Originally Posted by
captkdobbs
Alright, I've been having a blast reading about first cars/best cars over on the 'week of the 20th' thread. Without the concept of 'best cars for "new drivers"', what was your 'first car' or 'best car' story.
My first car was boring but reliable; a 4-door Mazda GLC (Pre-zoom-zoom). Ran it till the AC
and the heat both went out. I think I got about 200k miles out of that thing. Kept replacing the stereo with better, better, better. Did all the maintenance and learned a TON about working on cars.
Best story I've heard was my brother's. Inherited my parents 1976 Volkswagen Rabbit when he went to college. He drove that thing around MN/WI and the Dakotas until there was more rust than metal. Drove for a month with cardboard covering a hole under the clutch/brake pedal until it got wet and 'went away at about 60 mph'. Ended up having a friend who was a welder tack some sheet-metal to the floor so he'd quit getting wet. He loved that car for some reason.
We had a Ferrari (Fiat) Dino come into the shop with the cardboard over the rust hole fix. The seller had hidden it with copious amounts of tar and undercoating. Back then these were cheap and not really considered Ferraris, so my uncle had me cut out the floor and fix it. The First drama was that I managed to light all that undercoating on fire and almost burned the entire car up. After removing most of the interior and dash I started welding it back together. The second major drama was that a big glob of molten metal popped out and land3d in my crotch where your pants fold just above your wedding tackle. I still remember the ball of molten metal burning through my jeans. I started screaming every expletive I could think of while convulsing on the concrete to try to get away from the lava aimed at my pecker. The guy working the next stall over starting swatting at my crotch trying to knock the golden BB out before I transitioned from “he” to “they.”
We had a fancy shop with a glass wall separating the shop from the waiting room. Our customers got quite the show.
I owe that guy a beer or something….