Alright, its about high time I explained what the fuck is going on here.
And amazingly, it manages to be something very different this time, believe it or not.
I broke a wrist on 8 July 2019 and shortly after I became the official the legal owner of my Grandma’s 1967 Pontiac.
Jeez! How did you break your wrist? Also, uhhh… why did you take on that responsibility right after a major debilitating injury?
Good questions.
I was out riding my bike Monday after American Independence Day and a car made an illegal turn across my path. I couldn’t stop in in time and went S P L A T on the side. Broke my left wrist. As for my Grandma’s old car, plans were already in place at the point . The plan was to get it to my residence in Michigan in time for Roadkill Nights 2019 which it did. And I went with the car!
Me about two weeks after the accident:
Not to worry. Me now! (9 Sep 2019)
Wrist is still stiff and recovering but at least I can use both hands again!
And this thing manages to look even better when its sitting in MY PARKING SPACE
Still have questions about… all of it. Can you tell us more?
Sure!
About the accident:
The moral of this story is please PLEASE PLEASE do not make make blind left turns through gaps in stopped traffic!
I was out biking on the Monday following American Independence Day (8 July) and was approaching a traffic signal at about 17:45. My direction’s signal was red so there was a large line of stopped cars leading up to the signal. I was in the dedicated bicycle lane on the right so I was still cruising up to the stop line, probably going 20-25 km/hr.
Now coming up soon, there is a driveway to the Dairy Queen. And as I approach this driveway, I am now behind a city BUS. So there is no seeing whats on the other side for me or anyone to the left of it. Also there was another cyclist in front of me probably about 15 meters in front going about the same speed. He passed in front of the driveway - nothing happened. So I kept going.
Right when about the driveway was halfway between him and me though, suddenly. WILD CAR APPEARS! Someone from the oncoming traffic had the brilliant idea to turn left in front of the stopped bus trying to get into the DQ, somehow not seeing the cyclist before me and taking precautions as a result.
Yeah do the math. There was no stopping. I slammed into their front left quarter hard. Proceeded to bounce of onto the sidewalk and get a nasty roadrash on my right knee. Once I caught my breath, I thought everything was okay besides a bloody knee and some broken sun glasses.
And then I saw my left wrist. If you care to know, go look up what “Colle’s Fracture” is; however, YOU’VE BEEN WARNED!
Soooo, then I spent three weeks in a full arm cast, three more weeks in short cast. And now I just have an orthotic splint I am suppose to use when doing things like running. But one of the things they don’t tell you when you get a cast is that you won’t just lose some of your mobility; YOU WILL LOOSE ALL OF IT!
Consequently I am now seeing a physical therapist twice a week.
About the car
In case any of you don’t know the story, the short version is that it was my Grandma’s car and when she died, it got willed to my dad. Well my dad really doesn’t have the time for it but he wants it to stay in our family so he gave it to me.
And that bit about my dad not having the time for it – yeah, it shows. I mean my Grandma stopped driving it around 2002 or so but its still basically just sat since we first revived it in 2016. So once I got out of the full arm cast, I’ve been dedicating virtually all of my free time to unfucking thiscar!
I swear every time I drive it, I find something else wrong. Granted its mostly little stuff like the turn signals and taillights not working. Or the muffler rusting out and now its dragging tail. Or this full fucking #BecauseRoadkill moment two weeks ago
It ruptured one of the feed lines to the heater core while I was out driving one day (observe the HUGE environmental hazard underneath ), so I ended up marooned in a parking lot for a couple hours doing roadside repairs. As luck would have it though, there was an O’Reilly’s only a block away.
Fixed!
(was just burping the cooling system at this point since it lost a LOT of coolant)
The unfuckening of the rear taillights.
(Oh and the OEM socket design was garbage so this is seriously an improvement even if the wiring isn’t fantastic looking)
The unfuckening of the front indicators.
Did the final fitment test just before posting this actually
. Needs only minor dimensional adjustments.
The unfuckening of the muffler will happening probably this Wednesday night.
Other unfuckenings that still need to happen:
- Fuel tank rheostat is dead. Gauge works but without that rheostat, I have to keep track of my milage else I run out of gas!
- Paint work. Don’t know for sure what I am doing about this yet, whether repaint or hopefully just touch up if I can find something close enough to 1967 GM Red code WA3595.
- All fluids, especially the coolant which is now probably 80% water after that incident.
- And a bunch more I am forgetting and doubtless have yet to find.
And now finally this begs the question: Will I be resuming regular reviews?
I hope the background is clear now. For most of July, I was literally incapable of using a computer or doing much of anything effectively. But now when I am getting closer to right again, I have another serious priority that is killing my free time.
As for an answer, I don’t really want to give one if that makes sense. I believe the ultimate answer is “yes”. But now is just not a good time and that is what I mean by “I don’t want to give one”.
Enough time has passed now that especially due to the game / engine changes, we might just need to go full reset too! Clean slate!