Wow, two months have passed!
Thanks Rick for the run-down. So yes, about a month ago I went up to grab the car after they put the wheel and brakes back on. They didn't touch the fender (I told them not to) so that one still looks the same, I finally wanted to get the car home and at least it was back on all fours again. Took a trip around the block—yes, an alignment is badly needed—and when I wanted to take off, keyturn and nothing; fusible link broken. I had a spare one around, so we fixed it, car was running and when I stepped on the gas (only slightly
) it died again, and for the second time no reaction whatsoever, not even lights, just dead. Since I got towed before for electrical problems I gave up and told the guys to put a "Painless" harness in.
Last week that was finally done and I again took a bus up to Manchester and almost got a heart-attack when I got the bill. Oh well, it WAS a lot of work. I'll post some pictures here later, the old wires are just a crazy mess! And there's a sizable hole in the fuse box, no wonder nothing worked again. Was cool to see the tach working for the first time and even the clock works! For some reason he told me that the ammeter cannot be grounded correctly, although it worked before. But I have a running car again!
Well then... traveling back down (and trying to keep the car straight) I realized that the turn signals don't actually work. And when I reset the trip meter I wasn't happy to discover that the dash doesn't sit right and moves around. And when it got dark and I wanted to take off after filling up gas I discovered that the center console illumination doesn't work anymore. And one taillight was out (which is just nonclean grounding, but still...) Honestly I was quite pissed when I got home...
Car is now at my trusted shop—my inspection is due Monday and my weekend is booked, not much of a choice... yeah, not very happy about the situation at the moment. I hope the turn signals are just an unclean grounding as the other mech claimed via phone, then do the alignment because the car really drives terrible at the moment and then one by one, I'll be happy again.
But not today.