Finally, my car is back!

VincentVega · 01-03-2003, 01:45 PM

Not sure how to describe the feeling of driving my car for the first time since august(I cant believe it's been that long!). I wont go into the fun runs, de's and auto-x's that I missed, all is forgotten. Anyway, I picked up the SC today in a pooring rainstorm, at dark, in rush hour, via the balitmore beltway. Funny how I had a smile on my face the whole way home... traffic, what traffic? All the gripes about the 915 are forgotten. Oh yeah, the SSI's are nice too!

All I need to do now is adjust the flapper box for the heat controls, of course the passenger side worked great and zip on the drivers side and she's all set. Hopefully the weather will break a little so I can enjoy it this weekend!

I had forgotten how I had almost forgotten how much I enjoyed the car.

Praying for sun in Baltimore!!

k9handler · 01-03-2003, 01:49 PM

nice...where or why was the car down?

Very good looking 911.

arcsine · 02:35 PM

better view

jbmccandless · 01-03-2003, 02:15 PM

Hey, nice car!

I noticed the jack in your garage. (if that is a jack, the triangle handle)

Isn't that the Kinesis? I've seen those on ultimate garage. How do you like it?

jason

poorb0yw · 01-03-2003, 02:17 PM

Looks like an AC Hydraulics jack to me.

Also, very nice car. I just picked up mine today as well. Only 4 weeks of suffering though which doesn't compare to not having her since August.

VincentVega · 01-03-2003, 04:22 PM

Gary, thanks for the touch up.

Yup, it's an A/C jack, best I have ever used. Not only does it look cool, but it is very low, has a foot pump and lifts rather high.

I started taking off the heat exchangers in August, so I would have heat for the fall. HA! I helped Marc install the SSI's on this 3.2 and thought it would be cake. Mistake #1.

I ended up cutting off the heater boxes to get to the rusted and rounded off nuts. Some one was in there before and stripped about half of the buts, making it impossible to get them off with the heater boxes in place. After lots of heat and cursing I got the old heat exchangers off, didnt break any studs. I then though it would be a good idea to replace some of the rusted studs. Bad idea, 2 broke. I drilled one out with no real problem and moved to the second one. All I can remember is something slipped and I ended up making a nice oval gash in the head. Not wanting to give up I ordered the "big-cert" kit and tried to drill the hole bigger. Again, not a good idea. The solution is a jig that will center the drill, without it you end up with an even bigger oval.

This was about the end of september, maybe october. After a few business trips and so on I gave up and towed it to the mechanic. He sat on it for about 2 weeks. After he finally looked at it he basically said it was not good. He suggested tearing down the engine to put it on the bench to "fix it right". Of course, while your in there, since the car has 140k miles, rings maybe, valve job and so on. Needless to say, I said stop and I'll think about it. I think this was thanksgiving time frame, so more time was lost. I called back to say I'll pick it up and he suggested he could make a jig to drill it out and fix it as is. Ok, there goes the 3.2/3.6 upgrade.

About 2 weeks go by and he says it's ready, but the thermostat is leaking badly. I thought it might, when I put it back together one of the lines didnt slug up just right. I was able to use my PCA $100 coupon at Reeves Porsche (sorry for the plug, but they are great) and get the thermostat for $140. I decided to wait the extra time to have it shipped from Atlanta to Tampa, then to Baltimore to save about $200. Then it was Christmas, so the parts were somewhere on a truck for what seemed like forever. Then it was new years. So, today I picked up my car. Argh, I need a drink!

k9handler · 01-03-2003, 04:26 PM

thanks for the explanation...that's quite a story, but the good news is you have the car back.

Doug E · 01-03-2003, 08:29 PM

Chris - congrats on finally having her home!