My first day as a Z owner

[SuDZ]

I get to the place where I am buying it from and we call the guy to meet us there. He decides that now is the best time to get the old crap out of the car and ready for me. So we wait around a while for him then he finally gets there and starts cleaning. Well then my Dad says to him "Got the title?" And he realizes it is at his office. Which he tells us is five minutes away be right back. About a half hour goes by and he is still not back. So we are putting air in the tires since they were basicly flat from sitting there since October and putting the plates on from my Maxima to try to get it home.

Well my Dad tells me to drive the car over to the compressor. As I am in it I realize I hear a weird noise. I open the door and find a nice, very active, Yellow jacket nest in the door jam. Excellent. Well I am hopping out of the car now and me and the big guy have about 15 of them flying in the air all around us. So I find a can of WD-40 type stuff in the truck. I go to town spraying them when I have maybe a half squirt left in the car. No big deal they seem to be dead. But this is when I find out that there is also a nest in the mirror on the door. With the half shot I get in the mirror as much as possible and another half dozen or so come out. The whole place is swarmed in bees now. The guy comes back and is like "What happened?" Since it stunk like WD-40 it was all over the car and we were almost in need of a beekeeper.

So we are trying to fill out the title info and this guy is taking forever. The whole time waiting for him we are swatting at yellowjackets trying to get free of the guy. So after another 20 minutes he manages to write out a bill of sale and fill out the title. Now me and my Dad are trying to go and I am in the car and drive about maybe nine feet when he runs over in front of the car. He stops me and is telling me about how much he is going to miss the car and he really does not want to sell it and on and on. You should have seen the guy, looked like he was going to actually start crying. Well, you know how I am when it comes to getting all emo - I got the heck out of there. He started just saying in a real quite voice, "Just go, it will be easier that way". I felt like I just ran over his dog.

The guy stops him as well talking to him about the car and how much he loved it. During this I am at the bottome of the road waiting for my father because I can not pull onto the road till he is behind me since it is not registered etc. in case a cop comes. I call him on the cell and he tells me the guy was talking to him and he thought the seller was going to cry too when talking to him. Crazy.

Well we get on the road and as luck would have it we have to go through a contruction zone loaded with cops. I was just kind of looking straight ahead and hoping for the best. We get by them and are approching the highway. We get on and a few minutes into it the car backfires. Big time. Like a cannon. it scared the crap out of me. At first I though I blew out a tire or something and the n realized what it was. For some reason it gave me a little smile and I thought to myself, oh yeah this is going to be fun. My Dad calls me about the backfire to make sure everything was okay and tells me that it blew so much carbon out the muffler that it smeared on his windshield and left black all over the front of his white truck.

So we are driving along when I realize that the gauge is getting pretty high for the temp. Keeps climbing until almost at the redmark. I pull off the highway and get stopped at the longest redlight in existance. The whole time I see it getting up a bit further and further. Finally I get into a Decathalon parking lot across the street and out comes the smoke. Lots of it and some coolant starts pouring out on the ground. So we let it cool down and had extra coolant with us to put in. So we load it up and say "Let's see how far we get this time."

We are off again onto the highway. A bunch more backfires later we are getting off. I will tell you, the TEMP was god awfull high and the heater was going to try to keep it cool, which was no fun because it was already hot out and this had to be the longest it has ever taken to get onto this street. I can smell coolant burning and see smoke coming out from under the hood and I am just thinking please let me get to at least the house and I will be happy. Finally a break in traffic and I go for it. Coasting down the hill near my house to try to let up on the engine a bit. I pull into my yard and park it over on the side when PSSSSS the next round of smoke and coolant let loose.

My Dad got out of his truck and was laughing came over to look at it while I was popping the hood to let it cool off and was like "Well, at least we made it" and swapped the plates back onto my car so I could get to work. It was eventfull but fun the whole time. It can only get better from here.

SuDZ

[Alex 240Z]

Really enjoyed the story and good luck with your Z !!!! In the past I have experienced the over heating and boy the traffic lights do seem longer !!!! I have pushed a few Z's too !!!! But your tale sure brought a smile to my face !!!!

[halz]

thanks for the story. I can see an exerienced hand at work when you mention turning on the heater to help col the car. Most people forget that they have this 'extra radiator' when their car begins to over heat...problem is that cars often overheat on HOT days!

What is a 'yellow jacket'? A type of bee or wasp?

[240znz]

Welcome.....

Sounds like you were lucky to get it home. A story to tell for a long time " The day I got my Zed"

Well done and I'm sure you'll have more great yarns to spin.:classic:

[Mike]

Oh man, that's a great story!

Kept me laughin... Not because of your situation.. but, it sounds a lot like mine. Just remove the bees and add a set of faulty brakes. Good luck with the car, you'll love it. It's stories like yours that make me want to keep going on my project.

Too fun.

-- Mike

[260Zed]

I agree that you'll get the slowest car infront and the longest red light if the cars about to overheat. We got my friends pulsar home after 3 coolant stops. Though in hindsight we really should've left it where it was.

[GatorJ]

You bought it without checking it out first?

[Daniel]

Love the story!!Its funny if you would have just driven it home it would have been a non-event.As it was you and your dad have one of those forever funny and will always seem like yesterday stories.Thats great! About the insurance on a just purchased car.My state farm agent said the minute you sign the title you have 30 days of insurance.Its not told because then people forget to go through the proper method. Oh Halz,A yellow jacket is a kind of bee that stings for no reason at all.Once it does and the stinger is torn or you smash one it releases a smell that means attack to all the other jackets.Those bastards are just bad news.

[owenk]

Originally posted by halz

What is a 'yellow jacket'? A type of bee or wasp?

Here you go with a color photo. LINK

[jpac]

great story - made me laugh out loud. Have fun with your new toy

Jeff

[SuDZ]

Originally posted by GatorJ

You bought it without checking it out first?

Not exactly. I had it out and about and what not for a bit but not really on the highway like this. I mean we could only do short runs since it was uninsured, unregistered and right down the street from a police station. Those are some bad factors. The guy did tell me it had heating issues but he has not had it on the road on almost a year as a daily driver.

SuDZ

[SuDZ]

Originally posted by Daniel

Oh Halz,A yellow jacket is a kind of bee that stings for no reason at all.Once it does and the stinger is torn or you smash one it releases a smell that means attack to all the other jackets.Those bastards are just bad news.

The worst part was I was thinking after getting on the road "What if there are other nests IN the car? hehe looks like I lucked out in that way.

Glad you all got a kick or smile out of the story. I know I did while it was happening. The whole time I was just saying "Come on, you can do it just go a little further. Let's just go one more exit at least" It was a great time.

Now once I get this heating issue taken care of I will be looking into the body. Let the fun begin.

SuDZ