Hey, I didn't ask to be compared to that silver car, but "somebody" offered it up for consideration. And "somebody" kept harping about the wheels and the gauges being the limiting obstacles keeping the intended theme from hitting the mark. And I changed them.
So in the grand scheme of things I guess I was the one kissing somebodies ass.
I did.
Soul baring time:
For whatever reason I'm gonna tell you guys this. I don't know how it's relevant,...I guess I could say that all things "red car" stem back to my financial meltdown,...and there is a moral to the story.
I really liked the red car. (as if the pic whoring wasn't a dead give away of that). In it's final iteration, the overall car was about as close to perfect in my eyes as I could get it. But the paint was sh it. The single most important part of that car was compromised by my decision to do a buddy deal on the paint and body, had the similar effect of someone dragging fingernails across a chalkboard every time I looked at the passenger side of that car. The door jambs were so thinly applied, you could see the black sealer that the guy used under the red, the semi-flat black hood faded, and weird wrinkle things started happening on the B pillars.
In a nut shell, I was embarrassed by the way it looked. I always strategically parked it at shows with the passenger side as hidden as possible.
When my business crashed in 2011 the car was still in mid build. I worked on it like a madman to finish it believing that it was an asset that could be liquidated to help offset the fact that there was very little income from the business. That car, like the Monster had every single major purchase paid for at that stage in time, so continuing the build part was costing me nothing except the time to do it. And it seemed that I had plenty of that.
Two things happened by the time I got it finished.
#1. The car I had been seeing in my head for two years was now complete, and I liked it.
#2. I got the job at Carmax.
When I first showed the thing at the NMRA meet in Bowling green, and the magazine shoot happened, I got a really swelled head. I figured I had a very valuable item, and that after the exposure, the car would be worth more. The financial damage that occurred during the crash of the business was only being abated by the new job (in other words, it wasn't getting worse). But the debt we incurred in the hopes that the business would turn around was too great, and we were getting killed by monthly payments.
So the decision to sell the thing became paramount, (despite the little inny voice going "Nooooo!!!")
Spending money on it was like a crack addiction. I always wanted it to be better. The wheel change over was 1200.00, and the gauges were another 1200.00. and I had no business spending 2400.00 on a complete car in our condition. I needed it to be gone. A crack addict will never stop being a crack addict with a pallet of crack sitting in the basement.
When it sold,....watching it roll away was painful. The fact that I had 12,500.00 in exchange was of little consolation, even though it probably made it one of the largest sums ever collected for a salvage title, one off custom with bad bodywork, and crap paint Fox body. With money in hand, I negotiated another couple of thousand off some of the debt by offering an immediate total payoff to some of the lenders, and that made the net proceeds for the red car more like 14,500.00.
For a car that had spent some part of it's past life underwater.
But the 14,500.00 shot of green money was just what the Dr. ordered to correct the tilt of our sinking ship.
So,...when considering the red car,.....yeah you're gonna hear me talk about it, and show pics of it way more than you want to,...It's like my dead dog. I'm a dog lover, so It's gonna take awhile to get over.
When a similar situation reappeared on the Monster, some things were similar, but the important things were way different.
I left CarMax because it looked like I would be able to make a go again at the old business. Once back at it, The "good times" lasted for only one year. By year two,...the writing was on the wall......I tried,...The business was too far gone to save, and my client base was too small to support me (unless I was content to live on about 12k a year.) And at 58,...crawling under a house, and in an 140 degree attic had ran it course.
The "similar" thing was simple. I needed to get a job.
The "different" thing was that our debt ratio had been dramatically reduced. (Way past what the 14,500.00 was able to do back in 2011) The wife had since gotten a great job and was able to "carry us" when my monthly net wasn't there. (So no negative tilt started to happen) Again, all of the major purchases on the Monster were made when I had the money to do it, only this time didn't knowingly circumvent monies that shoulda/coulda went elsewhere. This time,...there was no waiting in the hopes that things would get better. I learned that lesson 4 years ago. They won't. I got my "final" job so that the Monster can stay. And I like my job. I like it alot.
As for the Monster:.......
He's now free to languish around in his pen until the day comes when I can take him outside, so his nicely done bodywork can compliment his properly applied orange/black paint job, and he can glisten in the sun........Waiting on the day.........
That it can Bite Iowa Nick squarely in the ass.
That'll teach him to bad mouth the Monster.
And just in case you're trying to remember where it was that you bad mouthed the Monster...........
The Monster has the exact same digital gauges.
