DIY....1

 My first car was a 61 Impala

    I was living at home and saw it advertised in a neighborhood newspaper.  It was only $500.

    That was a lot back then, but I did have the money.

    I asked my brother about it and he agreed to go with me.  I called the guy selling it, and I made a date to go look at it.

    As we drove, I said to Dennis that it would be great if it was a convertible.

    He said that line didn't have convertibles.

    We got there, and there was this sweet looking bluish colored convertible Impala.  That should have been a warning.

    We test drove it.  It thumped.  Guy said it had a booted tire, and a new tire would take away the bump.

    All in all, it seemed to run pretty well.  I bought it.

    We were about 15 miles from home and the car had half a tank of gas.

    By the time we got home, it was almost empty.  Leaky fuel pumps tend to use up gas.

    Denny had a friend who worked on cars.  He looked at it and replaced the fuel pump.

    Then he checked the tires and determined the ball joints were the problem, not the booted tire.

    So....how about the DIY, you are thinking.

    I bought snow tires for the car.  We stored the snow tires at Jackie's grandmother's house near Arlington Park Racetrack.  My parents didn't have a garage and I guess there was not enough room at Jackie's folks' house.  And it could have been they didn't have a garage either.  I don't remember.

    Winter was coming, and I decided to put the snow tires on the car.

    Drove over to Grannie's, parked in her driveway, jacked up one tire, put the snow tire on; jacked up the other tire, put the snow tire on; put the regular tires in the garage.

    There must have been a race at the track, because the road was busy.

    I backed out when I found a gap and put the car in drive.

It would not budge.  No matter how much gas I gave it, it would not go forward.  It would, however, go in reverse.  

    I  backed across two lanes of traffic, parked, turned the car off, and went into Grannie's to use the phone.  But the line was busy.

    So I took off running to Jackie's house, which was about 1 mile away.  (Yes, I could at one time run.  Not fast, not elegantly, but good enough to cover ground when  needed.)

    I got to the house, went  in the back door, and said, "I bought the wrong size tires!  They are too big.  The car won't go anywhere except backward."

    Jackie looked at me and said, "Do you have the emergency brake on?"

    I dashed back out the door, ran back the mile, started the car, released the emergency brake and drove back.

    That car was a lot of fun,  But eventually, Jackie got pregnant.  Since there was no rear window in the covertible top, Jackie was concerned the back seat would be too cold when we did have the baby.

    Sure wish I would have been able to keep that car...it's now a classic.

    And yes, I do know how to change to snow tires, but it has been a long time since I had to.

Peace and Love