Okay, it's not that sad just a bummer. I got a flat on the way to the market yesterday. My first thought was to get a ride home and pick up my compressor and plug kit so that I could drive home and further investigate the situation. Unfortunately something cut the sidewall so that idea was out. I really didn't have the time to screw around because of where I had to park it so I made the decision.

I took a deep breath and took out the jack, tore open the plastic bag holding the tool kit roll and pulled out the OEM Pirelli spare exposing them all to sunlight for the first time. I even had to pull the little wire-tied warning tag off the spare.



A few observations:

• Boy are those Bundts purty and shiny when they're brand new.
• Boy do my Bundts look like crap.
• The tools in the kit sure are nice compared to what passes for a tool kit in a newer car.
• As whacky as I thought the car jack/jack hole interaction was, it was good to be able to get the right angle even though the car was on a slight decline.
• What a great concept full-size spare tires are. (In theory anyway, it was full size before the tires were replaced with 205's)

On a positive note, for the first time since I've owned it I took a little time crawling around underneath the car and every thing looks solid (I only took it for a spin, for $100 I was taking it no matter what). There is a very slow diesel drip somewhere around the tank, it's definitely been bottomed out a couple times in its prior life and I couldn't tell in a cursory inspection if it was from one of those impacts or coming down somewhere further up.

One last thing which seems inherently obvious but I didn't think of it, check your spare tire pressure boys and girls! It was only through pure chit luck that there was about 15-20 lbs. in my spare which was sufficient to get to the service station about a mile down the hill so that I could fill it up the rest of the way.

I did notice that there are no balancing weights on the wheel anywhere yet in my short highway run home I didn't notice any vibrations whatsoever. Where the wheels and tires back then just built to closer tolerances thus more in balance or is it just coincidence?

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1980 300TD-China Blue/Blue MBTex-2nd Owner, 107K (Alt Blau) OBK #15
'06 Chevy Tahoe Z71 (for the wife & 4 kids, current mule) '03 Honda Odyssey (son #1's ride, reluctantly) '99 GMC Suburban (255K+ miles, semi-retired mule) 21' SeaRay Seville (summer escape pod)