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My dad gave me this car when I got out of Gibault School For Boys. I delivered
a Rural Paper Route in this car, averaging about 125 miles a day. I liked to
take shortcuts through grass and yards, to shorten the amount of time it took
to make deliveries. This was in the winter, and I grew fond of the e-brake.
It was fun to do a quick turn around or spin out in a parking lot. The fwd
made for some good reverse donuts.
I decided to get stupid and drive around in a corn field. I
drove for a good mile and a half, but as I tried to drive out, I got stuck in
an iced over puddle about 25 feet from the road. It took a Blazer to pull me
out backward, bending the exhaust all to hell. It was bent in a way that it
caused a flow restriction, so I had to cut it off before the catalytic
converter.
The alternator belt kept breaking every other day, so I kept
appropriate tools and a spare belt at all times. I kept a keen eye on the
voltage meter, so I knew when it broke. after a while the belt started to
last about 1000 miles, and I would replace it anyway, so I didnt have to
worry about it. One icy morning, I slid through a curve and hit a tree. The
car was almost stopped, but the tree was only a food in diameter, and it bent
the hood and poked the radiator. I delivered a paper or two, and drove
home. I took the fenders, front clip, and bumper off, and then the radiator.
I fixed the hole in the radiator with solder, and put it back in. My mother
delivered the route in the 87 Grand Am, and the alternator went out. I
swapped my alternator into the Grand Am. I then drove my car with no front
end and no alternator to the junkyard to get another alternator. There was no
hood latch, and the hood flew up twice, the second time cracking the
windshield. I put the front end back together to close the hood. I delivered
the route with no fenders the night after. I had a friend's CB radio in the
car, and the wire fell off the battery. I stopped at the gas station to fix
it, and 3 cops came around. The station attendant called in and said I was in
a hit and run accident. (?) I stressed to the police that if I had indeed
been in a hit and run, I would have damaged fenders, not missing ones. So
they let me go. After that, I put the fenders back on, and made a bumper out
of a 2x12 piece of lumber. I figured since that my hood was messed up, I
decided to paint it. I made rally stripes down the hood, and painted a Boss
Mustang style stripe on the sides. I painted the rest of the car orange, with
a white top and black fenders. I also mounted Baja lights on the top. I also
borrowed a 6-disc cd player and a pair of 8" Kicker speakers from my
friend.
I let some girl drive my car in Kendallville one night. She
hadn't a driver's license, and hit 3 parked cars while playing with the radio
knobs. I was in the car also, and she left the scene, so I had to handle the cop
and say I was driving. I claimed the power steering belt was slipping, and I couldnt
turn fast enough to avoid the car(s). The car hit a dodge diplomat, which
bumped another car into a Camaro. The Calais was hung up in the Dodge's
bumper, and had to be backed off. The right fender was mangled, and the tie
rod was bent. I told the cops that I had a blown brake line, and he wrote a
ticket for insufficient brakes. They later dropped the ticket, because they
messed up the police report. (rookie)
I convinced the cop to let me drive to work, just down the way, and after
work, I drove 12 miles home with a bent wheel. I then replaced the tie rod
and was back on the road.
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There seems to be a curse that has haunted my cars that I have painted.
A painted car means a wrecked car. This is true for 4 out of 5 of my cars. I
didn't wreck my Cavalier, but it was towed away like the rest were. The
Subaru wasn't wrecked, but I did back into a light pole, and I flipped the
Pinto. The Grand Am was the only Totaled car of the painted cars. So far,
Mertal's Grand Prix and Bobcat still survive, so the curse seems to only
affect my cars.
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I took a trip to Logansport, IN to try and find a friend from Boy's
School. I couldnt find him, but I ran into someone else from boy's school as
I stopped and asked people. He rode with me home. I went back down to take
him home, and my hood latch broke, and the hood flew up at 65 mph. It busted
up the windshield some more, and busted the Baja lights clean off. I had to
stop at Wal-Mart to buy 6 bungee cords to hold it down. Once I got as far as
Marion, the tire went flat from being worn down by the bent tie rid from
before. A conservation officer stopped to see what was going on, and I
borrowed his lug wrench to change the tire. He took a look at the car and had
a state trooper come to inspect my decrepit looking car. The trooper said I
had to get new tires on the front, or he would tow the car. He escorted me to
a tire shop and I had to bounce a check for the tires. I was nearing
Logansport, and the oil pressure was dropping off. Oil was leaking at the
filter where I couldnt get it tight enough. I put more oil in the car when I
dropped him off.
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My car made a rattling noise when I drove. I had always figured it was
the prop rod hitting the alternator fins, but it get louder one day. I was on
my way to Ft. Wayne when it did this. I popped the hood to inspect, and
realized the noise was coming from under the valve cover.
I continued to drive.
The noise worsened, then I heard a snap and the car was running on 3
cylinders. I kept driving. The car stalled at a stoplight, and I ran the
battery out trying to start it. I got a jump start and was on my way. I got
to Fort Wayne, and I had to keep on the gas as I waited at stop lights during
rush hour. I got half way through town, and the motor seized up on the 2100
block of Anthony Blvd.. It sat there for 2 days. I borrowed Adam Forker's
Buick Century to tow it home. Adam ran the brakes and steering in the Olds as
I drove the Buick. We towed it up to Kendallville, and it was getting dark.
The battery was too dead to work the headlights, so we dropped it off at Wal-Mart.
It sat there for 3 days. I went to go get it, come to find out it had been
towed away. I had bought the Cavalier Wagon a bit later, and paid the tow
bill to part out the Wheels and a few other things. I now realized that
my gross neglect of checking the oil had cost me this car.
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