The Beginning of a New Barn Find Restoration: A Greek Tragedy
Posted by Chris Ott on
It's certain to raise eyebrows when tragedy is combined with restoration. Unfortunately, that is commonly the case when projects begin with a rope, a tow chain or a buddy's truck and trailer. Let us begin with the "Greekly Tragic" proper prologue.
Enter one 1986 RX-7 Sport model. A worthy candidate stored lovingly in a garage for 15+ years. Being a Sport model, this steed possesses the simplicity and lightness of a base model combined with the brakes and wheel diameter of a GXL. Having an undented aluminum hood and straight body without corrosion, worthiness of resurrection is obvious. May we introduce the catalyst of the tragic, the innocent good meaning buddy. This individual remains nameless as his identity is not required to fully receive the gift of the lesson. His willingness to help, noble and well meaning as it may be, spells out the doom for our lovingly kempt machine.
The tragedy unfolds with the arrival of said steed on a fine and wonderful day. To this point, no woes are to be found. Loading and driving went as planned. As the unloading begins, the plot thickens. Renting or borrowing trailers is commonplace. Familiarity with the equipment is not. Most trailers won't let you open the doors much, but U Haul solves this with a great feature allowing you to flip the fender down for clearing the door. Once sitting inside, close the door, hold the brakes and let others push her off the trailer. Another, less savory option would be to leave the door open and help push the car off the trailer and not be there to hit the brakes when it abruptly starts moving. Imagine the painful sounds of the machine when his door is caught on the trailers tire and has to succumb to gravity's might. The twisting of the bottom of the door pales to the sound of being caught mercilessly by the parking pole that stopped the downward motion. Like a bird with a broken wing, this poor steed has been grounded by the most innocent of them all, the good meaning buddy.
From tragedy, there is a lesson for us all. Let pro's do what pro's do. This poor machine needed to come just a few miles and the tow bill would be about $75. What has been done is easily $1,000. Fortunately this tragedy can be solved, but what a way to begin a new start of life.