The day my Cobra died

[97desertCobra]

I'm creating this thread mostly to vent. For anybody to undrstand my situation I will provide the back story.

I got laid off from my 45k a year job woking for the state of AZ on October 1. Our state is on the verge of bankruptcy and could not afford to keep me as an employee any longer. This was ironic as I was working as a budget analyst for the state helping fix the budget problems for the Arizona Army National Guard. So I've been searching for a job ever since. I have applied to 25+ places for ANY job as I need income. I have already spent my 3 month emergency funds.

My daily driver is a Nissan pick up. It was broken into a month ago and the ignition was ****ed up and needs repair. So the Cobra had to play the role of the daily till I got a job and money to fix the Nissan.

I was on my way across town to go to a job interview. While cruising at 2k rpms in 6th gear at 65mph in the Cobra all the sudden my engine starts to rattle, white smoke is pouring from under the hood and then the oil pressure drops to 0 and the engine dies. WTF?! I did not see that coming! I pull over just 3 miles from where I am having my interview so I walk the rest of the way. I get there late and I'm told position has been filled. Damn.

2 weeks later(today) I get my car towed back to my side of town and it turns out that I blew my head gaskets and my car over heated. So now I have 2 broken vehicles, no job, no more funds. FML.

Its incredible how quickly things turned around on me. In just over 2 1/2 months I went from a what seemed stable government job netting 45k a year, 2 working vehicles, a growing savings account and an engagement ring fund for the amazing GF to no job, no mula, no vehicle and the GF's parents now think I'm a loser. FML!

Sorry for the long post but I really just need to vent. My over excessive workouts are not cutting it anymore to relieve stress.

 

[stangposse]

Hang in there man. Keep your head up! Stay calm. Things will turn around for you. Keep pushin! Be thankful for your health and family.

 

[PSUCOBRA96]

Cant say I have been there but I can say keep your chin up, shit hits the fan all at once sometimes, keep looking for a job, once you find one things will turn around and you can rebuild the cobra to better than it was before

 

[03bluemach]

man i feel for ya bro. life sucks sometimes, i just lost a good friend (co-worker) of two years last thursday .. told him bye have good weekend as he was taking off that friday ..friday morning i get a call and find out he past in his sleep that night .. but the important thing is you still have your health and a roof over your head , a girlfriends shoulder to lean on hang in bro it'll get better , check into unemployment till you get the ball rollin agian ..its better than nothing .

 

[Gallows]

Damn you have been having a string of bad luck. I hope things start to turn around for you soon.

 

[C O 13 R A]

Hang in there man. Sometimes it takes the worst of times to bring out the best and worst in a person. If anyone doubts or thinks lower of you then it's best it comes out now rather than after you have commited. Time to weed out the weeds & bring priorities into focus. I'm in a pretty though situation myself, so I will take my own advice. Make sure you post back once you find that 75k Job waitng for you.

 

[97desertCobra]

Hang in there man. Sometimes it takes the worst of times to bring out the best and worst in a person. If anyone doubts or thinks lower of you then it's best it comes out now rather than after you have commited. Time to weed out the weeds & bring priorities into focus. I'm in a pretty though situation myself, so I will take my own advice. Make sure you post back once you find that 75k Job waitng for you.

The 75k job will be there when I finish my civil engineering degree. Only 2 years away and I'm almoust done with all my calculus I need. Now seems like a good time to take advantage of my 1k a month G.I. Bill and find a part time job. The Cobra will have to sit on jack stands for a while. Going back to n/a. Gonna take the Procharger off and use the funds I get from selling it to get the Nissan daily driver back up. From whats left over I might be able to start aquiring parts for a rebuild. Maybe the damage isnt that bad. Will have to see once I pull the engine out.

 

[brucesvt]

Hang in there i am going thru the same thing you are. I have an MBA and have been unemployed since June this town really sucks

 

[crash549]

it can only get so bad before it gets better. it's all about how you deal with the bad and look for the good.

 

[F8L BYT]

Damn man i'm really sorry to hear that! Hang in there and things will get better for you! You know what the old saying is... bad things come in three's and well, loss of job, truck breaks, car breaks hopefully that was the end of it and things turn around now!

Best of luck :beer:

 

[Cookieman00x]

If you will is strong ehough, youll be back on your feet in no time.

 

[96svtblack]

damn man bad luck sucks if i wasn't deployed and we lived in the same state i would throw a new head gasket on there for yah np well deff man i hope everything works out.

 

[COBRA97SVT]

Hang in there man.. I feel you though. Lost my job late August family business closed after 25 years.. My dd blew its headgasket as well and am bumming off my grandparents car until i can get to it.. Keep going to those interviews and one of them will pay off..

 

[cobraman1024]

Though my "string of threes" hasn't gotten to the third thing yet, I've been out of a job for 3 weeks now. Mine was a 53k+/year job doing calibration and electronics repair. The company got sucked up by a corporate mogul so upper management was scrambling to save their jobs. Anyway, a couple suggestions:

1. already mentioned, check into unemployment through AZ

2. You already had the "in" with the AZ National Guard, why not pick up a PT or FT job with the Guard until you find your dream job? You could even hit up the Army/Navy/Air Force Reserves if you still qualify. I was prior service so within 48 hours from start to finish I was back into the Navy Reserves.

3. In Florida there is a website called "EmployFlorida.com" ......you post your resume up there and can do a job search and apply for jobs all online--------plus, you wouldn't believe the companies that are looking at all the resumes from the shadows that don't post their job positions up on the website. Maybe there is something like that available for Arizona?...how about www.arizonajobs.com ?

 

[birdman941]

Sorry to hear about your misfortune.
however, if you have local buddies, tools and some time,
a place to do it (long menu, I know)
An FRPP SC head gasket set is relatively reasonable.
It will work on a 4.6 but better check on "B" headed ones.
5.4L 4V S/C HEAD CHANGING KIT
Suggested Retail: $139.95

Hopefully that is all it needs.
Wish I was in Az. to lend a hand.

 

[97desertCobra]

2. You already had the "in" with the AZ National Guard, why not pick up a PT or FT job with the Guard until you find your dream job? You could even hit up the Army/Navy/Air Force Reserves if you still qualify. I was prior service so within 48 hours from start to finish I was back into the Navy Reserves.

QUOTE]

I'm already a member of the AZ National Guard. I have applied to several different AGR jobs, tech jobs and JCNTF(joint counter narcotics and terrorist task force). Each time they bring me in and say they want to hire me but have to wait untill the funding is approved before they can bring me on. I worked on the budget so I already know that it wont be until around March/April that the funding becomes available. But atleast I know they want to hire me when they can. If I can find something to make ends meet untill then that will be fine.

Thanks for the encouraging words everybody. In light of everything I'm trying to stay as positive as possible. Things are bound to get better as it cant get much worse from here.

 

[97desertCobra]

Sorry to hear about your misfortune.
however, if you have local buddies, tools and some time,
a place to do it (long menu, I know)
An FRPP SC head gasket set is relatively reasonable.
It will work on a 4.6 but better check on "B" headed ones.
5.4L 4V S/C HEAD CHANGING KIT
Suggested Retail: $139.95

Hopefully that is all it needs.
Wish I was in Az. to lend a hand.

Sweet, nice find. Hopefully all it needs is the head gaskets replaced. But seeing as how it ran untill it died from overheating I might be looking at a lot of messed up aluminum parts. But we will see once I tear it down. Its going to be a slow process untill its up again but thats alright. Its actually kind of exciting tearing down the engine and building it myself, with the help of a local machine shop that has built Ford DOHC's before. Looking forward to learning a lot.

 

[SpittingCobra]

Lost my job 5 weeks ago. Had title issues with my jeep. Going to pick it up from the impound today.. Cobra is blowing smoke everywhere.. No money but all the time in the world to fall into a downward spiral of depression.

I feel your pain bro..

 

[Finaltheorem47]

Good place to vent man...

A great quote comes to mind...

The more difficulties one has to encounter, within and without, the more significant and the higher in inspiration his life will be. - Horace Bushnell

 

[venom1997]

Best of luck man,hang in there things will get better just have faith. I think the majority of us have felt an impact due to the economy i know i have, we just dont appriciate things until something like this happens. You will be in my prayers brother:beer: