Will Update with Story when im not in a hurry. Heres coles old worklog
Okay so, here we start. After driving the Blue on for almost 3 years, and feeling it get quite dangerous to drive because of its lack of any form of horsepower, I started to look around for engines, pieces, and started wondering if a KLZE was a good idea in the first place, I mean, A full engine swap for 70 Horse? I could put a little more labour in and Get over 150 more. Well reality Checked in and went you don't have the damn time, and you have a free K8 lying around to just drop in and get you back on the road. Cole smashed. He was doing the usual commenting on my posts and Happened to mention his now smashed MX-3 that have everything needed for the swap.My dad said he would go for this as we could hear the engine run and not run the risk of crating a motor over and getting a dead engine. Cole is 6 hours away from here, and I had one weekend I could get it all done in.
So we went, drove the six hours in my grandmothers vibe, (not long distance Comfy BTW, and my beat up blue car and pick up speed better than this 4 cyl POS, dad also learned why I always turn overdrive off before I pass, I'll get to that.) When we arrived we drove around and found the house actually saw the car in the yard but at 12:30 I wasn't waking him up, found a place to park and slept. Went to get food in the morning and when 10:00 Rolled around gave Cole a call. He had just got up, I guess that's lucky.
So we work our way over to the car, and Cole and the girlfriend show up. We introduce, and otherwise, and set upon the car, Now It had been smashed obviously, and looking at it we could tell, this car will be written off if we get caught with it, we opened the hood and got to starting the car, Cole reconnecting the coil wires the HEI, we tried to start it. Nothing. Not even a turn over. Then the big a-- allen key (things almost a inch thick) comes out. oh jumping the starter. Okay fine, it may have been sitting for a while granted, however you told me you drove this last week.... (this all boiled down to a shitty connection as the terminal from the battery was actually cracked and had a bad connection.)
Turns over really well, however no spark. Well what the hell. Right about now we check connections and cole grabs the connector right on top of the disty and it pops off, Ah dummy plugged. After trying the key and the starter not working we jump the car again and it Deafens me lol. Running great right off the bat but it deafens me. with the car running we set about other things.
The projectors were sold so we had to take the one out and the remainder of the passenger side one. put in the stock lenses back in for appearance purposes, took the hood off to do some, *ROUGH* *COUGH* body work, in other words Flatten the bastard back down, what he hit was obviously taller than the car because the damage was 90% above the bumper, the rad support was bent to hell, but workable, so alot of banging and twisting later, headlights in and hood on and tied down. No drivers side window, i dont remember reading that, but i happened to have one so I Wrote that off.
Lets move it! So of course we let Cole pull it out of the Spot it was in. and I get to drive this car for the first time. Never driven anything with a new clutch let alone a performance one, You all can guess what the first thing I Did was.
So open the hood again, and jump it as the key failed again, got it running and I started to move it, and No Power steering, Cole didn't know. he said he has had to fill it before so we wrote that off for now. Took it for a spin, it definitely goes like hell. I was quite surprised at the power it delivered, even if I didn't run the piss out of it. No cole I am not going to burn the tires in a smashed car, that wasn't reported, and still needs to make a 6 hour trip on bald tires. Just for future reference, the tires starting to show metal banding could KILL YOU. And destroy the car, as we as whom ever you hit. I was not impressed to arrive home and find that. But anyway, So we decide that I am buying this smashed up car.
We get all that done after a stop at the gas station and finding out the whole power steering system just pissed out the fluid, so it didn't get any, good news for the short time it did hold it the pump did work.
So stop at his mom's house as she needs to sign the Bill of Sale ETC ETC, asking price was $2200, We settled for $2000, because I'm kind, and I use that Heavily, Cole got engine and suspension cost, I intended for parts only, but its on the road now so not bad. the only reason I even considered buying the car is us being at Maaco, otherwise that car probably would have sat for a long time at that price. Now Cole had forgot paperwork back at the house the car was at, so they ran back to get it, after arriving back he talked about the fact the police had arrived. Wait the police have arrived. (We just realized how hot this car just might be, I mean 10 minutes of Driving and the police are already around. Hmm.)
My dad asked Cole what's the best way out of town, back-roads was the answer. Though it does make sense with the state of the car, the highway straight out of town was what we took, Dad crossing the 2 lane, to draw attention from the oncoming cop, which I sucked up to the truck in front of me for that moment, Sorry for tailgating whom ever that was.
We get out of town and on the Highway, and were set, get up to speed and just cruise home, cruise doesn't work. Figures it looked like the hood grabbed it while bending so oh well. Not mad. The volume of the Car is Ridiculous now the window is missing so we could get some residual noise as well but it measuered in at about 95-110 Decibels depending weather or not we were going up or down a hill..
We go to pass a truck because hes doing 95 kmh, and we have to wait for the oncoming traffic, after putting some needed distance from saskatoon, i have become a little more adventurous, so I waited, Downshifted and the dropped shifter which makes everything a b****. Passed him, went from 95 - about 130 just passing him alone, that was impressive, Dad had tried to follow, Um. Yea, this is why I will probably never drive 4 cylinders, sorry Rob. He had barely been able to pick up 3-4 Kmh for over 300 feet. oncoming traffic was here by then, thankfully the oncoming didn't panic and passed in the shoulder. Dad passed the truck and got in behind me again.
Drove all the way from Saskatoon to Hanna without filling up once, pretty damn good gas mileage, considering my blue car could barely get 300 k if it was desperate.
$50 of premium later, we drove the rest of the way to my house.
After that it was a series of planning how to get this car to Calgary as the weather went for ABSOLUTE s***. Changed the tires out for ones with some tread left.
Pulled the frame on a 1939 Case tractor and my mom's ZX2 Blazer holding the a-- end from sliding. 2 days with a come-along and getting the car straight.
When we got it to the shop we knew this car was rusted badly, but we got it on a frame machine and then it really sunk in. HOLY S***! the entire rocker panels in this car are f*****. (No picture sorry). Our frame man from the shop next door was looking at it and said to pull the engine out of both the blue one and the black one then put it in the blue car and the suspension and then deal with whatever troubles come from this after? Then only have one extremely expensive car? Why not just fix it you don't know what the blue car's gonna look like underneath it either it hasn't been looked at in 3 years. You guys work in a body shop stop b----ing about the work and do it. (He is a body-man as well.)
We decided to fix it. Mistake? Maybe. I do have two running cars now. And that's one more MX-3 saved from a scrap yard. so we got set to fixing it, and it was a long haul.
Spare time and weekends set aside for us to work on it, we set about cutting and replacing the rocker panels, using the metal from the box side of a donor truck (customer smashed the box hard enough we just bought a new box for his truck.)
While my dad Worried about fixing the rockers with the help of one of the body-man, and European Man, Yanick (don't know if I spelled that correctly) they worked about getting the panels on. We all were both congratulating and cursing Mazda for figuring out how to make a pop can put up to 20 years of rust its probably put through 6 bloody primer runs to make this metal not rust out in a year, the lowest welder setting just blows holes everywhere, we kept at it though and managed to get it sealed and solid.
The drivers side had similar problems but we didn't have to replace the whole thing this time. just the front corner. While this was happening between work and weekends the car sat getting grind-ed and welded on, I was parts hunting, Fenders are nearly impossible to find without the damn bottom corner rusted out of it after 3 weeks of hunting through pick and pull and Vlad's yard, I finally found a fender, a white one. not the best to paint a black car on, we ended up priming it anyway so it didn't matter.
But man a bumper, every single one I had found was missing so many mount points that it was ridiculous. after finding one bumper and sanding it down we decided that the massive gash in it was worth more in bondo than the bumper, found another one but the thing was a HAIR off of cracking in half I'm surprised that it didn't when I took the damn thing off it was so bad. Meh finally found a green car with a front bumper that only had one mount broken off so I took that one and sanded the HELL out of it. Some putty here and there and 2 coats of high build primer and we called it a day.
Hood we found in all of 3 min on a car in Vlad's yard. same with a door because the bottom weld on it was blown wide open from rust.
During the week when my job didn't have me tied up I was tasked with sanding the car, same as my first one that I did. Everywhere it seemed that I sanded had rust underneath it, and in-between the sanding it was a matter of ripping the whole car apart. we tore it down to just the dashboard left in. Then we found the hole behind the drivers seat, and both wheel wells that were so bad we could see right out the car with them. Well s***. We decided that after the hell the rocker panels put us through that we weren't giving up. But at this point we realized that changing the motors out would probably been less work. SIGH were committed at this point reversing and taking the motor out isn't worth the 20+ hours we already have into the task of repairing the car.
I after that was set about getting the powersteering back to a functioning state, getting at the topside hose on that thing was a pain in the a-- even with it up on a hoist. i figured out how to finally get it up there, ended up putting in a very very nice albeit expensive new hose setup the company we had make the hose for us did the work after hours for $80 but we had it same day to get it in the car, I also found out why it leaked. Someone had thought a bright idea to use a washer as a o ring, the line had a small hole in it anyway but the washer wasn't helping either. once I finally got the hose in and connected I got it running. Next was the speedometer's lack of function.
Cole had wiggled the wire and it worked for all of a few minutes when we left, then it died right after. When I got it out I was greeted with this: While no wonder it didn't work very well the wires are sheared right in half! It was probably overlooked on the car when the engine was pulled from the first engine. Either way went to Vlad's yard and Jim there sold me a new speedo sensor for about $15 (don't exactly remember). Go that hooked up and installed left the broken one in the car that the new one came out of so no dirt goes in the hole.
I took the cluster apart and decided the blue needles had to go because they would not fit with the gauge faces at all. that went well right up till I broke the first needle I touched... So it was off to get a new cluster. that one I hooked up and all seemed to be working. so ripped it apart and hooked my gauges up in it. get it back together and the temp needle goes right to the top the second the key came on and the RPM gets stuck at about 3500 RPM. We noticed the board number was different, the pins seemed all the same routings but we just replaced it. And broke that cluster too... (*^(*#$()*&@#$R)(@$&^%*&^!@$#(
WHAT THE HELL~! I went F it and left it. Meanwhile the bottom corner of the drivers side had to be rebuilt from practically scratch because we had to cut it out. A young and EXTREMELY STUBBON bloody body-man, (the kind you can disprove ten times over and he still thinks he's right. He does have a genuine interest in learning bodywork, and has some what subsided his arguing to listen to my dad as he has learned from enough experience that if my dad says you should do something a certain way, or even just points something out. Chances are you should probably look at it.) He learnt a lot about body work, working on this black car. He learned quite a bit about car audio too.
Not to mention taught me a few things with the help of my other cars sub wires touching each other to prove him right. (because i didn't believe him that it wouldn't blow the fuse in the amp itself.) I ordered my DDX419 Headunit from a ebay seller actually, good guys. I got it for $325 from GRANDSLAM STEREO. I had actually bought this to replace my blue cars headunit which I have always thought was disgusting looking, (CHEAP AS RICY STAND OUT ****{Yes I know I like other ricy things but you don't put a bright silver radio in a monotone dashboard it just looks terrible in my opinion.) Went to future-shop which was having a sale on some JVC speakers for about $80 a set. bought two sets and wen hunting for a sub and amp. All the while being Berated for Glen for not taking the parts off my old car. He couldn't understand the point of 2 COMPLETE cars. Why pull my old s--- when I would just have to put new stuff in. My dad found the NOS bottle sub (Yeah I know Rice, but stuff it), And I decided I wanted it, they guy was looking for tail light tinting. Convenient we convinced the gentleman to come by the shop one night and bring his taillights. He was skeptical about our method and had seen his share of Nightshades gone wrong, we showed him the blue cars which at that time had been on for about 3 and a half months, He was instantly convinced from how they took rock chips, to how they shine the same as the rest of the painted car. Perfect for his black Adrenalin', so I set about sanding down the lights, and did mine the same time. We wanted him there as the benefit with nightshades is you can decide how dark you want them right in the booth. Which he liked quite well as he could almost completely black out the box light, because some Ford retard decided that a bright white box light fit on a black truck. His truck is his "Play toy" so the low light output from blacking it out wasn't as much of a concern for him. but he left his taillights lighter to keep them visible and the 'chromeness' of the brake housings weren't nearly as bad. After 3 hours of sanding paint coats and just general talking and teaching the guy some things about painting. I has a NOS Bottle sub and he was taking his taillights home to dry.
At this time we were working on my *SECRET* sub QD system. I posted the end on the Facebook group and nobody could get what the hell I was using it for. Well before that I had found a Kenwood amp sub combo on kijiji, 12 inch. Meh fine, set that aside. lets hook this sucker up. and it WILL BE REMOVABLE unlike my blue cars sub that always is in the damn way. and even it packed up pretty good. Car audio. meet your BANE. Multiple wires running in close quarters, power and audio on the same side, 0 gauge knocked down to 4 gauge, a custom mounted jack an umbilical, AND D***** Glen I'm NOT GOING TO SHORT OUT THE DAMN AMP! SERIOUSLY MAN I WIRE ALL KINDS OF STUFF. Just Trust me.
He didn't get how I didn't short it out. as I had said on the first discussion I am connecting DIRECTLY to the pins I know exactly which pin has what on it. Barring me putting the wrong wires on. 0 Chance of F*** up. He believes me now. Had it all wired in Headunit Speakers and sub. used bluetooth paired it to the radio and put some tunes on. Front speakers Sang! Backs and sub, NOTHING AT ALL. the anger I had at this time was pretty good. 2 hours of trying to figure out whats wrong, took my connectors apart tested the wires, nothing. I needed another source. Went and got the Xbox out of the blue one. Got it all plugged in and the Backs and Sub Roared to life deafening me with bass as the Xbox start animation came on. (muffler was still worse)
I went okay they work, so the radios not completely f*****. Back to Bluetooth. no change. Running through all the settings and i cannot find any settings for it. Thats because they are in the MAIN Settings not the BLUETOOTH settings, why the hell would they do that. click and then Boom the sub and rears roared to life again. Albeit under stricter volume control.
We also undercoated the entire interior and floorboard, rockers inside etc.
My friend Kevin (The sis's boyfriend who happens to actually like me so go figure, and we've become friends over the years.) Also happens to work at Maaco, and threw in more work than I care to admit, I am thankful for the friend he is, asked for nothing in return. And Jason (another body-man) for helping him out when he needed it. Getting the bondo work done and fixing all the dents all over this pile of them.
By this time the car was in the whole car priming stage. High build style, the crap that plugs even 80 grit paper in about 3 strokes. Tedium. Stroke, stroke, wipe, stroke, stroke, wipe... Worse than waxing man. and OH JOY! coat 2 of high build. Tedium. Stroke, stroke, wipe, stroke, stroke, wipe...
OH joy (Growl) coat 3 OF HIGH BUILD. Tedium. Stroke, stroke, wipe, stroke, stroke, wipe... when will the bloody scratches damn well fill. (I think if the government hadn't implemented this water based garbage that just about dries before it even hits the car. The blue cars primer filled 120 grit scratches FIRST DAMN TIME. and it was just standard primer. (WATER GARBAGE S***)
PAINT PAINT PAINT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! FINALLY AFTER 6 MONTHS OF FIGHTING WITH THIS CAR! We decided that it needed to stay black, I mean cant make the blue one much madder at me otherwise it would drag me into a ditch or something. and even with the new paint the black cars color still doesn't hold a candle to my Blue Baby. $1500 dollars in paint alone. Damn Aircraft paint. (Never did see if it was tougher) we chose it because it was single stage, way thicker, tougher, and Not WATER based. For the love of god Canada, water cannot fight with ROCKS, DIRT, RAIN EVEN. we redid every car we painted in water from the year it was the only paint available. Dad worked off of old stock of oil base paints when the 3rd water color car comes back. We phone'd one of his suppliers that he talked to regularly. And he said for the quantity we needed ($1500 worth of paint, not Paint job. Just Paint.) Dad explained why he was looking for it, and the rep knew where we lived. He said this. Have your son deliver me 12 Donuts. before lunch And there better Be NO SPRINKLES ON ANY OF THEM. I got a phone call very shortly after as I was sleeping and had to be in Calgary in a hour and a half. Hitting Tim Hortons in Calgary I made it there. And walked out with Black Enamel Single stage, Hardeners everything. so about $15 worth of donuts right? Yeah that sounds right.
Thank you Rob. I respect you Sir.
What Weird Paint? The car stayed wet for 3 WHOLE DAYS! We asked rob If he had ever heard of that and he went even without the hardener it should dry faster than that. it dried and we left it however it being wet painted and in a body-shop masking area, even though there was no sanding done there, it still collected dust here and there. (and a few of my fingerprints) It wasn't horrible so meh. We went about the Accent peices.
Spoiler, Door handles, mirrors, and a nice cut line on the body, made the pieces look a lot better and them pop a lot more, stops the scratching as well as protect those majorly rebuilt rockers. Also SPRAY CAN REPAIRABLE! My favorite shots the Rear passenger quarter, shows off the line and the spoiler stands out a lot. Overall though the blue one would have benefited more from this.
Once it was done, it was inspected passed with flying colours, out of province, The blue car got a school bus inspection (Same one Write offs get), Registration and insurance transfer happened the SAME DAY! Finally took my car for a Drive! The holes being sealed alone made the car quieter. A LOT Quieter, and now there were tunes.
Started driving it daily, Loved the performance, that new (Too me) car feeling, and loved a lot less but still liked the LOUD a-- Atitude the muffler conveyed. right up to 3000 RPM when it turned into this raspy like dying noise. Oh well not everything can be perfect. after a week of the muffler giving me a headache to work. We sheared off a pin.
Not just any pin. Driving to work one day, 120KMH, some idiot in a jetta thought he could take me, so we were screwing around kinda playing leap frog all the way from Strathmore, nothing over 140, he turned off about 8 km before, A very loud bang and the speedo dropping from its 120kmh position. All the way down. right to zero. What the hell? Shut the car off, and restarted it. nothing. Well thats odd. No other noises, no performance hit, well the blocks not blown otherwise there would be some performance issue right? It would be noticeable. I shut the radio off so I could hear, and kept on my way, I had started a new job about 2 weeks earlier, wasn't eager to be late. No noises or weird behavior so i kept going, randomly another clunk comes by, no other effects, shortly after another, then it started to happen more often, Okay its not worth cratering a engine, pull over. Right after stopping Smoke can finally rise before it gets sucked out by wind. and the whole hood his belching smoke out the cracks, (F.*.(.@) There is no way this is good. Open the hood and sure enough a huge cloud, can barely see anything and trying with no avail to see what was blown on the block, (Never having smelt gear oil before) I remembered SPEEDOMETER! I know where that is and its not working. Well I found it. sitting on top the coolant bottle which is attached between the frame rails. Still mounted in its hole in the tranny housing. (A plastic gear couldn't throw something like that. it would shred. I finally got a glimpse of the hole in the casing. About half the casing is gone. (f***) well it still drives do I drive to my Grandfathers (10k away) or phone a tow truck, (I have serious self-esteem issues with s--- like this, {people even telling me they had to redo something I did, even if I was misinformed i get ashamed, no idea why} So to put my car on a Flat deck is a awful feeling.) I called my dad who didn't pick up the phone. even on the 5th try. Luckly My dad, My Sister, and Kevin all take the same route to Calgary then split off. He passed me and turned around at the next chance, Came up and looked with me, we discussed options, the disappointment on his face was palpable. 8 Months of work, and not even a week in return. We decided this far in swapping with the blue car was not an option as we were so close.
I explained that the car functions perfectly other than it being stiff to shift and no speedo. So we decided to take it to my grandfathers house. 10 KM away. Fired up and Drove it there. Made it with just enough trans fluid that I got to shift into first to drive it in the garage. Ashamed, got in grandmas car (Vibe) dad drove to work, handed me keys and sent me to work, he'd get a ride home with Kevin. (I work later).
Car sat there for 2 days, then we got a friend of the Frame Man (Bobby) to flat deck it to the shop. The driver was impressed that he didn't have to load the car, Drove it right up like a champ. That helped me not be so ashamed, then to learn that he has towed quite a few of these, and none ever got on the truck themselves, (Your tow truck Friend Rob Minhas?) I quickly got over it.
Pick n Pull, you guys may remember Rob Minhas Posting about a shattered cam gear, and me posting about a Mint car. We found a transmission and a gauge cluster. Both of which got pulled the following weekend. Glen came out and helped us rip the tranny out of the PNP Mx-3. We pulled the old one put it in the next day, after troubleshooting the clutch line the next day, (we disconnected it) we got the car up and running. Went f*** the hood It may blow up right out the door. Took it around the block a few times. Shifts better, and the transmission is tighter than ever, 223000km Transmission, Cole's bushings and new tranny we were set. Hood back on. Indigo's Installed without breaking the cluster.
Bought MSR Series 013 Satin Black 16.6 Pound 17x7.5 inch 35inch offset beauty... by far my favorite upgrade to the cars appearance. They are AWESOME. You can imagine my anger when I CURBED ONE NOT PAYING ATTENTION!@ *&^*()#^@!*(&$^%&*(@!#$(*^@&#%$*( sigh, its just a gouge in the outer edge, at least its not broken off. Damn.
Met with another company acquaintance, the son of the neighbors to the shop, And that man HOOKED ME UP, I had got resonators from Pick n pull stuff off of supercharged Grand Prix's I went its supercharged even though its stock its 2.5 inch and for a larger V6, straight through should be no restriction, but it would replace most the pipe with some sound deadening. Yea, the outer casing was way too big. I was low on money and he knew, he offered me a really special truck resonator, its a 2.5 overall, but it actually separates off into two streams before it runs through this resonator, He said Its a bit smaller than your exhaust now but each internal pipe is about a inch and a quarter, being separated it should deaden it quite a bit without restricting much if at all. And this is used so its cheap, okay so how much this all gonna cost me. We'll install it for $20 I'll sell you the muffler for $60. You definitely have yourself a deal. When I met him he wanted to hear my "problem" and asked what I was aiming for back to stock? And I went I'm not against the car making noise, thats fine but it should at least be warranted noise, I shouldn't feel my body vibrate at Idle. The second I started it he asked me if maybe I could have a leak. I assured him I didn't. He got me in and out in about an hour and a half, (waiting for a bay, removal of the pipe and install of the res.) Right when they started it to bring it out I could hear already, that my headaches were over. (and i haven't had one since) We cut about 15 Decibels off the volume of the car, which had it firmly seated at about 60dB At idle. Acceptable, Peaks at about 88 - 90 when you rev it. holding at highway the car sits at about 78 - 80. So it's still loud. but not Deafining, It Idled at about 85dB when we got it. And it completely Removed the rasp, completely. The car sounds SO MUCH MORE BADASS, and DOESN't DEafen me. Best upgrade i put in. There was no noticeable performance hit.
Drove until January, and one great day at work, one shitty drive home, with some jackass paramedic parked on sheet ice roads halfway in a lane, With absolutely no lights on. In a blizzard. He is lucky he drove off after the accident happened behind him, or I may have an assualt charge, I would have tore him out of that damn truck. Blizzard and SAFETY PERSONNEL DONT HAVE THEIR DAMN LIGHTS ON! Not even markers! You were wise to Drive away sir. very wise.
Coming around the chestermere corner, HWY1 Eastbound,
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So obviously the driver of the ranger saw the reflective striping at this point and had to avoid the ambulance, which had started to move, (NO LIGHTS! Just to Reiterate), This maneuver, my headlights caught the striping, My minds first thought was s---. BrakeS!!!!!!!!!!!!!! black car doesn't have ABS I Locked my wheels and steered to the right, another foot over and I would have missed. I watched the bumper light up as the headlight got closer and closer, And had full time for the thought, well I just wrote this car off... f--- (SMASH! Counter-steer! no use wheels are locked, and the a-- end is where the front was a few seconds, NOT THE DITCH! (im backwards at this point,) No point to that either as there was nothing for the car to grab for traction anyway. Damnit. Felt the snow hit, the front slide down the hill a bit and stopped. Panic Set in in the car as well as rage. then, i went anything hurt, calmed down a bit, moved a bit and confirmed nothing was screaming at me, (this all happened in the course of 45 seconds.) then my mind interjected. I hit him Friggn hard. Is he alright! Got out Glimpsed at my cars front end before I went over to see him, crossed the Highway, around the front of Lances truck. He was looking over at my car by that time he had pulled over. He was wondering where the driver of the other car was, and I explained it was me, asked him if he was hurt, (didn't even look at the truck when running up to it, Between watching for traffic and the ice) I explained that I need to call home, and he should do the same considering the weather, I'd be over by my car. Phoned my Dad because I knew he wouldn't freak on me.
"Hey dad... I think I just Wrote off my car."
"You think you just wrote off your car? Are you hurt? Where are you?"
"Im good, the other guys fine, But its done for this Car"
"Calm down, whats the damage like, I'm sure we can fix it."
"Maybe if we had the shop still. but i doubt it now"
"Where are you?"
"Chestermere in the ditch,"
"Where in the ditch,"
"RIGHT AFTER THE (Curbed my rage/panic) first corner, inbetween the Highway and the ditch.."
"I'll be on the way"
"K Well I got to exchange information with this guy"
And hung up and Walked up the hill a bit, Shook the man's hand, I'm Matt.
Lance as he was called, We discussed whether calling it in was needed. I looked at his truck at this point, and I couldn;t even see damage, I went is there anything wrong with driving your truck home, he responded with a no. He pointed out that the Damage to my car had to be over two Grand there is no way this was under the limit, I tried to explain to him that my car wasn't part of the equation with dealing with this. (should have introduced my history a little better) He got a little edgy with my unwillingness to report it. I responded,
"YES I Know that this is Over Two Grand, I'm from a body-shop family, over 20 years, you are right, but regardless if I phone the police the insurance company will be called, and they will just write off my car, I don't want that to happen and I would prefer to pay to fix your truck then my insurance company for 10 years, so I have no concern for my car at the moment, I want to see your Truck." (I started with an edge to my voice and brought it back down.)
"Can we look at your truck?"
He followed me up the hill at this point.
We looked at his truck, and i was right minimal damage, a bent bumper and a dent where it hit. I crawled under while he was watching for traffic, after deeming that his frame rail was still straight, we stepped back from the road, and I explained,
"From what I see here I think there is no need to phone it in the police are busy enough, I have a ride coming, you can drive home your frames straight. Lets trade info, and I'll call you tomorrow." We went about taking pictures, I told him he needed to as well, he asked why, and I admitting to not knowing why, I just went we both should have the same information. I wrote out the info for both of us, by my car in the ditch so we didn't get hit by a car on the road. I learned he was also from Strathmore, He offered me a Ride, after looking the car over i wanted to try moving it as the car didn't seem any higher than normal so i thought it was on the ground, I had a ride coming, he said its cold out here, so I went over and Tried my car (we had checked it out under the hood when looking at the accident. It started.) My car runs I have heat, head home I'm sure your family's worried, head home.
You're sure you don't want a ride?
Nah, I got heat, and I'm gonna try to dig it out a bit before the snow freezes my dad's probably halfway here. I'm good. I will call you tomorrow.
Alright, I'll talk to you tomorrow.
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September 21st, 2014
May 05th 2015 updateI got picked up, we proceeded around the beginning of the second corner, and I count 1-2-3-4-5-6 vehicles all in the ditch in their respective f***ed up directions. We chalked that up to conditions.
So the next day we recruited my grandfather to come and help us pull the black car out of the ditch, My suggestion was to go down hill on the the exit ramp, less traffic less chance of someone getting sideswiped of me being pulled into a pole. But because of the orientation of the car they decided it was a bad idea, (i didn't see the problem i could spin the tires to get the nose to slide down if they pulled on it a little.) SO anyways, about 80 ft of chain hooked up to a Astro van and the back of my Mx-3 we towed it back up on the highway, Scaring the s--- out of me as we almost slid into a pole side ways (this is why i wanted to go down, we couldn't actually pull the right way because the highway traffic would hit us...)
We manage that with a little help from the black car we get it up on the highway again, with my grandfathers help we figure out the best time to turn around on the highway. We packed up all the chains and start to drive back home, (wheels cleared). We start the drive and everything's going well until i get this nice vibration? Well what the hell is that... I pull over at the first corner. Take my snow brush and clean all the snow out of the rims, and man there was a lot i had to use the ice scraper to cut some chunks out before I could push the brush into it.
Dad was following me and of course was worried that something much worse could be wrong. I told him that I think its just snow in the tires so we proceeded to get back on the highway and drive home. There was no problems after that, dead serious, drove like i never even hit something, these cars never cease to amaze me sometimes. I could have literally let go of the steering wheel and it would drive perfectly straight, hell I'm still using the same alignment from before the crash as I type this.
We get home with no incidents in the garage. I phone Lance, which It tell him that we got the car out of the ditch and we can handle the repairs of it by our self, He expressed the confusion at this point. But I asked him to get three Quotes, One quote from Fixit Central (Owners are family friends and our shop had closed down by this time, and two of his own choosing, I informed him that he was probably going to need a bumper and that I would look into the costs of buying one. I then asked the question of whether his truck was two toned or not, as all the damage should be in the second tone. Which is good for me (less labour) and good for him (more of the factory paint stays on, will explain). We talked for a few min and i explained that how I see this going is I want three estimates, that I get to see, you decide on which company you like the best, I still want you to go see the guys I told you, This he had a problem with he said well I'll go to get a estimate but I probably wont go their you could rush them through. I replied, They are family friends yes, but they are part of a large company with lots of shops run by different people, I also know that their location being so close to a larger facility of the same company means they get almost no insurance work. This means that they only get customers that come in the door, they have to make sure that the jobs they do are done right, and done well. My family has been in this business for very many years, and their is no "rushing" a repair job, all that leads to is accidents and people not coming back. He reiterated, well i will get the estimate from them but i probably wont go there for the repair. What would be two other places I could go though. I said Ford would be able to fix it, though they would probably take me to the cleaners, and there is a auto-body shop across from the bottle-depot in town I don't know the name of it. He told me he would get the estimates.
My dad asked for the phone at this point, which I handed to him. He then asked lance about the two tone again, and told him if all of the damage is below the colour change that he should only get the bottom changed out,he needed explanation for that as I am sure some of you do as well.
Have any of you wondered why the factory paint is so tough and aftermarket paint chips, flakes and even sometime comes off panels at a time?
Most people say the manufacturer uses higher quality paint that a paint shop can normally use. This is not the case. It is all in how its applied. Lets go back to your cars "birthing year" so here we are rolling down the assembly line nice shell no hood fenders bumpers Hell not even control arms yet literately a shell. This shell goes into a vat, with a primer, it usually goes in one then sits for a bit and it may go two more times, depending on the manufacturer, once the primer is getting tacky the shell goes into a paint booth, and gets painted buy a robot in many layers, Even clear-coating happens. Once this process is done the car moves to a Bake oven, (all standard crap right). Here's where it gets interesting, As a shell there is no bolts in the car yet, there is no interior in the car no plastic parts nothing, Whereas when we paint your car it obviously has all of these things inside it already. We can only bake your car at a low temperature, as to not melt your entire interior, We usually use a large array of light bulbs, old incandecent with reflectors to do this, and not even heat lamps. When you turn them on you could swear they are just normal bulbs, These bulbs are actually incredibly inefficient, at producing Light, but they do make a lot of HEAT. This is how we bake your car. You can stand inbetween the car and the lights and you will be hot, but not uncomfortable, makes the shell nice and warm, it stays in there for about an hour, then sits out of it for the night to dry.
The manufacturer however, Dealership bake ovens have extremely noticeable signs on their bake ovens telling you to stay clear of the room when active. A manufacturer oven uses actual elements (like the ones in your home oven, but much bigger) forced air circulation the whole nine yards. They literally get cars metal hot enough to GLOW this would destroy any interior panel, what it does do though is make the metal HOT, Really Hot. This essentially bake the car from the inside out as well as the outside in. When the car comes out of this booth Its paint is hardened enough that their is no dry time, They apply all that nice white plastic sheeting to it right after it comes out of that booth to protect it from taking damage while people and machinery install all the components of the car.
Aftermarket paint only gets cured from one side and often is not fully cured until first few weeks, in which time the car will have already been given back to you, and you drive it around unknowingly, Destroying your paint. Where as when it comes out of a manufacturer bake oven, The car is ready to take anything that normal roads throw at it.
YOU WANT YOUR FACTORY PAINT! after explaining this to Lance he started to realize what kind of people we are, In our family cars are a thing of pride, Even if we just keep them stock, My car will always be neat, and tidy, maybe dusty and dirty, but you will not find much that doesn't have a home in my vehicle. We were telling him things that sound cheap not because of money, because I want his truck to look as nice as it possibly can for as long as it can, and as long as that factory paint is on the truck it will not fade, it won't stop shining, (provided you protect it with wax and polish). Lance after this talked to my dad for a little about my car, Lance is my dad's age so they were able to talk for quite a bit, I went and played a game, after this explanation.
My dad came back about a hour later, and the conversation must have come around to talking about previous vehicles, as the Orange one and the Blue on came up, How they were both write offs when we started, and are active and look brand new. Lance apparently asked how I intended to pay to fix such a new car and still fix him. And dad spilled the beans, That black car is 20 years old, its from 1994, it looks like that because we made it look like that. Lance was very interested to learn this. And I'm sure it put a whole new meaning to the way we were telling him to operate. We weren't out to save money, We were out to fix a car and a truck. He had estimates for me the next day.
To Be Continued... My buddy's off work so Were off to drive home!! Bye Guys!So he gets the estimates back. About 1500-2000 dollars of repairs. New bumper, new covers for the bumper, bodywork for the panel underneath that took a hit. All of the stuff that happened after that absolutely appalled me. Remember how i had said I wanted him to get a quote from our man Steve. Well steve is a busy man so he didn't deal with Steve, he got to deal with his brother Junior, Whom of which impressed Lance enough that he was willing to go to Fix auto for the repair and leave his truck to their hands. I said that would be fine with me for sure, (there are other ways I can pay back my friends besides money. ) Which worked great for me as It was close to work I could just go down there when ready, I don't have to worry about paying the bill upfront. They got him all hooked up I was told to purchase the new bumper.
When i was looking into the bumpers, I phoned to ask lance, Do you want a chrome bumper, and black one, or one paint matched to your truck? His first assumption was that i was trying to save money. Which had I have been in his position i can see where that may come from, I had to explain to him that the bumpers were actually the same cost, I was just wondering if he had 'had' plans to change out for a different style bumper, (some people like chrome, I thought it was a decent question.) Turns out that he didn't want to change it at all, so I bought the part, 500 dollars later and it was shipped.
This set the date for the work to get done, It was setup that I would pay the rental car (Not a problem to me) and that me and Steve would work out me paying for it later.
Jump a few days.
I get the phone call that Lance had picked up his truck, and we were going to sort out the rental car bill. We arrange a meet in town, I go to the bank and pick up the money. When we meet that he Corner station, we deal with the bill i had him sign the bill which he had two copies, both of us took our respective copies. Money changed hands all that jazz.
As we shook hands to say farewell, he stopped me from leaving,
Matt, I would like to thank you for standing up and handling this accident the way you have, It is very gentlemenly of you.
I should be thanking your for allowing me to handle it as such, you never can know what kind of person that you get to deal with when we get thrown a accident.
Well that is definitely true! Have yourself a good evening Matt.
I will do, Thank you Lance.
And we part ways.
So the next day. I call mister Steve.
Well whats the bill Sir, I wanna get you guys paid, so we can say goodbye to this whole mess.
"Were gonna call this one a favor-------{one record scratch please},---------------
NO seriously what do I owe you, our good friend Vladimir runs away from making me pay for parts, I'm not gonna run away from paying the people that did me so well.
"Well i'll tell you what, I may need a favor from you one of these days, We can settle it then."
Your absolutely sure,
"Yea do me a favor on top of that one though, DON't Do it again!"
Well i need to thank you beyond what can be attached to the traditional thank you statement, Thank you Steve.
"Your welcome Matt no more accidents okay?"
I don't intend to get more Thank you again, have fun Steve,
"You bet, talk to you later!"
....
I took the shop a decent size round of drinks two days later. I owe those guys quite a bit. I havent heard about the bill since then.
Will deal with images later here's the album you can look at.
Album
