That car isn't cursed anything like the car I just picked up, UGH!
I had an
extremely long weekend!
Sorry I have been so light on the details but I finally got some sleep last night so here is the entire story.
This past Thursday evening I had two auctions that ended. One was for the GTX and the other was for my 1996 Honda CBR 600 F3 sport bike.
I had worked out a deal on another Mopar but the seller said I needed to pick it up the following day by 4:00pm central time because he works from 4:00pm until wee hours of the morning and he had another guy coming to pick it up around noon. I live in eastern time zone so I gain an hour going down that way to pick it up so that will help a little. I figure I will have to leave around 4:00am to make it there “in time”. I found an air compressor on craigslist about a week ago down in Racine, WI area that bought and the guy was leaving it sit until I could pick it up. I called him and said I would be down Friday afternoon (on my way back home) to pick it up.
If I picked up the air compressor Friday afternoon I could head over to LaCrosse, WI and visit my brother and go to the Coulee Region Mopars ‘all Mopar car show’ on Saturday and attend his daughters’ high school graduation party on Sunday and come home on Monday. Wow all the stars were aligning up for a change. The car show was from 8:00am-4:00pm so if I made it there around 11:00am it would give me enough time to walk the car show, scout the swap meet, and talk to some people there.
Both of my auctions ended and I did pretty well on the GTX so I was happy to finally find a buyer who was willing to pay what I was asking for it (more in this case) and more importantly was going to actually restore it.
The buyer (Mark) lived in Wausau, WI (~5 hours from here) and I told him to contact me a.s.a.p. that evening because I could deliver it and all the extra parts for $250.00 the very next morning since I was heading south already and it would only put me about 4 hours off my original course. Mark called me and agreed (we talked for 2 hours!) and it was now around 10:00pm eastern time. Everything had fallen into place suddenly, but it was working out awesome! Although this means I probably would be cutting it close for the car show on Saturday (or would at least require another 5:00am wake-up call depending on how far I made it Friday evening).
I loaded up the GTX, all the extra B-body parts I could find, a 4-speed transmission that the buyer wanted (and was paying extra for), the ramps for the trailer, and I had to remove my tonneau cover from my truck to fit the extra roof in the bed. By the time I was ready to roll it was 2:00am Friday morning.
I got my 2 hours of shut eye, woke up Dayton (my 6 year old son) ate a quick breakfast and we were on the road at 5:00am eastern time. About 20 minutes into the trip Dayton looks at me strange and his cheeks were bulged out like a squirrel. He had a sore throat so I gave him a cough drop when we left home, however instead of swallowing the saliva and drop juice he let it build up until it started “leaking” out he coughed or something and it went all over him. No biggie. We pulled over got a new shirt, he finished spitting the rest out, washed his face at the fuel station, and headed on our way again with a lesson learned.
We made pretty good time on the way to Wausau considering it is 2 lane roads the entire way down. We arrived at the delivery point (his mothers’ house) around 9:30am central time. He was still about 30 minutes away so I start unloading everything. I just finished unloading it when he shows up (go figure). He checks the car over well and likes what he sees except for there is some poor welding on rear frame rails that I never noticed because it is tucked up above where the rear axle is. Apparently when the previous owners put the “back end” on the car they put the entire rear clip on it! He seemed overly concerned about it and I explained to him that I honestly had no idea it was like that and he understood. Because this information was not disclosed in the auction I said I would not hold him accountable for his bid if he wanted to pass on the car. I already had another buyer lined up so I wasn’t concerned with a technically like who was going to pay for the car so long as I got the money for it. The other bidder called after the auction ended and told me he that he kept bidding but when he bid his final time the auction had already ended. He stated he would buy the car a.s.a.p. if the high bidder backs out or gives me any grief about it. I could tell he wasn’t going to take the car so I started loading it back up. He asked if I’d give him a better deal on the car so I wouldn’t have to drag it back home. I said I’m open to offers, and he offered $1,500.00. I wasn’t going to give it away so I finished loading it up and had to back track all the way home! Of course this puts me about 13 hours behind schedule (~11 hours drive time and ~2 hours loading/B.S.’ing time).
I returned home around 5:00pm eastern time Friday afternoon and dropped the GTX off at my dads shop as well as unloaded the extra doors & roof that were in the truck bed. I drive home (it’s on the way out of town) and my son and I stopped home for about 15 minutes to eat. While there I called the guy with the car and the guy with the air compressor and explain my misfortunes and make sure both will be available/around the next day (Saturday). We eat and refill the water bottles and are off again. I take the first left corner about 100 feet from my driveway and I notice my trailer tire wobbling all around. I pull over immediately hop out and notice my wheel is complete black (suppose to be white). I grab the tire and it’s still hard (uh, oh!) and I look at the spindle and the outer cone bearing is sitting on the end of the spindle. How I didn’t lose then entire wheel & hub assembly I will never know. SON OF A B*TCH!!!! I go around the block and back the trailer into my driveway, unhook it, and hook up to my new trailer (thankfully I have two trailers). The problem is I have my Super Bee on it and nowhere to put the Bee. I drive out to my parents’ house and drop the Bee off there and finally start heading down to Indiana at around 6:30pm eastern time.
The trip down is going uneventful (I am now really starting to appreciate when things are uneventful!), however I am getting tired and it’s now 9:30 central time. My son loves to swim at the motels so I usually get a room in the late evenings so he can swim before they close the pool. Not too mention I need to be in Valparaiso, IN loaded and leaving by 12:00pm (noon) central time so it’s going to be an early wake-up call. We stayed in Manitowoc, WI. It’s early Saturday morning and the Motel has a free hot breakfast bar, but it doesn’t start until 7:00am central time so we showered and packed everything up and loaded the truck prior to breakfast. Then we took advantage of the Golden Malted waffle maker and other goodies they had. We got back on the road at 8:00am central time.
(continued in next post...)