I bought this car in August of 2003. A friend of mine (Jason), my wife (Danelle), my 4 yr old son (Trace) and I headed out to a house WAY out in the country. Bonfield, IL to be exact.
This is what we saw.
After looking it over for any flaws that could not easily be fixed, we decided it looked to be a solid car.
Next, the owner and I took the car for a drive so I could get a sense of how it rode. He drove first. We headed toward Rt. 17, west of Kankakee, IL and once we got on the highway he opened it up and turned it loose!!! I was impressed. The car accelerated great and didn't have any problems doing it. Needless to say, I was giddy.
Next he asked me if I'd like to drive. I said, "Of course."
He turned right into a driveway of what looked to be a storage garage for farm equipment (a.k.a "pole barn"). As I got out to change sides, I took another walk around the car before I hopped in behind the wheel. Overall, it looked good. It had it's need for some TLC, but so far I was happy.
On the way back to his house he offered me a chance to floor it, but not being familiar with the car I chose not to. That's all I needed was to wreck someone else's '71 Camaro.
As we pulled back into his driveway I saw that Jason, Danelle and Trace were watching me drive. Just to feel sorta "cool", I popped the car into neutral and reved the engine a little. Just as I did, we heard a "thunk" come from under the car. Since his driveway was gravel, and being in the country, I assumed it was a tree limb, or perhaps one of his children's toys.
Nope. I got out and lifted the hood just to glance at the engine again. I wanted to check the oil pan, the transmission and the radiator for any leaks or problems. That's when I noticed the fan belt dangling off the water pump pulley. That explained the "thunk" we had heard earlier.
The belt looked fine, so Jason grabbed it to take a closer look. Upon further inspection, he noticed it had been cut by the fan blade. Now we had a problem. I wanted the car and I had the cash in my pocket, but with a broken fan/water pump belt, there was no way to drive it to my house. I was so anxious to call it "mine" that Jason (who knew I wanted to take it home NOW!!) suggested we take it to Bill Mikeska's house. Bill lived about 2-3 miles away and Jason assured me the car would be fine going that short of a distance in the 70* weather we had that day.
We made it there and replaced the belt with one Bill had laying in his workshop.
