Illustrated History of My Vehicles COMPLETED!

[DarrenDriven]

#6) 1989 Honda Civic Wagon "Mr Cholo" w/ 1.6L D16Z3 swap (DEC01-JUL02)
I had always wanted a 4th-gen Civic Wagon, and one day while driving down Columbia in North Portland I saw this very clean example front and center on a little used car lot. Bought it immediately for $300 when the salesman confessed that it had a blown engine. Back at the shop we had a few nearly-new 1.6L SOHC engines that were unwanted after getting pulled out for motor swaps. A few hours later this little wagon had a second life with a new heart beating under the hood. We had some cheap coilovers laying around, and I had an extra set of cheap-o mesh wheels that I had been using as part of a coffee table. Might as well bolt it all on!

While driving home on the freeway late one night a couple carloads of high school kids decided to start picking on me. They boxed me in and the lead car brake-checked me hard. I swerved onto the shoulder nearly unscathed, but the rear quarter kissed the concrete barrier and I hobbled my ride home with the rear wheel negatively cambered and wobbling. Grrrr. eBay to the rescue, I sold the car to some guy who wanted to tow it behind his motorhome. The rear hatch and one rear door wouldn't close correctly, the entire body had been twisted by the impact on the freeway. Oh well, still made a few bucks.

[Djratrap]

Wow Unnatural, haven't heard that name in years. The kids on here don't even know...

[DarrenDriven]

Originally Posted by Djratrap

Wow Unnatural, haven't heard that name in years. The kids on here don't even know...

Yeah, for a few years I like to think we were considered the standard for local import car clubs. We weren't as much of a club as we were a group of like-minded friends. Started in Tacoma, spread to Portland and ultimately spawned a shop in Beaverton. It was fun while it was fun, ya know? Then we grew up haha.

[e1_griego]

lol I spent quite a bit of time around Unnatty with Wes & co.

Miss having a place like that around, though it's not like I ever had them do anything to my car haha.

Good ol' 240 life.

[DarrenDriven]

#7) 1989 Mazda B2200 Extended Cab (MAR02-OCT02)
A good friend's dad owned this truck, but the head gasket blew and it had been collecting pine needles in their yard for months. I bought it for a steal, swapped in a new head gasket, accidentally added DOUBLE the oil it needed and drove it smoking about a mile before I realized what happened. Drained it all, added the correct amount and this rig was a great parts runner. I have no memory of selling it... but since I don't own it anymore I guess I did, haha!

[DarrenDriven]

#8) 1986 Toyota MR2 (OCT02-DEC02)
This is definitely one of the more frustrating cars that I have owned. Bought it online at the Seattle insurance auction for $150. $150!! Had to get a friend to drive me up to Seattle to pick it up on a Friday afternoon. Although I had arranged for a trip permit and insurance, IAA would not let me drive it off of the lot. I had to go rent a U-Hual -- but of course they wouldn't rent me a trailer for local use -- so then I had to hit United Rentals for a trailer.

Finally got the car off of IAA's property, returned the rental equipment and realized that the manual transmission was stuck in third gear! It was now full rush hour traffic on a Friday through Seattle. I managed to get out of town in third by slipping the hell out of the clutch and leaving a mile in front of me so I wouldn't have to stop. The drivers behind me were honking, but what could I do? Then, when traffic cleared up I red-lined it all the way back to Portland.

Swapped in a used tranny ($300) and sold the car on eBay. New owner bought it for her grandson's first car and wanted me to drive it to Eugene as a surprise. Made it to Albany when the head gasket blew. Had to flatbed the damn car back to Portland, refund the buyer's money and cry a little. Ended up selling it on eBay again, with a blown engine this time. A local racer bought it as a shell for a future track demon. I made a tiny profit only if you don't count my time.

[DarrenDriven]

#9) 1990 Nissan 240SX Hatchback (OCT02-DEC02)
Another insurance auction score, this was a salvaged-titled car for no apparent reason. It ran and drove perfectly, and had no body damage. $350. Can you believe that? This was before the drifting craze so the value of used S13's hadn't skyrocketed yet. The only reason I didn't keep this car is because it was an automatic... which, interestingly enough, didn't stop me from buying a convertible a few years later and converting that to a manual transmission.

[Jonesy86]

It was good seeing you today! Tell your friends about the tavern!

[DarrenDriven]

Yeah man, that was a surprise! I posted on Facebook in the Montavilla group. That was a tasty burger! Delicious!!! Even better when the check came and it was comped! Thanks man!!

[DarrenDriven]

#10) 1979 Lincoln Continental (DEC02-FEB03)
The last few cars, and the next few, were all during the period of time that I was dabbling in insurance auction cars for profit. I would go to my local insurance auction, buy a cheap car, drive it for a short time and sell it on eBay unrepaired with a salvaged title. It was about this time that IAAI went online, so I could now search, watch and bid on cars online without going to the auction. Unlike eBay, though, you couldn't look up past values on completed auctions unless you were one of the bidders. So, goofing off, I curiously bid on a few different cars in nearby auctions just to see how much they were selling for. I only bid the minimum first bid of $25 and then I would wait for the email telling me that I had lost, and the final price of the completed auction.

Weeks after placing these bids, I got a bunch of emails telling me that I had lost, as expected. I did not expect, however, to receive an email telling me that I had WON TWO LINCOLNS, a burgundy 1979 Continental and a blue 1982 Towncar, at the Seattle auction. Yup, $25 each. Seriously. The specs on the IAAI website told me that one had no keys and the other would not run or drive. Great. There were substantial penalties for unpaid bidding, and I didn't want to risk losing my access to these auctions, so I had to go get these two piles of crap.

I made the bet that one of the cars could be convinced to start and drive, so I rented a U-Haul and a tow dolly and took a friend with me from Portland up to Seattle. The blue car wouldn't turn over and the burgundy car had no keys. I took the lugwrench from the trunk, attacked the steering column and hotwired the burgundy car and it ran and drove great. Loaded the blue car on the dolly and drove the convoy back home to Portland.

The next day I replaced the battery in the blue car and she fired right up! So for $50 plus fees, gas and U-Haul rental I owned two salvaged land yachts that ran and drove. I parked the blue car in front of my local Safeway with a For Sale sign in the window and immediately threw limo tint on the burgundy car for that gangster look.

That afternoon my grandma had a stroke and I rushed to the hospital -- completely forgetting about the blue Lincoln at the grocery store. She pulled through just fine, I went home and when I woke the next morning I counted my cars... coming up short. (I had several cars at the time) Damn! The blue Lincoln! It had been towed away, of course. I contacted the tow company and they wanted nearly $400 to get it out of impound. They had no title, no keys and a car barely worth $25. Keep it. That is why you don't see that car on my list... I only owned it for about 24 hours and drove it less than a mile.

The burgundy car, however, was awesome! 460ci V8 combined with cheap gas? Hell yeah! I added some push buttons under the dash to replace the destroyed ignition. I drove it for a couple of months and then sold it on eBay to a Mexican guy who needed a larger vehicle for his growing family. He loved the car and I hated to part with it -- but again I eeked out a small profit on the transaction, even accounting for losing half of the inventory.

[DarrenDriven]

#11) 1989 Chevy Astro (JAN03-MAR03)
Another insurance auction score for $150. Ran, drove... what else could you want for less than two Benjies? I drove it for about two weeks, but never checked any of the vital fluids and there was almost no oil in the engine. Of course it seized. Sold the non-running van on eBay to a guy in Las Vegas who owned a fleet of cargo vans that kept getting burgled. He was going to swap everything over from the cargo to make an incognito work van. I made a tiny profit and never gave this van a second thought until now.

[DarrenDriven]

#12) 1985 Toyota Camry Sedan (APR03-SEP03)
This is, without a doubt, the low point in my life as a car enthusiast. (To be fair, my Yamaha R6 was a head-turner) This car was yet another insurance auction victory. It dripped fluids, expelled blue clouds of smoke with every press of the go pedal and had a variety of strange noises emanating from it's mechanical bits. I don't remember what I paid for it, but I would be surprised if it was more than $100. I do remember that one day, while driving on a main street in NE Portland, it just stopped going. I pushed it onto the shoulder, grabbed a few personal items and walked the rest of the way home. Good riddance.

[DarrenDriven]

#13) 1985 Toyota Corolla GT-S Coupe (MAR04-JAN05)


#14) 1987 Toyota Corolla SR5 (APR04-JUL04)


#15) 1986 Toyota Corolla SR5 (APR04-JAN05)
My retail and community websites were growing and starting to generate a little income so after a winter of riding my motorcycle and occasionally borrowing a car when necessary, I had some cash in my pocket. Just a tiny bit, though.

One day while riding to work I passes a red Corolla coupe parked on the shoulder of the freeway. I noticed it was a GT-S, and while it looked a little tired, it was unmolested. Hours later as I rode home in the dark, it was still parked in the same spot. I doubled back and checked it out. The interior was a disaster with flowered seat covers and empty alcohol containers in the back seat. The doors were unlocked, so I got into the glove compartment and found the registration and insurance.

I made a few phone calls and tracked down the owner, a young girl who had basically walked away from the Corolla when it stopped running. I offered her $500 as-is, or $700 if she got it running. We met at the car where she tinkered with it for a few minutes, but it was freezing out and she gave up almost immediately. I handed her $500 and she handed me the title. The fix? For eight dollars I replaced the broken alternator belt. The car ran AWESOME!

The next month I bought two more AE86 coupes, both SR-5 trims. The gray one was for for sale at the grocery store and I paid $700. The blue one was in a neighbor's driveway and I picked it up for $350. These prices seem unbelievable now, when an empty shell can easily fetch $1000 or more.

I quickly sold the gray coupe to a good friend and used the blue car for errands when the red one was in the air. Eventually I was rarely driving any of them, so I loaned the red car to my buddy that owned the Unnatural shop. He blew the head gasket while hooning the car, but when he was replacing the gasket he discovered that my engine was fully build with TRD internals. Pistons, rods, cams, everything. Wow. No wonder it drove so strong!

I ended up selling the red car on eBay to a US serviceman stationed in Okinawa, Japan. Selling price? $5500! Sure, I threw some Konig Rewinds on it, but that was about it. Not a bad profit for a $500 car that I thrashed on during my entire ownership! The blue car also went on eBay. The buyer was a kid in New Mexico who flew up to drive it back. It had no sunroof, no passenger window and a battery that was a better paperweight than anything else. I never heard from him again, so I hope that he made it home!

[DarrenDriven]

#16) 1992 Nissan 240SX Convertible w/ SR20DET swap (MAY04-NOV05)
When I was a little kid my uncle had a 1965 Impala SS convertible. I remember summer days riding on the freeway with my eyes closed and the wind whipping through my hair. It sparked a love of open-air motoring that I have never shaken.

This was the first car that I traveled to buy. Found her on Craigslist in San Francisco one day, flew down the next morning, took BART from the airport to downtown, swapped keys for cash and was home by that evening.

She got a low-mile black-top SR20DET and manual transmission conversion (all S13 convertibles were sold with automatics) along with a host of other go-fast and suspension goodies. Opted for some sweet JIC seats that immediately faded to purple under the hot sun. Grrrrr. Infiniti G35 wheels on a five-bolt conversion over a Z32 brake conversion finished things up.

This car had just the right power, just the right looks. I miss her but every once in a while I hear stories about her new owner driving around in Seattle. Keep your eyes open.