A recap of events (Jan 2018): Car woes and a bachelor party

Having spent the holidays at home with family and friends, I flew back to Portland to grab my car and continue driving. My next destination would be a bachelor party in Scottsdale, Arizona. A journey of roughly 1500 miles with a stop in Logan, Utah to stay with a friend. But the car was still a concern...

I had left the car at the house back in Oregon. It was, however, a few repairs away from being ready for the road. The major damage was mostly repaired with some new control arm parts for the front right wheel, but there was quite a bit of positive camber in the front right wheel, similar to the following:

Ben had, most kindly, spent some time working on the car while I had flown home. Most importantly, ordering some camber bolts that let you adjust the camber in the wheel. But it proved to only adjust it halfway or so from being aligned. We knew that this positive camber was partly from damage to the subframe that holds the engine (from when I slid off the road). But Ben was convinced there was something else that was contributing to most of the camber. We decided against replacing/repairing the subframe because it would have been fairly costly, a lot of work, and a low chance of fully fixing the camber. I only had so much time before I needed to set off for Arizona and we decided I would take my chances with the remaining camber in the wheel...

So I set off on the road with my first stop in Logan, Utah to stay with a good friend. We ended up at the climbing gym in town and I had a great time mooching off her buddy pass (thanks Angie!). After a wonderful dinner of risotto (her specialty), I was off again to reach Scottsdale, Arizona. As I passed into Arizona from Utah (which was a gorgeous drive), I pulled into a gas station and noticed this:

The front right tire was being shredded after 1000 or so miles on the road. I must have forgotten to look at the tires before leaving Logan because I should have seen the signs earlier. Over the phone, Ben realized we should have manually adjusted the toe alignment before I left (probably causing most of the damage):

So I definitely needed to finish the repairs on the car. I grabbed an Airbnb in Phoenix for after the bachelor party.

There were going to 18 or so guys at the bachelor party for Jeff (the other half for the bachelorette party I went to a month prior). Having some inspiration from Mel's party when someone got matching hats for everyone, I decided to get matching sunglasses for everyone. Etsy made this really easy; I ordered a set a few weeks ahead of time with everyone's name on one side and "Bandit Batch" on the other side (Jeff's nickname is Bandit). Jeff had an orange pair while everyone else had a pink pair:

They had booked an amazing Airbnb for everyone in Scottsdale, complete with a sand volleyball court (of course there would be a sand volleyball court):

And with plenty of blazers to go around (Jeff in the center):

And many more shenanigans later, that was the weekend.

I had an Airbnb in nearby Phoenix for some nights afterwards to figure out what I could do with the car. Turns out the host was incredibly accommodating as he enjoyed working on his car and let me use the garage and tools so I could do my own repairs! After speaking to Ben for advice, he had strong reason to believe the knuckle would be bent, but it would be really hard to pick out visually, so the only way to check would be to take it off and compare to another.

The knuckle supports the axle/wheel/suspension connection.

Having this replaced at a mechanic would be pretty expensive, so I watched a few videos online and spoke to Ben about it. It seemed like something I could do myself, so I went for it. First step was to pull a knuckle from a junkyard car, which turned out to be a great way to practice the work I'd need to do. I rented any specialty tools from an auto parts store (which is free, you just put down a deposit) and spent a few hours messing with a few CR-Vs at the junkyard. After some good advice from people I met at the junkyard, I got a knuckle off and paid about $30 for it. After taking the knuckle off my car, I was able to verify that it was indeed bent when compared to the one from the junkyard. So after putting everything back together (a solid 4 hours of work, a frustrating but rewarding experience), the positive camber in the wheel was gone!

After a trip to get the wheels aligned at a shop, I was ready to head off again...