Two years ago my parents, convinced that it was time for me to get a new car, arranged for me to acquire a ’96 Cadillac. As a financial planner, they reasoned, I should drive a more upscale car than the ’91 Ford Crown Victoria I had. The terms were excellent, and it was a great car.
Now I all I had to do was to sell the Crown Vic. It had a few issues given that it was fifteen years old, high mileage and the wear and tear that comes with it. I wanted to avoid pouring a lot of money into it. The main thing I wanted to accomplish was to refurbish the vinyl top, which had started to fade and crack. Being the brilliant individual that I am, I decided to use crazy glue to fill the cracks and then paint it over. Unfortunately the crazy glue didn’t fill the crack but just sealed it. Good, but not good enough. Then I had a better idea: Shoe Goo! It did manage to fill in the holes. . . and then some. It was a mess, and now I had to peel it off.
To add to the problems the car no longer ran very well. Whether this was a simple factor of sitting for an extended period or needing fresh gas or something more serious, now I had an additional project. I discovered this when I needed to replace a tire for my Cadillac and so drove my now un-registered and un-licensed Crown Vic to the tire store. Not only did it lurch, but, yes, you guessed it, I got pulled over and ticketed.
As time passed there was less and less of it to spend on fixing the car. First I increased the hours I was giving flight instruction and then last year of course I started working at ASA and was limited to 11 days off a month. The Crown Vic sat in my garage for fear that more exposure would worsen the vinyl while my Cadillac sat in the driveway. I kept meaning to get to it, but other projects kept diverting my attention.
Finally this past week I actually had five consecutive days off. By this time the car wouldn’t even start—the battery had corroded. My goal was now just to get it started and take it to a mechanic to see what needed to be done so I could at least advertise it as running well. I cleaned the battery cable and post and after charging the battery and getting a jump I finally succeeded in starting the car. With my wife following me we first filled the tires and then proceeded to the repair shop.
After explaining my purpose one of the mechanics offered to buy it as is for a fair price. No fuss no muss. No more time and money spent. I may have lost a couple of hundred dollars by not doing it myself, but it was worth it. Or I may have come out just fine. After all, I was nearing the point of taking it to the recycler just to get it out of the garage.
This was a real blessing. Sometimes miracles are small and not so flashy, but important and real just the same.
Now I all I had to do was to sell the Crown Vic. It had a few issues given that it was fifteen years old, high mileage and the wear and tear that comes with it. I wanted to avoid pouring a lot of money into it. The main thing I wanted to accomplish was to refurbish the vinyl top, which had started to fade and crack. Being the brilliant individual that I am, I decided to use crazy glue to fill the cracks and then paint it over. Unfortunately the crazy glue didn’t fill the crack but just sealed it. Good, but not good enough. Then I had a better idea: Shoe Goo! It did manage to fill in the holes. . . and then some. It was a mess, and now I had to peel it off.
To add to the problems the car no longer ran very well. Whether this was a simple factor of sitting for an extended period or needing fresh gas or something more serious, now I had an additional project. I discovered this when I needed to replace a tire for my Cadillac and so drove my now un-registered and un-licensed Crown Vic to the tire store. Not only did it lurch, but, yes, you guessed it, I got pulled over and ticketed.
As time passed there was less and less of it to spend on fixing the car. First I increased the hours I was giving flight instruction and then last year of course I started working at ASA and was limited to 11 days off a month. The Crown Vic sat in my garage for fear that more exposure would worsen the vinyl while my Cadillac sat in the driveway. I kept meaning to get to it, but other projects kept diverting my attention.
Finally this past week I actually had five consecutive days off. By this time the car wouldn’t even start—the battery had corroded. My goal was now just to get it started and take it to a mechanic to see what needed to be done so I could at least advertise it as running well. I cleaned the battery cable and post and after charging the battery and getting a jump I finally succeeded in starting the car. With my wife following me we first filled the tires and then proceeded to the repair shop.
After explaining my purpose one of the mechanics offered to buy it as is for a fair price. No fuss no muss. No more time and money spent. I may have lost a couple of hundred dollars by not doing it myself, but it was worth it. Or I may have come out just fine. After all, I was nearing the point of taking it to the recycler just to get it out of the garage.
This was a real blessing. Sometimes miracles are small and not so flashy, but important and real just the same.
2 comments:
Hey, I helped jumpstart the car!
I didn't know you were ticketed. Is that why you were so cautious to drive it to the repair shop?
Well, it's nice to have more driveway space to play on!
So glad it was finally taken care of. What a blessing to have that mechanic offer to take it as is! Oh yes, you earned this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mw6H3crLzpg =)
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