[Next week: The dead-car-road-trip adventure begins.] Rob’s latest book, The Best Of The Hack Mechanic: 35 years of hacks, kluges, and assorted automotive mayhem , is available on Amazon here .

Last week, I described how, in 4 ½ days, while sleeping in the house of someone I’d met once for ten minutes, I took Louie—a 1972 BMW 2002tii that I’d bought sight-unseen in Louisville ...