ChevyTrackerParts.com launch delayed.

If you’ve been online for any length of time, you’ve probably seen multiple cases of launches being delayed due to programming glitches.

Well I never thought I’d run into that, but here we are.

I’ve been holding off going further on my project to spruce up my Chevy Tracker because I’ve been waiting … and waiting … and … waiting for my programmer to deliver a project for an improved search function on this site, but my programmer, despite many promises still hasn’t delivered the goods that he had promised within any of the multiple deadlines he set himself.

Why is it that programmers just can’t seem to get it right?

Deadlines, milestones and targets always seem to be strictly for reference purposes for programmers.

If only they could, when setting their delivery dates, simply be up front and say “This is a little more complicated than you think, or there are challenges that you haven’t taken into account, and so it’s going to take more time to do.

I think they believe that they’ll lose the business if they tell the truth. Then again it may too often be the case of them thinking “I don’t know how to do this, but I’ll figure it out as I go along”.

In any case, the bottom line is that I’m sitting here sucking wind so I taken the project away from that programmer and have assigned it to someone else who, hopefully will be able to deliver on time.

Spring is coming early this year to the Great White North and so I’m not going to let programmers get in the way of my fixing up my wheels.

Stay Tuned ’cause here we go. Until I get the search functionality programmed and installed, I’ll just have to search multiple sites manually – Yuck!

Make it a great day!

MarcL

As I mentioned in my last post, the wheels of my Chevy Tracker were the first things I was going to tackle.

So, off I go to check out various options, pricing and what not.

Naturally, like most people I turned to the search engines – Google, in this instance.

Boy, what a jungle! Search engines are great, but wading through everything they throw back at you is one hell of a job and frankly, a pain in the a**. I wound up ………

• going round and round in circles,
• far too often on pages that I’d already seen due to multiple listings
• trying to find pages I’d already seen but couldn’t figure out how to get back to
  and,
• going off on tangents to follow interesting threads that distracted me.

So, although I did ultimately find the information I was looking for, time after time I wound up frustrated at wasting way too much time getting it.

Ever clicked on a link in a search engine and thought:

• this page isn’t what I was looking for?
  or,
• this page is junk – how did I wind up here?
  or,
• hey, how did I wind up back here again?

Well, although the search engines do their best to give you relevant results, savvy marketers use search engine optimization techniques and keyword stuffing strategies to trick the engines into showing their page, sometimes multiple times. In these cases, the search is less relevant and, often almost worthless.

Well, I managed to sort through all this pollution and find what I was looking for.

I’ll get back on track and talk more specifically about my Chevy Tracker wheels renewal project in subsequent posts, but for now, I’ve decided to try and simplify the parts search experience for any visitors to this site who might at some point be looking for Chevy Tracker parts or other favorite wheels.

ChevyTrackerParts.com:

I’ve decided to set up ChevyTrackerParts.com to help anyone searching for new or used parts and hopefully saving them time, effort and frustration.

The site will list major parts sources – both new and used that I found to be the most complete and helpful, at least to me. While I will be looking specifically at the availability of of Chevy Tracker parts, most of these will also offer parts for most other vehicles.

If you’re looking for parts, now or in the future, by all means take a look at  this site.

Hopefully the footwork that I put in will save you time, frustration and make the process a little more pleasant.

Make It a Great Day!

MarcL

As I mentioned in my last post, I’ve started thinking about sprucing up the Chevy Tracker for the Spring and Summer season. It’s super mild up here today (just a bit above freezing) and I’m getting itchy to drop the top and ride.

To my mind, one area which can have the most visual impact is the wheels. Grungy wheels = Grungy Car.

Here’s a shot of my tracker taken last summer just after I picked it up.

Gotta do something about those wheels, man!

It’s a bit hard to get a good look at the wheels, so here’s a shot of the wheel itself.

Oh, Yuck! Makes the Tracker look like a rust bucket.

Kind of shabby, but it`s not just the wheels though, a closer look shows that the wheel nuts are kind of rusty as are the rear wheel hubs. I don`t show them here, but the front brake pad calipers are also that nice red rust color.

On top of that, the Tracker came with Uniroyal Tigerpaws and those things squealed when turning corners at 10 to 20 mph on suburb streets even though they have a good amount of tread left. It’s so embarrassing when people wheel around and stare at you like you’re! They`ve got to go as well.

This is going to be a fun little project, and there are a few options.

Things that are sort of no brainers or carved in stone are:

1. New Tires
2. New Wheel Nuts

As far as the wheels themselves are concerned though, there are a few options.

1. Buy new alloy or chrome wheels
2. refinish the ones that I currently haveand, an option that I just discovered,
3. Wheel Skins!

Now, no matter what route I go for the wheels themselves, refinish or new, they’re not going to look great with all those rusty parts peeking through (like the rear drums and front calipers). I sure don’t want to replace perfectly good working parts just for appearances sake, so I had to  come up with something. After a prolonged search I came across ……

4. Brake Dust Shields.

Brake dust shields fit inside your wheels and serve two purposes. The main purpose t is to protect your wheels from brake dust caused by the braking action, which is very hard on the finish. At the same time, they just happen to cover the rusty brake parts. They’re usually sold in pairs and are way cheaper than replacing all the rusty, but working wheel parts.

Okay, so that’s the overview, more to follow once I actually get to doing the project – which will depend to a large extent on mother nature.

Make it a Great Day!

MarcL

It’s time to get ready for spring!!!

Okay, some people are probably going to think I’m nuts, ’cause as I write this we haven’t even hit mid-January, it’s still freezing, there’s a ton of snow on the ground and the cars are covered with dried salt, slush and dirt.

What kind of screwball thinks about modding a car in mid-winter in the Great White North?

Well, what I mean by “time to plan” is that spring will be here in a couple of months ….. okay, make that more like 3 months and there are so many options for dressing up a tracker that a bit of pre-planning isn’t a bad idea.

Here’s what I have to work with:

All Natural Tracker

So, where to start, where can I find Chevy Tracker Parts and at the best price since I don’t have unlimited resources to commit to this. As a matter of fact, I’m probably like most people – Working on a strict budget.

I don’t have any hard stats to substantiate this, but I get the feeling that the most popular mods, fall into two categories:

1. Appearance and,

2. Performance

In the appearance category, it seems to me that the ones having the most visual impact are the wheels, tubular front bumpers – grille guards, bull or push bars or whatever else they’re called – with light kits and rock rails.

In terms of performance, lift kits have to rank right up there with locker kits and, of course various equipment to increase engine power.

I’ll be looking at what I want to do in the next few weeks. Actually, I already took a look at a few items and …. wow, there’s certainly no lack of options.

Think that I’ll start looking at wheels and perhaps grille guards and we’ll see where this little adventure will lead us.

More to come.

Make it a Great Day!

MarcL

I knew that the Chevy Tracker was basically a Suzuki Sidekick that was built in Canada by Cami – a joint venture manufacturing operation between Suzuki and GM, but didn’t know how much of the Tracker was of Suzuki origin.

Well, yesterday I popped the hood open to add some windshield washer solution to cope with our usual winter muck and slush. I’ve been under the hood before, but really didn’t pay too much attention to what was in there.

This time, I took the time to look around and lo and behold, I saw the name Suzuki on several parts in the motor compartment.

It certainly looks as if there are more Suzuki OEM parts than I imagined.

Does anyone out there know if all parts, except perhaps for the distinctive body parts, are interchangeable with the Suzuki Sidekicker or, if there is some kind of parts reference manual where interchangeability can be checked? If so, please leave me a note.

This could be very handy when it comes to replacing parts on the Tracker.

With the price of new parts skyrocketing, having access to a larger parts base though Suzuki Sidekick interchangeability would be a great help.

Make it a Great Day!

Marc L