Parts!

I drove the Daytona Shelby to work today.  T-tops off, windows down, in the morning it's a nice, cool drive.  In the afternoon, if you don't have the tops off and the windows down it's a sauna.  The Daytona drives well, it's going to be a great daily driver / commuter car when I'm not riding my '04 Honda CBR600RR.  This will be the first time that I've taken the Daytona to work.

There's only one other Daytona in the area that I know of ... and that is another '89 at work.  She's a white solid roof with red cloth interior and a 2.5 liter I4 TBI car with automatic.  She is owned by one of my coworkers who also bought her brand new at the local Dodge dealership ... another one owner Daytona.

The day goes by as days go by and I leave work, headed to Columbia and O'Reilly Auto Parts to see if my lift support struts have come in.  They have!  Joy!  I take my parts and head home to install them before the thunderstorms come again.  I've got about thirty minutes before the rain gets here ... plenty of time to throw on two lift support struts.

I park the Daytona in the driveway, prop the rear hatch open with my hatch stick and start to change out the lift support struts which go on without any major drama.  They don't mount like the ones on the '86 Pontiac Trans Am and, just by feel, I'd swear that the Daytona's rear hatch is heavier than the TA's but that can't be right since the TA's hatch is larger.  Still, this Daytona has a really, really heavy rear hatch.

And then the Daytona bit me.

I was working on removing one of the old struts when the hatch stick slipped and the rear hatch fell.  I told you this thing is heavy.  Being the guy that I am, I immediately shoved my arm under the falling hatch to save my wife's arm from being crushed and to keep the rear hatch from crashing down / possibly cracking the rear window or shattering the rear glass.  I was quick enough that I managed to get most of my bicep under the hatch lid before it actually started to fall so it only fell a distance of maybe three or four inches from the time that the stick fell and the hatch started to fall.

Still, my arm was at an angle and the rear of the hatch caught me on the bicep and the right side of the hatch caught me on the forearm.

That last picture is when the swelling had started, probably two hours after the accident.  I thought I might have a micro-fracture of the bones in my arm but the pain went away and at least my wife wasn't caught in the falling hatch.  Both struts installed, the rear hatch goes up with one finger and comes down with one hand. 

Post op debriefing?  Mission success with only minor casualties, acceptable losses and the Good Guys win so fist pump for victory.  Maybe the rest of the week will get better.

It has to.

Wait ... is that Henry Rollins shouting something way off in the distance?  I think he's shouting "Liar!"