Crash!, Bang! Options

[Pnambic]

For those of you out there don't know me, let me catch you up.

Bought my first teener back in early '03. It was DEFFINITELY a fixer-upper, but I got it for $250. No engine, no tranny, but good glass, decent chrome, only one minor ding above the driver's side rear wheel. My father in law used to love fixing up old american cars ('68 Studebaker, a couple Avanti's and a gorgeous '64 Corvette among others) and we were going to make it a fun project, perhaps changing it over to electric power (my father-in-law is an Electrical Engineer afterall).

Unfortunately, I bought it before I stumbled across this site and discovered after the fact that the passenger floorboard was swiss cheese and the passenger side long was toast.

Well, we found another project car locally that was in much better shape. Also not running, but at least it came with one complete and installed engine and two other cores and boxes of other stuff (including a pair of weber 40 idf's).

Alas, family growth and income shrinkage forced me to put the car on the back-burner for quite some time. From time to time, I would put a little into it, spent part of a bonus on buying a known good running engine from Doug Leggins when he was rebuilding that museum piece of his a couple years ago. Installed it all by myself using the Pelican instructions and knowledge accrued from helping Seanery and Doug drop theirs. Overall, beginning to take pride in what I was learning and able to do. (I'm a business analyst by profession, a numbers cruncher, a db freak, not a real mechanic... (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif) )

Well, last year, I lost my job and then got it back and then out of the blue got a new job opportunity half the country away in Atlanta making 50% more than I was before (all while my wife was pregnant with baby #3...). Took the job, things are going well (except we're still stuck paying two mortgages a year later. If anyone knows anyone looking for a home in Noblesville, IN, I'm a motivated seller!!!).

Bought a new Optima for it last month. Fixed an exhaust leak a week and a half ago. Got the car running well enough that I thought I might be able to drive it to work, so last week, I drove the teener and parked it somewhere other than my garage for the first time ever. What a feeling! After all this time, I was finally a real living breathing 914 DRIVER, not just an owner, or a wannabe, but a DRIVER!!!

And then tonight, the wife orders pizza and asks me to go pick it up. I live inside the loop of one of America's largest metropolitan cities, in a decent neighborhood, and only one joint will deliver and they seem to always have trouble finding the place, so I usually just go pick it up. I was just finishing up using some PlastX on the rear lenses and adjusting the clutch cable a little and decided it would be nice to take the teener, so off I went.

Picked up the pizza, just left the PizzaHut parking area, but still in a larger parking lot area and this guy comes flying down the wrong way through a bank parking lot and nails me on the rear passenger wheel. I was in the primary traffic lane and didn't see him because of the parked cars until he was screeching his tires trying to stop. I gunned it, but he spun me around and I ended up half way in the bank's lawn.

I TOLD my wife that if I had a 2.0 or maybe one of Jake's masterpieces instead of this little 1.7, I might have made it OK.... (IMG:style_emoticons/default/rolleyes.gif)

Well...after 4 and a half years....I got a good 3 or 4 days out of it....

I had to take off the rear bumper, but at least I was able to drive it home. Though I'm afraid that there might be some damage to the exhaust....I could hear the exhaust leak return...and the tailpipe was almost knocked off the muffler.

Anyone have recommendations for Atlanta area repair shops?

I'll be OK I think....probably be sore in the morning. But the police officer warned me that there may be trouble with the other guy's insurance. Lovely.

Its a toy though and can be fixed. I'm glad I chose not to bring my 5 year old with me. I was really close to doing so.