I have been a lurker here for quite some time but I never bothered to register; please allow me to explain why.
Many years ago I bought a 2000 LS White (Bone stock, Clean). I loved that car. Sadly after less than 8 months of ownership it was totaled. Apparently this guy in his Chevy Impala decided that stop signs
were too "conformist" for him that day. This was the result:


Someone got a LOT of nice spare parts. I didn't have the know-how to deal with repairs, it was bank-owned at the time, so I just said whatever and let his insurance pay for it....I got a decent check out of the whole
ordeal...but it didn't resolve the matter.

I ended up buying a 2009 Civic Si. Good car, but after owning it a few years I started to realize that it just didn't pull at my heart-strings.


This is when I should introduce a little car known as: Road Warrior


My buddy bought this car from "Some Old Guy" for $700. The guy said it didn't run and made weird noises...my friend put a battery in it and drove it home. He spent a lot of time freshening things up,
doing some TLC, doing some not-so-TLC (it spent some time plasti-dipped purple). Once he had it running good he was using it as his DD. Then he got bored and slapped a Greddy Kit on it!


He had some head gasket issues so I helped him swap in a new and totally-refreshed motor into it. Here's the car just before finishing up that work.


Time went on, Road Warrior spent some time at the local Auto-X, and some time pounding through the snow. Then we discovered a small crack in the head that only showed up under boost. My friend decided to drive it like it was
for a while. But that lead to a perfect storm...You see Road Warrior had a leaking FPR...barely leaking. As in Fumes. Well, that's not such a big deal if you're driving down the road, but it IS a big deal if you're sitting in your
driveway. It is also a REALLY big deal if that head crack you've recently discoverd happens to make coolant puddle up on your #2 and #3 spark plug wells, which causes a lot of resistance...which causes spark plug wires to arc
onto a valve cover, which causes a large fire.
Since fires are no big deal, my friend decided to snap a pic before he tried to battle the blaze


That's about the same time my friend decided that this car was cursed, and so he let the car sit a few weeks and didn't try to repair the fire damage.
This is also about the same time that the Car gods would decide that I needed to drive a Miata once more, because my Civic was rear-ended while parked and totaled.
I bought Road Warrior from my buddy for what he paid for it spare parts and all. (a "smoking" friend-only deal)

And thus began the rebuild! I'm a few weeks into it now, it's all together and just troubleshooting a few weird starting issues. I've come to the forum for help and hopefully to make some new friends in the area to go to Auto-X or cruising, or modding cars!

Here's a few extra pics!


My buddy's new ride


Urban Camo layered body filler fender

 

That is the kind of intro thread I like to see! All it lacks is cat pics.

Keith

 

Thanks for joining, Snow!

 

Wow! Now I see how the intro thread thing is meant to be done! Great story. Still, your buddy stiffed you for $700 for a $700 car that then burnt up?? That's rough. lol

 

HAHA! I never thought about it that way!
I was thinking of the extra parts he had into it, like nearly new Azenis, Megan EZ Streets, Greddy Turbo Kit, Intercooler (yet to be put on), and a new ACT Clutch, plus a spare Long Nose bottom end, and a spare 5 spd transmission!

 

That's not your car fire.

 

I thought the fact that it was obvious (different car color and infamous photo from the London Riots) was what made it funny

 

Welcome to the site from central arkansas.

 

It was funny.