Old Faithfull is what i call her because she has had 2 major accidents and various small ones, shes been raped by mechanics and driven like a F1 car by teenagers.
she was my uncles car and back then he was living next to the sea (durban, very hot humid and salty), he passed away and she was given to my mother who started asking the kids around the house to go 2 the cafe for her in it.
that of course led to them borrowing it from her.
my dad had a accident on a dirt road @ 30k's an hour (bakkie/pickup drove in2 him) damaged front left
I played harvey wallbanger in her and hit a wall @ around 45k's an hour taking out the wall and doing R12000 damage to the front left around 3 years ago.
I had it towed to my parents house where it stood for a month.
my father in law (2 be) sed he would help me fix it so i called the tow company and asked them to move it to my house. When they got there the driver told me a long and convincing story on how he can get it fixed for me for around R7k so i let him take it (bad move) the R7000 ended up @ R12000
when i went to fetch the car (3 months it took them 2 "fix" it), it would not idle and the engine was running very badly (i started the car around 4 times before they took it and it was running perfectly). he told me its problably just the timing thats out.
opened the hood there and noticed my battery had been replaced with a tiny one, asked him why, he sed there was no battery in the car when he got it (blamed it on the tow truck guys). I called them and they sed there was no battery in it when they got it, so how did i start it 4 times anyway?
got the car home opened the hood again 2 see what the prob was with the timing and it was perfect (timing light) so checked the carborator, they had swapped mine with another one with parts missing. they had swapped my boot cover with a broken one, they had swapped all my tyres with damaged ones (one wheel was even bent), my ashtray lid was damaged, the plastic covers which are by the steering wheel to hide the wiring had been swapped with damaged ones and these had been attached with black insulation tape. the sparkplug cables were swapped, my air filter box was swapped with one which had a hole melted in the bottom. Anyway there was also nothing i could do to get them 2 fix all this. I tried my best to get this sorted out and gave up in the end (police, lawyers etc, mech kept blaming the tow guy who blamed a 3rd party where my car was standing in the weather for around 3 months). so school fees
as i do not have the cash to go out and buy a new car i decided to fix up this one, got a lift to work for more than a month whilst i was fixin basics and getting cash together (remember i just paid R12000 on her) and spent another month driving around on smooth tyres.
got a 2nd hand carborator @ the scrap yard (R200) and between the 2 managed to build one up, gave it a full service (including breaks as they replaced the break pads on the damaged side only and this with 2nd hand pads) and since then me and my father in law have been the only ppl to work on her (besides things i could not do myself, eg wheel alignment done at places i trust by people i trust)
the following month i got a set of four 2nd hand wheels off a buddy who upgraded his uno's 2 mags (also bit of an upgrade 2 me as these were 16" and my last were 14").
so now im finally nearly back where i started with the car and will be asking many questions as i refuse to have her raped again.
lol lessons i learned from this.
mark all your parts (i use a UV pen and even my sparkplugs get a mark before i replace em) before allowing a car in2 a shop.
always look at the workshop and storage areas before allowing your car to be serviced or worked on there.
ask what parts they will be replacing and what brand they will be using.
leave a few coins in the glove compartment and cover them with some papers (interesting 2 see if they are still there when u get it back)
with tow trucks make sure you get a signed letter stating which common parts and what condition they are in which are in the car. (also take a photograph, get him 2 sign that)
And Lastly if at all you can rather do it yourself (Waay cheaper and interesting 4 newbies like me to see how that "horse" ive got under my bonnet really works.
anyways sorry about the long read (if u got this far) and excuse any silly questions i may ask in future.
she was my uncles car and back then he was living next to the sea (durban, very hot humid and salty), he passed away and she was given to my mother who started asking the kids around the house to go 2 the cafe for her in it.
that of course led to them borrowing it from her.
my dad had a accident on a dirt road @ 30k's an hour (bakkie/pickup drove in2 him) damaged front left
I played harvey wallbanger in her and hit a wall @ around 45k's an hour taking out the wall and doing R12000 damage to the front left around 3 years ago.
I had it towed to my parents house where it stood for a month.
my father in law (2 be) sed he would help me fix it so i called the tow company and asked them to move it to my house. When they got there the driver told me a long and convincing story on how he can get it fixed for me for around R7k so i let him take it (bad move) the R7000 ended up @ R12000
when i went to fetch the car (3 months it took them 2 "fix" it), it would not idle and the engine was running very badly (i started the car around 4 times before they took it and it was running perfectly). he told me its problably just the timing thats out.
opened the hood there and noticed my battery had been replaced with a tiny one, asked him why, he sed there was no battery in the car when he got it (blamed it on the tow truck guys). I called them and they sed there was no battery in it when they got it, so how did i start it 4 times anyway?
got the car home opened the hood again 2 see what the prob was with the timing and it was perfect (timing light) so checked the carborator, they had swapped mine with another one with parts missing. they had swapped my boot cover with a broken one, they had swapped all my tyres with damaged ones (one wheel was even bent), my ashtray lid was damaged, the plastic covers which are by the steering wheel to hide the wiring had been swapped with damaged ones and these had been attached with black insulation tape. the sparkplug cables were swapped, my air filter box was swapped with one which had a hole melted in the bottom. Anyway there was also nothing i could do to get them 2 fix all this. I tried my best to get this sorted out and gave up in the end (police, lawyers etc, mech kept blaming the tow guy who blamed a 3rd party where my car was standing in the weather for around 3 months). so school fees
as i do not have the cash to go out and buy a new car i decided to fix up this one, got a lift to work for more than a month whilst i was fixin basics and getting cash together (remember i just paid R12000 on her) and spent another month driving around on smooth tyres.
got a 2nd hand carborator @ the scrap yard (R200) and between the 2 managed to build one up, gave it a full service (including breaks as they replaced the break pads on the damaged side only and this with 2nd hand pads) and since then me and my father in law have been the only ppl to work on her (besides things i could not do myself, eg wheel alignment done at places i trust by people i trust)
the following month i got a set of four 2nd hand wheels off a buddy who upgraded his uno's 2 mags (also bit of an upgrade 2 me as these were 16" and my last were 14").
so now im finally nearly back where i started with the car and will be asking many questions as i refuse to have her raped again.
lol lessons i learned from this.
mark all your parts (i use a UV pen and even my sparkplugs get a mark before i replace em) before allowing a car in2 a shop.
always look at the workshop and storage areas before allowing your car to be serviced or worked on there.
ask what parts they will be replacing and what brand they will be using.
leave a few coins in the glove compartment and cover them with some papers (interesting 2 see if they are still there when u get it back)
with tow trucks make sure you get a signed letter stating which common parts and what condition they are in which are in the car. (also take a photograph, get him 2 sign that)
And Lastly if at all you can rather do it yourself (Waay cheaper and interesting 4 newbies like me to see how that "horse" ive got under my bonnet really works.
anyways sorry about the long read (if u got this far) and excuse any silly questions i may ask in future.
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