One of my job changes occurred in 2003 and resulted in an extended stay at a rented home without my family. The lovely Loriann and I decided to keep the girls in school in NY, so they weren’t available to join me in Blacksburg, VA. With time on my hands and a single-car garage at my disposal, I moved the LeMans back to VA. For those of you keeping score, the LeMans had been built in CA, sold in VA, driven back to CA, moving-van”ned” to PA, driven to MD, driven back to VA, trailered to NY, and tow-dollied back to VA - but I digress.
With dreams of painting the car, I purchased my first air garage-worthy compressor and a basic set of accoutrements. With my new air wrench and the help of my best buddy, Bill, we tore down the car removing the bumpers, trim, lights, hood, front clip, windows, trunk lid, top assembly, doors, seats, interior panels, door handles, and the gas tank. Then it was time for some refurbishment. Since it’s been nearly 14 years, I’m a little fuzzy on all I did do, but I know I coated the floor with POR-15, coated the topside and underside of the trunk with POR-15, started up the engine, replaced exhaust gaskets and brake hoses, removed a bunch of Bondo off the tailpanel, and started stripping the paint and Bondo off the left quarterpanel. By the way, the Bondo was originally put in to deal with dents, not rust. It was at that point, I was informed the company I was working had been sold, and new owners were downsizing.
The family was living with me by then, and they all liked the area, so I searched long and hard for a replacement job, but it was a small market and there was nothing in the pay range that I had been enjoying. After getting a generous job offer back in MD, we made the decision to move again.
That meant I needed to put the LeMans back in movable condition. There was no way I could drive it the couple hundred miles to Baltimore, so I bolted on the fenders, hood, trunk lid, and top assembly and filled the trunk with doors and windows and the interior with boxes of everything that was left. She was rolled onto a U-Haul trailer and towed to a waiting spot in the garage at my current home.
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