The GoKart was Never the Same

We own a 1993 Ford Escort LX wagon. We bought it as a family car when our two oldest kids were toddlers. It seemed bigger than our Horizon, and the Sundance I drove to work. When we bought it, it had 21,000 miles on it. We found it in a dealership’s used car lot. Long since paid off, it has been a fairly faithful little car.

We have driven it to the moon and back, with a total of over 301,000 miles on it. Most of that was freeway via trips up north and many round trips to work and home. I am very thankful to God for the sixteen years we have had this little car. I also pray He will make it last at least another year.

Since I have been unemployed from mid-summer until now, I have had some time to put into fixing it up somewhat for returning to long journeys to work and back (if that will ever happen). I had some great help from a neighbor/church friend who helped me find suspension parts and replace the worn out struts and springs (Thanks, Tom!).

Of course, the body is a rust heap practically at this point. Somewhat from some years of neglect on my part. And also, we have no garage. I never neglected regular oil changes, though, and that’s probably one good reason why the engine is still running!

Anyway, I took it upon myself to at least seal up the rust holes that have eaten into the trunk area. Once water started leaking into small holes there, they just kept getting eaten into larger holes. I would like it in the dry through the winter and spring. So I am also very grateful for the lingering nice weather during this November. To have a stretch of days hanging in the low 50s is a great help to me.

So I pulled out the extension cords, the only electric drill I have (a hand-me-down from my dad), got a few grinding and stripping wheels from the local hardware store, cleared out the trunk, took off the rear bumper, and then I started to try stripping away rust down to the metal around these holes. This was precarious work, as there is more rust actually than solid metal any more. I won’t try kicking this little Escort anywhere.

It was doing this, that I have discovered something interesting about this car, which we were never told when we bought it, of course. It appears to have been hit in the rear in its infancy of low miles. After this accident, it was all straightened out, maybe new fender panels put on, perhaps. However, while I was trying to strip to the metal, I kept finding sections of putty. The entire length of its trunk had been seamed together with this putty stuff. Not even fiberglass resin, just putty.

That explains the extreme rusting that has taken place in that area to some extent, because as soon as that putty started to give way in any little spot, that opened up ever so much more each season.

Well, I don’t really feel like getting mad about being cheated at the time we bought this Escort. It’s been way too long ago for that. But it does open up a little more history about it for me. I mean, these Escorts were good little cars for many years. I still see a good deal of them on the road, in much better shape than ours. Why would someone want to have gotten rid of theirs at just around 20,000 miles? That’s barely broken in.

It must have been the thought of keeping a car that had been broken, and was no longer pristine. Oh well, up to this point, it has served us well.