New member in north SF Bay area

[zombie1974]

Hey, nice forum, glad to be a part of it!

I have a weird relationship with a Celica. A few years ago, my brother's friend was selling a 1977 GT liftback. My brother really liked it, so he bought it. Problem is, he lives in the city and works in the city and doesn't want to endanger the Celica on the Seattle streets every day. So the day he bought it, I drove it to my house to "look out for it" and "take care of it". Really, my brother is a saint and saw that my wife and I both liked the car, so instead of storing it for who knows how long at a time, he figured that us country mice could use it as a commuter. Plus, he seems to have high confidence in my mechanical skills (I actually learned a lot of what I know from him). Before Fluffy (the Celica, named by previous owner), I had already gotten elbow deep in several car projects including my 1972 Malibu and my 1972 El Camino SS, plus we have my wife's 1962 Ford Falcon (which is in excellent shape). I guess we had pretty good references.
It was kind of like my car for a year or so - I did maintenance on it, I drove it regularly (at least 1 day a week, some weeks every day). I even started seeing it as another project car, another hot rod in my flock. For example, The original driver seat was gone. Several owners before my brother, someone had replaced it with a giant silly racing seat that was too tall to lean forward to let passengers in. So I started rounding up seats from other cars, trying to find one that would fit or bolt in. I didn't manage to find anything, but I did manage to cut up a bicycle frame and weld up adapters onto a Dodge Stratus seat so I could bolt it in. Then I found that the Dodge seat was much taller, so I switched the seats. I'm still on the lookout for better seats. I also installed seat belts in the back so I could drive the whole family around (can't do that in an El Camino). My wife fixed the hood latch that wouldn't close, I welded up a few things that were broken or falling apart, we've really become attached to this car.
A year or so later, we moved into a house with less parking, and we didn't have a parking spot for Fluffy anymore, so I asked my brother to take custody again. From that day forth, Fluffy sat in his apartment carport gathering dust - until August of this year. In the meantime, we had moved again - 2 states away. My brother hears that I'm commuting 45 miles one way per day in my 10mpg '72 El Camino SS, he rents a tow dolly and hauls Fluffy around 900 miles to give me custody back - Completely his idea, he's a saint.
Fluffy arrives with a thick coat of dust and a completely dead, dead, broken battery. I buy a new battery and Fluffy starts right up. I check the oil, give it the once over, wash it and start driving it to work. I didn't even make it all the way back home and the engine started hammering and squeaking and howling at 65mph. I got the car towed home, and there she sits. I bought a hoist and an engine stand, but I have no garage and 8 feet to park on the side of the mountain road I live on, so I haven't really gotten all that motivated to start a project that I may not have money for. I figure joining Celica forums might get my juices flowing and I'll run out there in the mud, wrestle that motor out and maybe it won't be so bad.
So anyway, that's the story of me and Fluffy, my adopted '77 GT liftback.
Thanks for letting me on board,
Alex

[zombie1974]

Here are some pictures of Fluffy - please disregard the oak leaves all over it - it's autumn outside.






Here are the seats


and the broken hinge on the drivers seat (which is actually the passenger seat)


And our other cars

[WIQDTOY]

all right! SF BAy Area member!

keep a look out in our our "Meets" section for upcoming local meets in the Bay!

and welcome to the site!

[zombie1974]

all right! SF BAy Area member!

keep a look out in our our "Meets" section for upcoming local meets in the Bay!

and welcome to the site!

Thanks! I will keep an eye out!