liljohnTR250 said:
how'd you total your car?
It was my daily driver for some 20 years, drove it to work almost every day (when it was running). On my way home one day, not paying as much attention as I should (had a hot date), the traffic stopped. I stopped, of course, but the fellow behind me wasn't paying attention and didn't stop
I overheard him telling the CHP that he was looking down to get a Coke, not watching the road, so all the brake lights in the world (I had 4 of them, two red & two yellow) would not have helped.
Looked up and saw him just milliseconds before he hit, but couldn't get out of his way (into the carpool lane) fast enough. 4 car pileup (he pushed me into the car in front of me, who hit the SUV in front of her), but I was the only one with major damage. Was only insured to $8K (my bad) and the body shop estimate was $12K, so it got retired. The frame might be repairable, but the tub accordioned at both A-post & B-post, plus of course the front & rear aprons were mangled beyond hope. The good news is I got to keep the car, so I can eventually rob the OD gearbox, gear drive starter, alloy flywheel, sway bars, etc. from it. It's already donated carbs, brakes, control head, stator tube and "compact" spare to the project plus a little bit of capital from selling a door & fender.
So, I picked up TS13571L on eBay and I'm starting over with it. Drove it to work yesterday and today! Still needs a lot of work, but at least the overheating problem is solved. I held 80 mph (estimated) for about 5 minutes today, and the gauge only rose to 170F. On surface streets it held 165F.