Making deals and new friends.

On September 15th I decided to put my super rare Toyota dual carburetor package up for sale. I found this gear on Craigslist earlier in the year, but pretty quickly realized that like most of the things I own, other people wanted them more than I did. I figured my time with this engine or this wagon was limited (just not worth sinking money into), and that selling the carbs could be the way to raise a chunk of money to pay for a new engine (4age high compression fuel injected twin cam or a higher performance rebuilt version of the original 3tc).

The day I posted the ad on 3tcgarage forums, a newer member sent me a message.
"Ben, I am very interested in your carb/manifold setup. Since I am in Portland, it seems like it might be easiest to talk on the phone. Bill"

I called bill that night, and after finding out that he lived only a few blocks from me invited him over the following morning to check out the carbs. He really wanted them, and made me a cash offer with the option to keep the carbs on the car as long as I needed. When I said I'd like to wait and see what other offers come, he asked for right of first refusal and also said he might be able to work out a trade with some cars and parts at his shop. I perked up at that idea and said I wanted to see his shop right away.

The next day I met Bill at his place, where he showed me the stuff he no longer wanted to deal with. He offered to trade me a complete running 1980 Toyota Corolla Liftback and a 1982 Toyota Corolla Sedan complete except for the engine. There was also going to be a lot of scrap metal, blown engine, broken parts, whatever didn't sell. It was a big pile of stuff, and it was obvious that Bill usually deals with nicer toys than these. The two cars had been purchased for use in a 500 mile rally race where you could only put $500 into a car. Bill loved the white car so much, he pulled the 3tc engine to rebuild for use in his 1977 Corolla station wagon. Bill hated the blue car so much, it had been sitting at the shop for a year.

Behind Bill you can see one of his fully restored vintage Alfa Romeo convertibles, a fully restored Volkswagen Thing, and a super vintage Alfa Romeo team race car in the rafters.

The coolest part about checking out Bill's stuff, was that he wasn't looking for a verbal agreement that day. He's retired, relaxed and doesn't stress about time or money. He made it clear that it was up to me if I wanted to explore this deal and decide whether this stuff was worth trading for. Bill also sounded more excited about trading because it meant that I'd be clearing valuable space and making some of his more valuable assets accessible. He told me if I could sell the VW Thing for him next I'd get 10%, and there were a lot more things to sell after that.







Over the next 2 days I dove into the 1980 Corolla, pulling the garbage seats, spare parts and tires out. I simultaneously removed the seats, carpets and trim pieces from the 1982 parts car. I picked up some industrial carpet cleaner, and with the help of Bill's industrial upholstery cleaning machine went over every inch of the two carpet pieces and all the seats. I could have spent multiple hours getting the seats back to show room condition, but I knew that this car was only going to be worth so much money. It was amazing finding out that the whole interior bolted right in. Especially the carpets, they matched every contour of this very differently shaped car. From the holes for the seat bolts, to the curves that were secured by the door trim pieces, the installation was easier than the removal (and much less grimy). After a full day's work, Bill was impressed and the car was ready.

Bill had only used a few words to describe the blue car. It might sound whiny or crabby, but Bill is hilarious when he's being blunt. "It runs and drives, but inside it is a terrible, terrible place to be. That car was so miserable inside, I just couldn't stand it." After our most annoying shopper left Bill said, "God I was getting so mad listening to that women, I wanted to just hit her in the face. I was so glad when she left in that terrible car (a 1981 Corolla with a clearly blown head gasket) so she could go blow herself up somewhere else."

A couple days later, I sold the car to a young and enthusiastic woman. She hadn't owned a car in a few years, and was only planning to drive this car for a few months before moving cross country. Within 30 minutes of leaving, she called and had broken down halfway to Beaverton in rush hour. Unngngggghhhhh. I dropped everything I was doing, stopped mid-trip to the bank and went to get the car running.

Ben: "Hi, I just came across the bridge and will be there in a couple minutes."
Girl: "Hi. Oh I just got rear ended."
Ben: "What. Is the car messed up?"
Girl: "I got the lady's phone number, just the rear bumper a bit."
Ben: "You only got her phone number?!
Girl: "Oh I guess I should have gotten some more info, I'm new at this. She's an old lady, hopefully she'll pick up."
Ben: "... ... ..." hangs up.

I checked out the car, decided it might have run out of gas so I went and bought a gas can. When I got back, her crabby mechanic friend had showed up and we decided to push the car onto a side street. Car has gas. Car is cranking, but making no spark. Shortly after, car won't crank at all. Ignition coil might be bad, starter is probably bad, might have blown some fuses. Mr. Mechanic doesn't want to try anything, because he clearly has no respect for older cars that aren't Fords, or maybe he just couldn't handle how us oldschool Corolla owners enjoy success from random attempts at repair. Even though the car wasn't my problem any more, I could tell it could easily ruin this girl's weekend and possibly more if I bailed. It was obvious that this car needed more work than the two of us were ready to do that night, and I didn't want to pay for any work or towing. So luckily an idea popped into my head to call my new friend in Seattle who had expressed interest in buying the car later in the week.

Ben: "Hey Dan."
Dan: "Hey Ben, what's up man?"
Ben: "Well, I just sold the liftback to this girl, and within 30 minutes I think she's killed the starter and the coil. So I don't want to have to deal with getting it towed somewhere to pay for repairs, and I wondered if you'd still be interested in it how it sits."
Dan: "Oh sure, those things don't change the value at all for me. I've got those parts already."
Ben: "Oh yeah? How soon could you come down and pick it up, if I was flexible on payment?"
Dan: "Hmm, probably Sunday. I could move some stuff around, bring you down $100 and paypal you the rest in a few days."

So I knocked the price down for him, took back the title and sent the girl on her way with her money. She was really happy I hadn't been a creep, and I was really happy I didn't have to put any more time or money into the car!

This morning, Sunday the 27th, Dan came down around 10am. I met up with him and brought my tools, we poked around and got really tired pushing it up a hill so it could be push started. We decided to take a break, and drive over to Bill's to get some parts off the white car. I went to run some errands, and met up with them a few hours later. I had the idea to hot wire the car from the battery to the newly replaced coil. After the third push up the hill, we got the car running. Everyone psyched, especially me. Now just need to ship a few interior and body pieces, and get the white car picked up for scrap value.

The Bitsy Story

Here is our first Corolla, which we named "Bitsy". Bitsy was a fairy-tale-story.

When I lived in St Louis, I never checked the paper for cars. All you can find are Oldsmobiles, similar garbage, or you can find an early 90s Accord or Camry with 250,000 miles for $5,000 or more. Nice. But one day in early February 2006, I happened to check the Toyotas. It doesn't take long to check that section, there are never many of them for sale. I'm scanning through the usual 90s and newer cars, and then I see ONE car that stands out. The title read something along the lines of; "1981 Toyota Corolla, two owners, garaged rust free, 40k miles." I happened to be the first of over 100 calls that day, and I was obviously the first one willing to make the hour and a half drive out of town to check the car out.

But I'm getting ahead of myself, what the heck did a 1981 Corolla look like? I'd certainly never seen one, and I couldn't picture it at all. Google searching only came up with a tiny thumbnail or two, I really couldn't get a good idea but we knew the car would be a great investment and probably look pretty funky. I remember Atika and I driving out there in our *cringe* Ford Focus and the minute the car came into view. Jaws dropped...We both exclaimed, "WE WANT THAT" before we even came to a stop. The car was so shiny, so small and had so much character! The son of the second owner, Dave handed us the tiny original key and let us take it for a drive. Getting in the car was a trip, there was more interior room than I'd ever experienced, despite the small size of the exterior.

The interior was as cherry as the outside, the lady had the car detailed and serviced way more often than is necessary, every part of the car looked new, garaged for more than 20 years. We were in love, and gladly handed over a $500 deposit to secure the car. She was purchased spring of 2005 I believe, from her second owner. The car had done well under 50,000 original Illinois miles, and she was only $2000. That night, I started researching more in depth and found the life changing forum www.Toyota3TC.com, and I found out just how legendary this car was in the development of the brand and model.

We came back within two days to pick the car up, and tried to make notes about the mechanical history of the car. The owner didn't feel comfortable giving us the maintenance records, because they had her personal information on them. So I was determined to take good notes and be meticulous about the whole story on this car. But the service history was all tiny services and general pamperings. No cars have any real mechanical failures in the first 50k, let alone the bomb proof Corollas.

The only funny/painful part of the story was when we stopped on the way home at a lousy little "Mexican Restaurant" for dinner, only to find that the starter didn't have another start left in it. So we had to leave the car parked there, drop the key in a drop box at a mechanic across the street, and get picked up by my parents. Dave, the man who sold us the car, was happy to pay for the repair and was very gracious and comforting about the quality of our purchase....little did we know the journey that was just beginning. We would enjoy this car for three years and more than 50,000 miles.

We sold the Focus immediately after, and shopped for a second car a little while later. I bought a 95 Civic hatch with 19k miles on it, only to find that the car wasn't measuring up to the Corolla's value or performance. Eventually sold that car for what I had paid, and got a little moped for $400. We pampered bitsy for the first year, but regretfully we couldn't keep her garaged when the salt and snow were on the roads.

So she saw a little rust creep around the edges, but was still a head turner till January 0f 2009. Bitsy suffered a low speeed fender bender that mangled the grill and headlights, and she was just never the same to us (even though she still ran and drove well). Two other classic Corollas came and went during her career (their stories will come later). Before we were ready to let go of Bitsy, I had to have another Corolla ready. So I purchased a 1982 Corolla Hardtop for $500 off Craigslist. We sold Bitsy for $600 to a very excited and appreciate woman, who fell in love with her too.

To Bitsy, the standard by which all future cars shall be measured.