When I first picked up Barney in late 2003, he told me that if I ever decide to sell, let him have first dibs. I looked at him and said I'm not in the market of buying and selling, I got it so I could enjoy it. The only time i'd ever get rid of it would be a castastrophic event. I guess barney's time has come. No it didn't go up in a blaze of glory, but go out as true warrior it
did. An event few weeks back compromised the frame bad enough that I
decided it wasn't worth fixing.
So what to do. Chop and dice it of course. But first a dolly needed to be built, so the chassis can be moved once suspension and
drive train are removed.
Cutting portions with surgical style. Just enough so that it can be hauled off the local metal scrapper.
I'll skip all the gory details, but this about 25% of the chassis left. Only the cage and floorplan is all that's left. In the end barney came in as a shell and left as a shell.
Who was Barney? Here's a bit of history, I acquired Barney through a barter with a friend. It was pretty much a non rollingshell, but since I had extra parts, I was able to roll out of it's miserable existence into a new one. Back then i'd hoarded so much parts i'd was able to build a few extra corollas.
Here's what it looked like when I got together as a
rolling chassis.
My plan was a dedicated track car with a turbo 4AG. Since I deemed Silverfish too original to continue flogging on the track.
By early 2004 the dream was met. Hardly a show queen, it was truly a fun ride. With many
track days under it's belt.
Though not without headaches. Yeah I tend to experiment alot and I pay the price for it. Lots of broke engines and transmissions. But we soldiered on. And it helps that I can do all the work myself.
A few years later I decide to build it for sho' cause corollas were becoming less track oriented and more for show. So I had to jump on this bandwagon. A fresh coat of Home Depot's finest and some one off Coddington wheels, it was ready for it's debut. Definitely was the easiest event barney has ever attended but just wasn't as fun. Barney needs to be driven.
So back to the track days. At least now it looks a bit more presentable, not so missle-esk. But still a blast to drive.
Over the years Barney saw less and less track time. But that was me just getting lazy and it wasn't appealing anymore.
Now it's gone to the trash and all that's left are the memories. It was a enjoyable +10 years. I definitely can't complain, as much work as I put Barney through, i'm surprised he lasted this long.
For now I'll have to put all my engine projects on hold. Which sucks, since I was planning an all natural setup for ol' Barn.
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