Spare Parts

Somewhere between my sister's house (my summer apartment) and my parent's house (my summer job) the exhaust system on my 1990 Pontiac Bonneville slowly grew louder and louder until it over powered NPR's episode on Cincinnati's potential rail system. I took a look under the car to inspect the exhaust system. For some unknown reason, the pipe was broken right behind the catalytic converter. 

I supposed I could have tried to weld it back together or at least used some wire to pull it together for a quick cheap fix. It turns out, however, that I have been storing a spare exhaust system under a 1990 Buick Park Ave in my Dad's back yard. I was unfortunately in that car when it collided with a 1995 Pontiac Grand Am in May 2001. It has been hiding by the barn with lots of spare parts (and a severely mangled front end) since then. I have already borrowed the alternator, blower motor, and seats for my dad's other 1989 Park Ave and my car.

A quick comparison of the parts online shows that all of the exhaust components are the same except the muffler. Yet they do have the same mounting points everywhere. Since the Bonneville and the Park Ave are basically the same car with either luxury or sportyness, I figure the different Bonneville mufflers just make the car sound faster.

The Park Ave muffler has half as many miles because its been sitting for the last 8 years. It can be seen on the bottom in these photos.

A few very rusty bolts later, the broken one was out and the newer one was in. Now my "sporty" Bonneville sounds like a Grandma car!

Just for fun, we put a battery in the old Park Ave to see if it would still start. I used to try to run it every couple years, but haven't for the last five while I was in Boston. A couple shots of starting fluid had it firing right away. Those 3800 engines sure are solid. I am thinking about tearing it completely out of the car (with the transmission) and putting it in a crate for some later project. If only I had more time! (and an endless supply of money)