Cleaning Up an Old Car
I have a 1985 Mazda RX-7. It’s seen better days. For the last couple years the car has sat out by the barn. It made a handy home for little mice and wasps. Leaves fell on the car and decayed into dirt. Rust slowly ate through the bottom of the doors, and the battery went dead. A film of black dirt covered the paint.
The other day some guys came buy to ask if I wanted to sell this vehicle. “Sure, why not?” I thought, and led them back to the barn. “The battery’s dead. The car has a lot of problems.” I explained, showing them the derelict. I gave them my price and they still seemed interested. I told them I would charge up the battery and try to get the thing started. I gave them my phone number and they said they’d call me Saturday.
So, the next day I put the battery charger on the car, and pumped air into the tires. I checked out the radio, and made sure the battery was taking a charge. After a day on the charger, the engine turned over. It would not run without a shot of starting fluid, of which I was fresh out. I stopped by Murray’s Auto and got a can of starting fluid. After sitting around this morning wasting time on the net and writing in this blog, I decided to see if the car would start.
A good shot of starting fluid down the throat of the carb and a key twist later the engine roared to life. I let it warm up for a while, but not long enough. It stalled out and I had to hit it with the fluid again. This time I let it get good and warm, and it finally idled pretty well. I closed up the hood and retrieved the can of fluid, and threw the thing into reverse. The right rear wheel just spun. In two years the car had sunk into the ground, Some wheel spinning and back and forth rocking later, and the car was free. I pulled up to the front driveway and parked the RX on asphalt.
With the car safely parked, I got the shop vac and cleaned out all the leaves that had collected in the various crevices of the vehicle. I vacuumed out the engine compartment, including a mouse nest by the battery. Then I mixed up a bucket of soapy water and got a rag and the hose and washed the grime off the car. A little cosmetic help will not detract from any price offers.
So the car is running and can be transported and is relatively clean. Now I’m waiting around for this guy to call. If he doesn’t get back to me this week, I think I’ll make up some nice number signs and park the car by the road and put a price on it. It never hurts to advertise. I did a lot of work on that car to keep it running over the couple years I drove it, and I spent a lot of cash on stuff like cool speakers and a stereo and all the other stuff I did to make the car run. Now I just have to become a used car dealer and sell the thing off. Shouldn’t be too hard. I can always sell it to the junkyard for scrap. In fact, I might make more money taking and selling parts of it online to people looking to rebuild this car. It’s not a complete pile of junk.
I have spent many days working on cars in my life. I used to do all kinds of different service to vehicles. It is a hobby I used to enjoy. If you can take a piece of junk and make it work to get you around, you have saved some money. I probably spent more on gas and insurance for that vehicle than I ever did on the price. Still, it would be nice to get rid of the thing so I don’t have to think about working on it all the time. I have considered converting it into an electric car, but it’s kind of heavy for that. It was interesting to study the construction of this contraption and learn how it operates. Perhaps I will go into the car business and design my own vehicles. Perhaps I will only need a couple hundred million to start a car company. That’s what venture capital is for, right?
