Twenty Years On

The Toyota is showing its age a bit more these days.

The oil consumption, once a mere annoyance, has grown to the point of concern. Old engines burn oil as the seals and rings lose their ability to block the flow; they get worn out and lose resiliency. Where once it could get by with another quart of oil every five or six fill-ups, now it's down to two or three. It won't be long before it'll be time to send the engine into the shop for a complete refit.

But, after all, the poor thing has been running for nearly 300,000 miles.

Today it decided to show its age a bit more, in a slightly different, more cosmetic way: the vinyl interior roof started peeling off.

I suspect it has something to do with the age of the glue and the heat of Michigan summers. The sun shines down on the top of the metal roof, and the heat is trapped between the metal and the vinyl interior roof, and it just bakes that glue until the polymers can't take it anymore and they give up the ghost. Then the wind sneaks in on an unguarded corner (since, without air-conditioning, we have to roll down all four windows to get any kind of relief from the interminable heat around here) and the vinyl bubbles up (or down), and within moments, the ceiling is falling down around us.

The girls had a good time this afternoon riding home with Daddy, their arms poking up into the vinyl, trying to hold it up until we got home. Then after dinner tonight I pulled out the handy-dandy screwdrivers and figured out how the ceiling is held on, and took it off.

Now the Toyota has no interior padding on the ceiling, just the bare metal, and it is sure to get hot tomorrow.

Meanwhile I've got to figure out how to re-glue the vinyl back onto the wire-and-foam rectangular frame it fits over, and then put it up again.

Oh, and figure out how to pay for an engine overhaul...