Dead Car Update

I’ve not written an update about the dead 97 for a while. As I sit here in front of the laptop, every joint in my body aches. I glare in the direction of the garage. I dream of the time when I’ll be done (soon) and able to park my new 95 in there. Soon. Soon.

Done:

• The engine and trans. They’re out and somehow sharing room with my other spare engine. Me and Sarah pulled it out on Saturday afternoon. Took about an hour. It’s honestly a dirt simple job once you’ve done it three or four times. You just have to remember to disconnect all the transmission sensors. They make things difficult if they’re still conencted.
• All removable bodywork except for the doors are off. The fenders are ok and reusable! I was happy about this. The front bumper cover, all the stuff underneath and the radiator, not so reusable.
• Plastic windshield cowl is off. That was a pain and I didn’t break it removing it! Huge triumph there.
• Wiper arms, wiper motor, door mirrors: all removed and stored. Took more energy to type it than to remove those three things.

• The whole dash is gone. I’ve never removed one of those before. Lots of fun. I can’t imagine trying to do that to remove the carpet as books recommend. I’d just slice up the carpet rather than risk cracking a 12-20 year old dash.
• Heater core is out. Nice to have a spare one of those. I’ve always been a little curious about what would happen if it ever started leaking.
• All four brakes are off. Completely. Rotors, calipers, pads, brackets, lines. All removed from the car. These spares alone are worth what I paid for the salvage. And more on the brakes in a future blog post…
• My bolt collection is becoming legendary. I have most of a car worth of bolts now. I need more storage for them.

To do:

• Must remove doors. Must remove seats. It’s just easier leaving them in for now.
• Front and rear A-arms are next to go.
• I need to buy some tools to remove the rear hubs. I need a 29mm socket (I have 28s and 30s…) and a better chisel to bang out the retaining bolt.
• The diff and seemingly-stuck powerplant frame.
• And that just leaves the front subframe. I’m considering leaving that in the car. I donno what I’d do with a spare.

So I’m almost there. I’ll probably be done this week. Then I get to figure out how to haul the wreck off to a junkyard to get rid of it.