Threepwood lives!!! - 87 C900 8V

[SpecialTool]

Glad to hear all OK. But if I may get on my soapbox for a minute, this story has served to reinforce a concern of mine. I regularly see families out for a drive with the car showing "L" plates and a young son or daughter behind the wheel. This is not something I will be allowing when my kids reach driving age. It makes sense to me that learner/inexperienced drivers should have the fewest passengers possible (i.e. the 1 that is required by law), both for their sake (less distraction) and for the passengers' sakes -- lets face it, learner drivers are still learning to drive so why expose any more people then is necessary to the higher risk?

This issue comes up sometimes when a car load of kids crashes when it's being driven by a probationary driver (someone who has had their licence less than a year). There are calls by road safety groups to ban probationary drivers from carrying back-seat passengers. There seems to be wide community support for the idea but it also seems too big a leap for politicians to take. I guess it's something for families to encourage and/or enforce themselves.

[jskrebs]

Probably not a bad idea.

We live 70 miles from the exam center and did not want to take 2 cars.
Ryan did have over 100 hours experience behind the wheel, but it was his first experience with a soft shoulder, and counter steering.
The whole episode took less than 10 seconds, at least it seemed that way to me as a passenger.
I think we should have skid pad and other training that allows for extreme experience in a safe setting.
In Pennsylvania the major concern on the driver exam is parallel parking.

[jskrebs]

An update on the car.

I had Ryan remove the radiator support which was bent beyond repair. I then had him bend the fenders and bulkheads back to their correct position by hand. The bumper mounts need more muscle. He then bolted a radiator support from my 85 in place. Despite needing some body work on the fenders and repairs to the bumper mounts all we need is a hood, lights and bumper.

[drwatson32]

hah I paid $700 for my Turbo that was similarly wrecked and had a blown gearbox. Rust free shell makes it worth fixing imo. My indy had a mechanical tool (kind of a long jack) to straighten the bumper mount when buttoning it up with a rebuilt gearbox. [edit] Glad things are looking promising!

[jskrebs]

Shell is not rust free, but pretty close. Know a guy with the parts I need, if he would only answer his phone.
Since all the tires slid sideways for a bit and two of them plowed rocks I changed them all to a spare set with old alloys. Noticed the rear torque arms had really bad bushings on them.

[jskrebs]

Made some progress resurrecting Threepwood

Installed the radiator support from my 85 and straightened the fenders and bulkheads as best I could with the limited tools at my disposal.

Got a whole new bumper but believe it or not Threepwood's bumper cover was in better shape after being blown clean off of the car in the encounter with the telephone pole. It was kind of a bitch getting the brackets off the back of the bumper core, but I got it all figured out.

Installed the Hood today and it is obvious there is some additional straighting required.

I have headlight assemblies and turn signals from a 91 which has slightly different wiring, but I snagged the pigtails off the donor vehicle so I am good to go.

Also got new wiper motors so I can get everything back to stock.

Next is a big decision should I spend the $1500 for the body work and a full paint job? Thinking Ferrari Red and also repainting the Tupperware.

Thinking this would get way better fuel economy than my Land Rover which struggles to get 10 mpg around town. So while Ryan is off at college I can have my wife drive it. She wants me to put the Turbo badges on it for show :p)

Hope to get it together enough this weekend for a test ride.

[Brewmaster]

That's some dang good work you're doing there

[SmaartAasSaabr]

Sweet!

Yeah the soft shoulder - rapid correction is something to always learn, now your son will never forget And the car looks good!

[jskrebs]

Converged 4 wiper motors into 2 and installed them on the car. Also cleaned out the inside of the headlights with soap and water as they sat in a yard for 10 years and had a light haze in them Got them real clean, but need to get the last bits of water out before I seal them up, also need a threaded adjuster thing as one is broken allowing the head light to bounce around. Also cleaned the turn indicators and repaired the shell for one of the connectors. Volvo Mike and I took a short ride and decided the KHUMO tires that were on the super INCA's suck big time. I installed some Conti's on the front and good years on the back on a set of alloys and the car handles so much better. Thinking I will get the lights installed next week and take a ride.

Hoping to enter a rally on June 3 in Wellsboro Pa with the car. Body work will not be complete, but hey Threepwood will be resurrected!

[Shazam]

What kind of rally?