Fun, Fun, Fun, but now it's time to put the T-bird away...

August 29, 2006, 11:01:41 PM

My girlfriend Ashlie's Neon has been having electrical problems for a solid year. I tried to tell her parents that it just needed battery cables, but they didn't wanna put too much money into it as they were signing it over to her soon. So, it finally gave up the ghost and the cables were pretty much corroded from the inside out. Not to mention the battery terminal posts were actually LOOSE. Oh yeah, and it was spewing acid all over the place to top it all off. So I said I'd fix the car about a week ago, but I ended up getting to it just today.

Since her dad's the high school FB coach, he needs his truck now and Ashlie is out of a car. Against my better judgement, I told her she could use my T-bird. I was only apprehensive because the car had sat for two years and I've probably only driven it 150 miles since the beginning of CJ. So it's very shaky as far as reliability goes. Fast forward to this morning, it's the second day she's driven my car the 30 mile drive to where she works. I get a call at about 7:30 a.m. and she's hysterical because she said she wrecked my car. Of course, I asked first that everyone was ok, and thankfully they were. Cop came and no citation was issued and now I just hope the lady she rear-ended doesn't develop late-onset whiplash. :rolleyes: Apperantly she looked up too late to see the car in front of her was stopped dead. She said she hit the car at 20 mph, but judging by the fact that the car is undamaged (mostly) I'd say it was probably slowed down a lot more at the point of impact.

Anyway, in her panic to stop, it must've exploited a weakness in the 21 year-old brake lines because when I went to look at the car (which she drove from the accident directly to work with no problems except the brake light was lit) I saw the car g out brake fluid right in front of the rear axle. I took it for a spin around the parking lot and told her no way she was driving the car home. So I called a tow truck to come pick it up and she rode home in the cab and picked up her car here. I had just gotten her car finished at about noon today, so that's all good, except for the battery hold-down that I broke. Let me say, does chrysler use cheap-ass 'battery cables'. These things had to be 6 or 8 gauge. Even the cheap ones I used from Autozone were 4 ga. and they dwarfed the stockers.

Anyway, point is, it's getting late in summer and now the car needs new brake lines at the very least. So I figure now is a great time to clean out the garage, roll that bitch in there and raise it high on jackstands and tear into the suspension.

So, anyway, that's the exciting story of my day.

Fun, Fun, Fun, but now it's time to put the T-bird away...

Reply #1 – August 29, 2006, 11:08:51 PM

That realy sucks Brian. At least the car and the girl are safe huh? I also have her dad for American Achivement and Psycology this year. Thought I would throw that in.

Fun, Fun, Fun, but now it's time to put the T-bird away...

Reply #2 – August 30, 2006, 12:08:28 AM

wow i guess it could have been a lot worse. I'm glad everything is ok with the woman.... how much damage to the front happened?

GL with whatever your projects consist of. Glad everythings ok for the most part.

Fun, Fun, Fun, but now it's time to put the T-bird away...

Reply #3 – August 30, 2006, 01:43:11 AM

There's no damage at all, that I can see. The license plate might be bent up a little bit, but that's all I can really see.

The project I'm going to try to tackle over the winter is:

1.) Drop the rear end and have it gone over by a professional.
2.) Get some CHE's for the rear along with new springs, shocks, struts.
3.) Re-do the front suspension complete with TC brakes a la ThunderChicken.