The Ghost of GoRo

I have been coming off of an illness, having been sick for almost a month. Yeah, whatever that thing is going around got me good. In the meantime, we have gotten some headway on the shop doors and I got to start thinking about what's next on Oliver to get him on the road for the Summer. Today, though, is a cautionary tale about selling a car, no matter who you sell it to.

 

What's GoRo

GoRo

I'll back up a little bit first. Back in June of 2023, in my "Small Fence, Big Difference" post (link here) I mentioned in passing that we had sold GoRo, our 2009 Audi A4 to a guy down the street. We told him multiple times prior to closing the sale that he really did not want the car, that there were weird issues with the transmission, interior plastic bits were breaking off and that it was a generally crappy car. He would not heed our concerns, saying it was for his daughter, he could get the mechanicals fixed up fine, etc. There was still a couple of months left on the existing registration, and he was going to have to drive it to his mechanic, and then over to Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) to get registered. So, Boo with her ever generous heart, let him take the car with the tags on it. We went inside and recorded the sale with the state of Oregon immediately.

 

Sales Daisy Chain

Of course, we were right. He took the car and within a couple of weeks he had sold it. But, he didn't tell us, nor did he remove the tags that we had left on there for him. In Oregon, you have a month after buying a car to change the registration. Since he hadn't had the car for a full month, he was officially in the clear, but whoever he sold it to also sold it within a few days, and we lost the handle on the ownership after that. 

 

Ticket Parade 

Why is all of this important? Within a few days after our

barn door

neighbor sold the car, we got our first of many speeding or other moving violation caught-on-camera ticket, followed by parking tickets and toll-lane charges. We got tickets from Montana, Texas, California and Colorado. In each case, we sent copies of proof that we no longer owned the car. For the tickets which came from legitimate state, county or city governments, the tickets were waived. In the case where the ticket was for not paying a toll on a "private road", the charging entity did not care that were were not the owners and could prove that we were not even in the state at the time of the violation. Instead, they sent the ticket to collections, dinging our credit. To prevent further damage to our credit, we paid that one. Most of these tickets arrived within the first 6 months after the car was sold.

 

Final Straw

This week, we got what we believe to be the final ticket. GoRo had been impounded in the City of Merced and would remain in their custody until we came down to their office and paid the bail on parking tickets. We don't care and after a while they will put the car up for auction, and it will be someone else's problem. I just hope the auction house or the City of Merced removes the license plates before handing it off to another sucker.

 

Buh Bye GoRo

barn door, inside

By the time we sold off GoRo, Boo and I pretty much hated the car. The seats were stiff like bleachers, increasing internal switches were failing, plastic bits were falling off, the transmission shifted funny, etc. It outside looked great, but wow, what a lemon of a car. The lesson here for us and for you: even if you're selling the car to your friend, remove the tags. If you are all down for the sale and want to be generous, drive over to DMV and remove the tags while your friend is getting temporary plates. Once that car leaves your possession, there is no telling what will happen to that car. You could find yourself with a big pile of tickets from uninterested parties who only want money, and are willing to hammer your credit to get it.

 

Car and Shop Stuff

I mentioned at the top that we have made headway on the doors on the shop. Recall, I have 4 openings which need closings. Over the past month, our friend Ray has built barn doors for the large opening facing west using extra siding I had added to the order for the shop so those doors could get made. It is a 10 foot wide opening, so the doors are each just over 5 feet wide. They totally look the part and glide open/shut easily. We also installed a "people door" on the north elevation or facing the farm house. This leaves a 8 foot wide doorway on the backside and the main large garage door next to the people door. I have been saving for the big door. While that doorway is a standard 16' wide, it is 10' high (just in case someone comes along with something really big, I guess). So, it is a semi-standard door.

 

On cars, I have Hapy about as ready to visit Justin as I can make him. Since he hasn't really driven since I put him back together, I really would have liked to have driven him a little more. With Diesel hitting $6/gallon around here, I all the more do not want to be driving with a fuel leak. So, his next drive will be to Justin's place.

 

voltage gauge upper right

To keep my hands busy, I have been looking at Oliver, the 1978 MGB. I couldn't get him to start when I went to move him into the shop and I didn't really look into why at the time, I just hauled him. I slid under the rear end and discovered why: I had drained all of his fuel out the last time I parked him. If I remember right, I put that fuel into the lawn tractor and the rest into Astra. Antyway, I test-fired the fuel pump with 12V directly from the battery and the fuel pump works. So, if it does not come on with the ignition key-turn, it's a wiring issue. After messing with that, I removed the voltage gauge from the dash and will be sourcing switched power for that. I had simply used the always-hot 12V for the clock I had replaced, but that runs the battery down eventually. I hope to have some time this weekend to finish the voltage gauge, put some gas in and see if I can get him to run, and idle. Then maybe I'll back him out and give him a long overdue bath and a drive-around.

 

Well, that's it for today. Keep your license plates when you sell your cars, and thanks, as always, for following along- 

4-Wheeled Friends to NewOldHouse

On it's surface, one would not think moving some cars from one house to another, especially when the move is less than 500 feet would warrant an entire post. Well, let's remember that Murphy's Law is always present and these are cars which have not moved maybe for months, maybe since last Summer.

Site Preparation

during site prep

Before I could move any more cars, I needed to set up a place for them to land, even temporarily. NewOldHouse doesn't really have a driveway other than a small concrete pad in front of the attached garage. A single car can fit on the pad, but if that car is any larger than a compact, the old-skool flip-up garage door would not open. Earlier in this NewOldHouse odyssey, ToyoTruck got stuck behind the house while we were spreading wood chips. So, absent a hard surface, and having a significant mud bog practically everywhere else, determining a viable spot posed it's own challenge.

Boo and I decided we would ignore the mud for a moment and consider where, ideally, the cars would sit. To reduce the tendency for the vehicles to sink into the ground, I measured, leveled and placed 4 larger patio blocks where the tires would go. Under the patio blocks, I added a thin layer of sand to reduce the risk of the block breaking. Last, to protect the underside of the older vehicles (Hapy, the 1972 VW camperbus, and Oliver, the 1978 MGB) I laid a tarp on the ground. This should reduce the moisture-effect which increases underside rust when you park on dirt.

To side-step the mud, we waited until we had a couple of dry days and moved the vehicles once it was clear that the ground was dry. And so the adventure begins.

GoRo Goes

rare March sunny day

I started with the car I thought would be the most troublesome: GoRo, the 2009 Audi A4. GoRo had a rough winter, like the rest of us. After one of the overnight freezes, the outer handle for the driver door broke. So, to get in, you need to either get in the passenger side and reach over or open the rear driver-side door and reach through. Either way, it is annoying, but workable. A couple of weeks later, the hood latch broke. Fortunately, it happened after it unlatched, but one should not drive with the hood unlatched for safety reasons and we don't want to latch the hood because then it's stuck closed. So, GoRo has sat for a couple of months waiting to get repair-attention around the move. While it sat, the battery ran down. I hooked up a trickle charger overnight the night before and then it started up the morning we wanted to move it. I moved GoRo into the street-adjacent spot next to the wood-chip driveway so once it is fixed it can easily come and go without interrupting the driveway flow. Our old friend Courtney, of MobilePDX, will be fixing the hood release and driver door latch so GoRo can be put back into regular service. I could do it, but I do not have the hours in the day to get it done remotely soon.

Hapy not Happy

flatbed again

The last time I drove Hapy, it was to Pizzario, a small wood-fired pizza place in downtown Hillsboro, to sit-in on a Wednesday-night jam. That was 2-November. If I remember correctly, he started and ran great, but inside was really cold. I contracted CoViD19 that night, so my memory of how he started is kind of fuzzy. Anyway, he had been sitting with a trickle charger on his battery so 4-1/2 months after he was last driven I expected him to start right up and we would have a heroic drive to NewOldHouse. Maybe we'd take a victory lap or pickup something to eat while we were savoring our success. Nope. Instead, his starter made a horrible loud grinding noise. I concluded that the starter failed, and the little gear in the starter was not protruding all the way into the bellhousing and therefore failing to mesh with the teeth on the flywheel. I was immediately reminded of when we moved into this/existing/old house from the rental next door, and ended up selling 2Dot0 because moving it was just one too many things to manage. Obviously, we are not selling Hapy. Instead, I got AAA to put him on a flatbed for the 500 foot move. The driver was a champ and did his best to get Hapy close to his prepared spot, but overhead wires limited him. So, with a come-along and 15+ meters of chain, our friend John and I moved Hapy into place. I may try hitting the starter with a hammer a couple of times to see if that re-enables the starter, but I vaguely remember some after-run from the starter last Summer indicating that it was starting to die. More than likely, I bought a lower-grade starter as the replacement, and it just failed prematurely as cheap parts do. Even if the hammer-trick works, it would just be delaying the inevitable and he is in a good spot to replace the starter, so now that I've typed all that, I bought a replacement, higher quality, starter and will swap it in.

Oliver Shifts

almost there

I have struggled with the idea of parking a convertible outside. After losing 4 canopies to wind and snow this winter, I felt my considerable fear was warranted. I moved forward with it for 2 reasons. First, I have no choice. We need to get out of the old house and the garage at NewOldHouse is full of kitchen cabinets. So, there is no room inside. Second, we have a neighbor around the corner who has parked his brand new Mazda Miata MX5 in his driveway all winter. His car is fine and arguably worth considerably more, at least in terms of replacement cost.

Similar to Hapy, Oliver has been on a trickle charger all winter, so I figured his battery was good and he would start up. At some point during the few days prior, someone had unplugged the trickle charger and his battery was completely flat when I went to move him. I put him on another charger, and put gas into his tank. The charger did not resolve his battery, and I had to replace it before turning the key wouldn't immediately flatten the battery. I got a group 24 Duralast battery from Autozone and learned that the old battery was actually a group 35. A group 35 is smaller. I figured the PO probably did that for easier install, but I have read that the group 35 does not have the same pop at start. I'm not sure that's actually true, but it is usually best to install the correct group battery for your car regardless of what the interweb experts say. Anyway, with the battery replaced and some gas in the tank, starting was still not immediate. The fuel I put in the tank needed to get pushed by the fuel pump up to the carb, and fill the bowl. I worked the butterfly at the carb to get some atomized fuel into the intake and with a billow of smoke he started up.

in place

I drove Oliver over the NewOldHouse, wishing his registration was updated so I could take a longer spin. He drove well with no noticeable exhaust, shifting easily. His throttle responded right away, implying the carb-leaning adjustments I did last summer to eliminate the bog worked. Perhaps he is ready for another run at Oregon DEQ. Since he still has a leak under the windscreen and the rains have not yet left for the summer, that run has to wait. I parked Oliver next to Zed, behind the house. All 4 of his tires are on patio blocks set on top of a tarp. I covered him with a "Gold Shield 5L" cover from CarCover.com to keep him dry.

The picture on the right was taken before I put the cover on, obviously, but you can see the tarp on the ground and the patio blocks. Now that the cover is on, it drops down almost all the way to the ground so the tarp and blocks are mostly not visible. Since he was moved and covered, we have had rain (because, of course, it's western Oregon) and the cover has kept Oliver dry and the cover did not appear to even look wet while it was raining. I'm not sure how that works.

That's it for today. While the effort to move these three was in some cases significant, and they all need some kind of repair, I am thrilled to have them home. Thanks, as always, for following along-