I have received several requests from people asking exactly what I did to being my 1992 Honda Civic back from the dead. I don't think that there could be that many people who have dead cars lying in their drive way, I think it is more of a curiosity thing. We geeks tend to shy away from auto mechanics ... maybe for reasons that I discussed in my article. Never the less, I will outline the procedure in the next several posts. BTW: If you happen to be an auto mechanic living in Massachusetts, and would like to contribute to the LayOffSupport Network by offering your help (and thus freeing up my time to spend on LSN), PLEASE contact me.

To my knowledge, there has never been a scientific study done where cars are left to rot for various periods of time; and then brought back to life. You can speak with dozens of people and everyone has a different opinion on what the process for re-animation should be. The process that I am going to describe here was created by speaking with many people and combining multiple tips. This is my own process and probably not the "best" way to do it. But virtually everyone I consulted gave me their "theory" on what it would take. I say "theory" because none of them actually did it.  Since I am the only one that has personally done it (that I know) there is no way to compare methods. In other words here is my disclaimer: "actual results may vary".

I'll also say that it is one thing re-animating a car because you want another car; or re-animating a car because you have no car and can't afford a car loan (or can't get one because you cannot list permanent employment) and doing it because you have to. I am only doing this because I have to.

For those of you that don't know me, I've mainly been a Software Engineer and Information Security guy for the past 30 years. I am about the most experienced Information Security guy you are going to meet.  My time is normally expensive and performing auto mechanics is not an optimal use of my time. Same thing for you, unless you want to do it; or need to do it; I would recommend getting rid of that clunker and spending your time other ways.

Still, if you have to do it; it's not all that bad.