Light changed, didn't see it, T boned a Scion... I'm fine, the woman driving said she was fine, car is totaled. I have reduced the drivers side wheelbase to about 111 inches.

Guess I'm stuck with the '79 for now. Gonna use parts from the '77 to fix it, already changed my Holley 750, 1 wheel and tire, and a couple other odds and ends. Car is too quiet, needs a flowmaster, glasspack, or something.

I know a man named Tim, Tim makes cars louder, quieter, and less likely to smog the cabin. Tim shall be making my Holiday much louder.

Anyway, pics of the wreck, was my fault, don't know how this happened, I drive like 1,200 miles a week for work, in a company vehicle, been doing it for a year, haven't been in a wreck. No excuse for it, I just wasn't paying attention.









And, what will now be my daily unless I sell it, I dunno at this point. I'm pissed I spent so much on that car and totaled it. Hoping the rain washes off this one since it's been in the shed since about March.




Was going to trade this car for an S10, but, that's not happening now. This car shall be my daily until the day it is no longer my daily. I'll try to make sure this one doesn't end up the same fate as my other car.

 

Owning up to making a mistake is not easy to do, especially on an open forum such as Classic Olds.
Good to hear everyone is ok and no serious injuries.
Cheers
Eric

 

X2 good thing you still have a plan with the other car.

 

I try to be the most I can be, if I screw up, I admit it, if my honest opinion isn't what someone wants to hear, they shouldn't ask. It's probably the only reason I've kept my job for some of the screw ups I've made, my boss would rather I be honest about it than lie about it. Sometimes I offend people being this way, but hey, I ain't gonna call a chunk of glass a diamond. I'm hoping they're nice to me in court, however, even though it's just a misdemeanor, I'd rather not have this on my record.

Les a plan, more uh, "Well.. What now?"

But yeah, this car has a rebuilt engine, and possibly trans, runs like butter with my Holley 750, could use plugs, will get a video tomorrow. I siphoned some gas out of the black car, not a whole lot 'cause my siphon pump is leaking, and I was feeling tired / lazy, probably 3 gallons or so. I said I had enough when the old baby sized shirt I was using to stop the leaking was leaking its self. Should be enough until I can find out if I need to bum $20 for gas for the week.

Side note, the fuel gauge does not at all in the Holiday... It says it's full... it is very much NOT full.

Probably rob the sending unit of the '77 for the '79, 'cause, I'm as cheap as a bird who loudly proclaims to be. Kinda worked out in the end, I have the parts I need to get going, not so many people are lucky.

On a serious note, I feel sorry for this woman, I really hope I did not disrupt her life too much.

 

Sorry to hear about it.

A frame shop can probably straighten that out, if it's worth it to you - these cars can be pulled straight pretty well.

You say you drive 1,200 miles a week for work - that's about 240 miles a day.
Any chance you were just plain tired? Fatigue is a major cause of accidents of all kinds, and is not properly recognized.

Good thing nobody was hurt, anyway.

- Eric

 

Nah, was just heading into work, I drive nights. This car has been wrecked before, header panel had been changed, I think that's why it folded like it did. Not worth fixing, from looking, I'm pretty sure that the frame has already been repaired. Not really enough there to bother fixing.

And yeah, I'm glad no one was hurt too. Just gonna move on from this car, I've put too much into it as it is. Not sure how long I'll keep the Holiday, guess we'll see.

Kinda funny that I put more miles on the company van than my car. It's a 2011 Chevy Express and it has 338k miles on it.

 

Stuff happens, that's why they are called accidents. Glad no one was hurt.

 

Yep.. Also just realized what my car was "leaking" and the puddle of "Goo" on the rollback was the bottle of brake fluid I had in the drivers side fender. It uh... Well it damn well exploded when it got sandwiched between my car and the Scion at roughly 43MPH. It was turning whatever he had smeared on that bed into a waxy goo. Oh those poor people are going to be wondering why the side of their Scion has had the paint boiled off... Leave brake fluid on the side of a car for about a day in the sun, it will look like hell worn over. Man, I needed that brake fluid... I hope I have another bottle so I can do the brakes on the '79... Of ALL the things, my brake fluid...

So...

That leaves me with the things to do this weekend:

Get the choke hooked up, just gotta find a switched source like I did on my '77, I know where to look. Everything else is fine, transmission kick down, throttle linkage, and distributor / transmission vacuum. The EGR, fuel evap can, and several things are not hooked up nor will they be, no vacuum on the carb for them nor do I really care. The PCV seems to function as it should, but I'll keep an eye on it.

Pull the wheels, tires, and brakes off my '77, put 'em on the '79, put the worn out '79's rotors and drums back so the '77 can still roll.

Get the lock cylinder from my column installed in the '79, it doesn't have one (Or keys), change the trunk lock out for mine if possible, if not, swap out whole trunk lid.

Figure out why the floor shifter shifts without the brake pressed, or the button on it pressed.

Check the master cylinder and several other brake bits, if need be, replace them with ones from my car, the rotors, calipers, drums, wheel cylinders, shoes and pads are definitely being reused. Don't like using used stuff, but it's my used stuff, so I know it's all good.

Change my wiper arms over (I had to borrow one from the '79 and my car has new wipers, the '79 has one very decayed wiper)

Check the shape of the '77 to determine if my springs, shocks, control arms, and steering linkage are any good, if so, pull them for later use. Also see if it will run.

Clean out the '79, it's nasty, someone smoked cigars, previous owner I think, she was the only one who drove it.

Get it titled, and tagged Monday, $2 to transfer my plates, $70-ish to title it. VA inspection is $16, barely have enough.

If possible over the weekend I will transfer my stereo, just four speakers and a head unit, and swap the relay back to the '79 from the '77 for the heater. Yes I'm cheap enough to take parts off my own cars, hey, it was cold and I needed heat!

Also gotta fix some chewed wires relating to the heater / air con, wonder if the AC works?

Pull anything from the '77 I have time to, blower fan (It's new-ish), radiator (My cousin won't want that, he's buying the engine to put in his truck, and the rad seems fine), master cylinder, brake check valve, overflow jug cap (Mine vanished into thin air a couple weeks ago so I borrowed it from the '79 and put a spraypaint cap over the jug). Uh, can't think of anything else off the top of my head, got the battery out already, definitely grabbing the plug wires but he knows that already and he has a good set.

Next weekend, I plan to change the oil and plugs, they seem a bit fowled from sitting. Car has a miss or something odd about it's idle I want to chase out. Probably get some belts too, these where new when the engine was put in around 4 years ago, now they're dry rotted. Hoses seem good, I'll keep some money aside in case one starts spitting coolant. Probably pull the vinyl top and prep it so it doesn't rust, if I where to restore the car I'd have it painted then put the top back, but at the very least I don't want holes in my roof.

I'll start a project thread tomorrow so y'all can follow me down this particular rabbit hole (I kind of tripped and fell head first into it), whereas I never bothered with the '77. Hey I might even get fancy and upload some state of the art 480p 4:3 640x480 videos from a Canon point and shoot.

 

I like it when things go south fast. You pull up the boot straps and a plan comes together.

 

X3 be careful out there!

 

Well that's one of my few traits I actually like, it takes a lot for me to lose my composure, I mean I was jittery from the adrenaline for a while after the wreck, but that's just 'cause I don't usually experience adrenaline. It takes a lot to get my adrenaline going, and I don't really go seeking things that do.



Thanks, I'll try.

 

Next weekend, I plan to change the oil and plugs, they seem a bit fowled from sitting. Car has a miss or something odd about it's idle I want to chase out.

Check port on front of intake that feeds the curse control, the line seems to break up at that point causing rough idle.
Johnny

 

I am not sure that shifter lockout was also from no brake pedal depress with a car that old. I THINK that was in the 80s (witch hunt on Audi from 60 Minutes when a pregnant woman was standing on the gas and put it in gear.) Button on shifter, yes, that needs to work.

 

??????????

 

Sorry to hear... As previously mentioned, glad noone was hurt. We all make mistakes; we just deal with it and go on. It is why we have insurance as well.
Your car is certainly fixable if you wanted to. I love how the front end is a complete bolt-together. Just the frame would be the deciding factor. I am sure you still have a good drivetrain. One good thing is getting that ugly little eco-car off the road! Another is to be even more careful on the road. Bad experiences usually make us stronger.
Best of luck to you whichever path you take!

 

Thanks, and yeah, the only thing that made that Scion safer is it's millions of pillows coming out of the woodwork. I just don't see the point in fixing it, still so far to go before it's a nice car again, I may sell the car to someone on the forums who wants it cheap, but the engine is going to my cousin. He needs an engine for his truck. I won't want much for whatever is left, but I will be taking most of the suspension, so there really won't be much left. But I will make a thread for parts, for anyone who needs 'em. I'm keeping the tail lights, rear bumper, and suspension, but the doors, speedometer, and a few other bits will be up for grabs. Taking the whole gas tank 'cause it's sending unit is fine, and the one on the '79 is uh, a bit confused. It thinks it has a full tank.

Thanks, will do, I plan to delete the cruise. I have no use for it, I do not like it, I wish it to be gone, but the parts making it up will be up for grabs, so that's a plus, I guess? If it's one of those threaded T head things, and it's broken, I'll just go to the hardware store and find a bolt that looks right and plug it up. It isn't a jalopy without the wrong hardware being used to fill a purpose, right?

Then again I may use this vacuum with a larger port to run my PCV so I can split it from the brake vacuum since my holley is a Ford style with no PCV hook up, not sure yet. Either way, thanks for pointing it out.

Side note, I am SLIGHTLY concerned that my car is somewhat possessed. I checked the headlights tonight when I got home to see how bright they are. I've gotta replace the drivers side high / low, the high side of it is out, but the radio randomly came on (Probably just screwed up *****), and it started playing Johnny Cash's Ring of Fire. I was outside the car and heard those damn trumpets, scared the hell outta me... Anyone want a stereo that may be possessed with the spirit of Johnny Cash? I don't...

 

He said "Figure out why the floor shifter shifts without the brake pressed, or the button on it pressed. "

The floor shifter should not require the brake to be depressed to get out of park, as it is before the 80s legislation that required it.

Make sense now?

Hell my 67 doesn't even car that the key is in it to shift out of park, that came with the key on the column a few years later. I am glad that BS never went to manual transmission cars, I guess they figured the clutch was deterrent enough.

 

Alright, makes sense, my '77 has a column shifter, but it locks in place unless the brake is pressed, guess I assumed the floor shifting cars would be the same. I'm also starting to think I may not be able to use the ignition switch from the '77 in the '79, dunno, gotta take a better look when the sun comes up.