The Sunday routine of a kid with an old rust bucket for a car. If you are like me, you want a decent looking car. But I wasn’t fortunate enough to get one. I have a 1982 Chevrolet Celebrity, and up until I had gotten it, it was neglected of all upkeep, cosmetic and mechanical. Up until I got the car and I’ve put large amounts of money into it. Probably the money I’ve put into it wasn’t worth it. But I have.

My Sunday routine has been quite the process, sanding, scraping, smearing, more sanding, and painting. The paint job on my car is less than satisfactory as of this moment. Being partially blue, green, and now from my doing black. The wheel arches were quite neglected as well. Most of them being covered in rust. One of them having a large hole in the side. Which we filled with body filler sanded smooth and painted over the top.
Painting with a rattle can is somewhat difficult especially trying to keep it off of things like your lights and windows. Since it is illegal to paint those. So using painting or masking tape having to cover those up is a burden. But when you have someone there to help it becomes a lot easier. With a limited budget it is hard to have good things like sanding blocks and angle grinders.

The newest complication to this rust bucket is the trunk not unlocking. I recently locked my keys in the trunk and managed to break the trunk after getting my keys out of the trunk. Now if I want to get anything out of the trunk I need to rip the back seat open enough to reach my arm in and grab the item and pull it through the gap that I have made. Then after I get it out I just try to bend it back to the way it was. Or at least as close as to the original as possible.

The rust bucket is a trooper though, it gets me from point A to point B most of the time, with a few minor complications. Like stalling for no apparent reason when I take off. Or the throttle sticking and nearly setting my brakes on fire when I try to stop. Constantly trying to avoid stopping so as to not overheat. Luckily my radiator fan is fixed so I don’t have to worry as much with that.

I have a specific friend who also has a junky car. His being eleven years newer, but in just as bad condition if not worse. His is a bit dirtier than mine. The engine is completely covered in oil, as was mine until I got the leaks fixed and put the Gunk Engine Cleaner to it. It’s a little scary how easily Gunk can go through, caked on over the years. But these are some of the struggles of owning a rust bucket. Whether they big be or small or not very important at all.