Back home

This morning as I left for work the sun was shining high as it does here this time of the year. My garage door faces east so I couldn't resist opening it. This is what I did see. Destiny's repainted rear sun-bathing.

Yesterday afternoon we picked her up. She was driven out from the paint booth and up on my brother's trailer and soon Lil' red riding hood is safely returned home. But isn't there something horribly wrong in the below picture ?

Yes, you noticed it. The licence plate should be NOT-66 instead of YEP-66 [JOO means YEP or YEAH in Finnish].  If you register a new car you normally get long plates with six random digits selected by a computer. They also have EU's ring of stars like in this picture.

Or you have to pay 1000 € for special plates, if the string you want is available. I think these have been paid for. I didn't want to pay that much at the time of registration. But I was able to demand 5-digit plates due to the fact that the long ones don't fit. These are not delivered by the computer. They have a small supply of free 5-digit plates in every registration station. So I had about a minute to go through and make my selection and JOO-66 was the best I could get. I might consider investing on CID-200 if I win in the lottery.

But hey, it's summer and I'm driving my Mustang convertible. No roof, no windshield and no seat. Have you ever driven a car sitting on the bare sheet metal ? Fun but be careful. You have to take good hold with your left hand on the streering column while pushing the brake pedal if you don't want to find yourself in the rear of the cabin and your car hitting wall in the garage.

So how did the paint look like now ? First of all A LOT BETTER. Not even near to perfect, drips and orange peal. But it'll do for now. First half of the summer is soon gone and from now on it's only up to me and Destiny.

Some history in between

Every now and then I've e-mailed to "Tom", the latest owner of Destiny in Massachusetts to whom I got the contact through a detailed receipt of an antique radio repair shop. Tom's story of the history goes like this.

The car has been in a storage from 1985 until 1995 when someone whose name Tom could not recall purchased it. The guy sold the car to Tom in April 1996. At that time the car was red already.
Soon after Tom purchased the car  he replaced the shocks (rear only), tires and exhaust system. He also had to replace the exhaust manifold in 2005.  According to Tom, the engine and transmission have never been opened.

So it seems like the owner who had the car from '95 to '96 was the guy who performed the DIY restoration with rivets and bondo.

When I got the car in 2007 it had Goodyear Spectra M+S 195-75/14 tires with 1" white stripes. I wonder if these are the tires Tom bought fourteen years ago. They still are in good condition. This makes me think that Tom did not drive too many miles with Destiny.

But now it seems like this information well has dried out and if I want to solve the mystery of a first owner I'll have to turn to the authorities. Maybe they would be able to help with the first 20 years.

There are a couple of application forms to be filled. The request for personal information is needed for Title history search. The thing is that the request only costs $5 but can only be paid with a check, which I do not use. I e-mailed the Massachusetts RMV department and suggested the payment in advance with my credit card and here's what they replied:

"You can not pay for a title history search with a credit card by mail."

Awesome ! I almost thought I could. If anyone has good ideas how to obtain that history search, please contact. Maybe I'll have to attach a five dollar bill and see what happens.

The rumours in town tell me that Destiny might have gotten a coat of red today, so I have to go now.