Some of you will know that a few weeks back I had a bit of misfortune in the Galant. Driving to work I was collected by a kangaroo, leaving the car looking like this:

Both doors were destroyed in the accident and the front and rear quarters were damaged. It sucked, but as the car is comprehensively insured I wasn’t too down about it. I knew we would get it sorted.

Today I was advised by the company that as they were unable to find doors they were sending me a cheque for the repair quote plus the cost of new doors from Mitsubishi. I am now going to chase up some new doors – I thought I had found some but it looks like they may have fallen through. No problem though, we’ll sort it out.

Anyway, through throwing in a bit of my own cash on top of my payout, I am now going to be able to completely overhaul the look of the car.

In a little under a month the car goes to 3P Auto. We will be fitting the facelift skirts, grille and bonnet I bought ages ago along with the new doors. I am hoping to also track down a facelift bumper as my pre-facelift one is getting to the point where it is irreparably damaged. If I can secure a facelift bumper I’ll also get some facelift tail lights and the car will be completely facelifted inside and out.

Then the cool part.

I’ll be repainting the car in Mazda copper-red to match the Silvia. The centre roof panel, roof wing and mirrors will go black, along with the Grenade GX-01s. Put simply, the car is going to come out looking amazing.

Leading up to this I will be working hard on getting all the mechanical bugs ironed out. Hopefully once this is done I’ll have the Galant I always wanted.

A silver lining indeed.

As of today Garage Dusty has a store. I’ll upload a couple of products over the next week or so, so if you’re keen on anything keep checking it out. The shirt above is up and available right now, and the plan is to have another 2 shirts up soon. Hopefully a hoodie and a crew neck too. Just a heads up – as I’m never going to sell much of anything I can’t really keep stock on hand so this stuff is made as you order and is shipped from the manufacturer. I’m totally in their hands in terms of shipping times, costs, etc. Everything is as cheap as they’ll let me sell it. More expensive than I’d like but you know, economies of scale and all that.

If you do make an order, send me confirmation to ygoslo7 @ gmail.com (no spaces of course) and I’ll ship you a sticker free of charge. Because I feel bad about how much stuff costs.

The store is at http://www.zazzle.com.au/garagedusty

Also, in much less expensive news, I won my class at the motorkhana the other weekend! First class win after only 3 events is great IMO, and a real motivator to keep going and keep getting better. I;m obviously on the right path, so  let’s see how far I can go with this!

Just keep reminding yourself – prettiness is only ever a wash away…

Click through for a few photos of me and the 86 in action.

 

It has been a long road, and with the car now basically finished it is finally time.

Click through for the feature post on the reborn Garage Dusty AE86.