March 26, 2001
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Well, today, for the first time ever, I drove Deja Bloo under her own power. I got a call from my mechanic that the car was done, but that there had been an accident with the 3-pt seat belts. So I brought the original lap belts with me and we installed one of those, just so I would have something to wear on the way home, and i drove that baby home, with my husband following in the new Mustang the whole way. |
Now, it's bad enough that my mechanic is in west Vancouver, and I live north east of Battle Ground, which is about a 35 minute drive in the convertible on a good day. Add to that the fact that I was nervous about driving my new old car, and that the interior is completely stripped so you can hear every noise the car makes all at once, and it was a nerve-wracking adventure that seemed to drag on for hours.
Of course, I couldn't just drive home. I had to make the rounds. I had to go by the state police inspection station to have the car approved for registration in Washington because I had bought it from a guy in Oregon. That was a little out of my way. Then I realized the gas guage was really low, and going up a hill I discovered I have an idiot light for fuel, and it works! So I stopped to gas up. Now the gas guage read empty, so I pumped in all I could until the pump handle just kept shutting off everytime I squeezed it and the gas started coming back out the hole. I turned and looked at the pump and I had only put in 5 gallons! There's something wrong with that. I remember I had a similar problem with old Bloo, where I never filled it more than halfway before the gas would start backing up in the neck. What's up with that?!
Then we swung by the insurance agent, because they kindly insured it even though it was sight-unseen, and they like to know what they're insuring. So we stopped there and took pictures. Then we putted our way back on the highway to head for home in the country. I was getting quite nervous by then because the steering was jerky and unpredictable, and the car lurched to the right when I hit the brakes. Once into Battle Ground I stopped at the local Tire Factory store and asked them to do an alignment and let me know when it was done. By quittin' time they called back and I went to pick it up. After the alignment it was driving much better. Very calm, and no more lurching towards the sidewalk when I tapped on the power brakes.
| My car got a rollbar installed while away at the mechanics. This is because there were no factory upper mounts for the shoulder harnesses. My mechanic didn't feel safe welding them in to the stock location because he felt the metal was too thin there, so I ordered a rollbar from Tony Branda (the Shelby parts guys). It will allow me to still have passengers in the back. My mechanic stripped it, welded in some mounting locations for the belts, and painted it with some Parchment paint I provided so it would match the interior. Looks nice. I'll soon have a seatbelt install page for this car, and I'll put better pictures of the rollbar and the mounting locations there. I might explain what happened to the old shoulder belts too. But first I'm waiting for a new set of seatbelts to arrive from Southern Rods and Parts. Maybe by next weekend... |  |
The rollbar even clears the roof console with inches to spare.
So, now I have lots of work to do to the interior (obviously). I don't plan on doing paint and bodywork anytime soon because it's expensive. I have all the interior stuff already here waiting to be used, so I'll do that first. Some people tell me I'm doing this backwards by saving the paint for last, but I don't care. It doesn't have to look pretty. I'm more interested in getting it running good and finally getting to hit some shows and cruse nights. Finally!
