Long Weekend! - Lots of running around. However, I now have a Metro in my driveway and a cap on my S10!
Overall, the Metro looks really nice. There are a couple of dents in it, but nothing that shouldn't just pop right out. The black paint job actually looks pretty nice
Plus, it's already aeromodded, because it came WITHOUT and antenae or mirrors on either side!
I do have the drivers' side mirror, but it's not attached.
So, today, I called the local U-Haul. The guy said he had a car dolly available and that I could come get it. I went over there, paid my $40 cash to rent the thing and then went outside to hook it up. The guy looked at it and said I shouldn't haul it with my truck because the hitch "isn't frame mounted".
I left to go see if I could borrow my Dad's big Astro Van with the towing package. Unfortunately, he wasn't available and and was a bit out of town. But I had already paid for my dolly rental!!!!!
When I went back, the shop was closed and the guy was gone. I kinda figured that where my "aftermarket" bumper was bolted on was the same place as where a "frame mounted" bracket would have gone. So I hooked up the car dolly and went.
There is NO straight road from my place to where the Metro was. It took at least as long for me to get there today, plus I had the dolly bouncing around behind the truck.
Once there, I loaded up the car following the directions on the dolly. The Metro rolls well when 4 people push it! It did NOT include a battery! There was one in there yesterday and now not today! That means I couldn't run the hazard lights on the Metro on the ride home.
Also, once I had paid and got the title, I saw that it said "Rebuilt Salvage" in the notes section of the title. I hope that's not a problem! I think Doax's car has a salvage title!?!?
I took it real slow and careful on the ride home. (Did I mention it's 45 minutes each way and there's no radio in the truck?) My stopping distance must have been quadruple what it usually is. The truck didn't like my clutch abuse pulling away in first gear, and hills were slow, but crusing at 45 mph was great. Other that that black Metro that was TOTALLY tailgating me. Who was that guy!?
Made it home with no major events. Took it real slow over the railroad tracks that made both trailer tires airborne on the ride out.
Once home, I mostly had to play "musical cars" in the driveway. We had; my daily driver, my wife's car, the pickup truck, the Metro, an the car dolly trailer. Ever see one of those grid puzzles where one space is missing and you have to move part to there and then move the last part to the new empty space? Yeah, it was like that. I have no turn around in my driveway and you can't backup that type of trailer.
Of course the Metro couldn't move under its own power, and I no longer had 3 other guys to help push. I never realized before how uphill my driveway is. I only needed to push the Metro about 15 feet, but just couldn't. I put more air in the tires so it could roll a little easier, but it was still too hard.
Then I had a brainstorm. I grabbed the motorcycle's magical "4th Battery" - the one that isn't in it because it doesn't fit. And put that in the Metro - then I stuck in a thick short piece of wire to jumper the missing 70 amp battery fuse. I put the Metro into first gear and turned the key to run the starter. Because the clutch is gone, instantly the Metro leapt forward, driven by the powerful electric motor driving the flywheel! Then the engine fired up and I was hurtling towards the garage door! I mashed the brake and killed the key. (Pushing the clutch does nothing and I couldn't pull the stick out of gear!) Stopping exactly in position, inches from my not-smashed-thru garage door.
What fun! I think I just invented the world's cheapest gas-electric hybrid car! It really did have WAY more get up and go than it would have with just the engine!
Maybe that should be a Metro aftermarket option - a button that accelerates you away from stop signs using the starter, then fires up the engine once you are to speed!
Once I got the truck and trailer turned around, I returned the dolly trailer to the rental place and headed out to get the new (used) truck cap I spotted a few days ago.
When I got out there, the seller was NOT there to meet me like he said he was going to. I figured I could lift the cap onto my truck by "turtle-lifting" it. Get underneith, put it on my back, and lift with my legs. So there I am, up to my knees in snow-covered marshland, carrying a fiberglass truck cap by myself, all hunched over - I get to about 5 feet from the truck when my cell phone rings. Talk about having my hands full! I lean the cap against the telephone pole and answer it. It's the seller - he says he'll be right there. I figure I may as well let him help me lift it the last few feet, and it would be easier to put on with two people. I wait a few minutes for him. We put the cap on and I pay him the $50.
So, now I have a cap on the pickup, which means I can haul around my work gear with that as needed instead of the Shadow. So, if the Shadow breaks, or if I sell it, I still have work transportation now.
Too many cars in the driveway. If the snow clears up, my wife can park her car in the driveway (she uses the garage all winter) and I can put the Geo in the garage.
Unfortunately, I have lots of work to catch up on this week, which was a big reason I wanted to get the car moved and that cap today. So i may not have a lot more interesting news for a bit.
Note that the photo at the top is DRAMATIC RE-ENACTMENT of my actual clutch-free test-drive-of-death that occured yesterday. Doax wished he had a photo, but the camera was in my pocket as I careened wildly around the block. But i am pretty sure my expression was something like that.
More photos
here
Cost of the car was $500 - lowest the guy would go. Suspension mounts looked pretty good as far as I could tell.
Today
Other popular topics in this forum...
Bully
