Is There a Doctor In The House?

It's always good to have a doctor in the family or a mechanic. Flashback to Thursday, while dropping off books at the library my car began dry heaving in idle. Crap. I drove straight home (several blocks) and watched the thermostat climb while from beneath the hood wisps of steam puffed suspiciously like smoke from girls' bathroom. Crap. At home, a quick look in under the hood revealed a massacre of neon coolant. Crap.

So I did as I always do with anything car related I called my little brother, my own guru of cars. He's earned his title from years of tinkering (or as he says wrenching) with cars which includes his current Subaru where he's performed a minor engine swap and started a small business modifying intakes and exhausts. I mean this kid pays to spend a sleepless night driving in a road rally for entertainment. Credentials aside, I requested a telephone consultation. The diagnosis: an absolutely fixable repair, likely a cracked hose or radiator, after inspecting for faulty parts replace them, conventional shop costs: $300, herbal DIY remedy: $100-150. The home remedy will take some time but scores low on scale of difficulty meaning the risk of screwing up anything major was fairly low. Being the parsimonious gal I am and my penchant for learning how-to-do pretty much anything, the decision was an easy one; let's do it.

A salvage yard sold me a replacement radiator for $75 and we picked up a pair of jack stands and some coolant. Today we woke to gorgeous weather a lovely site after a few days of gloom and it was all around good juju for our swap. We spent a good part of the day under the car, much to the chagrin of our neighbors many of which, drove by with expressions of bewilderment and perhaps disapproval at the site of a car on stands in the street. What will become of our property values? We just smiled and waved.



Eddy was in charge of the camera today and decided to take a picture that incorporated a rather unflattering shot of my lower back, thus my friend Photoshopped Crow. This was the only shot of the car so I included it, back and all.

I like to think that I'm a fairly capable gal but this job would've been impossible without Eddy,for as strong as I like to think I am, I would have never gotten the hoses off (or back on for that matter) I simply don't have the brawn. Eventually, with a lot contorting punctuated with deep grunts we got the new radiator into her new home and with fingers-crossed we took a test drive. We were rewarded with a steady engine temperature and a feeling of satisfaction that comes with acts of I-did-it-myself-AND-it-worked. Thanks to the Edo's muscle, little bro's brain and the smoky grease monkey who sold me the radiator my car has recovered. In other news that same little brother of mine will soon fill the other "good to have in the family" role as he's well on his way to medical school. I'm so stinking proud.