Blow-torch and my 240Z.

[Phacade]

The story happened right after I bought my '73 240Z. I had done nothing to it at the time, those of you who have read my post know it now has an L28, 5-speed, etc.

Anycase one particularly cold February day last year I was coming home from work. I was thinking I needed to do something to my Z and was not certain what as of yet. The L24 spat and spuddered and the 4-speed whined like my ex-girlfriend. I was driving down a residential street during rush hour, my personal shortcut to avoid traffic. Just keeping the car running was difficult so I had been racing the engine a bit, and as a result I guess I was driving to quickly. It didn't help that the residential roads were completly iced over. The road was pretty straight except for one S-shaped bend. I went through the first part fine but lost traction and slammed into the curb (and took out a mailbox).

A few hours and alot of colorful metaphors later I had towed it to a friends house who has a garage. The control arms were bent. tie rods bent. Somehow the body and frame seemed fine.

Fast forward two weeks later I has rounded up the much needed parts and we began pulling of the bent pieces and putting the good ones on. All seemed to be going well until we got to the last tie rod. Right front. It was fused. We could not seemed to break it loose. The instructions (which in laymans terms said removal of tie rod from 240Z: Remove 240Z from tie rod - too many blasted parts to take off first) were not helping.We tried virtually every tool at our disposal (including a drill, a jack, numerous power tools, 3 cans of WD-40, a chain and a Ford truck, and a firecracker - my wifes idea. Finally as a last resort we got the Blow torth out and started cutting. Who knew WD-40 would be so combustable? I started look quickly for something to put the fire out with and in a panic choose beer. It took about a whole six pack to extinquish my flamming Z, thank God it didnt catch anything else on fire (like the nearby gas line).

Now whenever I see my friend, and we have nothing else to do, one of us usually says "Well we can always have a weenie roast on your Z!"

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"Go into emptiness, strike voids, bypass his defences; hit him where he does not expect you" -Lao Tzu

[John Coffey]

Also works well to make you feel better after twice trying to trash your car... ;-)