After three full years of sitting in the garage, my Dad’s Galant lives. He took it apart right after I got home from Iraq the first time, in 2006, to change the timing belt. This was supposed to be a father-son project, but it just didn’t happen like that for various reasons. Now that I live at home again, it was time to get the car out of the garage. Sooner was better than later, since I’m pretty sure my Mom was ready to set fire to the garage.

Putting things back together was not nearly as difficult as I’d feared. A few things were annoying, but that’s to be expected when working on a Japanese vehicle. It fired up with the first turn of the key, and ran quite well for a vehicle that hadn’t had a drop of gas in the tank for years. Today, I flushed out the radiator and everything seems to be working well. Even the AC still works, which is all kinds of impressive. My truck won’t hold R134a for more than a month, the Galant held a seal for several years.

The Galant is running again

Finally running again.