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Click here to read Chapter 1: The Sunday Drive

Sunday morning, Bob and neighbor Andy met on the street in front of Bob’s home to work the kinks out of the Cordoba. Tom and Janice, next door, were going out for the day, and Bob asked to use their garage for the day. Bob sat behind the wheel of the car and Andy stood behind pushing.

Illustration by Mike Browarski

"Push harder," Bob yelled. "Push harder. We're hardly moving at all."

"Hey," Andy yelled back. "You want to get out and push for a while?"

"No, no," Bob said. "You're doing a fine job. Just give it a little momentum to get around this next corner."

Andy pushed and pushed on Bob's direction until he thought he could push no more. The garage was only next door and he had to push the car around one block, but the job seemed to go on and on and on. Suddenly, after what seemed like an eternity, he saw Bob press on the brake and stop the car. Andy let go of the trunk lid and put his head down in exhaustion. He hoped that they were finally near the garage.

"Welcome to McDonald's. Would you like to try our new cheesie hash browns today?" asked the voice from the speaker box.

"No," Bob said. "Just an Egg McMuffin and a chocolate shake."

Once Andy realized Bob had first thought to steer the car over to McDonald's for a little breakfast at the local drive-through before pulling into the garage, it was easy to tear the rear bumper off and threaten to lunge the hulking piece of metal through the driver’s side window. New body energy emerges quickly in those situations.

"We could have used my car to go to McDonald's," Andy reasoned.

"Well I didn't think of it until we were on our way," Bob said. "I got hungry as we rounded the first corner. And then I saw Ole Mr. Jenkins by the alley turn and I didn't want him to think my car wasn't running, so I rolled the window down and waved as we went by. It all seemed so natural. And then there was Mrs. Curtis over by the Lincoln intersection – and hey, you were picking up speed then. I think we passed the Harvey's in that old van of theirs. I was so proud in my new car. I just hope no one noticed you running behind."

Inside the garage finally, Bob and Andy popped the hood and studied their patient.

"What do you think's wrong with her?" Bob asked.

"I don't know," Andy responded. "What was she doing wrong?"

"She died out on me on Lincoln yesterday. Running smooth. And she just died out."

Andy grabbed a pair of pliers from the toolbox and stuck his head inside the engine.

"Bob," Andy said. "What you got here is too much gas."

"What do you mean, Andy?"

"This baby's fuel injected and I think the engine's getting too much gas," Andy said. "Could be an adjustment on this end or it could be a pedal adjustment in the cab."

"A pedal adjustment," Bob asked. "What do you mean?"

"Sometimes the pedal sticks or it's rusted out – or it could be you're sitting too close to the dash board and your body weight is stroking the pedal constantly. Could be something as simple as that."

"You don't say," Bob said. "How can we fix that?"

"It's pretty simple," Andy said. "Just a seat adjustment might do it."

Andy opened the driver's door and crawled inside.

"Now here's your problem, Bob," Andy said. "You got one of those pre-Eighties aluminum rail guards. Now they fixed that in I think Eighty-one – but you know – the Imperials had it in Seventy-five."

"Oh go figure," Bob said. "What do we do?"

"Well I think we just pull this baby out," Andy said, "and replace it with another material. And we could push the whole seat back four or five inches – and free up some space between you and the gas pedal – put you a little lower to the floor board and stretch your legs out."

Forty minutes later, Andy and Bob had successfully removed the front seats and the aluminum rails that they slid back and forth on. Now the two stood back and looked at the mess they had created and pondered their situation.

"What are we going to use to keep the seats in place if we don't use the aluminum rails?" Bob asked.

"Well I'd just use a two-by-four," Andy said.

"A two-by-four?" Bob said. "A two-by-four. Of course. Simple. Solid. Easy to fit in. Now let me see. Where are we going to get a two-by-four?"

"Home Depot is open," Andy said. "Let's use my car and go pick up a few."

"Home Depot," Bob said. "I'm not spending good money on this old car. We can find an old piece of wood lying around and make it work."

"You have any wood lying around, Bob?" Andy asked.