Is It Done Yet?

Now folks, this is a long, rambling, full of digressions story, so refresh that beverage and I hope you enjoy it. Remember the title of this post. It plays in at the end.

As I mentioned previously, I made it to the Birthplace of Speed with all of my possessions except my wrecked ole ragtop.


You might ask, why would you save this oleragtop? Well, here is that story, within a story.

I have not posted yet the way this ole convertible came to be in this position. One evening while returning home from work, at that time about a 40 minute commute, I was stopped at a traffic signal, in the middle of an intersection behind a Ford van, waiting to turn left. Yes, I was exactly one mile from home. When the light turned yellow, the van turned left and I followed, as I was in the middle of the intersection. What I couldn't see, and didn't know, was there was a 21 year old girl in a beat up old Taurus, coming the opposite direction who was running that yellow. I thought I would make it. Well, I didn't. That girl got out of the car, with two kids under two years old and a boyfriend covered in tattoos and those things in his ears that look the size of wedding rings. This old man thinks they are called slaves, but I don't know and, quite candidly, don't really care. So not only did she ruin my classic old car, I got the ticket! When I protested to FHP, the trooper said I violated her right of way. When I mentioned she was running a yellow, she said, "Did you clear the intersection without an accident?" I, obviously, said "No" and she said, "That is a violation of right of way". It cost me, in addition to my classic oleragtop, 4 points, my safe driving record, and $183.00. The paramedics who arrived on the scene were concerned about my high blood pressure, although I was not, and noone was injured. I told those kids, I mean I appreciate all the police, fire, military and other do to keep us safe and secure, I told them, "Hell yes my blood pressure is high, that little girl just ruined my classic car.

I was pissed but you just have to take what is thrown at you. But I am still a little pissed.

This is not the first car of this body type I have owned. In 1996, I was the working partner in a new home construction company in Naples. In new home construction, in Naples, it is imperative to have a model home. All the successful builders have at least one, and many have more. The idea is to build and furnish a model and sell that model to an end user early in the life of that model and lease it back for a period of time. This frees up the builder's credit line or cash flow to start next year's model. Usually, the price of the home is reduced by the price of the annual lease, in this case, a $4,000 per month lease, $48,000 price reduction. I always based a leaseback price on what my profit on the home was.

Remember the title of this post?

During the week long Parade of Homes in Naples, you literally get 1,000's, more numbers!!, of curtain pullers through your model. In the auto industry, they are called tire kickers. During the Parade in 1996, I entered a floor plan I designed, a courtyard, a hot plan at that time. On what was actually the second day of the parade, Glenn and Marilyn Van Slyke, from Franklin, Tennessee, came in looking around. I got to talking with them and they seemed pretty cool. It turns out he was retiring the next year and was in the process of selling off several auto dealerships he owned up in Appalachia. Get this, the dude actually owned a Citroen 2CV, two tone maroon and black, just like this one.

Glen asked me what I was asking for the model, I mentioned the price to him the leaseback deal but told him the leaseback was $36,000 instead of the $48,000, I mean I am in sales, you got to know your market. He asked me if I would take a 96 Chevy Suburban in trade for the down payment? Although I was sorely temped to do so, I declined and mentioned I already have a Cherokee Limited. Glen looks at Marilyn with a questioned expression on his face. She says to him, right in front of me, "I love it". He turns to me and says, "Young man, you just sold your model. Wait, Marilyn we should go look at the other homes." I was crestfallen. My home was the first of the seven in the Parade they had visited. I had just spent an hour and a half with these folks, often ignoring other visitors, and they were now leaving to look at my competion for the first time. I thought, what a waste of time. I'll never see them again.

Twenty minutes later, they returned and we went into my office, the three car detached garage, of course, and cut the deal. I had sold that home, full price, attractive leaseback, taxes and insurance included. I had a "free model home and office" for the next year. Plus the notoriety throughout the builder's association at having sold the first home in the Parade on the second day. I was estatic. Then Glen goes to pull out his wallet to cut me the $50,000 down payment. He looked and said, "Marilyn, I am out of checks, do you have any?" Her reponse was negative. Glen looks at me and asked if I would take $200 and I said yes, so long as you wire $50,000 to my bank by 10am tomorrow morning. They left with a promise to do so. Needless to say, the rest of that day and all night long I was as restless as Kyle Busch behind Dale, Jr.

The next day a few minutes after 10, my banker calls me and asked if I knew anything about a $50,000 wire transfer to our company account. Yes!!

As I was driving home, I passed by the old Dodge dealership on old 41 in North Naples. Sitting out front they had a beautiful low mileage, 1988 Bmw 325i, 5 speed, leather, ivory in color, just beautiful. As I had recently built a home for the used car manager at this dealership, Jerry, I thought I would pop in and see what I could buy it for. Jerry tells me they are asking $11,000 for it. I laughed and said see ya later. Of course, he stopped me and asked me what I could pay. I told him $5,000. We haggled about a bit and the upshot is I got that car for $8,000. I cut him a check on the spot. It was February 12th. I told Jerry I would pick it up on February 14th.

On that day, I rode my bike the five blocks to the dealer and picked up up that car. Jerry had given me a big red ribbon for the hood. I parked it in the circular drive of our pool home, three blocks from the beach and went up and knocked on the front door. Maureen, my beautiful daughter's mom, opened the door, saw the car and I said "Happy Valentine's Day". Maureen's response, honest to God, "But I really wanted a mini van". The next day I traded my Cherokee for that minivan. The best part, when we were going through our divorce, she wanted that ragtop. It was not even a point of contention, and she still drives that old Honda Odyssey.

Remember the title of this post?

At some point in the next couple years, I traded it for a really nice Mercury Sable stationwagon, my first longroof of my own. Forest Green, tan leather, all the bells and whistles.

I love that longroof and I remember all my friends gave me a hard time about it until they rode in it, especially a road trip, and then they loved it. Unfortunately, it blew a head gasket. I got it fixed through Ed, the repair didn't take and I sold it to a painter, and as far as I know, he still has it.

It looks like this but it was forest green.

Man, am I digressing. Where was I?

Oh yeah, so that was my first 325i ragtop and my first longroof.

My second 325i ragtop is the one in the picture below, in better times, and the wrecked ragtop shown above. It is shown with one of its siblings, my 850, yeah I know..numbers..numbers..


My first personalized plate, on the 325, OL RG TP.

After I sold that longroof, I was thinking about my next transportation device. This was 2001 and the Mini had just come out. I was driving a company Dodge, I don't know what that small truck of theirs is, but a mid size Dodge truck. My boss said I could drive it as long as I wanted. Anyway, I drove over to Miami Mini to buy one of them. They were asking $5,000 over the $20,000 price tag. I declined and headed to South Beach. When I returned to Naples, I got on ebay looking for a Mini. At that time, ebaymotors did not have a Mini classification so I went to BMW, after all, they made them, and did a search. The first car that popped up was this oleragtop 325i located just 15 minutes from my house at Devoe Auto Mall. I drove up and checked it out. The current bid on ebay was $2,850. It needed everything. I mean alot. I offered the guy $2,500. He said, "Okay, but you have to leave us good feedback and end the auction early". It was their first ebaymotors auction. I said you got it and did so.

At one point in my married life I owned a Jeep Commanchee Pickup, a BMW Convertible, and a Toyota Camry, a Jeep Cherokee Limited, then a Honda Odessey van simultaneously. I remembered I liked having a choice of cars to traverse the countryside in. As a result, I decided this oleragtop was going to be around for a long time.

I spared no expense on it. New brakes and rotors all around. I did this right away in Naples. I talked to Ed about other parts to replace and we talked about body roll, steering, acceleration and more. Ed told me what to buy and I did. Spent $1,096.00 on parts and drove to the Birthplace of Speed. He and I spent 6 hours replacing the tie rod ends, the rack and pinion gear box, struts, shocks, lower "A" arms and grommets, and things I have since forgotten. But, I do remember replacing a lot of band aids.

Remember the title of this post?

I enjoyed that oleragtop 325 for many years. In the meantime, I had leased a Jeep Cherokee, the single most stupid thing I have ever done automobilewise, and purchased Casper, one of the better.

After I moved to Sl-Ocala, the owner of the firm I had run in Naples decided to retire and closed out his company. The result of which is I received several thousand dollars in accrued profit sharing. As my sister Mary and I were co-owners of a home which she bought and I renovated, I thought I would have a few bucks coming to me upon its sale. (sic).

I decided at the time to invest a few more bucks in the oleragtop 325i. I talked to Ed about doing a cosmetic restoration on it as he enjoys doing this kind of stuff. He said, "leave it with me for the summer and give me $4,000". Seemed like a good plan, and it was. Ed got it painted, new leather interior, new emblems, new shoes, a tuneup, new spark plug wires, distributor cap and rotor, some new trim pieces and a whole lot more. He even gave me a receipt! The best part, Cheryl told me she loved having that fun little convertible around to drive. Finally, a compliment from my brother's long time spouse. Luckily, my insurance on that car, at that time, was cheap. I didn't see it for four months.

Now in central Florida, Sl-Ocala, there are seasons. I mean it gets relatively chilly there in the depths of winter. Not like 2 feet of snow, but chilly in that my blood is really thin.

As we were approaching cold weather and I knew ragtop weather was nearing an end, I called Ed and asked about the oleragtop, "Ed, is it done yet?"

Ed's response was classic, "Yeah, it's done but I need to put a couple trim pieces back on it."

Now, I have been in construction for a long, long time. When I ask a contractor if he is done and he says yes, except for .....blah, blah, blah, I know he is nowhere near done.

I told Ed, "So it's not done." He says, to his credit, "Yeah, you are right, it is not done."

Ed tells me he still uses this on his mechanics and, has since, gotten a straight answer from them every time.

Is It Done Yet?

Now for a final digression.

Recently, I was doing a painting job and Ed called to see how Manuel Labor and I were doing. He asked, "Is it done yet". I almost responded, "Yes". Then I rethought my response.

I told Ed, "No, we are not quite done yet. We have cleaned up everything, picked up the drop cloths, put the paint cans in storage, cleaned the paint brushes, cleaned the few specks of paint off the floor, policed the area, but, Ed, we aren't done yet, The Paint Isn't Dry".

Hope you enjoyed the story of "Is It Done Yet" and will apply this to your life also.