My wife was going to work one morning when her 76 Monte Carlo decided to CHEW UP a timing chain. Needless to say, it also took a couple of valves with it. I didn't know that until I had removed the timing chain cover and saw what happened. To this day, there is still a radiator fluid stain on the blacktop of that apartment complex.

I had it towed to my parents house. I bought a JUNKYARD motor, and put it in the Monte Carlo. The car ran fine until about 3 months later, the transmission would slip in all gears, ONLY when the engine got hot. If you would let it cool down, it would run fine until it got hot again. It turns out, when I replaced the motor, I forgot to hook up the detent cable, and burned up the tranny. OOPS!!! A shop can make that mistake TOO!!! But they'll just tell you it must of been the TRANSMISSIONS TIME TO GO!!!

So, I got a JUNKYARD tranny for $150 and had a shop install it for another $125. NOT BAD!! I've learned that front wheel drive cars cost a LOT MORE to repair than the rear wheel drive cars. Most of it, is the labor costs.

After we got that fixed, I found a NICE 77 Cadillac Cpe DeVille for my wife. It had a 425 cubic in. motor and power everything. It was silver with a red interior. We then sold the Monte Carlo. A few years later she got it painted black.

We then bought our first house in August of 1989. We worked on the house steady until the fall of 1994. I added a back patio, finished the basement, got a pool, tore out my dining room wall and made a bar, added 17 feet to my 12 by 20 foot garage to make it 28 x 20 with a workshop, added a 5 x 20 foot front porch, had the driveway resurfaced and widened, and fenced the yard.

Meanwhile, I was racking up the milage on my 79 Blazer, as well as the body deteriorating. The motor started to run rough, and was leaking at lot of oil from the rear main seal.

So, the fall of 1990, I found a guy that did motor rebuilding and installations at his home. I had a smallblock 400 put in the truck. Boy did that have power. It had so much, that it took out my transmission. Again, I got a JUNKYARD tranny and had it installed for $175. Cheap for a 4 wheel drive. I drove the blue 78 Cadillac Cpe. in the meantime.

The fall of 1991, I was driving down the road and heard this jingling sound. I stopped the truck and looked underneath. I saw my tow chain, about 25 feet long, was falling through the rear floorboard and dragging the ground. I decided it was time to move on and find another K5 Blazer. The rear cross support was completely gone. Everytime I went over a bump, I would lose a piece of my truck. A collision center told me it would be about $6500 to repair the whole body and paint it. I then found another K5 Blazer.