Originally Posted by LiquidBlue

To me, my Formula is symbolic of a new life, a new beginning. Had fallen on hard times and moved to Houston to start a new job and a new life. In 1992 I had enough money to buy a car. I wasn’t looking, but then I saw a Maui Blue Formula for sale and was hooked. Also purchased a Toyota Corolla with 500,000 miles on it so I wouldn’t have to use the Formula as a daily driver. By 1994 I was traveling so much, barely had time to drive it, and then in 1998 was sent overseas on work assignment. Ultimately, my entire house and the Formula went into storage (again). Thinking I’d be back in a year, I finally retrieved it from storage in 2016 and brought it back to life. People thought I was crazy for storing it for as long as I did, but they didn’t understand the symbolism of the car, or how cool Third Gens are!

My goal is to maintain factory originality or install SLP parts that could have been dealer ordered. I want it to remain vintage 1990. Since it was more or less put away in 2004, not much had changed from what the factory put on it - had a great template to work with. Just about everything on the car is from the factory, just spent time A LOT of time cleaning 65,000 miles and 30 years of dirt. Did tear down the motor for new valve seals and put on a few SLP parts in the process. Thanks to everyone at thirdgen.org that answered all my tedious questions in the process! The alternator and a/c compressor are new, but the old ones worked. Just wanted to preserve them and get them rebuilt properly. All the body seals are still factory and so is the paint. Even the factory hood shocks and headlights are still working! Got lots of plans for her, but she’s reliable and the wife and I can take it out for a spin anytime we want. Thirty years later, same car, same girl. Awesome!