Progress is being made

(Which gear would this count as?)

It's getting there. The arduous task of re-wiring the Fića can't be completed in a few days, or even a few weeks. When a car's wires are thrown about in all the wrong directions, one's brain has to work overtime to sort out all the permutations.

In this case, it's taking three different wiring diagrams (two "sixes" and an "eight") to find where the wires were (incorrectly) connected to begin with, and then extensive testing on top of that to confirm that everything is where it seems to be.

Only then comes the part where you actually connect the wires properly.

Methodology

Saying that your car is the first of anything is nothing short of ambitious. How can I be so sure that mine is the first in Canada?

Well, the group of owners is fairly centralized – i.e. there's very little that goes on in the world of Zastava 750's that the owners' community isn't aware of. Nevertheless, there is information to be found outside the realm of home-market enthusiasts.

Through my own research, I have found the only known stories of Fićas with a transatlantic trek under their tires.

Not so fast

(How does one untangle the consequences of half-assery?)

It's been a couple weeks since my Fića was taken to its doctor. What has happened since then?

Well, in between tending to the vast array of other cars that also require his expertise, my mechanic has 'assessed the damage,' so to speak. As expected, things don't look so good...

Review: 2013 Ford Taurus SEL

Large companies are usually not the best examples of how to do business – despite all logic.

For decades, Ford Motor Co. struggled to understand the practical definition of teamwork. There were teams of chassis engineers, suspension engineers, interior designers, exterior designers, and so forth, working on the same car separately from one another. The teams never talked to each other, delegating middlemen called “product planners” to do this for them.

The outcome of all this was an automobile designed in chunks collected by carrier pigeons.

Time of the Gremlins

(Good company.)

I've sent my Fića to get its wiring fixed!

Last week, I arranged with the same mechanic from before to wire the Fića to an eight-fuse-box. The plan is to fix the electrics problem once and for all (and install the new handbrake cable while we're at it).

As you'd expect, driving the car to the shop is not possible, hence it had to get towed. Much to my delight, the Fića got there in a big, enclosed car trailer. But that wasn't the extent of the nice surprises...

The little Saturn that couldn't

There's no such thing as a bad experience. Every experience teaches you something good – the difference being in how that teaching is executed.

You will take away something positive and useful from everything that happens to you, no matter how much difficulty it's tied to. Take for instance the onerous situation that is my Fića, post-bad-restoration.

At the end of all this, I'll basically know how to put one together blindfolded.

Nevertheless, certain "good experiences" inevitably leave their mark on you, and you seem to remember more than you learn. In that spirit, here is my automotive horror story.