Roont
Member
- Joined
- November 16, 2018
- Messages
- 49
- Reaction score
- 38
- Location
- Dirty Jersey
- City, State
- Hunterdon County, NJ
- Year, Model & Trim Level
- 1994 Explorer EB
TL;DR:
I got my Explorer for free, in exchange for some auto repairs that I had done, but did not feel I needed to be paid for.
I could probably edit this down to a few sentences, but I think it is a good story and also today is the second snow day in a row and I am bored out of my mind.
The previous owner was my chiropractor. The sweetest man I've ever met. He cared about healing others much more than he cared about money. So much that he was very often not paid. Many people (including myself) end up at a chiropractor when their pain becomes crippling but surgery and narcotics are not desired.
He had an 05 Explorer with "wacky electrical issues" and he had been to several shops, whose diagnoses ranged from needing a BCM to an entire new harness. All of those options were well above what he could afford. His AC had also stopped working, which made the issue of him not being able to open his windows an even worse issue that summer!
I offered to check it out for free. Why? I had come to him unable to walk with 2 slipped discs, and had been diagnosed with spondylolisthesis, and arthritis in spine and hip. At the time I had 2 very young children and not being able to walk was completely ruining our lives. Surgical correction has a long recovery process and many patients with active lives report that their range of motion becomes severely limited and painful. Being a mom with toddlers and a mechanic, I wanted to avoid this.
He was able to coax my vertebra back into place and then the discs were able to get nudged back as well. This was something all 3 different orthopedic surgeons had stated would not be possible.
A little disclaimer. Every human body is different. Every injury is unique. I'm simply sharing my own personal decisions. After my kids are grown and I have retired I will probably opt for the surgery and hopefully by then they will perfect the artificial vertebrae/disc so I can avoid fusion.
Anyway, the issue was one front window would go down but not up and the other would go up but not down.
I think all of you reading this know EXACTLY what the issue was haha. So I repaired the harnesses and moved on to the AC issue, which was a leak no one could find.
I also saw zero dye. But using my sniffer by the high side fill port led me right to the leak haha. So I put in a new Schrader pin and that was that.
I returned his truck and wouldn't take payment. It had cost me very little time, some wiring repair items, some 134a. It was what I could do to say thank you and I had already realized his finances were a mess due to so many outstanding patient bills.
I get a call from the secretary canceling my appointment. His cancer had returned and he was too exhausted from treatment to work. I was floored. Weeks go by and I called once a week. His secretary was still in the office desperately trying to get all of his patients to pay, and to get insurance companies to pay so that the chiropractor could afford HIS OWN CANCER TREATMENT.
I stopped by after one phone call where she broke down and seemed so overwhelmed with the situation. She shared there was well over one million dollars in outstanding bills from the last few years.
Imagine working 6 days a week from 6am to 9pm helping people with their pain and getting people back to waking again and no one paying you.
Then imagine you have cancer and can't afford your own treatment because of this.
A few weeks later he tells me the town had given him a week to get rid of his other Explorer. It was a 94, he had abandoned repairing it due to the amount of issues it had. He asked if I would take it and scrap it and I could keep the money in exchange for my previous repairs.
As you all know, right now the price of diesel to tow anything to a junkyard is often as much as the money you can get for a junk car, but he didn't know this. But I wanted to at least get it out of there for him so the town wouldn't fine him.
When I saw him for first time in months when I came to pick up the 94 explorer, he looked like a gray skeleton. I'm so glad my dad was with me because I could barely chat with him and smile at him while we got it on the trailer. He was so weak he was only outside a short time then went back to bed. I had to keep pulling over the 4 mile ride back to my house because I was crying so hard. (My dad would have driven but my work truck is manual and my dad has his own severe leg and back disabilities.)
I got home, put in a new battery and it started right up after sitting 6 years and drove off the trailer.
Here's the list of what it needed:
Overwhelming dog smell
All four window regulators and motors
Brake lines
Master cylinder
Left rotor and caliper
Dog smell
Tires
Factory alarm removed
Dog smell
Complete front end
Due to the smell I just left it under a canopy for weeks with doors and tailgate open then removed and power washed the seats and carpet.
A few weeks later I decide I can never make a profit if I flipped it, and we already have too many vehicles so I will just junk it. The next morning I find out he had passed away.
Being a sentimental crazy person, I decide I have to keep it.
My husband is tolerant of my vehicle hobby, as it also makes us a very nice income, and our compromise was to put a little plow on it, which gives it a purpose.
I named it Ted, after my chiropractor.
I got my Explorer for free, in exchange for some auto repairs that I had done, but did not feel I needed to be paid for.
I could probably edit this down to a few sentences, but I think it is a good story and also today is the second snow day in a row and I am bored out of my mind.
The previous owner was my chiropractor. The sweetest man I've ever met. He cared about healing others much more than he cared about money. So much that he was very often not paid. Many people (including myself) end up at a chiropractor when their pain becomes crippling but surgery and narcotics are not desired.
He had an 05 Explorer with "wacky electrical issues" and he had been to several shops, whose diagnoses ranged from needing a BCM to an entire new harness. All of those options were well above what he could afford. His AC had also stopped working, which made the issue of him not being able to open his windows an even worse issue that summer!
I offered to check it out for free. Why? I had come to him unable to walk with 2 slipped discs, and had been diagnosed with spondylolisthesis, and arthritis in spine and hip. At the time I had 2 very young children and not being able to walk was completely ruining our lives. Surgical correction has a long recovery process and many patients with active lives report that their range of motion becomes severely limited and painful. Being a mom with toddlers and a mechanic, I wanted to avoid this.
He was able to coax my vertebra back into place and then the discs were able to get nudged back as well. This was something all 3 different orthopedic surgeons had stated would not be possible.
A little disclaimer. Every human body is different. Every injury is unique. I'm simply sharing my own personal decisions. After my kids are grown and I have retired I will probably opt for the surgery and hopefully by then they will perfect the artificial vertebrae/disc so I can avoid fusion.
Anyway, the issue was one front window would go down but not up and the other would go up but not down.
I think all of you reading this know EXACTLY what the issue was haha. So I repaired the harnesses and moved on to the AC issue, which was a leak no one could find.
I also saw zero dye. But using my sniffer by the high side fill port led me right to the leak haha. So I put in a new Schrader pin and that was that.
I returned his truck and wouldn't take payment. It had cost me very little time, some wiring repair items, some 134a. It was what I could do to say thank you and I had already realized his finances were a mess due to so many outstanding patient bills.
I get a call from the secretary canceling my appointment. His cancer had returned and he was too exhausted from treatment to work. I was floored. Weeks go by and I called once a week. His secretary was still in the office desperately trying to get all of his patients to pay, and to get insurance companies to pay so that the chiropractor could afford HIS OWN CANCER TREATMENT.
I stopped by after one phone call where she broke down and seemed so overwhelmed with the situation. She shared there was well over one million dollars in outstanding bills from the last few years.
Imagine working 6 days a week from 6am to 9pm helping people with their pain and getting people back to waking again and no one paying you.
Then imagine you have cancer and can't afford your own treatment because of this.
A few weeks later he tells me the town had given him a week to get rid of his other Explorer. It was a 94, he had abandoned repairing it due to the amount of issues it had. He asked if I would take it and scrap it and I could keep the money in exchange for my previous repairs.
As you all know, right now the price of diesel to tow anything to a junkyard is often as much as the money you can get for a junk car, but he didn't know this. But I wanted to at least get it out of there for him so the town wouldn't fine him.
When I saw him for first time in months when I came to pick up the 94 explorer, he looked like a gray skeleton. I'm so glad my dad was with me because I could barely chat with him and smile at him while we got it on the trailer. He was so weak he was only outside a short time then went back to bed. I had to keep pulling over the 4 mile ride back to my house because I was crying so hard. (My dad would have driven but my work truck is manual and my dad has his own severe leg and back disabilities.)
I got home, put in a new battery and it started right up after sitting 6 years and drove off the trailer.
Here's the list of what it needed:
Overwhelming dog smell
All four window regulators and motors
Brake lines
Master cylinder
Left rotor and caliper
Dog smell
Tires
Factory alarm removed
Dog smell
Complete front end
Due to the smell I just left it under a canopy for weeks with doors and tailgate open then removed and power washed the seats and carpet.
A few weeks later I decide I can never make a profit if I flipped it, and we already have too many vehicles so I will just junk it. The next morning I find out he had passed away.
Being a sentimental crazy person, I decide I have to keep it.
My husband is tolerant of my vehicle hobby, as it also makes us a very nice income, and our compromise was to put a little plow on it, which gives it a purpose.
I named it Ted, after my chiropractor.
Sorry for the tl;dr...ill try to keep short. I had a spinal fusion at 29 yrs old. I had a herniated disc, not from any accident but just arthritis and degenerative disc disease. I'd heard about bad experiences with fusions, but at the time I couldn't walk, sit, stand, lay down, or ANYTHING without debilitating pain. Couldn't stand long enough to shave in the mirror, or in the shower.
