sometimes you have to hoof it
Let me tell you the story of how I got my new (to me) Dart.
Found the listing on craigslist and after about a weeks worth of emails and back and forths i hopped on my motorcycle to check out this dart in Maine....5.5 hours from my front door. I paid for it and planned to catch a ride back in two weeks to pick it up. Sure enough, those rides all fell through. I got a ride most of the way there to the border where I tossed on my backpack half full of tools for the drive home and the other half was a hammock and some warm clothes in case i didnt make it. I started the 60 mile journey to my car hitchhiking at 10am. after walking about 16 miles a nice gent picked me up in a mini-van and took me about 4 miles down the road and from there the rides kept coming through and I managed to get to my car at around 6:00pm. I hopped in and roared away to make the 5.5 hr journey home. Now the previous owner said he's only driven the car more than 20 miles at a time once in the eight years he owned it when he drove it 70 miles, but i was going to make it home, all 275 miles of it.
The trip was going flawless, until it started raining at about 10:30 and on the darkest highway i'd been on yet the car slipped out of gear going up hill. damn. i pulled over to the shoulder and let it sit for a minute and weighed out my options. tried to go forward and nothing was happening, somehow i managed to catch reverse and i backed down the highway for 2km to the closest on-ramp and backed down that on-ramp into the gas station where I had the only street light for what felt like 100 miles. It was eleven o'clock now. I managed to check the transmission fluid level and it was completely empty, nothing was open. My choices were to sleep in the car and hope on a prayer that the gas station had the right kind of transmission fluid, or call it a night and call CAA to get me the rest of the way home. almost made it all the way...only 60 miles from home.
My first night in the car, and it was on a flatbed.
the next morning i was under the car figuring out what was wrong. turns out i had a small crack in a transmission line. I got that part sent to me and was back rolling again the next day. I've since put on another 500 miles in this thing in the two weeks i've owned it and had to tighten a few things and fix a little thing here and there, but I couldn't be happier.
My first classic car and so far I've earned every mile in it.
looking forward to reading and learning a ton in here.
This will be my daily driver til the snow falls, and i plan on taking at least one 500 mile road trip on it before then as well.
Let me tell you the story of how I got my new (to me) Dart.
Found the listing on craigslist and after about a weeks worth of emails and back and forths i hopped on my motorcycle to check out this dart in Maine....5.5 hours from my front door. I paid for it and planned to catch a ride back in two weeks to pick it up. Sure enough, those rides all fell through. I got a ride most of the way there to the border where I tossed on my backpack half full of tools for the drive home and the other half was a hammock and some warm clothes in case i didnt make it. I started the 60 mile journey to my car hitchhiking at 10am. after walking about 16 miles a nice gent picked me up in a mini-van and took me about 4 miles down the road and from there the rides kept coming through and I managed to get to my car at around 6:00pm. I hopped in and roared away to make the 5.5 hr journey home. Now the previous owner said he's only driven the car more than 20 miles at a time once in the eight years he owned it when he drove it 70 miles, but i was going to make it home, all 275 miles of it.
The trip was going flawless, until it started raining at about 10:30 and on the darkest highway i'd been on yet the car slipped out of gear going up hill. damn. i pulled over to the shoulder and let it sit for a minute and weighed out my options. tried to go forward and nothing was happening, somehow i managed to catch reverse and i backed down the highway for 2km to the closest on-ramp and backed down that on-ramp into the gas station where I had the only street light for what felt like 100 miles. It was eleven o'clock now. I managed to check the transmission fluid level and it was completely empty, nothing was open. My choices were to sleep in the car and hope on a prayer that the gas station had the right kind of transmission fluid, or call it a night and call CAA to get me the rest of the way home. almost made it all the way...only 60 miles from home.
My first night in the car, and it was on a flatbed.
the next morning i was under the car figuring out what was wrong. turns out i had a small crack in a transmission line. I got that part sent to me and was back rolling again the next day. I've since put on another 500 miles in this thing in the two weeks i've owned it and had to tighten a few things and fix a little thing here and there, but I couldn't be happier.
My first classic car and so far I've earned every mile in it.
looking forward to reading and learning a ton in here.
This will be my daily driver til the snow falls, and i plan on taking at least one 500 mile road trip on it before then as well.