Our weekend of labors wrapped, it appears there have been victories and further complications. We start our way to Missouri in ten days.
My Mystery Wagon is drivable once more, but with a fix I’ve described as “functionally adequate, but looks like garbage.” It also required a second trip to the junkyard to find this part. At some point this week, I may make a run to the tire shop for a spare/donut situation.
George is in Oklahoma City (ish) both to keep the Fire Truck hidden and also to work on it with his Dad. Apparently he’s in good shape (still!). He’s dropped it off for a brake job, and “ran into another surprise job.” As he put it:
[Car manufacturer] makes multiple [parts that you would not expect this to be the case for] that are visually identical and also not interchangeable.
And then there’s Evan. I’ve since learned that “Dusty’s” exhaust manifold gets so hot it will glow. I don’t know what else is wrong with it, but I’m sure that’s not all. But at least some of his toils appear to be self-inflicted:
Current status is I can’t find my keys and I feel like I’m going insane. I wasted the entire day [yesterday] trying to get the alternator out. And most of today looking for my keys… and then trying to get the alternator out. I finally succeeded, but it took a 4-ton body jack to do it. Needless to say the bracket got a trip to the grinder.
And although George insists that Evan has had his car running since the day after he bought it, Evan is being coy enough about its current state that he’s either pulled off a miracle… or he’s in serious trouble.