New Direction
6/24/2007
I've decided to go a completely different direction with the car. I've grown up and out of the whole body kit, neon lights, make believe go fast parts and stupid paint jobs. I'm going for a more clean look, not something out of the crack house.

Moving on to the story at hand. You'll see the direction I'm moving in with the car from the story, and my shopping list. Enjoy. EDIT: Shopping list removed.

The Beginning
I'm in the military, currently stationed overseas, so when I come home on leave it's safe to say I expect to see my car. I flew in on Sunday the 10th in Mosinee, Wisconsin. Walking into the main visitor section of the airport I was greeted by most of my family and friends. My girlfriend; Letitia, was the first person I saw, and unfortunately the 3rd person I hugged. My Mom and Dad got the first 2. My dad had organized a stretch limo, of which everyone rode in. My dad and one of his buddies proceeded to get completely wasted on the way back home to Marshfield. We stopped at a local Italian Restaurant named Gioselli's when we reached Marshfield. Good food, but not really worth the price. My dad and his buddy were slobbering drunk by the time we finished eating, my dad is rather embarrassing when he's drunk. Moving on to the next day.

Chapter 1. The Dust
I checked on my car on the 11th, Monday at around 10 a.m. I swung by my dads place with Letitia to pick up the key to the car and the key's to the storage unit. Imagine my surprise when I opened the door to the storage unit to discover this awaiting me.

This has to be at least a years worth of dust on the car. There was so much dust, there were mites on the car. I don't know what kind of mites, but they were huge, and white/clear. Here's a good picture of them.

I even decided to try to wipe some dust off the rear bumper with my finger. The result was disturbing. I scratched the bumper.... with my finger.... made me angry to say the least.

So it was no surprise to me when I opened the doors and discovered the battery to be dead. I pushed the car out of storage and checked the oil. The oil had separated, much to my dismay. Sooo, I had my mothers husband come with supplies so we could get this heap up and running again. All fluids were drained, flushed, replaced and repeat with the exception of the transmission oil. Once the battery was replaced, she started right up. No leaks, no bumps, just like she was new. So throughout the time I was on leave, I ran her through another break in period. She now has 9,955 miles. Amazing.

Chapter 2. The Wash
Well that same day, Letitia and I drove over my mothers house to wash the car. This was at about 4 p.m. The only reason it was so late was because I had a few appointments to get the car licensed and insured. So I whipped out the 400 psi water pressure washer and proceeded to annihilate the dust. Good fun. I never did get a chance to ICE the car unfortunately. I'm still sad about that.

Chapter 3. The Headlights
Still that same day, the headlights came in at Letitia's house. So we swung back to my moms house and had her husband Chicago help me put them in the car.

We used the "simple" method, which just involves peeling back the bumper versus taking the bumper off. and against my better judgement, I indeed scratched the bumper. I did on the drivers side, it looks like I hit a bug though, but it bothers me still. Here I am doing the passenger side.

Chapter 4. The Curse
For those of you who are hardcore humanitarian racist rights activists, you don't need to read any further, because I'm going to be using racist remarks right and left in this chapter.

The next day, Letitia and I go to my buddies house to have a Bonn fire out in his back yard. It was fun. Anyways, at about 11:40 pm we head back into town. We stop by a gas station and grabbed some pizza and headed back to the hotel. We pull into the parking lot and park between midnight and 12:15 a.m. We went up to the room and in the morning at about 6 we get a call that wakes us up. Didn't answer the phone and I went to the bathroom. I hear someone knock on the room door and Letitia answers it. When I came out of the bathroom and asked who it was and what they wanted, she told me outright that a drunk driver hit my car.... that they are staying at this hotel.... and they are STILL parked next to my car... Holy sh!t. I've never put my clothes on so fast, ever. Not even in boot camp. I grabbed my camera and headed for the front desk, I told them to call the police, and if the people that did it came down to leave, to not let them go. I was angry as all hell, but I did everything I could to keep myself civil about this. I walked outside to see the damage, not as bad as I thought it was going to be... Something I didn't notice untill I washed the car again, was that the passenger headlight now fogs up. Yes, the one I JUST FCKING INSTALLED..... bastards.

Now, when the police officer arrived, he could tell I was fuming. He asked me what I was doing last night, if I drank at all, and what time we came in. Went to my friends house, had a Bonn fire, bullshitted for a while, went to a gas station across the street and pulled into the spot between midnight and 12:15, could have no way been any later than that. So he goes inside to the front desk and asks where these guy's are, there are 2 in 1 van, and 3 in the other. These vans belong to a construction company. That's right, they hit my car with a company van. Amazing. Well, some Mexicans came downstairs, went to the front door and looked in the opposite direction my car was in, apparently not them. They walked out to their van and looked dumbfounded, then they walked to the side of the building where my car was and each had this "oh sh!t" look on their faces. Thank god it wasn't them. yea, they're getting fired too, I'm making sure of it. Time for more pictures.

How this guy managed to do this is beyond me, but hey, when your drunk anything can happen I guess.
Well, after about 5 minutes another Mexican with a red hat walks down the stairs, goes outside, and immediately heads the direction of my car. The employee that was on duty that night told me he was one of the guy's, but not the driver. This is about the time my mom and dad pull in, because I called them both. The next Mexican to come down the stairs was with the officer and fairly tall, shirtless, and had a pony tail. He storms to my car and from what my mother tells me, proceeded to tell the officer that he came in at 12:30, no one was parked there, and that I did it.... once again... Amazing. This guy comes back into the lobby and starts heading back up the stairs, and proceeds to mumble something and then pointed at me. I asked him what in a loud voice, I even startled myself, and he say's, I quote, "There ain't nothing wrong with that van because there ain't no scratch on it." I told him to come back down the stairs and say that to my face, he kept going, and the cop got between me and those stairs. I was ready to kill this guy after that. The cop asked me my story once again, and I told him the same thing I did earlier. He proceeds to tell me what this 'gentlemen' told him, and that he was obviously lying. The man in the red hat was the Foreman and Supervisor, so we were to deal with him, not the pompous ass. More pictures.

The Foreman pretty much fessed up to the accident right in front of both of us. He said he'll talk to his guy and see if he wants to take care of it out of his paycheck, or get the companies insurance involved. To me that was admitting they did it. The cop said the same thing. So we exchange all the information that should be exchanged, including the drivers full name. This is when I was told to go upstairs to my room. So I do, Letitia and I go upstairs and take a shower and get ready for the day. When we come back down stairs, the driver is down there claiming racism. I swear to god, the next hillbilly punk ass spic to claim that kind of sh!t with me is getting curb stomped. I'm sick of dumb redneck Mexican turds pulling the race card. I'm dead serious when I say I'm killing the next dumb (insert racial slur of choice here) that decided to pull that garbage.
[/end rant]
Look at me, I still get angry even thinking about that. I should have killed him right then and there, I'd feel a hell of a lot better now at least.

So anyways, not even 30 minutes later, the company calls my dad up and say's they want to take care of it right away, not to get insurance involved. 2 hours later I have a $500 estimate in my fathers hands. As of Wednesday, they still haven't called back or answered my dads calls. He's currently working on getting their insurance involved.

Anyways, I got a new mirror on Monday, never got it installed though. Didn't have the time unfortunately. Maybe in December when I come back once again. damn.... moving on...

Chapter 5. Photo Shoot
On Sunday my family held a cook-out in my honor. It was ok. The only people that came that I hadn't seen already by that point in my leave were a couple buddies from high school. They were rockin some nice old new rides. My friend Jared was driving the Jeep and Nate was riding the Bueller. As we were packing up and they were about to leave I did a quick photo-shoot of the 3 together. I liked how these turned out, minus the passenger side mirror.... The day before I did the top grill of the car, I like how the mismatch looks. Pretty cool in my opinion. I never took pics of the mod in progress only because it literally took 15 minutes. Letitia helped out, it was good fun in my opinion. I'm not sure if she had much fun, she looked pretty bored actually, but alls well since she said it was fun. Works for me. PICS!

So that's all I got for now. Out of $800 in mods, only $350 made it to me in time for installation. Bad order timing on my part. I should have order all of this stuff 2 or 3 weeks before I came home. O'well. All I was waiting on was the tail lights. It's too bad I didn't order them sooner, I honestly wish I would have.