My Daily Driver



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Well, it all started when I was visiting my Aunt and Uncle in South Carolina for the summer. I was 15 years old and I wanted to buy my first car and only had a budget of $600.00 from washing many, many dishes. My dream car was a 1969 Plymouth Roadrunner, but I wasn't picky. Anything that was a mopar and between 1966 and 1971 would do. After spending the entire summer trying to find that "just right" buy, I was getting very discouraged. Then on the last week of my stay we came across an ad for a 1969 Sport Satellite for $500.00. At the time I thought "what the hell is a sport Satellite?" My uncle told me it was a pretty cool car so I called the guy up and we went to look at it that night. When we got there I saw it as the headlights went by. I fell in love at this time. It's just like a roadrunner but cooler! It had G60's on the back with Crager SS's all around, and the rear end was about 6 feet in the air. This guy comes out, looks like he's been featured on COPS many times; I don't think he even put on his shirt. Anyway, he came out to show us the car said it had a "tap in the motor but she'll run." In fear of doing more damage to the motor than was already done, I took his word for it. It had some dings here and there and the top of the fenders looked like someone used them for cutting boards. The rear quarter was sideswiped on some sort of inanimate object at one time, but the underneath was a true southern car. Perfect! I told him we'd take it for $500.00, shook hands and told him we'd be back the next day to take her home. The next day came around and the dude says "the ol lady says I gotsa get more dough before I get rid of it" (keep in mind I was only 15 at the time). I started to agree but thankfully my uncle came in and said, "no deal, we're goin' home" I was almost in tears. I know now this is the common practice of haggling. Needless to say we brought her home that day for $500.00.

Sport Satellite Front

After we got home I didn't waste any time. I pulled it between two trees, hoisted the dead 440 up with a come-along and pulled the oil pan to find the first four rod bearings were fried. I took my last $100.00 and went to the parts store. I came out a little in debt to my uncle and with some new bearings, some emery cloth, tune up stuff, and my very own "bible" for my new car. Within that first week I was able to get the crank nice and polished using the emery cloth and the new bearings installed. Only problem was, it turned out, oh yeah, we gotta pack up and move back to Ohio! The first half of my trip was to help move them back to Ohio from South Carolina. So my car had to wait till I got home to finish up.

Once we were all packed up we decide to use a tow bar to bring my new pride and joy back home. This proved to be quite a task. It was fine going down the road, but once we had to slow down to turn or something my car would fishtail so violently we thought it was gonna flip over! Solution: I had to get out of the truck and guide my car until we were going fairly straight, or onto the freeway. It took two days to get from South Carolina to Ohio!

After all that we finally made it home. After a few more weeks of tinkering around, the 440 breathed again. And, oh boy, that's a lot of horsepower for a 15-year-old kid! I proceeded to beat the living hell out of my car for several years. The original motor gave way to the abuse and spun the bearings once again. It was nothing that a $200.00 junkyard motor wouldn't fix. These were the bad times. As I look back at it I really didn't know what I had and abused / cobbled my Satellite to near death. Till one day, playing in the snow, I hit a telephone pole. The dent is still in the dash from my buddies' head. That was a turning point. After that I found out how expensive telephone poles are let alone how hard it is to find the correct parts for my car. That was when I finally found respect for my beloved car. I searched high and low finding a new K member, grille (didn't find the correct one till recently) hood and other odds and ends. I had a friend of a friend do the work on it for $2000.00 and I got my car back a year later with a half-ass paintjob but she's straight again.

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After losing my license a few times and growing up a bit, I tend to drive the car more sanely. But fate would once again take down the Mighty Mopar. I was on my way home from a family picnic and out of the blue some airhead pulled out directly in front of me in some little Japanese POS. needless to say my 30 year old drum brakes weren't enough to stop in time and we met quite abruptly. Again the front end was smashed pretty good. This time I was on my own and wouldn't be able to afford to fix it for some time.

I was about 24 years old and I almost sold my car to another 15-year-old kid for $600.00. Lucky for me, the title was screwed up and the kid changed his mind. This was another turning point.

I was in the market to buy a house at the time and I had about $6000.00 saved up for a down payment. The house deal sank so I took the money and invested it in my car. I never made a better decision in my life. I'm now almost 30, and I eventually bought a house and still have my car. If I would have bought the house first, my poor car would either still be sitting in the yard, or getting the &*^%&^ beat out of it all over again by a whole new generation.

I still drive my Satellite almost everyday during the summer and take a lot of pride in its upkeep. I love it when I stop at a gas station and almost everyone that walks by says "nice car" or when everyone I see does a double-take to check it out. Although I still "get on it" once in a while I now take very good care of my car and would hope some day to have kids to whom I would pass down the fact that they cant drive it!

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