New name! New Car! New Life!

"80CobraKid" (80cobrakid) 06/01/2014 at 12:42 • Filed to: Life, College, New car

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The Integra is sold, I picked up a new car, I changed my screen name, and I was admitted to college. Wow. Such Life. Much Change. Very Different.

The Integra is sold, a bittersweet event. I loved it dearly, and it was fun as hell to rip around, but it was aging and I needed something more comfortable for college (I'll get to that in a minute)

The Integra was an '89 LS 5-door with a manual, bought it in December 2012 for $700:

I bought it as a winter beater and didn't expect it to last much longer. Had my uncle, who is a professional mechanic, install a new clutch, rear main seal, and axle seal. He also completely ripped me off, in my opinion, on the clutch. $120 for the part (I bought and brought to him) and he charged me $500 to install it at his house in his garage. Not sure what that would normally cost at a private shop, but I felt it was a little much. Anyways, fast forward a year and a half, and some general parts here and there, and the car sold for $1650 looking like this:

After a fresh oil change (3qts/4 + STP oil treatment+ Stopleak oil leakseal) it felt absolutely alive. more so than I had ever felt. The rust was pretty much covered up, and I immediately was feeling regretful about my decision. But I had to move on to this:

My sister's 2005 Mazda 3s (Manual!). My sister recently moved from Raleigh, NC to Atlanta, GA for school, and to live with her boyfriend. The complex they live at costs a lot to have a second parking spot, and since her boyfriend travels a lot by air, and doesn't use his very often, she decided to get rid of it. She got the car in august 2012, when our '00 Passat Wagon (Manual! V6, bought brand new) got totaled by a drunk neighbor. My mother recently went to visit her in Atlanta, and decided that the best option to get the car home would be taking one extra day off and driving the car home to Minneapolis.

I like the car, especially after cleaning it thoroughly, but it's a little hard to get used to. The clutch is kind of odd, you either get it or you mess it up, and that depends on each shift. CEL is on, still need to get the code read. Throttle seems all over the place, it is a Drive-by-wire car (bleh.) and sometimes the throttle seems to cut and open up, randomly accelerating and being really annoying. AC needs to be recharged, but that's better than not having the compressor hooked up at all in the Integra.Gas mileage isn't that much better (~23 city), after replacing the Integra's Oxy Sensor it nearly doubled the mileage (~40 city). And you can definitely feel the extra weight, but it is a more composed chassis.

None of these things are so bad that it's undriveable, but are little things I'll have to fix.

I'm going to college!!!!

I applied and was admitted to Texas A&M under their new Engineering Academy at Blinn program. It is a stepping stone program, utilizing dual enrollment at TAMU and Blinn College, a local community college. I take Calculus, Science, and one elective at Blinn, and freshman engineering and english at A&M. My course track is pretty much already set out for me, and in no way is it a degrading program. A&M had 36,000 applications this year, and a lot of spots are taken up by the Texas top 10% guarantee, where the top Texas high school students are guaranteed admission to the school of their choosing. But, this 2-year program guarantees admission into A&M after completion, but not into specifically the Engineering school.

I am extremely excited to start this new chapter in my life, and have already made friends in the right places with only 2 trips there. I will be renting a house with roommates from the A&M Sports Car Club (!!!) and can't wait to move to a warmer climate. Parents have already put their foot down on waiting to move the Cobra this fall, as they want better grades to be evident before they let me have it there.

Can't wait to probably see some Texas Oppos in the future (looking at you, Reigntastic) and to maybe meet some of the MN Oppos before I leave.

PS: I've been lurking for awhile now because of the homework buildup at school, and haven't been able to spend time writing any posts. Graduating with Highest honors in Technical education, a letter for my FIRST FRC Robotics team, and an Academic Letter for graduating with a 3.72 GPA :D

PPS: My 18th birthday is on Tuesday as well, so that should be awesome, too!

PatBateman > 80CobraKid 06/01/2014 at 12:52

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DUDE...

Axial > 80CobraKid 06/01/2014 at 12:54

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Fuzzy seats with this pattern need to come back.

CallMeTURBO > 80CobraKid 06/01/2014 at 13:21

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Probably got ripped by the uncle a little bit. Just asked my dad, honda/Acura mechanic for almost 30 years now, said for a stock '98 teggy he would probably charge between 3 and 350 to do the clutch if the part was brought to him. (Usually the 50$ is the difference between like family friends and random people who come to him for work)

CallMeTURBO > CallMeTURBO 06/01/2014 at 13:27

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That's brought to him to do in our garage at home, he said at Honda if he was doing it after hours for a friend it would be like 100 even because it's an easy fix and with his lift and equipment at work it'll take him like an hour to do

ReallyColorful > 80CobraKid 06/01/2014 at 17:26

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Congrats on high school success, college, and the new car! Did you just bondo over the rust or something?

80CobraKid > ReallyColorful 06/01/2014 at 19:52

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aluminum tape, caulk, and a can of white appliance epoxy paint. On the rockers, which were really bad, a can if white flex seal covered the holes.

80CobraKid > CallMeTURBO 06/01/2014 at 19:53

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yeah, I was pretty pissed. But he's never given a family discount, and charges like he's using the shop.

80CobraKid > Axial 06/01/2014 at 19:55

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hahaha, not as great as my mustang's seats:

80CobraKid > PatBateman 06/01/2014 at 19:56

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overpriced and impossible to get into if you're out of state. GIG 'EM

Axial > 80CobraKid 06/01/2014 at 20:15

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Nooooo, not the mesh headrests!

PatBateman > 80CobraKid 06/01/2014 at 20:18

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It's almost impossible to get into if you live IN state, too.

PatBateman > 80CobraKid 06/01/2014 at 20:20

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Also, if you ever have to live on campus, do NOT live in the north side dorms. They're more like die hard, red ass (you'll learn that term in fish camp) Aggie cultists.

Orange Exige > Axial 06/07/2014 at 12:05

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It's for the visibility right??!

I know it'd help me a great deal since I could actually put the eyes on the back of my head to good use...