I was sitting around wondering how cheap I could find a engine puller online, when I found an add for an engine hoist, load leveler and engine stand for $200 or trade for car audio equipment. The stuff was all from Freight Harbor and had only been used once. After a couple frantic minutes of digging around in the garage I had fired off some photo’s of old car subs and amps that had stacked up over the years. A couple hours later I was cramming a large pile of orange steel into the back seat and trunk of the Volvo. With some junk out of the garage, and only $100 lighter in the wallet I was ready to take on the world.

The actual task of pulling the engine was easy. Scary easy really. Once I got it all hooked up to the hoist, I quickly found out that the only thing that was holding the engine and transmission in place was the transmission brace. Two bolts later, the whole thing was ready to be plucked out. With a little wrestling I was able to get it all out with out much trouble at all. The load leveler was a real life saver. Once out, I split the tranny from the block and was pleasantly surprised to find a brand new clutch. Too bad I won’t be able to use it with the new engine I plan on putting in. With the engine bay much cleaner, it shouldn’t be too much longer until I am ready to send it off for soda blasting. Now if I only had the cash for the paint work.

The good news is that we got $100 cash for the car just for scrap metal. While it was sad to see it go, it’s time to move on.

My car ADD is well documented, but in a seemingly futile attempt to find a car that can keep my attention for more than a couple months I have gone back in time, way back.  I picked up not one, but two BMW 2002’s thanks to a little help from a friend.

While it started out as a low budget purchase, ($500 for both cars) I’m sure that the whole restoration will be much closer to the $10,000 mark.  Luckily I’m in no hurry to get it done.  I plan on spending the next year or two auto geeking out about every single little detail of the car, and what I want to do with it.  The green car shown below is going to the crusher now that we got all the good parts off of it.  I’m now in the process of starting to strip the yellow one down to a rolling shell and then I’ll save my pennies to ship it off for body work and a paint job.  Any votes on what color to do it?

If I get on the ball enough I’ll be documenting the whole process here. Stay tuned….

FJZ80 Land Cruiser

In the constant ebb and flow of vehicles that is known as my life, it is finally time to let go one of my favorite vehicles I’ve had in a while….

I’ve had this car for almost two years now and it has been wonderful. I bought it from a gentleman in Heber who had done a lot of work to it. Most of the work was done at Slee off road in Colorado.  In case you don’t know Slee specialized in working on 80 Series Land Cruisers, so you know all the work done on it was done right.  Slee added the amazing Old Man Emu 2.5” Heavy Load lift kit ($872) which makes it ride even better than when it was brand new, Cooper Durango Radial A/T 285/75R16 tires with new wheels ($1,000?), Slee Short bus front bumper ($965) with 8,000 lb Warn M8000 winch ($960).  They even went as far as to give it a fresh coat of black paint!. In addition they went through everything to make sure it was in top notch mechanical conditional and all the required maintenance was up to date.  Since I have owned it I have had a new radiator put in at the dealer and had a premium tuneup done.  While the miles are starting to get up there, it still runs like a dream.  This amazing straight six still has a lot of life left in it.  It’s my wife’s car, and the only reason we are selling it is she is getting tired of climbing in and out of it with two small kids.  The third row seating is great, and this has been an amazing car.  KBB and NADA both put it at around $9,500 before all the work that was done to it. I  paid over $12,000.  Looking to get $10,500 out of it.  Serious inquiries only.

Baby Elouise

Last night at 9:13 the world welcomed a new light. Elouise Alicia Fitch tipped the tiny scales at 5 lbs and 5 oz and measured 18 1/2″ long. She was born after 37 weeks and three long days, the last one being the longest of all.
Tues the 28th Michelle went to see her Dr. for her normal routine checkup while I was at home with Arri packing for a short trip to Denver to pick up my car for the Fiesta Movement. I got the call from Michelle at around 10:30 saying that she had pre-eclampsia (pregnancy induced high blood pressure) and the Dr. wanted to induce her that day. The next couple of hours consisted of me scrambling to cancel my trip, and calling all our wonderful family and friends to arrange for help as I got ready to go to the hospital. To make things even more fun I went downstairs to discover a leaky water pipe in our basement that was slowly flooding our house. By 2:30 I finally had someone to watch Arri (thanks Sage and Starr) and a repair man at our house to fix our pipe. When I finally made it to the hospital Michelle was happy to see me to say the least.
They had started her on Pitocin at around 1:00 and she was having regular strong contractions. Her blood pressure was still quite high and she was actually have blurry and double vision, likely due to the pre-eclampsia. The Dr. was back and forth about whether to give her Magnesium which helps raise the seizure threshold but makes you feel lousy. Luckily some Tylenol and a good back rub was able to get Michelle back to seeing normal. At around 5:00 Michelle got an epidural which did a wonderful job at helping her to feel comfortable. By this point she was dilated to about a 3 and 50% effaced. Still a ways to go. Over the next couple of hours she slowly progressed to a 7 and 70% effaced. Despite the progress the nurses were becoming increasingly concerned about little Elouise. During the contractions her heart rate was dropping and she was slow to recover back to baseline. As we approached 9:00 PM it was becoming more and more apparent that she wasn’t tolerating it well. To add to the concern Michelle was having more than normal bleeding which pointed toward the possibility that the placenta was starting to detach. Shortly after Elouise had a couple long dips in her heart rate and it was decided that a cesarean was best for both mom and baby. We rushed back to the OR and at 9:13 little Elie joined our happy family. She is the most adorable thing you have ever seen, and quite the little eater. Good thing too, because she has some chunking up to do…

It may have all started when I was a kid and I was obsessed with Richard Scarry’s Cars and Trucks and Things That Go, or that little matchbox car I had that I couldn’t quite decide which was the hood and which was the trunk. One thing is for certain though, that love of cars was cemented with the purchase of my first car. A Volvo 122S. I bought it from my uncle for $200 before I even had a drivers license and spent countless hours stalling it while I learned how to use a manual transmission. It would last me two long years before it finally threw a rod and found it’s way to Volvo paradise. I’m not sure a car will ever be as loved by me as it was.

A while ago I heard about a little contest that Ford was putting on. They were giving away a 2011 Ford Fiesta to 100 lucky individuals.  All you had to do to win was submit a video along with a resume.  They were looking for people who were into social networks and had an audience to which they would be able to share their experience.  I figured it would be fun to enter, so I threw together this short little video and submitted it.  Little did I know that I would actually win a car.  I pick it up April 28th. Anyone need a ride?

One of the most memorable trips that I have ever taken with my wife was back in 2005.  We went to the island of Cebu (among others) in the Philippines.  While the week and a half long vacation was filled with many amazing memories none of them are quite as fond as the two days we spent on the island of Bohol.  There they had some of the most amazing white sand beaches as well as some of the best diving I have ever done in my entire life.  Needless to say, I would go back in a heart beat.