Shade tree mechanics

[BigV]

What this is.

Wow, time flies! The post just above this one indicates that the Golf belonging to the BD was to be sold. We got that car for her in high school. We bought it from one of her schoolmates, interestingly, her current roommate. Anyhow, the clutch was not wrecked, but mortally wounded when we got it. This meant that BD got to learn how to drive a car with a manual transmission in the easiest possible circumstances. You could rev the motor and just dump the clutch and the car would moan and lean forward, smooth as butter. I eventually replaced the clutch (sorry no pictures, but it wasn't that hard). She loved that car for a few years and eventually wanted to trade up.

She had her eye on a small SUV, an Isuzu Axiom. Catchy, no? Right. So, she got approved for the car loan but needed to sell the Golf. At the time, I needed a car, so I bought it from her. I gave her a fair price, and she let me pay over time. I gave her interest on her money, and I loved the whole "teachable moment" aspect. This little car is the only one I loved so much I bought it twice. As you can see (or will soon see), I drive it to this day.

The carabiner? Oh, yeah.

Well, as you can see from the first shot here, the hatch and the bumper and the rear body panels are deformed from being rear ended. Fucker. Not the car, the cell phone talking ass headed dumbfuck that drove into me. It seriously messed up the hatch. And the doors on the right hand side. And my taillight, etc, etc. For a while I was really country holding the hatch shut with ratcheting straps. I got tired of not being able to get into the hatch easily and this week undertook to reform the mechanism here so it would shut. There was considerable hammering and pounding. I used a 2x4 across the hatch opening and closed the hatch against it. The let me bend it quite close to the shape of the opening.

Pic 1

Battered (not battened) hatch.

Pic 2

The hatch opening and a bit of auto-detrius.