One year Oppoversary

"Akio Ohtori - RIP Oppo" (akioohtori)
01/24/2018 at 12:10 • Filed to: Year in review

Hey Oppo, as it turns out I totally missed the one year mark from when I started writing on here, which was 2/4/17, is coming up. In that time, a lot has changed and I’d like to think I’ve improved at writing.... though I also acknowledge I don’t take the time to proof these like I used two [insert funny quip - DELETE ME].

See what I did there?

Anyway, I figure it’d be fun to go over what I’ve written about in the last year:

West Coast Cheap Car Challenge

My opening contribution to the oppoverse was a write up of our first “Top Gear” adventure. Though saying it is cliche, this trip was truly life changing. No one expected it to be, but all three of us came out of it with a completely different perspective on life.

Anyway, this is oppo not somewhere were to talk about feelings. For this trip we flew to San Diego, bought cheap cars, and then immediately drove them up Highway 1 and 101 to Seattle. It was an epic tale of breakdowns, mystery fluids, and three guys falling in love with their deeply different cars.

!!! UNKNOWN CONTENT TYPE !!!

My Saab Story/ Project Dumpster Fire

Next up was the tale of misery that is my Saab Story, later to be known as “Project Dumpster Fire”. I started with my recovery story, where after several years of trying I finally got my Saab back from a crazy mechanic.

!!! UNKNOWN CONTENT TYPE !!!

The poor Saab had a lot of problems and after almost a year of chipping away at it, I decided the best way to finish the project was to agree to take it on a Saab club drive. That started a three week journey that... did not go well.

!!! UNKNOWN CONTENT TYPE !!!

After an interlude for our next Top Gear style road trip, I got back on the horse and took the Dumpster Fire to a Saab drive, forcing it to make a 500 mile journey. It made it almost 400 miles of that!

!!! UNKNOWN CONTENT TYPE !!!

The Saab was eventually revived and is running now. I still can’t find 5th gear and the trunk lock fell out, but these are minor problems in the complex tapestry that is the Dumpster Fire.

Overland Cheap Car Challenge

While doing the voice-over for the video of the first trip (that defiantly doesn’t exist) George said the infamous line:

!!! UNKNOWN CONTENT TYPE !!!

So here we are. Eighteen months after the first trip we set off on our second. This time we were going to buy four wheel drive cars and use back-country and unimproved roads as much as possible to string together parks and outdoorsy sights.

It was epic.

!!! UNKNOWN CONTENT TYPE !!!

I still haven’t finished the write-up or video of this trip, but it was an absolute blast. Way different than the last one, but special in its own way.

More Offroading

Spoiler alert: I kept the Land Rover Discovery I bought during the above trip. If I had dogs they’d all be the weird emotionally damaged ones you find on the side of the road... oh wait... :sigh:

Anyway, George and Taylor both disposed of their cars at the end of the trip, but George caught the off-roading bug bad enough he bought a Fiat Jeep and Taylor isn’t far behind. This gave us the opportunity to do something called the “Oklahoma Adventure Trail,” or at least half of it.

!!! UNKNOWN CONTENT TYPE !!!

What’s next?

There are a lot of ongoing project that I’d like to keep up on. The Disco !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , I’m still trying to !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , the Alfa needs some !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , and the Saab and I need to rebuild some trust.

As far as trips go I really need to finish the write up of our Overland trip and we plan of finishing the Oklahoma Adventure Tail in 2018. Also I might do a Lemon Rally and will probably attend the yearly Alfa Romeo meet in Eureka Springs.

Oh and I guess I am president of our local Volvo club now. So that is weird.

Either way, 2018 looks like a car heavy year. Or at least I hope so!

DISCUSSION (16)

random001 > Akio Ohtori - RIP Oppo
01/24/2018 at 12:13

*looks at calendar, sees 2018 - 01 - 24*

*looks at 1 year date of 2018 - 02 - 04*

*Does not believe the date has been missed yet....*

*Wonders if Akio Ohtori is a time traveler....*

CarsofFortLangley - Oppo Forever > Akio Ohtori - RIP Oppo
01/24/2018 at 12:13

Always enjoy your writing and posts!

Akio Ohtori - RIP Oppo > random001
01/24/2018 at 12:16

I choose to believe that was part of the editing joke.

random001 > Akio Ohtori - RIP Oppo
01/24/2018 at 12:18

Yeah, well, I choose time travel. But you already knew that, didn’t you?

Akio Ohtori - RIP Oppo > CarsofFortLangley - Oppo Forever
01/24/2018 at 12:21

Thanks!

Urambo Tauro > Akio Ohtori - RIP Oppo
01/24/2018 at 12:37

As you well know, I’ve been getting a kick out of your Project Dumpster Fire posts. I’m still quite new to Saabs (and European cars in general), but your posts and comments have been very helpful as my brother and I wrench on his ’91. He’s learning a lot and so am I.

Akio Ohtori - RIP Oppo > Urambo Tauro
01/24/2018 at 12:50

Thanks! I always look forward to your Saab posts too. Eager to see both of our Saabs back on the road.

Urambo Tauro > Akio Ohtori - RIP Oppo
01/24/2018 at 13:23

Me too. So what’s your next step with Project DF? I know you’ve been focusing on the Disco and Alfa recently...

Wrong Wheel Drive (41%) > Akio Ohtori - RIP Oppo
01/24/2018 at 13:31

Your first trip up California has inspired me to want to do that same drive now that I moved to Los Angeles. Once they finish repairing the PCH I will heading North on that journey, hopefully before fire season is in full swing this year. Granted I will do it in my slightly more reliable Miata but it also has 200k miles so its bound to eventually break stuff. Anyways, just wanted to let you know I think your adventures are awesome and that I love reading about them.

Akio Ohtori - RIP Oppo > Wrong Wheel Drive (41%)
01/24/2018 at 14:32

Awesome! Thank you! The PCH being on fire/ under ground is a serious bummer.

Akio Ohtori - RIP Oppo > Urambo Tauro
01/24/2018 at 14:40

I’ve puttered around on it a bit (vacuum tests, adjusted timing, fixed some dash lights) but nothing worth mentioning. Next step is to try and locate 5th as that is really keeping it from being a good 3rd DD. Sadly my attempts here have failed, so I am going to farm it out to our local Saab specialist.

Urambo Tauro > Akio Ohtori - RIP Oppo
01/24/2018 at 14:50

It sounds like we’ve got the same issue.

We recently discovered that my brother’s shifter seems to be locked out of 5th, and we found the latch stud out of adjustment. Unfortunately, putting it back in spec didn’t fix that. Moving the horizontal selector rod without the shift lever in place, it feels like the problem is actually inside the transmission...

Akio Ohtori - RIP Oppo > Urambo Tauro
01/24/2018 at 14:55

Yeah I really don’t want it to be that. Apparently the linkage is really finicky, so I am hoping it is that.

Wrong Wheel Drive (41%) > Akio Ohtori - RIP Oppo
01/24/2018 at 16:10

It was buried in March 2017 and has yet to be completely fixed. Although now at least they have a September 2018 expected completion date. They didnt really even remove the rocks to repair the roadway. Just leveled out what was there to build a new road safely on top of the landslide. There is a sweet detour (Nacimiento-Fergusson Rd, below) that I will probably try out sooner this spring and try camping somewhere for a short weekend. But definitely want to ride all the way up to Seattle sooner rather than later.

Kinja'd!!!

That’s about an 1hr20min from the 101 Freeway

Akio Ohtori - RIP Oppo > Wrong Wheel Drive (41%)
01/24/2018 at 16:14

That is pretty wild. Being California I had serious concerns they were just not going to fix it. Because environment.

For what it is worth, our favorite part was the section of the 1 north of SF. It was less crowded than the tourist-laden Big Sur area and the last section, between Rockport and Leggett was a suburb driving road.

Wrong Wheel Drive (41%) > Akio Ohtori - RIP Oppo
01/24/2018 at 16:24

Yup I gathered that from your original story, and I have gone a little bit north of SF on the PCH before but only a dozen miles or so past the Golden Gate. Heading up there requires committing more than a weekend though so I want to save it for a real trip. If the lower part of the highway was open, I could certainly make it up to Big Sur and back in a day trip. As is, I need to dedicate at least a couple days and camp out since I imagine that detour would be sketchy at night!

I recall my last trip with my girlfriend up the PCH we left Hollywood on a Thursday late afternoon, stayed overnight in San Luis Osbispo, got on the PCH bright and early at 7am (I believe this was in a February time), and drove North to Monterey that day. Then we spent time in Napa, explored the coast north of SF and saw some redwoods. That was a solid trip in a rental Mini Cooper S. Damn thing ate 3 quarts of oil over like 1500 miles so I got my unreliable adventure in lol.