Hi my name is Daniel Nelson and I am 22 years old. Since birth I have been surrounded by cars and the car culture. I was one of those kids that never played with action figures but instead only played with hotwheels and matchbox cars. As i got older the gear head addiction grew, first it was stealing dads tools and wrenching on my bicycle then it was minibikes, go karts, gopeds, lawnmowers, dirtbikes. Then the time came when i could get my permit. I took one of those drivers ed courses used their car and got my permit first try. That night I was out driving my mothers 5 speed focus grinning ear to ear the entire night. my dad had bought My dart for my 16th birthday but, it was not in driving condition. So they had to get me a first car. My dad won a 4 door dart on ebay for 200 bucks in running driving condition and the idea was I could drive this but it could also be a parts car for my 2 door dart in the future.
Like most first cars it ran terrible. Eventually dad got it working good but then i made a left in front of someone with it and totaled it. I made a left infront of someone and got Tboned.
It bent so much when I opened my door it bent the fender.
Even though everyone was okay I was pretty angry at myself for ruining the car and putting people in danger.
My next car was a 80s caprice classic. when i was younger we had one for a while and took many trips in it so this was like being re-acquainted with an old friend.
It was a good car aside from the transmission slipping like a SOB. One day I was driving around with a friend and i took of from this intersection and it was sandy and being young and stupid I gave it a bit too much gas. This was probably the first time I had a car sideways and I learned a valuable lesson that day that will forever stick with me. If your spinning out don't hit the brakes! so anyway I'm spinning out and I jam on the brakes and at about 10-15 mph i slam into this newer suv. Turns out it was 4 days old!!!!!! my caprice had a slightly broken corner light and the bumper was pushed back an inch, the SUV had major suspension damage a broken tie rod and some front end damage. The caprice drove away like nothing happened, the SUV did not. I felt like a total idiot for doing this but also gained an appreciation for older cars engineering.
I then graduated high school and my parents though i needed a better car. My parents wanted me to get something good on gas. I insisted that it has to be a stick and rear wheel drive, no exceptions!! well my dad got me a 1985 toyota celica GT for 500 bucks. 4 cylinder rear wheel drive and stick! This my friends is the car that got me into cars and taught me how to fix them.
At first i left it normal, Then I got into two accidents bolt of which were not my fault. My dad then used the money to paint the car. My dad spent a month working on the car to paint it, and it came out great!
I also got some aluminum slots for it to give it that old school look.
Then the water pump started leaking, I learned how to change that with a bit of help from dad. then 2 weeks later the front seal was leaking, so then i learned how to do the front seal, oil pump and timing chain. Then i put a bigger cam in and did the headgasket, added headers. It just snowballed from there and I started getting good at doing this stuff.
For some reason I never really thought about working on the dart. Maybe because it had just been there for so long I had forgot about it. One day I thought to myself, I should fix this thing.
up untill now dad was always there to help me out. But he was too busy with work. Instead of waiting for him to help me I just dove in and rebuilt and painted the other side of the suspension (dad had rebuilt one side 2 years prior).
I then had a few other issues to fix and she was roadworthy!
Lots of things have been done now and my mechanical ability has increased. I won't go into greater detail since this post is long enough as it is! I do have a build thread here:
http://www.forabodiesonly.com/mopar/showthread.php?t=107726&highlight=muscle+car
There is so much more I wish to do with my car but right now I just don't have the money. I have had a hard time even scraping together 20 bucks to take it to the car shows. But I have taken it to a few this year and had a lot of fun. I just graduated this summer with my Bachelors in fine arts (concentrating in computer graphics) and now am going back for my MFA in computer graphics and animation. I would like to get a job or internship in the field but currently I am doing some auto mechanic work on the side. It pays OK but it is only when I am needed and when I have the time to work.
Right now I just don't have much money at all so I have not done anything to the car since july aside from driving it. Driving it is great but there is a lot of stuff it still needs. Hopefully things pick up for me and I can get to fixing this car up to my liking.
My signature picture is what my car currently looks like, Its not much but it means the world to me.
thanks for reading. Sorry its so darn long. I think i could write a novel about my automotive experiences. Oh and by the way no accidents in the past 3 years!:cheers:
