We have gotten a long
way since I last wrote in. We put the brakes back together, laid the new lines,
bleed the brakes, and actually drove the car. Laying the brake lines was simple
but time consuming. Laying on concrete in a hundred degree heat is not a good
time. Whilst bleeding the brakes I broke a wheel cylinder and we decided to replace them both. However, it all paid
off in the end. We were able to drive the car again and nothing went wrong. It
runs alright. Admittedly, it does want to die every now and then when you let
off the gas but besides that it's fine. The weird thing is that we couldn't
find a problem with the trans. We simply poured in more fluid and it worked
like a charm. The problem now is that we're at a standstill. The next major
step is pulling the engine out but I'm going to do that when school starts so
now it's onto the little things. For example, we're going to put in shocks.
Trust me, the Monte doesn't pass a bounce test. Also, on a bit of a side note,
a five dollar roller broke in the window and it's going to be hard as hell to
fix. I wish I could say that it was incredibly exciting to drive but it really
wasn't. I am finally starting to see the full expanse of what lies ahead. However,
even though the road ahead is still quit long the journey would be no fun if
there wasn't a series of bends in the way. If it was already a turnkey car then
it wouldn't be personal. In the end this machine, this red rusty hulk, will be
mine and that's all that matters. Yes old cars rarely work but that doesn't
matter. They are one of the very few objects in the world that become part of
you even with their foibles. This Monte Carlo might be trying at times but it
still is something special. No matter how hard it gets I know that it will
never lose that old car magic. It can't when you think about it. It's not like
it's getting any younger.
