Car-ma, Act 2, First Movement

The red AE86 Corolla has finally made it to docks, so I recruited Derek to help me pick it up from Matson. Some frantic calls to my insurance finally got me a copy of temp insurance minutes before Derek arrived in the bwop mobile. So jump in and it’s off to Sand Island. I show him the secret shortcut to bypass the Piikoi/Lunalilo St. mess and we make it onto the freeway in no time. It’s almost 3:00 so the traffic is getting heavy, but we see it still moving so once we get through the merge it’s moving decently. Decide to chance going to Nimitz under the airport viaduct and take the U-turn, then bam we hit traffic at the merge as a fire engine comes up from behind. Uh oh, this can’t be good. We crawl along to the Sand Island Access Road intersection to see one of the massive traffic light poles got a nice smush going. Nice one! Luckily we make it to Matson just in time.

Hit the first glitch when they bring up the record for the booking, apparently it’s listed as the auto shipper who will be receiving the car, instead of me. Fortunately Progresive Auto Transport has staff on until 1930 their time all week so I was able to get through to an agent and they were able to fax over a letter to release the car to me. So after a brief wait, during which time we cell phoned Dave to check the traffic situation through web cams, which of course the pole that was hit was the one with the webcam, a dude takes me out to inspect the car. It’s not exactly a show car so I don’t think there’s much expectation, and he’s right. I didn’t know what kind of shape it initially was anyway, so I just take a quick look and go back in to sign for it. I guess rough would be one word to describe it. Derek’s words were POS. But despite that, the dude (bruddah would be more appropriate) talks to me about he used to have one way back in high school times, asks if I’m goin’ drif’ um? Derek earlier was all talking about going to Sand Island park and cutting some donuts. We decided to go there anyway since the traffic is going to be fubar for a while.

So now the moment of truth, I jump in. The cars been running all this time because the battery was dead & they had to jump start it. I adjust the seat. Hey, that somewhat obscene looking sphygmamometer bulb pumpy thing for the lumbar inflato pad actually works! I ease the car into gear, the throttle’s got some initial glitchy feel, but I get it moving alright. Um, stopping is a rather heart pumping leisurely affair. Allen wasn’t kidding when he thought the brakes needed to be bled. The slow drive out the long windy driveway was interesting. This was not going to do, I did not want to drive all the way home with this, although honestly I think when I drove the FJ55 home was almost as bad. So the trip to Sand Island Park was definitely a good idea. It’s probably not even half a mile away, make it there no problem. There’s a definite ghetto feel at this first parking lot. I didn’t think it’d be any better further in, so I pull in and park. So we get out and take a close look at the car. As we’re poking around under the hood, a young local possibly philipino dude comes up to me asking if I’d want to sell the car. Dude, I’ve had this thing for not even half an hour yet! Poke around some more, there’s some ugly cobbed on bits, and some shiny bits too. There’s a nice crack in the exhaust manifold. The cruise control bits are really ugly. The wiper blades have disintegrated. The interior is pretty trashed, the worst of it is the maroon red. Derek repeats many times about how much a POS it is. I just have to keep telling myself, the body is straight and free of any major rust. I can fix anything else, as long as the body is solid.  And that pumpy thing works.

Anyway, time to take care of business. Jack up the passenger rear with Derek’s scissors jack, then discover his lug wrench isn’t the right size. BTW, I don’t know what kind of gorillas Subaru thinks drive their cars. They must think they’re Word Strongest Men contestants, because the lug wrench in Derek’s Forester must have been 10″ long. He needs a longer one. I discover the Toyota one and take the wheel off. Having been forewarned, I have my brake bleeding kit with me and we start with this line. Yummy, mucky brown stuff! We move to the driver side, loosen nuts, jack up, and find that the wheel has stuck onto the hub with corrosion. Damn, and I with no Kroil, and Derek left the Knock’er Loose Kroil klone at home. Tried the drive in circles with lug nuts loose trick, but guess wasn’t energetic enough. Still stuck. But doing that established that bleeding that one line made a huge difference. I now felt comfortable driving with the car feeling this way. Shadows are getting long, better head out. Coming to a stop light, dude in tow truck pulls along side & yells out window. Yes, he wants to know if I want to sell the car. Told him I just picked it up, although I’m begining to wonder how much. Make a stop at the gas station to fill up, jump start again, and head on our merry way home. I’m quite surprised that it seems the lights work. There’s a horrible noise with the tranny in neutral but the clutch out, although the tranny shifts fine. Prob the input bearing is trash. The idle is psychotic, which is usually caused by air in the water system and the idle valve. Not too worried. The engine kind of bogs. I’m sure the missing PCV hose is creating a massive vacuum leak. Suspension and steering wise the car seems to drive pretty well. I do hear an occasional clunk from somewhere up front. We hit the freeway and the drive home is uneventful, I even turn on the sad stereo casette at Koko Marina to see what tape is in there. It’s some Jawaiian. I turn it off.

So here it is in the garage. It should only take some minor fixes to get it safety checkable. Derek told me it was issue some good clouds of smoke on acceleration. Sheesh, great. Well, since this one doesn’t have gaping rust holes which everyone seems to think is a requirement for any vehicle I own, it will instead blow copious amounts of smoke.