The friend I sold the 240 to was a flake to the maximum. I haven’t seen payment, and he dropped the ball on insuring it, registering it, and getting it to pass inspection. It’s the ultimate bad situation.
E and I went with a jump box and repo’d it last night. It’s now stored at my friend’s house, to fix a wiring problem and trailer it back to Dallas from Mansfield this weekend.
It’s fitting this is coming up today, as it’s got an engine from a country with no emissions requirements, and a piece of straight 3 inch pipe instead of a catalytic converter. Happy Earth Day!
After being in the house for a month and a half, Eilene and I finally started unpacking this weekend. 102.9 was doing an all 80s weekend, so we had the radio cranked and were putting away kitchen stuff and organizing the garage and attic. It snowed in Dallas on Thursday, a whole eighth of an inch, which meant that work closed for a bit. I wound up running home to drain the radiator in the 240, as I had forgotten there was no antifreeze in it.
The more we live there the more dope the house feels, but the more things I notice need to be fixed. It’s been hard to confine desires for improvements to what’s going to benefit resale and not what’s going to create a dream home. It’s nice and big and has so much potential, but we don’t have a lot of money and don’t want to rack up debt.
I finally finished redoing the wheel bearings on the pickup truck, I’ve been procrastinating forever. Having finally knuckled down and finished, I know why I was procrastinating. Especially since it’s 4WD, that was easily the most difficult thing I’ve ever done with a car, even moreso than the swap on the 240. I don’t have a factory service manual for the truck, a lot of the drawings in the Haynes manuals look like they were done by a 4th grader, and since the bearings were destroyed I didn’t have a good image in disassembly to go by.
The 240 is still down, to be honest it could be running if I did the brakes and replaced a tire, but it’s still hot and I’m busy. The turbo is indeed blown, as I was afraid of back when we put the engine in, and I’m waiting to hear back from the company that imported the engine to see if they’ll at least discount a new one. The warranty on the engine was 30 days/startyup, and that ran out 6 months ago.
After renting a car for a few weeks, Eilene and I went out to Scenic Downtown Bedford ™, and grabbed a pickup truck. It’s a 1993 Nissan hardbody pickup with a mild lift, a brand new transmission, and nothing wrong with it save for a gasket here and a belt there. I’ve needed a truck anyway with all the car-related “haulin”, and I got it on the cheap.
I went back out to Bedford yesterday after work and bought the camper shell from someone on craigslist. It’s pretty nice to have soemthing driveable that runs, runs reliably, has air conditioning, and has a radio. I immediately called my mother in NY upon purchasing the truck and told her, “I think I’ve finally moved to Texas.” As we were about to drive it home, I grabbed a CD from the rental car.
Next stop? I need some pups in the back of that pup truck.
I’m painting the 240SX, in full safety gear. Reptile wins, double flawless FATALITY.
