Mitsubishi Montero Madness!

Adam has been searching on Craigslist non-stop for the last year or so. It wasn't enough for him to find his cheap "beast car" (what the kids call the Montero), he had to keep the search on for parts and ideas on how to restore it. He works on that rig on and off and is constantly trying to find ways to improve it; mechanically and cosmetically. Last Friday (over a week ago) he found a used Montero on Craigslist that seemed to be in pretty good shape. Normally, he would just pass it up, but the price was too good to overlook. Casually, he showed me the ad, and even I was impressed. I said "contact him, I think you should buy it." Now, it's not like we've got extra money lying around to just buy cars willy nilly, but it would have cost Adam more money to buy the parts than it was going to be to buy this whole car! There was no phone number in the ad, so he emailed hoping to hear from the guy soon.

The next day we had a lot planned. I was attending my recruiter's director debut (yay for Tracy!), and then we were planning on heading to Beaverton for Brandi's 15th birthday party. We still hadn't heard from the guy with the Montero (it was located in Eugene), and we were getting anxious. We were already heading south for the party, and we didn't want to have to take another trip on Sunday, so we packed up some clothes, just in case he called while we were gone.

While at the party, and after playing some phone tag, Adam made a deal with the owner to go see it the next morning. It was already late (for the kids) when we left the party, so we decided to find a hotel in Albany (about 45 minutes from Eugene). The kids were so excited to stay there! We could have stayed someplace cheaper, but for $15 more, we decided the nicer hotel with free HOT continental breakfast was a better deal. We didn't reach the hotel till around 10:00. The kids, though they had stayed at a hotel before, were amazed that there were 2 beds, a TV, AND and bathroom! We let them stay up till almost 11:30 eating snacks and drinking pop from the vending machine.




Adam and I both slept with one of the kids. I don't think either of us got much sleep. I ended up crouched at the foot of the bed because Synnove is QUITE the wiggle worm..sheesh! We had a very nice breakfast with eggs, bacon, sausage, and waffles and headed to Eugene. Thankfully, it was a beautiful day, so it made the long day in the car much more bearable. We were at the owner's house for about an hour. We were very fortunate to buy it because we were the first of over 30 emails the owner received within one night! I know...unbelievable for such a hunk of junk. But, apparently, this "old school" Mitsubishi Montero restoration is sort of a "thing" among guys everywhere. This particular Montero came from Nevada. The owner was fixing it up, moved to Eugene, and decided he didn't have time for it anymore. I don't think he realized how desirable it was going to be...otherwise he would have sold it for more money, I'm sure.

To break up the nearly 4 hour drive home, we stopped in Corvallis to visit the Carrolls. Like I said, it was a beautiful day and the kids all played outside. It was great because they were pretty tired when we finally decided to head home, and they slept all the way to Longview where we stopped and had dinner. Once at home, though time for bed, the kids took a ride in the "new beast car" around the field with daddy. Adam took it to work the next day, but it hasn't left the shop since.

He now spends every spare moment working on it. Within a few days, the entire interior was ripped out. I didn't even have time to take "before" pics. The interior was/is in pretty good shape and it doesn't reek of cigarettes (like the other one). Adam plans to paint it inside and out. Yesterday and today I helped him get it ready for paint. I took off the window tinting, pin stripes, emblems, and trim with a razor blade. Adam has already painted the dash and will soon paint the interior wall panels. He's also prepping the floor to paint it with some special bed liner-type paint. After that, I'm sure he'll begin sanding the exterior for a fresh coat of black.

I'm sure this project will be never ending, but I hope to post some "after" pics relatively soon.

While I went shopping and ran some errands yesterday, Adam built a fire for the kids outside the shop. They were out there from 8:30 AM till my parents came over for corned beef and cabbage dinner. It was a fun day for them...and they even got SMORES!

Today, we were all planning on going to OMSI with Faith and the kids, but Synnove got sick with a horrid cough and stuffy nose late last night. So, we stayed home and dinked around on the Montero even more. I snapped a couple of pics of it all torn apart...