Audis in Chevy-land

[QSHIPQ@aol.com]

Easter for this audidude was spent exercising the qwagon in the back roads of 
NY watershed resevoirs (Catskills of NY).  Many a fine road was carved for 
over a week.  However, on the way back home yesterday, the threaded portion 
of my left rear koni red decided to leave the top of the piston.  This, in 
turn, lowered the shock from the upper mount, bending the spring (Eibach C/O 
10in) which then rubbed against the inner wheel lip and the D40M2 that was 
attached.  Lucky for me I was only .5 miles from Exit 2 on I-80 (PA) at the 
time.  Pulled the rear wheel off to find everything was there, but not sure 
what to do about it without a welding setup.

Within 5 minutes of sitting there, a guy came up, looked at the parts laying 
on the pavement, and asked what he could do.  In a curt sentence (what a jerk 
I was), "You could only help if you had a welder"  Get this answer "Well I've 
got Tig, Mig, heliarc or braze."  (hello savior!!).  A quick run up to his 
shop, and within a couple minutes I had an exellent heliarc weld (peened and 
hardened to boot) and was on the way back to the patient.  Gary dropped me 
off at the car, money offers sternly declined, and my brush with kindness was 
gone...  For now.

While we were talking and welding, I had forgotten to grab the top nut of the 
shock off his workbench (we removed it for welding).  Bummer would be an 
understatement.  So, as I spent the next half hour trying to figure which nut 
on the car to donate to the cause, another gentleman shows up, and offers to 
run back to his "cars behind the barn" to get me a nut.  In the meantime, 
Gary (welder) shows up again on the way to his kids soccer game.  I told him 
what I forgot, and he zoomed away without another word.  Both guys show up at 
the same time (the guy with the "cars" has a correct thread nut), and my 
welding guy shows up with the original, stacked bumper to bumper these two 
guys, the race to help was almost comic.  15 minutes later, the car is packed 
and we are rolling again.  Total time lost, 1 hour, 20 minutes.

Revenge of the audi gods, humbled in the face of total strangers in the 
middle of nowhere.   

One very humble and thankful Chicago guest in the middle of nowhere too.

Scott Justusson
QSHIPQ@aol.com
'87 5ktqwRS2 (bent spring, lathed inner wheel and tire, "modded" shock)
'84 Urq
'87 4Runner turbo