The deed is done. The money sent. All that's needed now is to collect the car, which I shall do if the rains don't come and the river don't rise. Oh, I guess that has already happened in SoCal. Fortunately, the car has been and will remain garaged until I pick it up in early February. The plan, if I have not already said this, is to take it initially to Rafi's Autotech in Culver City for a once over and to have all the fluids changed. When you think about it, that could be rather a lot. Starting from front to back; coolant, hydraulic suspension fluid, brake fluid, engine oil, transmission fluid and rear differential fluid. Have I missed out anything?

In addition, I'm thinking the oil tubes for the camshafts will probably need doing, which is not a big deal since I'm having the valve cover gaskets replaced anyway. The big question mark is the timing chain guides and tensioner. The guides, like the camshaft oil tube fittings are plastic and I doubt they have ever been refreshed in the car's 28 year history. The problem with these plastic bit is they grown brittle with age. The camshaft oil tube fittings will simply fall out of position, thus starving the cams of sufficient oil resulting total plutonic reversal. Likewise, the timing chain guides are made of plastic and if one of those breaks on the 3,000 mile drive home the result may be bent valves and possibly holed pistons if the chain jumps teeth. I can see it now, the scene will be not unlike that of an old WWII Bill Mauldin cartoon where a solider is seen shooting his beloved Jeep because it broke down on the battlefield.

Well, time to go before I have to worry about any of that. In the meantime, Mike said he will go the the DMV and retrieve a complete history of prior owners for the car and he's promised to have the car professionally detailed inside and out before I pick it up. Nice guy.