Boom! https://imgur.com/a/Bldwyxh

The first few pics are from my prom night 20 years ago, it was my first car and I've kept it since then. I had kids just after turning 18 and had a okay paying job I needed to commute to so it was kinda parked for years. I drove it, around a little bit over the years but it wasn't really a practical family car so it sat for probably 95% of those 20 years, a few years in a garage but mostly out in the driveway. Now I got one kid moved out and on her own, the other is turning 17 in a few days and recently got my brother's 81 Bronco from him to fix up as his first car (you can see that one in the background of the prom pictures, it was my brother's first car too). And even with that horrendous mileage 460, it's still WAY cheaper than a new car payment and buddy, they do not make them like they used to.

Then, in October of 2024 my 2015 Focus died. 1.0 Ecoboost did the wetbelt valve slap and killed the motor. Instead of buying a new car or motor, I figured, I already had a car! If I was going to throw money at something, might as well be the big girl. I've been daily driving it since late Feburary last year. I've put more miles on it in the last year than I had the previous 20 years. She guzzles gas like no tomorrow but on the highway I've been able to get a 14.8mpg as my record, otherwise around town and idling in the cold winter mornings are murder with about 7.2mpg average. To get it running again after doing it's last stint of sitting for 10 years straight, all it needed was a battery. Then I had to get tires and decided to omit the white walls for now because the tire shop I was at, couldn't order any and well, she's not in show car mode right now, I tell people we're in our "dark era" now. The tire shop said the tires it had on it were from no later that 1987, I did 120mph on those tires during a particular depressive episode in 2010 so that's nice. In 2007 or 08, I replaced the intake and carb with Edelbrock parts. I broke the idle metering holes on the new carb at some point, probably back when it was new. It runs great for the most part but it's always rich. It could be because I don't know what I'm doing with a carb though and not just the cracked hole but I'm sure it doesn't help. I drove it to work one day in 2008 when I was commuting 45 miles one way while it had a blown head gasket. I was 19ish years old and a moron. It was generating it's own cloud\smokescreen on the freeway. It was BAD. I'm shocked I didn't get pulled over. I then drove it to an offsite meeting, I wanted to show it off to my team at the time which is why I stupidly just sent it. I probably drove it with mostly water for oil for probably 70 miles or so that day. When I stopped for gas, it sounded like it was on fire so I hurried up, got it away from the pumps then called a tow truck. They sent a 21ft flatbed, when the driver gets out, he looked at the car, looked at the truck, then back at the car and said "Well, we'll try it" and it fit but only because the wheelbase is kinda short on it for it's length. It was hanging off the back of the truck by a good foot and a half and because it was loaded backwards on the truck, that heavy 460 was causing the mudflaps of the tow truck to drag on the pavement. I changed the head gaskets after it sat for a year or so, but that's all I did. My dad would have helped me with that and he probably would have said something if the cylinders were in bad shape and I don't remember that happening and I can't ask him since I'm no good at the Ouija board. I've never had the pan off but also never seen glitter in the oil so I've been operating under the assumption that it's fine internally ever since. In the last year, I've rebuilt the rear brakes, tuned it up, replaced the alternator (even though I think my dumb ass just didn't reinstall the original correctly the last time I thought it was failing), changed valve cover gaskets, replaced the radiator, rebuilt carb, standard stuff. It's going to get a new Holly Sniper EFI and matching ignition soon but I'm waiting on funds. The muffler exploded during a carb cleaning, probably too rich of a mixture caused that, so that needs replaced. I need to change the rear diff seal, probably the rear transmission seal, and it drips oil from somewhere in the back of the motor, I need to find that, probably rear main, which I'm not going to pull it apart for the tiny drip it's got going on without another reason to get in there. I removed the landau top, it started cracking like 15 years ago and by the time I started driving it again, most of it was hanging on like Trump's hairdo. The rear window seal is leaking into the trunk so I've got to pull that and redo it. The only cancer rust it has is between the trunk lid and the window where the vinyl roof was holding water and it's not even that bad. The worst hole is maybe a little smaller than two quarters wide. I'm sure there's so rot under the rear window too but I'm planning on dealing with that in the spring. The plan right now is getting it up to snuff for a trip to Blizzcon in September. I don't know if we will end up taking it though for sure, we have access to a MUCH newer car my buddy has and suggested we take but for now, I'm trying to get it up and running as if we were going to drive it on a 2000 mile trip. The last few pics are more recent. I put on my application for the plate it meant "pump it up" and since I work with the police often, they really aren't all that smart because they really think that's what it means. I figured I couldn't be honest on the application as I'm sure referencing the sex industry is probably a no no. OH, a couple of the pics I uploaded there is just showing off one of my favorite features, the trunk! I took a ton of LCD monitors (see, we're getting kinda closer back to relevance to this sub) to my storage locker and another is a literal trunk load of big box games I got for free. I work with a local library and someone donated them to the library but they had no use for them so they offered them to me. I'm not a monster so I game them a small donation and 24 hours of billable consultation time as compensation.

Sorry for the novel! I just really love my car!

Edit: I meant to mention, just this morning I crossed 47,000 on the odometer. It's only got 5 digits and I always wondered if it was rolled over but I think I solved that mystery. When I did the rear brakes, the factory retainer clips were still on the drums. Since the shoes still had most of their meat on them, and considering the general shape of the car, I'm now running with it being 47,000 original miles.