These are the very first pics that I ever saw of my then-soon-to-be car.

And these are the very first pics that I ever took of my now-owned car. :) These were literally taken just a few minutes after the car officially became mine. We drove away from the previous owners house and to a truck-stop near the interstate onramp to refuel and throw some EFI Cleaner in the car before our long 400 mile journey back. The car was sitting for 5 years and had 5 year old gas and oil in it, so, even though it turned right over, I thought it wise to do the best I could with limited supplies to ensure a smooth return trip.

The photos below were taken with an old Polaroid camera that Ramirez had laying around and hadn't used since lord knows when. Heck, I don't even know where he found film for it! He wanted to get us some instant gratification pics though, and it was a cool idea to celebrate the moment with.

These shots were taken over the summer in 2007 after a trip down to my dads place. I spent the afternoon washing and waxing the car, (which is why it looks so shiny ;) and then tried to get some shots of certain "trouble spots" on the car that I knew I'd be investing some time into upgrading.

How hard could removing a defunct automatic antenna and replacing it with a concealed one from Dakota Digital be? Apparently, pretty darn hard on an '82 T/A. Well, not so much a hard process as a long and tedious one. I enlisted the help of good ole Ramirez, (who just "loves" working on cars), one sunny weekend afternoon when I had some time and we set out to yank out the old antenna and install the new one.

We had to remove the passenger side fender to get to the antenna module, but first remove the hood, the battery, and headlight assembly to get to the fender. Then inside I had to remove the passenger side kick panel & windshield trim, drop the headliner in the front, and pull down all the lower dash trim above where the passenger foot space is. Many hours were spent on this, and I believe a pair of Bothan spies died for this modification. You can see what it took and watch the transformation below.