A short honeymoon.

My honeymoon with this car lasted about a month before the "real" issues started to surface. It was a snowball effect that eventually led to a complete replacement of all wires and electrical components from the dashboard forward.
The first one to surface was a biggie. It should have tipped me off to the fact that this car was unstable and needed professional help. I had just finished a graveyard shift and was trying to start my car. The accessories all worked but not a sound out of the starter. Figuring I had a dead battery, I popped the hood to pull it, run into town for a new one and then drive home. When I grabbed the positive cable, I was greeted by a shower of sparks from around the fuel pump. It seems that the cable had been pinched under the fuel pump, wore a hole through the insulation, and had melted it completely off. I went into town and bought a new cable and drove home thankful that my new hotrod hadn't burned to the ground.
The next happy episode came as I was sitting at a red light. The engine died and when I went to retart it, smoke poured out from under the hood and the dash. The only thing I could do was open the hood and yank the battery cable off. I had smoked the ignition box and had to pay $500 to get my car running again. I was also late to work that day and really didn't want any more attention.
That was the last time the Firebird caused me to miss work, but that wasn't the end of troubles. It became increasingly hard to convinse the headlights to work. I had to pull the headlight switch on & off, and pump the dimmer switch for anywhere up to ten minutes to turn them on. Tired of these problems, and afraid that the next one would start a fire, I bought the three forward wiring harnesses and all new switches for everything. Now nothing was going to suprise me for a long time.
My next stop brought me to Everett, Washington and service aboard the aircraft carrier stationed there. When I first arrived, no sticker was required to drive on base, just your ID. That worked for about a year until they revised the security policy to require the sticker and you had to pass emmissions too. I thought it was a joke when I asked if they required emmisions on a 30 yar old car and was told absolutely, all cars, no exceptions.
I had just about enough fun playing with this car in the rain anyway, (remember the brakes?) and at that point decided to park the car and get something that would be guaranteed to pass emmissions testing. Not to mention one that wouldn't spin the tires leaving every stoplight in the soggy season. The first field of rest was my grandparents house in Marysville. Both of them had passed away and my dad was keeping watch over the place, so that's where it ended up. When that house sold, it was moved to the other side of the state with the other set of grandparents.
Now I had parked my car for three years and didn't want to lose it completely. I told my wife, who loved that car too, that it was time to retrieve it and bring it back to life. The bad part was, we now lived in Tacoma, with one of the highest stolen car rates in the state. We were only going to be there about six more months and we decided to take the chance. The last week of my final trip out to sea, I get an email from the wife telling me that somebody had attempted to steal the car. I had disabled it so that only a complete end to end of the wiring would show you where it was. I had four different methods of keeping the car from running. These jokers never found them, tried to jerk the tumblers out of the ignition (and failed) switch and them tried to push the car out of the parking lot (uphill) to a darker place where they'd have more time to work. They were suprised by my neighbor who was late to work and they never got the car. It was moved from it's original spot and that qualified as stolen. My wife promptly went out an bought a steering wheel lock to further discourage idiots from taking a joyride before we could get out of town.
The last major move for the car was in 2002. I was out of the navy now, working south of Olympia, and we decided to move to eliminate the commute. We packed up our two bedroom apartment and took a chance on homeownership. We loved the house and the view, but alas, I still had no garage. After all of the household was moved, I had to move that poor car I had been dragging around, and it was not happy with me. I made it to the Hwy 16 interchange in Tacoma before the battery died. Something was wrong with the charging circuit, and I didn't have the time to troubleshoot it. The cops would have it towed if I left it overnight, and I wasn't ready to take the chance of it getting stripped right there on the side of the road either. We went to the closest parts store and bought a new battery, installed it and I drove it home. I barely made it that hour long drive, and once it was parked, it stayed. It would be another two years before it moved again.
Now we are back to the beginning of this particular saga. I wanted to get the car fixed up, with a more tolerable driving setup, and get rid of my truck. That lasted about a month as I started collecting all of the miscellaneous parts that didn't come with the long block. The fall weather was setting in and I couldn't see trying to do all of this in the rain, on a gravel driveway, on a hill....
It was actually a suggestion of my wife's to build the garage. I had no idea how much it would cost but I'd better not waste this opportunity delivered up to me. The dreaming and scheming set in and before long, I had my plans ready for approval by the finance committee. It took some convincing, but after a few short minutes, we were ready to go as planned.