The good people at North American Muscle Cars Inc. have been working on Cricket for the past few weeks. There was a huge swap meet last week that they vended at, so it took them longer to get my car finished. I guess they went a little above what I told them several times was all I could spend ($1700 insurance money) but they are nice and aren’t sweating it. Not everything on my list was able to get done, but there was some much needed things that got accomplished:

1. Door fender - accident caused it to obstruct door when opening
2. Transmission - serviced, was good so not needing to be rebuilt
3. Radiator - was really bad, recored completely
4. Dual master cylinder - the brake system is now been serviced and is safer
5. Driver door lock re-keyed, was completely worn out
6. Timing was off
7. Speedometer got lubed, it was making noise

The things that got left off the list, was dual exhaust, and a new steering box

I thought my car had manual steering, but I guess it has power steering! It sure doesn’t feel like it when I drive!

I am supposed to pick her up later today, need to drop off oil and filter so she can get an oil change that’s due.

So it was my first accident in Cricket, actually my first accident since I was a teen.

I was driving East on E. Burnside, it was rainy and dark out, and a big truck crossed right in front of me as if she didn’t see me! Had to slam on brakes and hit her. It was a loud sound, but nobody was hurt. The damage wasn’t that bad, but the tow truck had to pull the drivers fender away from the tire so I could steer.

1. dent in bumper
2. dent in fender
3. small dent in hood
4. dent in trim around headlight and wheel well

Filed a claim with her insurance, and they accepted liability. Estimate was almost $1800 in damages. They found a place that works on classic cars, and a friend of mine has a friend at a classic car place that specializes in Mopars.

Now, I have a spare body in the garage, but I didn’t tell the insurance company this. I can probably live with the fender and hood damage, and just get the other stuff fixed. That would mean I may have some money to play around with, to fix other things. If I’m going to restore the car with the body in the garage, why would I want to repair the minor damage to the running body? I don’t have a ton of money to play with, but going to go talk to some pros about my options.

If you haven’t been up here in a while, I ‘ve found some really fun songs about Barracuda’s - original ones from the same era. I’ve put them in the right sidebar for easy download.

The Knickerbockers sang 2 songs: Mighty, Mighty Barracuda - and Bite, Bite Barracuda.

The Surfari’s did a great little song: Boss Barracuda

& an unknown artist did: Go, Go, Go Barracuda! - if anyone know’s who did this, let me know!

Enjoy!

Portland has gotten hit hard with this storm, as well as many places in the NW and all over the country! I’m actually snowed in here, and no chains for Cricket. I tried opening the trunk, to see if there happened to be some chains back there that I didn’t know about, but couldn’t get the trunk opened. Tried opening the doors, but they were frozen solid as well. I’m glad that I made sure and put lots of anti-freeze in the radiator recently. The temperatures haven’t been super cold, but staying below freezing. I just hope nothing happens to her because of this snow. Portland doesn’t see this kind of snow, and the city didn’t know it would hit this hard until the day before. All reports we say said it was going to snow, but none said it would be this bad, and it is supposed to be this way for several more days. Looks like I’m on foot to get to the store for food and supplies, dang!

Well, Cricket isn’t an only car now. She has to share the driveway with a younger and less thirsty car. I brought home a 1992 Ford Tempo (ick!) that was my grandmas. 80,000 miles, small 4cylinder engine. This will be the jetting around town kind of car since gas is sooooo expensive right now. Cricket will remain the baby, and only go out for fun drives here and there. This is the first process of getting things ready for the restoration, having a second car to drive. I’m not even going to post photos of the new car. I know Cricket is pissed enough to have to share the driveway.