The seller arranged shipping and had great communication, in the sense, that he always responded, but didn't always do what I asked him to do. I.E. send me certain documents, or give me some sort of update. The shipper he went through dropped the ball big time and the car didn't even ship until Memorial Day. I spoke to the driver and he seemed cool. The driver wanted me to pick the car up from him down at the Manheim Auto Auction in Kent off the 212th exit. He had the car already running when I got there, but to my unhappy surprise, the grill had been smashed, sometime between the car sitting waiting to be picked up and the driver picking it up. I had been assured by the seller and the driver, that I would have no issues getting it home other then spongy brakes.
Upon leaving the auction house, the car was running hot and the engine wasn't too happy, on top of that, the hood didn't want to stay latched. I pulled over into a gas station and double checked the oil and decided to top off the oil. Then, I attempted to get on the freeway. It made it about a mile down the freeway after the exit before it decided to lose power and then sputter to a stop. Called AAA and they said that the soonest a tow truck could get out there was 2-3 hours. Of course, I didn't want to leave it there so I tried to get it going a couple more times, but with no tools, I didn't have a chance. I had a neighbor friend come pick me up and take me back home, and the car was finally picked up at 10:30 pm. The tow truck driver didn't want to pull it up onto his flatbed the way that I requested, so we did a risky move, after a few failed attempts at getting it up onto his bed. The risky move is that we both pushed it up onto the flatbed, and then I pulled the ebrake and stomped hard on the mushy brakes. He then raised the flatbed and put it into position for towing, with me in the car standing on the brakes. Thankfully it didn't roll back, as when we first got it onto the flatbed, it slid back to less then a foot off the end of the deck.
Once I got it home, I unloaded it and left it for the night and called it a night.
Today, I had a chance to poke around it and I am glad that only the grill got damaged and not the front body work. The car itself is way more solid then I hoped and I am hoping that the motor is decently healthy, so I can get it tuned up and have it be a runner sooner instead of later. I am super happy with the car, and the seller said that he would work with me to get the grill reimbursed.
Stay tuned.
love it
