srt4mike

Fear and Loathing in North Dakota:

I apparently live in bat country in Fargo. No one stops here in beautiful North Dakota when it comes to vehicle shipping. I literally bought the car on 8/17 and it was not picked up until 8/31. It did not arrive until 9/23! I have to immediately apologize for my “teasing”, but I just could not post anything because I simply did not have the car yet. This was an insanely stressful situation. My wife (of less than a month) and I were put to the test. I really had my doubts initially about the car. The side moldings that were attached since day one were definitely a turn-off. The fact I would have to buy this car without ever seeing it was DEFINITELY a turn-off. I actually stumbled on the link someone posted here on the ITR thread at work on one of my breaks. I showed my wife (who works with me) and immediately said, “I’m buying this when I go home”. I said it somewhat jokingly immediately, but as I looked further into it I started to get pretty serious. My friends have a terminology of “Mike clean”. This car definitely looked to fit the part. It also had my kind of mileage. I certainly wished it had better pictures. If any of you saw the listing for my car when it was for sale . . . THAT is how a car should be presented. Even I knew better than to think an ITR that fit my specific needs would ever be presented even close to that. You guys probably do not know this, but I am SUPER METICULOUS. I swear it has to be close to clinical OCD, seriously. The most interesting part about the car is about how I made the decision. I was so torn on what to do. I had been talking to Joe about it and getting his input. He was SO helpful. I cannot express my thanks for him assisting with getting info on this car. He was even trying to get someone in Texas out there to check the car out for me. It didn’t work out, but it is the thought that counts. Joe proved to me yet again that he is the most valuable asset to the community! I still was up in the air. The thought of discolored paint or damage from the side moldings literally kept me up at night. I finally made an offer of 16,000 with moldings left on and an offer of 16,500 (full price) with them removed flawlessly. Owner didn’t like that idea. He was an “interesting” guy to deal with to say the least. He was also a very particular guy, but in a very weird sense. He seemed almost a little bipolar. As you can imagine, this made making a deal very difficult. He told me after I had been mulling it over for awhile that he had an offer from someone in Texas for 17,000 and they were coming to look at it over the weekend to confirm it. I finally said that I would overnight him a cashier’s check the next morning if he would mark it sold. He gave me one night to think about it and I had to answer by the next morning. Was there another offer? Probably not. Probably just smoke getting blown my direction, but I had to make a decision because I knew interest and word about it was increasing. That morning I woke up super early and told my wife, “You are my wife now, and we are a team. I’m torn as what to do, so you are making the call.” She looked at me and said, “We’re going to get a cashier’s check right now.” We had finally made the decision, but did not realize the pain that was ahead. I first called Intercity Lines to see about shipping. I had to go with enclosed shipping for a vehicle like this, so I called the first enclosed place I found (Jay Leno uses them, so they must be good ). The second I mentioned Fargo, ND there was a chuckle. They said immediately that they do not go to Fargo, so I asked them what enclosed shipper does. They suggested Passport Transport. I called them up immediately and they said they would come to Fargo. They said it may take awhile, but they do come up to Fargo. The guy on the phone was a pretty funny guy. He had me show him the for sale listing so he could see the car. He loved the car, but said it had to be lowered “A LOT". Then he proceeded to tell me about his “dumped” VW GTI . . . anyways . . . we got a price figured out and went from there. They gave me a 3 week window for when the car would be picked up. As you can imagine, the owner freaked out. It's funny how he would go from totally ok with everything to pissed off in 2 seconds. He made the mistake of making what he thought was a “JOKE”. The owner was upset initially about having to hold the car until they were ready to pick it up. He had already bought an EM1 (with my money ironically) and was upset it would have to sit outside. He thought it would be funny to tell me he was going to put the ITR outside. I went insane as you could imagine and almost left on a plane that day . . . literally. He knew after that how serious I am about the car. There’s nothing like the thought of a flawless ’97 sitting outside in Sugarland Texas ripe for the picking. He responded in a very positive way to my freak-out by guaranteeing me it would be safely garaged till it arrived. You gotta love taking someone’s word that lives thousands of miles away that you simply gave a non-refundable $17,000 check for a car you’ve never seen. At this point I was really hoping my wife made the right decision He stressed about his car sitting outside and freaked out when some kid that lives near him dinged it with his bike. It was a roller-coaster of stress. It was one thing after another. If my newly established marriage could survive this mess, it could survive anything. It was such a load off my shoulders once it got on the truck. Unfortunately that was also a bit of a mess with the owner. I paid a touch more to the shipping company to get the rims shipped outside the vehicle with the car (boxed up carefully). Originally the owner did not want to do this, but finally agreed after we talked it over. The day the car shipped I asked him if the boxes were carefully stored away. He ends up telling me he shipped the tires inside the car, but were "very carefully wrapped" in the hatch. This pissed me off big time, but what the hell do I do now. I was sick of walking the tightrope every day of trying to keep this guy happy about having to store it for a couple weeks. I was nothing but a nice guy and offered in every way to accommodate this inconvenience. To be honest, I was glad she was on the car and out of his hands. I was actually able to get my additional money back from the shipping company since the rims didn’t ship separately. Well, it was finally on its way and I was at least feeling a little better about everything. Passport Transport is the only enclosed shipper with GPS tracking. I was excited about this, BUT I soon find out that the GPS unit is broken in the truck the ITR is in . . . GREAT. Even after all this I was much happier and calm about the situation than I was previously. My OCDness did not help through my stages of worry through this process. Step 1: Will my money simply be jacked? Step 2: Does the car truly exist? Step 3: What shape is it TRULY in? Step 4: Will I ultimately be happy? At this point, we had finally jumped through a few hoops. What I knew at this point to be certain: 1. My check cleared. 2. A ‘97 R was picked up by Passport Transport. 3. That vehicle is finally headed my way. My next thought of discomfort was the shape of the car. How IN THE HELL do I know what shape the car will be in? How will my perfectionist soul deal with any imperfections? What can I deal with? I came to an enlightening conclusion. No matter the shape of the car it was mine. If a rusted shitbox of an ITR rolls of the trailer it is mine. I had to make some deals with myself in my head. I literally came to this very conclusion. This car is a clean titled 3 owner (me being the 3rd) ‘97 ITR. How many of these endangered species still exist in the wild? There has to be some level of leeway here. I’m willing to go some imperfection for the sake of it being what it is. And if it is beat to ****? Take it to the track and further beat the **** out of it (and enjoy it greatly in the process). The next thing in my head was the awful side moldings that had been on the car since day one. I could understand the idea of avoiding door dings, but I could not understand ruining such an awesome thing about an ITR. No molding garbage on the doors. Here is where the OCD kicks back in. No matter what, they had to come off. Any thoughts of keeping them on were BS in my mind. If it meant discolored strips on the doors, so be it. If it mean repainting **** so be it. Hell, this is finally MY ITR for better or for worse. If I decide to paint the whole goddamn thing pink and put Hello Kitty on the hood (great K-swap track car idea ), SO BE IT! Let’s skip ahead to the actual delivery. One thing finally went right. The car came a day early, so it actually came on a day I had off. The ITR gods apparently were able to shine a ray of hope on my monkey *** for at least one day through this ordeal. I failed to mention the further complication of the original driver’s mom dying the week it was to be delivered. Which further delayed the delivery another week. Let’s forget that week of further nightmares and get back to the delivery. I finally was driving out to the truck stop I instructed it to be unloaded at. I live in a real out of the way area in the middle of town hidden away from the nearby fast food restaurants and bustling businesses. My little hidden heat island getaway. Although the shipping is door to door, there is no way a huge trailer is going to back in anywhere close to me. This is why we did it at the rear of the truck stop near the car wash. As well pulled up we saw a Championship White angel on the upper deck of an enclosed trailer with a southern and possibly diabetic old man lowering a race lift. He smiled somehow knowing by my determined look on my face that I was the poor SOB who had waited his life away for some damn near 15 year old Honda that I had spent too much money on. He lowered her down safely and backed it down the very gradual decline. I wish I had a picture of the look on my face as the lip cleared by less than an inch. He assured me that he had carefully measured to make sure the car would not bottom out going on or off the truck. It was nice to hear, but the only thing that I could be sure that he had measured up was multiple grand slams at every Denny’s he could hit on his way to the wasteland of North Dakota. I quickly began to analyze the car like an Antwerp gem dealer. Flaw 1: Side moldings had an orange color on the top of them (best flaw ever - those bastards are coming off). Flaw 2: Rear bumper had been bumped. Driver showed me that the owner before me acknowledged the spot on some paperwork when they picked it up. There was some stress cracking on the top of the bumper and an area that had some touch up paint. There was also a little crack near the license plate on the side from the bump. I was angered, but It was nothing horrible and the car was in such better shape than I could have ever expected that I was willing to let it slide. Flaw 3: No red stitch shifter. It was a beat up leather shifter with black stitching. I was very pissed, but a **** is a ****. Very replaceable, but still it makes me mad. The pictures that I saw showed the red stitch shifter, but who knows how old the pics were. He made a video of him driving it so I could see it and I checked and saw the shifter was black. Too late to be pissed off now. Other than those things, everything was in order. All the original rims were damn near mint expect for one. It had a few chips, but nothing that couldn’t be easily touched up. No curbage or real damage on any of the original rims. They some how survived the trip and were wrapped enough to not beat the **** out of the hatch. I checked the original pics and saw the mark on the bumper, but I found it funny how that was not disclosed. I wanted to call the guy immediately and give him a piece of my mind, but what would that do? I’m just glad I’m done babying the guy from getting butt hurt about storing it. My rage would get me nothing. The car was in such impeccable condition otherwise, that it really became a moot point. Done with that guy. Never have to deal with him again. Just let it go. After looking like a fool for 5 minutes straight trying to figure out the security and setting off every siren imaginable, I finally drove her out of there past the crowd of astonished onlookers. The whole staff of the car wash was standing outside with jaws agape. As I drove by everyone cheered, so I gave them a few departing honks which brought about louder cheering. That was a welcome smile-inducing event after over a month of hell. We spent the first night dealing with the side moldings. The damn things were on there good, so we used a heat gun to warm those suckers up. Try using a heat gun around a perfectionist like myself. I’m surprised my dad and wife didn’t start choking me. I some how made it through and we got all that **** off. We were able to carefully heat the leftovers of the double sided tape and roll it off with our thumbs. I would not allow any chemical or solvent to be placed on the paint to remove the tiny amount of glue residue, so I spent 2 ½ hours using detailing clay and HEAVY application of quick detailer to remove the residue. By some miracle of the High Redline Gods, it all came off flawlessly. No residue. No discoloration. We immediately jacked her up to drain the oil. We threw a K&N oil filter on and dumped some quarts of AMS Oil in her. The engine bay of the car was so damn clean. We spend all day cleaning it. My wife has somehow found a way to please my meticulous ***, so she was in charge of interior detailing. She made up the Woolite cleaning mix and went to town. The interior was so clean to begin with, but I wanted this f@cker perfect. We finished super late and it was dark as hell. We did all the work at my Mom and Dad’s place, so I had a 25 minute drive home down “Mosquito Alley“. The car drove so damn nice too. Feels like a new car. Shifts perfect. Idles perfect. Handles like a finely crafted sword. Point the mean bastard and cut through the curve like a hot knife through butter. I cringed to think what this immaculately clean snowball that just sped through hell would look like. When I got out and looked there was ONE gnat on the front bumper. I licked my finger and wiped it off. She was finally home. What a long ordeal. What a circus. So much coming to a close. The million F/S thread bumps searching was done. No more stress. No more BS. Done and done. I parked it inside. Activated the security. Walked away with a half-assed grin. It was a very serious almost angered grin. It was that sense of how the f@ck did I just survive this. I still need to get the new tires mounted and get my new shift **** on, but now I am taking some time to relax and reflect. I thank all of you for your support throughout the whole thing! I could not have done this without all of your support, help, and info (and trolling Rene ). I will get up some pics once the shift **** is on and the rims are ready to rock! It may be a while, but you shall see them soon in the near future.

-Mike

P.S. I need to further thank my Wife. She somehow put up with my insanity. She is able to meet my nearly impossible standards, and I couldn’t be married to a more beautiful woman. I also need to thank my Dad for all his assistance. He is always ready to take on any project I throw at him and he has always loved the R. He has always helped me work on every car project I’ve ever done, and may be a potential owner after recent events

P.S.S. Pics of the car completely done and the Furby unboxing event will be posted here in the near future

RGoose18

iTrader: (1)

friggin gorgeous, well done my friend

PS, paragraphs son......paragraphs

mRvYbEs

iTrader: (1)

Congrats again on your cleannnnnn R

PYITR01

very nice congratz

BlueIntegraBoy

iTrader: (5)

Cliff note Mike?

Louie

1) omg your a picky little bitch.

2) paragraphs! i'm getting old and my eyes are bleeding now.

3) pics of said wifey.. haha.

4) ripper vid or ban.



.... finally got to the pic of the R, pretty freakin mint! ok, forget all of the above.

Congrats!!!

JDM_nUt

I agree very clean indeed! Congrats on your pickup keep heR safe

DCMikey

Congrats man, she's gorgeous!

Devon M

iTrader: (4)

Is that a scratch I see? Beautiful R, congrats!

1250b18c5

bout eight years in the making.......Well Done!




Mileage?

srt4mike

Tried making paragraphs initially and it kept messing up the format.

Thanks again for the shifter

Check last pic

30,3xx

1998GsRIntegra

Now that my eyes are throughly bleeding , so glad to see you finally got it home. Congrats, very nice R. Take good care of it. I think we all know thats an understatement though.

itr#1334

iTrader: (2)

Congrats. Expo 12?? I see you bought track tires, would be a shame not to use them

tvrsir

ANY BEFORE PICS?

Danger

Nice purchase!

srt4mike

We will see . . .

Yes

Unfortunately not. I had very limited time to pick it up and get work on it, so I couldn't snap any right away.

John M

congrats mike!

jEromy

Congratz, any other man would have given up and made their own Type R. Im glad you finally got what you wanted!

jahraul

wow thats the longest post I have ever read lol!

I remember when you pm'd me about my PY ITR I was selling.

I was in the same situation as you but as the seller. I dealt with this guy for over a month. Did everthing possible I could to help him. Only for him to try and resell it for more! Its now listed on Cars.com

Anyway, CONGRATS . You deserve it!!

HeLLa iLL2ndGen

Great pickup bro! I've been waiting for years ever since you were in a market for a ITR to finally see you pick one up(if that made sense)

NOFX

Beautiful car. Beautiful wife too. Lucky you found a mate who's so understanding of your hobbies and your **** retentiveness!

One day I'll have my own R.

R boy fresh

Congrats dude.Very clean

Dogginator

It's getting cold. I need to install some glass in the screen door.

Nice car, Mike.

Lou_EM1

QFT.

Can't wait for the ITR+Si Shoot.

Dr. DC2

Congrats Mike! So stoked you finally got an ITR and a 97 as clean as that! I can't wait to get another one myself, I saw my 97R this weekend and got the itch bad to drive.