 3.6 V6's always leak - the oil cooler / oil filter housing.  I sucked up all the valley oil and then turned the car back on and hey look at this nice steady stream! 
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Jan 9, 2023 05:16
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Stuff to do: Oil filter housing leak fix Bolt the motor mount back up Figure out the misfire Send it on its little Chrysler way and probably find another car for this lady since this one's bound to blow up soon
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Jan 9, 2023 05:20
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This is the best thread.
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Jan 9, 2023 13:20
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You are good people
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Jan 9, 2023 14:27
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I swear they need to teach "basic automotive operations and maintenance" as part of driver's ed. Also: read the owners manual. Thumbs up to you, and agreed, that thing's not going to keep running for long if it's been run dry. My advice: trade it in on something more reliable (not a Chrysler or Nissan) while it's still going!
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Jan 9, 2023 15:42
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sharkytm posted:I swear they need to teach "basic automotive operations and maintenance" as part of driver's ed. Also: read the owners manual. I don't disagree, but as thread after thread on these dead forums shows, many people end up paying someone they believe to be qualified to do work they aren't able to do on their own, and end up with work that's anywhere from "below amateur" to "dangerously bad". The Jeep owner absolutely wasn't doing themselves any favors with their lack of oil, but goddamn I'm just mad at whatever loving dipshit took $200 to completely gently caress up some basic work.
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Jan 9, 2023 22:22
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sharkytm posted:I swear they need to teach "basic automotive operations and maintenance" as part of driver's ed. Also: read the owners manual. IOwnCalculus posted:I don't disagree, but as thread after thread on these dead forums shows, many people end up paying someone they believe to be qualified to do work they aren't able to do on their own, and end up with work that's anywhere from "below amateur" to "dangerously bad". So the "oil light came on" thing turned out to be the oil change soon info message, but there's some other issues - namely the check engine light is on and won't clear, for P0522 - low voltage on the oil pressure sensor. So the oil light probably wouldn't come on even if it needed to. Couple that with me having to put 2 or 3 qts into it when I touched it first, and we have a possible major issue. Here's what it sounds like underneath, with 20W-50 oil in it, mind you. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bVoUA_d3GII It's much less apparent up top, but that sound concerns me. Still, I'm going to fix the oil leak and misfire to give her the best shot with the vehicle she has, and hopefully she'll have some decent life out of it while we can work on other cars that we can possibly give her. These are some difficult decisions that I didn't think I'd need to be making so soon, but here we are! e: this is also why I want to own the cars. I don't like the liability associated with working on someone else's vehicle and I need to make some big boundaries and overcommunicate if this is going to be commonplace. Adiabatic fucked around with this message at 17:34 on Jan 10, 2023 |
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Jan 10, 2023 17:32
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I can't believe how good the garage cleaned up it looks totally different and all professional now How are you doing as far as tools go? I have extra tools I could send you if you need/want them.
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Jan 10, 2023 19:17
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Applebees Appetizer posted:I can't believe how good the garage cleaned up it looks totally different and all professional now Thanks bud! I'm pretty good on tools thus far but if you have anything you'd want to send out feel free to PM me! We've done some work in the background on the garage - I took some pics:      
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Jan 10, 2023 19:38
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As far as the Chrysler product goes, I think my next steps are: 1. Have a good long conversation with the mom to set expectations on what I'm doing, where it may lead, what work she's comfortable with me doing, and how long she's comfortable with me having the car. Assuming she's good with me having it a while and really getting into the issues, I'll: 2. Stethoscope test that noise in the video - I have a hunch it may be coming from a bad rocker arm (the infamous "Pentastar Tick" if you'd like to compare) 3. Take the intake manifold off to start replacing the Oil Filter/Cooler Housing - the source of the engine leak - with an all-aluminum one. 4. While the intake manifold is off, do a compression test, cause, y'know, why not at this point. It's misfiring randomly and these things had head issues. 5. Take the valve covers off and manually inspect each rocker and cam lobe for damage After all that, I'll have much more information, while only being mildly invasive. If the rockers turn out to be fine, maybe I take the oil pan off and wiggle the rods. I'll know way better after the above steps are taken.
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Jan 10, 2023 19:47
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Nevermind! She's picking it up tonight with the noise and oil leak still present, as she needs the vehicle tomorrow morning. I'll teach her how to check the oil properly and instruct her to do so frequently. I'm pretty happy about this update - I think it's outside our scope to work on other people's vehicles. They get to set [and quickly reset] the timeframes, and need to authorize all the work, and I don't have the luxury of time with the vehicle to ensure it's ready to go. After a pretty in-depth conversation last night, my lady and I believe that the scope of this nonprofit and the money used by it should solely go to vehicles that the nonprofit acquires through donations. We then have the time and space to be able to work on them at our own pace [after work and other obligations] and don't open ourselves up to a whole host of owner confusion and liability concerns. We can then partner with other nonprofits [one of which we're meeting with tomorrow] that directly work with refugees, single moms, and other individuals in need that they have vetted and have been working with to get them drivers licences and insurance and all that.
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Jan 11, 2023 16:10
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