When I drove the vert for the summer in BC, I wasn’t perfect because of the door and fender damage. But the engine ran strong and it seemed pretty clean.
Summer of 2019:
On my last BC trip, someone had randomly broken my rear quarter glass:
I also noticed there was a slight misfire/hesitation, so I planned to buy some tune up items to work on the car on Thanksgiving 2019.
While planning for that long Thanksgiving weekend in Vancouver BC, I decided I needed to figure out if I can make the door a bit easier to look at. I ended up buying a 10 ton Porta power hydraulic pump and a few other things for the vert’s tune up.
Unfortunately on the way up to Vancouver BC, Northern California was hit with a snow storm and I got caught in it (I was driving).
Getting caught in that snow delayed me by a day (what was suppose to take 3 hours, took 10yrs).
When we finally got to Vancouver BC, I had to assess the damage to my van (snow cables broke) and get snow tires (just incase on the drive down it was the same conditions). That took a lot of my time. I also lost my voice.
But I was able to work on the vert, replacing the rear quarter glass and using the porta power to push out the door from the inside. Way better, but still needed work. Battery died, so I ended up buying one from Lordco parts. I didn’t have enough time to do the tune up.
Additionally, the car was exposed to the weather with that damaged door, tweaking the glass out. So my brother in law put a towel (as you can see in the thumbnail). I couldn’t let that fly and so I bought a car cover.
2020 – The plan was in the summer of 2020, drive the vert back to WA. Well, we all know what happened in 2020 that closed down international travel!!!
So my brother in law was taking care of my vert. In the mean time, I decided to get vert parts when ever one pops up. When my rear quarter glass was broken, trying to find a replacement was annoying. There was a guy trying to sell parts off his vert and said to me $300 is what some guy wanted to buy it, but I asked if he bought it and he said “no”. I told him the glass usually goes for $30 (as I picked them for friends) and I don’t mind paying $90 (just trying to be fair). Then the excuse of, ” I’ll have to get it in the spring because it’s in storage”. Yeah yeah, whatever Zach.
Anyways, I found one on the east coast for $80 shipped. Lesson learned. I pick vert glass from here on out.
I have been eagerly waiting for the border to open up and when it did, it was my goal to drive that car. Prior to it opening up, I told my brother in law to have a tune up and oil change. He did and the mechanic he found was a good guy. I was thinking of having the water pump also changed out. But I wanted to see how the car was running first.
When I saw the car, it started up and everything, but I noticed the driver side glass wasn’t going up all the way (as opposed to when I last saw my vert, it was up). I felt my brother in law probably rolled it down and it wouldn’t go back up.
I noticed the battery light was on. Hmmm. I knew it had a new battery and no problems starting up. I suggested the mechanic check the alternator.
Additionally, I was doing a safety walk around and asked him to step on the brake lights… they didn’t come on. So I checked the bulbs and they were cloudy… but still turned on, just not the brake light.
The vert was not road worthy!!!!!
When I got back to San Francisco, I told my brother in law to have the bulbs changed out and alternator tested.
A couple days later, I talked to the mechanic. He said alternator is bad and brake switch was bad too.
*NOTE – Infiniti M30s were NEVER SOLD IN CANADA.
So I called a few parts stores in Canada and nobody had an alternator available within a week (which is when I was going to go there). I was going to buy one and bring it with me, but the mechanic told me his friend has a remanufactured on.
I told him I was going to be there Friday night and leaving Sunday morning with intentions of driving the vert to WA. That car needed to be complete. He said no problem, it will be done on Tuesday. That didn’t happen and I was told that Friday night it would be done.
That would HAVE been perfect as I wanted to mess with the car even more on Saturday, go around taking pictures and meeting up with people.
When I arrived on Friday night, I got a worrisome message. The alternator he got was not the right one! The plug is in the wrong side…
Ugghh. Saturday, I tried to contact the mechanic with no luck. I didn’t know what to do because there are NO RENTAL CARS AVAILABLE, No Trains and WAY TOO expensive flights.
Finally, around 7pm, the mechanic showed up and had the right alternator. He also had the brake switch (THANK YOU!!!!). By 9:30pm, I was driving the vert.
While he was working on the alternator, I was cleaning the hell out of the interior. Moisture and water had been in the car do to the damaged door and window not being able to fully go up.
BUT FINNALLLLLYYY!!!!!!
I drove the car until 2 am making sure it was good, checked all the connections and lights. Filled up with gas and loaded it up.
6am, I drove it from Vancouver BC to Olympia, WA.
NOW…. TIME TO EXECUTE THE OG PLAN!!!