Subject: A step back in time
Date: Tue, 16 Jan 2001 22:05:12 EST

Greetings and salutations:
I feel like I have been cheating on my snow bound brethren. Last weekend, I sponsored, "Larry's first unofficial Tech session" (aka. Miled, Tony, and Larry get to hang out and work on their cars) It was a grand and glorious weeken.........(music is playing and the picture is getting blurry as my mind drifts back to the beginning)........

The plans for this weekend had formulated back in November when I was in Alaska. Tony DeJoie (a story list member who I met for the first time in our caravan to NSXPO 2000) had requested my assistance in performing maintenance on his 97 NSX-T. After several e-mails exchanges, it looked liked the best time to accomplish this task was after the holiday season. We picked the weekend of the 13/14th. As time drew near, another equally important, but separate NSX happening, was about to collide with Tony's Time; Miled's aftermath. Yes, I was experiencing what business people have to deal with all the time. What do you do when a previous unresolved situation conflicts with a new one? (Beats the heck out of me?) Oh, I know, you do what the pros do.
Double Book!!!
Now Miled, who has been making the drive from NY - PA a regular event, (I could hear it in his voice) was hoping for special treatment. It went something like this:
Telephone rings
LG. "Hello?"
MS. "Larrrrrrry!, How are you?"
LG. "Great Miled, and you?"
MS. "Wonderful; Larry I was wondering if I could come down on the weekend of the 13/14th of January, after I return from Texas, and get the parts put on my car."
LG. "I don't know Miled, That's the weekend that I will be doing Tony's service."
MS. <silence>
MS. "Could he reschedule for another weekend?"
LG. "I don't think so Miled, we have been planning this day for months. If you want, you could come down and use the other bay and I could help you when you need it. You know I only have one guest room so you'll have to sleep on the floor or something."
MS. <silence>
[ I can imagine what is going on in Miled's mind. Not only has he lost first dibbs on his favorite mechanic, but someone else will be sleeping in his usual room]
MS. "I guess that will be OK"
LG. "OK, I'll see you then"
<click>
The weekdays before the scheduled weekend found me in Maine, along with my sister from CA, trying to transition my mother from the hospital to the nursing home. On the way home, I stopped in to see Aaron and Annie Chung.
Aaron was working on his NSX, and when Annie arrived, we went out to eat at a Vietnamese restaurant. Although they were gracious and offered to let me stay the night, I opted to continue on. For Aaron, the trip from his house to mine takes about 5 hours. For me, it takes about 7 hours. As you recall, I had already pulled an all nighter during New Years, so I had no doubt that I could do the same here.

I was prepping for Tony's arrival at 1700 (5pm) and needed to pick up some other supplies at the Honda dealer.

<Note> Honda is/has converted their coolant into Type 2. It comes premixed to a 50/50 solution and needs to be changed every 5 years or 60,000 miles>

During the trip back home, Craig called to inform me of Tony's arrival.
After brief pleasantries, Tony backed his NSX into the garage; I put it up on the lift, and we prepared to drain the engine oil and transmission oil. I had checked in the manual that Peter Mills has to see if any of the torques/adjustments were different from my 92. It appeared that everything that I would be doing would require the same procedures/torque. As we preparing to start, Tony asked why he had a valet key. He couldn't figure what difference in access there was between the two keys. I told him it was so that people couldn't get into his glove box to enable the trunk release.
He told me he didn't have one of those. I said "check it out" it's on the left hand side. He looked and said, "Where did that come from?" :-) With the fluids draining, we decided it was time to eat. I had thawed a meat pie procured from Maine and with cranberry sauce, we proceeded to chow down. We returned to the task at hand in hopes of getting a little more accomplished before bed.
Through out the weekend I tried to instill confidence in my abilities as an NSX technician by: not paying attention to where I set my tools down, talking about draining his clutch fluid (he has an automatic), saying things like, "Ya know it's a real hoot when you try to start the car.......and it does!!
The next day, Craig headed out early in the morning and his rustling around woke me up. After he left, I went back to sleep until my scheduled wake up at about 0830. When I awoke, I didn't hear Tony stirring, so I figured I would catch up on some more sleep. When I finally decided that it was time to get started, I left the bedroom only to see Tony in the kitchen. What I didn't know was that Tony had already come downstairs a little before 0830 and was reading a magazine, while waiting for me to get up.
After preparation, we went out to continue the maintenance. I told Tony that Miled had planned to arrive on Saturday. During our work process, Miled called to let us know of his appending arrival. Tony asked when he would arrive. "About in time to eat dinner," was my reply. Tony has a mechanical background, so after showing him what needed to be done, he was able to accomplish the task unsupervised. This was a big help, as we were able to accomplish a lot. Now don't interpret that as meaning we were breaking the Chiltons manual on how fast a task should be accomplished. One of the great things about doing maintenance at my house is that you get to SEE the work that is being done on your car and..........a lot of fun conversation.
What usually happens when Miled comes down is that we get so sidetracked from other things that it's a concentrated scramble at the end to get things done. With Tony, even with the distractions, we were on schedule. Tony asked what usually happened after dinner. Did we stop work for the day, or did we continue? It depends when we eat, how long we eat, and that depends on Miled's arrival.
While we were working, I thought I heard an NSX go by, but thought nothing of it, as it didn't slow down. A bit later, I heard the unmistakable sound of an NSX slowing down. I looked up to see a car pulling into the driveway from the wrong direction. I chuckled and said, "Here's Miled; he missed the driveway."
During my cleanup before New Year's Eve, I moved my white trailer inside. I discovered this was Miled's landmark to identify my house. After a quick hello, he back his NSX into the garage. This was the second time in a row that Miled arrived ahead of schedule. I think the reason had something to do with his emotions. When you were young, have you ever been so upset that you ran as fast as you could until you couldn't run any more? I think this may have happened to Miled, as he covered the 205 miles in 2.25 hours! He told a story of how his Dad, meaning to help, wipe/scrapped (?) the snow off his NSX and left big scuffs/scratches ALL over his car. The roof, hood, trunk, doors, and plastic lenses all had scratches. Miled tried cleaning a section with 3M scratch remover to see if the marks would come out. It looked like they would so we decided to go eat. This time we went to the "Country Buffet," a place where for $8 something, it's all you can eat. This was Miled's kind of place.
Tony and I kept up with Miled for the first of it, but it was plain to see that even our best was no match for Miled's usual food consumption. By the end of desert, I was slouching in my chair and wondering if I could get up.
Miled on the other hand takes a dinner plate, loads it with all kinds of goodies, and returns with a smile. Hoping that the Accord would not be overgrossed from all the food we ate, we returned home. Miled wanted to keep working on his car, so Tony and I continued work on his. My garage is not finished, so I ran extension cords to power lights and put a propane heater to heat the bay that Miled would be in. I have a blue tarp on the wall to keep heat in the primary work section of the garage so we couldn't see each other, but every once in a while, I could hear Miled say, "I love my father......I love my father." It would be then that Tony and I would go lend Miled a little moral support before returning to our tasks. Using the theory that you should give someone all the bad news you can so that it will be done and over with sooner, I break the news to Miled about the change in Honda's coolant. The last time I changed Miled's coolant, he wanted a 60/40 percent mixture. With only a 50% mixture available, I figure Miled will be so depressed that I can sell him my remaining concentrate for............$100@ bottle? So I give him the, "I have good news and bad news, which do you want first?" He wants the bad news first. I explain that he can't get his 60/40 mixture anymore. When I explain why, he says, "That means that I won't have to bring distilled water or have to worry about mixing it if I'm on the road.
That's good news!" (Drat, there goes that money making scheme)

This is where the title for this story comes from. The three of us are out working on our cars till 0'dark thirty in the morning. Miled is polishing his car, I'm on a step ladder adjusting valves, while Tony is under the car performing maintenance on the brakes. We are listening to classic rock tunes on the radio, when an old feeling of contentment comes over me. With all that has taken place in my life over the years, I was once again a high school kid, working on cars with my buddies, without life's pressures weighing me down. The only thing that was missing was heading out to pickup girls for a weekend date.

By the time we finished for the day, it was 0530 Sunday morning........and Miled was hungry again. Tony and I were still stuffed so we ignored Miled's comment. Later Miled said he wasn't joking, I said I knew, that's why I ignored the him.
We watched TV for a bit and it didn't take long for the sleep monster to attack me, so it was time to find a place for Miled to sleep. I brought up a self inflating air mattress that didn't seem to get that inflated so in Miled's words, A few blankets, a pillow, and presto, you have a bed!
Craig calls and wants to know if he can sleep at a friends house. I say, "Ya, sure." If fact, through the whole weekend, I have been saying, "Ya, sure" to his request to do things. I don't think he caught on to the idea that I was happy not to have him around the house causing interruptions. I'm sure that had he asked, "Dad, can I have your AK-47 and 3 banana clips to go target practicing?" Not paying attention I probably would have said, "Ya, sure."
I get up first at about 0930. As I'm preparing to start work on Miled's car, Tony shows up. We talked about the modification that Miled wanted to do to his car. We are using Tony's as a model, and keep walking back and forth between the two cars, looking at the differences. It was surprising to see the amount of differences between the 91 and the 97 model. After several back and forths, it was evident that the surgery that would have to be performed would not be practical. It was time to wake Miled. Usually Miled wakes up gracefully, but with the damage his dad caused to his immaculate NSX, going to bed on an empty stomach, and telling him his long awaited parts wouldn't fit, I wasn't looking forward to the task. Tony is braver (or more reckless) than me and heads to where Miled is sleeping..........unarmed. I tell him to wait a minute. I grab my bow (a 6' wooden staff used as a martial arts weapon) and head to the den of the sleeping bear. With the security of the couch between us and Miled, I take the bow and nudge him. His eyes open and he asks what time it is. We tell him, then Tony and I go out to the garage to give him some privacy while he gets up. Not having finished with Tony's car, I called Peter to get a torque for the bolts that hold the triangle shaped engine bar in the "T" models (my 92 service manual did not contain what had not been produced). I was surprised to see that the bolt torque of 28 lb-ft that secures my bar, had been reduced to 16 lb-ft for the bolts in the same location. Knowing that Miled does not get up after the first waking attempt, I tell Tony we need to try this again. This time I am brave enough to nudge him without the security of the couch between us (but still use the bow). He looks up, asks the time again, and puts his head back down with a smile that makes me question what he could be thinking about. Tony and I leave again.
The third return trip finds Miled still sleeping, still having that kind of contented smile that comes from holding your favorite Teddy bear. The time is right to break the news. I tell Tony to just stare at Miled. Spunky (my cat) does this to me all the time and no way can you sleep in peace. As Miled wakes up I give him the now infamous, "I have good news and bad news, which do you want first?" Miled has decided that this is my replacement saying for, "Good Morning." After my explanation and use of training aids, (Miled and Tony's NSX) he was satisfied that all options had been exhausted and it was time to revert to Plan B. With that project on hold. He and Tony took their cars outside to clean and pack for their return trip. Some teenagers from Palmyra saw the NSXs in the yard and stopped to drool and ask questions. They tried to get them to drive through town before they departed. I stayed inside to take care of some admin. stuff. Miled came in and wanted to take a shower so I decided I had time to wash my car before Miled would be ready. I washed, then went inside to change clothes while Tony dried.
Now mid-afternoon, I suggested we eat at a restaurant that was about 70 miles away and close to I-80 for their return trip home. We took the back roads, but taking the guys on dark, unfamiliar roads that were sometimes slick, I stayed at moderate speeds. At the Chinese Buffet, Miled was recognized by friends he went to high school with, which was a big surprise for him. The food was good and we recapped all the happenings of the weekend. We went outside, started the cars to warm, and continued our conversation. Again someone stopped and asked what kind of cars we had. Even though it was cold outside, we stood there and talked. I think everyone sensed that if we stopped, our glorious weekend would end. But all good things must come to an end...........not quite. I told them that I would drive with them until I-80 intersected I-81 and then I would peel off from the flight and return home.
Miled and Tony would stay together until their split at I-287. After we got home we e-mailed each other about the weekend. I think the best way to convey how the interstate drive went is to add sections of the e-mails we wrote each other.

<Larry>
Hey Guys:
Hope the trip home went well. I passed a herd of deer but they were well mannered. Ran into a couple of rain showers. Just enough to mess the car up a little.
Thank you both for being so generous. The drive was fun, especially on the interstate. It was fun running side by side, with an outburst of speed every now and then. When I got in the middle of the lane in front of you guys and you were side by side, I was trying to make the formidable "NSX Flying Wedge."
It looked real cool when you guys flew by me. The NSX looks so beautiful at high speeds.
Till we meet again amigos.

<Miled>
Hi Larry,
I too enjoyed the interstate drive a lot! And driving side-by-side was WHOA! By the way, I wanted to let you know on my first burst by, I was up to 135. On the second burst (when you managed to wedge yourself between the 2 rigs and Tony and I sat back until we could get by them), I was between 150-155!!! I luved it!!! How did it look from your view??? Did my NSX seem to be going that fast to you? All I can say is my car is a result of the GREAT work you do!!!
I arrived home safely just after midnight. Tony and I stayed together the entire time (side by side as much as we could - in an air-to-ground flight formation) until my wingman broke off at the 287 (North/South) exits. I'm glad Tony got his car done and he's very satisfied with the outcome.
And he will be back for more.
That was a nice ride the TREE of us went on. Glad you got your NSX out for a good workout and thanks for staying with us on 80 until you parted to 81.

Tony IM'd me with similar comments. As I said, it feels like I've been cheating on the rest of you. I promise not to have so much fun until spring.............NOT!!!!

Larry G.

Working on Tony's NSX
More working on Tony's NSX
Tony, Larry and Miled's NSX's