I ended up buying Tom's car. Met him around 515'ish last night. The battery did wear down but I was hoping it was just wore down because of the flashers. More on this. Then, asked about opening the trunk to put the spare away. Nope, she's sealed shut. So, FIRST REQUEST OUT THERE:

1. How can one open the trunk ? The locked was drilled out but it's not budging. I really need to get into the trunk. PLEASE any ideas. I really want to see the RUST ! LOL.

2. After driving about 80+ miles I realized that my fuel gauage did not budge a bit. I called Tom and, yes, it does not work. The was the 2nd "suprise". There's more. After driving about another 5 miles, I got fuel and I was super lucky because I had about 1 gallon left. I would have been very cranky running out of fuel at night in the rain and wind and cold in a strange area.

3. I drove the old girl to Lexington, KY for the night. About 20 minutes out, she almost overheated. The needle went a hair over the 100C point.

4. Got to the hotel in Lexington, and silly me I turned off the car while I went inside. Got a nice cheap room at Hotel Six for $45 bucks, BUT when I went outside to start her up and to go to the room, NO BATTERY. Battery is DEAD. So, this is the next major project tomorrow. Got a flash light to check out things under the hood while jumping the car. Checked the oil. It was OK -- more on this. Injector lines are leaking like crazy.

5. Got a jump the next morning and drove another 100 or so miles and the old girl got hotter ... in between the 100C and 120C marks. Got nervious. Pulled over but I could not shut her off because no battery. I squeezed the upper radiator hose hoping it was air or something along those lines. She cooled down.

6. Drove to the NC state line, and same deal, except she hit 120C. I pulled over and turned it off at the gas station. I did not care at that point. Filled it up again since I had no idea how much fuel was in it. After that, I could figure it out a little, but certainly enough to get me home. Checked the oil, and guess what, about 2 quarts low. Poop. Bought 2 quarts of oil at gas station prices. What a rip off. What's up with that. Waited about 15 minutes and got a jump and took off. No problems with the coolant the rest of the way home. Wait, there's more to the journey.

7. Checked the oil when I got home. It was off about another quart. No leaks, so I am hoping it was sticking rings or some sort of weird blowby but 3 quarts in 500+ miles sounds like a lot.

8. Anticipated about 10 hours of driving. Nope, more like 13. What's up with that ... After you hit 50'ish, you got a decent shimmy and shake and hit 65-70 it got violent. I am hoping it is just the tires and not the front end. Very rough calculations on fuel usage and MPG. Got around 29 MPG. Hoping some mainteance will improve this.

9. Just finished pressure washing the car to clean off a bunch of leaves, pine needles, and just dirt ! Blasted the engine too. Got underneath the car and what a RUSTY project I got. LOL. Not sure the old girl can be saved. The passanger side is toast and the driver's is right behind it. The trunk area from underneath is super toast. I got PERFECT Floor pans but not sure I want to waste them on this project.

10. The real reason I bought the car was the Getrag 717.400. Paid dearly for it, but I got it. Not sure about the engine at this point. Body is really, really rougth inside and out.

I am going to take it slow. Tomorrow is another day. Tomorrow's projects are:

1. Battery

2. Return lines

3. Trunk Entry

4. Doors -- Locks do not work I also found out.

5. Vacuum and clean the windows and pressure wash it again.