Yep, It's only Sunday

This past Friday marked a year since our dad passed away.  Steph and I got together for brunch with our brother at one of the local IHOP restaurants.  It was Dad's favorite place to go on the rare occasion we got together outside of his house.  He always treated, and it was no different this time!  I had found a bucket of change when we went through his things, and I still had it with some of his stuff in my basement.  We changed it in at the bank to use towards our meal...$43!!  Thanks for the food, Dad!  Cheers to your painless year.

While we were all together, I took the opportunity to pick my brother's brain.  He offered to come out to my house with his acetylene torch and his electric impact wrench to see if we could figure a way to get the tires off.  Either my wrench or the air compressor I was using or the combination just wasn't powerful enough, because the lug nuts came off lickety-split with his impact wrench.  No need for heat, after all!

Junky old car: great place to raise your spider family.

Now the car is up on 4 jack stands.  It was quite a task, too.  We started with the rear driver's side.  As the car raised up, it started to twist and slide to the other side.  The front wheel started to toe-in!

Rear driver's side leaf springs.

The old leaf springs are practically flat! As the car lifted, the leafs just separated...zero suspension left here.  Luckily, it is one item Dad bought and still had in the trunk.  I'm all about not having to purchase those!!

So what's with the rusty suitcase on the ground?

Rusty old suitcase for the car's gasoline.

We dropped the gas tank out, while brother was here.  'There's probably still a little gas in there, we can drain it now, if you want.'  That bitch was FULL!!  Gas leaked all over him, me, the driveway...
We poured half of it into a 5 gallon bucket, and it's still nearly half full!!  It's almost as dark as French Onion Soup!  I have no where, really, to put all this old gas until either he comes back for it, or our town's next hazardous waste drop off day.  We'll see which comes first.

I am just glad to have the wheels off.  With 2 classes left, I can get the rims cleaned up and maybe even get new tires to mount and balance while I still have the equipment at my disposal!  Of course, my every day car, the Cavalier, is sucking down gas like no body's business and I'm not sure why!  Air filter? Spark plugs?  Hopefully not a gas leak!
If we get the mostly sunny weather we're supposed to have this week, maybe I will keep taking parts off the car!?
Just as a funny side note: the neighbors across the street look as if the girls are getting a lesson on how to change a tire...