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+# Mizumi's Origin Story
+
+>*What is the Lake Report?*
+>
+> The Lake Report is my blog where I detail work on my project
+> car Mizumi, a 1986 Nissan 300zx. みずうみ (Mizūmi), means
+> 'lake' in Japanese*
+
+[MIZUMI_IN_DRIVEWAY.jpeg HERE]
+
+I've been interested in cars ever since I purchased my first
+car at 16 in the South Hills of Pittsburgh. *Eva* was a 1993
+BMW 325i with a 5 speed transmission and an uncomfortable
+190,000 miles. Eva broke down, a lot. But in keeping that
+car on the road, I found a passion in wrenching away on cars
+that has seriously shaped my life. Eva was my first time
+working on a car. I did the simple things like fabricating a
+cold-air intake and changing valve cover seals. I had some
+harder jobs too, when I had to rip out the entire dash to
+change a heater core. Eva eventually found her way to the
+gas station in the sky, when during state inspection the
+frame of the car was described as "crispy" from rust damage.
+I, as a minor, was no longer allowed to own that car after
+that point. I, as an adult, can respect that decision.
+
+Now since you're on my website, you've probably seen that
+I'm a mechanical engineer by training. I completed my
+undergraduate education during the coronavirus pandemic,
+with COVID putting a real damper on my freshman spring break
+plans. Instead of completing online school for the entirety
+of my sophomore year, I leveraged my experience with Eva to
+land a co-op position at BMW in Upstate South Carolina. My first
+co-op rotation was in the Spring of 2021--just in the middle
+of my sophomore year. BMW was the first time I was making
+any real money, and without any other serious expenses and
+only paying dirt cheap rent, I started to collect a nice
+little piggy bank. 
+
+This piggy bank was quickly dispatched when I found Mizumi.
+On a weekend trip to NC State, I decided to check the local
+Raleigh area Craigslist. I found this 1986 Nissan 300ZX
+listed for sale at $4,000. In the Z community, this car is
+called a "chuki 2+0 N/A analog dash". What that all means is
+the car is the old body style (zenki), but with the tiniest
+of chnages in that the bumpers were painted, it has just the
+2 seats, is naturally aspirated, and the dashboard includes
+typical analog instrument gauges. This generation of car,
+called the Z31, came in two body styles: a 2+0 coupe, and a
+2+2 coupe with barely viable rear seats (think Mustang or
+Camaro back seats). I had always wanted a Z31. And now, I
+had just set up a meeting with a guy to buy his.
+
+[MIZUMI_PURCHASED.jpeg HERE]
+
+This Z was the exact spec I was looking for, too. The N/A
+engine was perfect because I had always been planning an
+engine swap. It was the regular 2 seater, and had the
+best feature of all: t-tops. I convinced my roommates (who
+at this point I had known for 2 months?) that I absolutely
+*needed* to see this car. They agreed to the side-quest, and
+off we went to meet the previous owner. 
+
+When I went to purchase the car, I arrived at a house with
+several large dumptrucks in the yard. To me, this was
+naturally a good sign, as Eva's previous owner ALSO had
+dumptrucks in the yard. Upon looking at the car, I saw that
+it had essentially no rust. This was the moment that I
+decided I was going to purchase this car, less something
+crazy happening on a test drive. A rust-free car from the
+80's is hard enough to come by on it's own, let alone one in
+the exact spec you want. This Z was a royal blue color,
+which was not a factory option. There was some minor paint
+damage around the car, which was almost certainly from a
+shoddy paint job. Nonetheless, the car started right up and
+ran and only had one minor fault: the brakes. The pedal was
+soft, and it was clear that something was not all there in
+the front brakes. The car stopped safely, but in retrospect
+needed the front calipers rebuilt. I offered the previous
+owner $3,200, and became the owner of Mizumi.
+
+I started to drive Mizumi from the previous owners house,
+and immediately noticed several issues. First, the tires
+were *old*. They were significantly underinflated, and would
+need reinflated within a mile or two lest I wanted to
+destroy them. Second, the previous owner had installed 5%
+tint on all the windows *except* for the front windshield.
+This was almost certainly not legal, and give the impression
+of standing at the front of a movie theater and starting
+directly into the projector. Your eyes would adjust to daily
+out of the front, and as a result, could not see basically
+anything out of any of the other windows. Third, and most
+pressingly, Mizumi overheated within 10 miles of leaving the
+previous owner and broke down.
+
+[MIZUMI_BREAKDOWN.jpeg here]
+
+At this point, I'd like you to imagine being one of my
+roommates at this point. You've just met this Pitt student a
+couple of months ago before moving in with him sight unseen,
+several hundred miles away from home, at your first real
+adult job. He, on a roadtrip 3 hours from your temporary
+home, convinces you to meet an unknown man from Craigslist, to buy an
+old car. You are assured that this is all normal. Then, the
+car your new roommate has bought immediately breaks down,
+and leaves you all stuck for hours while waiting for a
+tow truck. Frankly, I'm beyond grateful they did not leave
+me behind.
+
+Mizumi never ran again in South or North Carolina after
+that. I towed the car to a Nissan dealership in Cary, NC
+before paying a silly sum for new tires and brakes on the
+car. I traveled back to Cary to try and make the roadtrip to
+SC, but once I collected the keys for the car, it just
+refused to start in the dealership parking lot. At that
+point I decided to have it shipped home to Pennsylvania.
+
+I did eventually get Mizumi running somewhat better once I
+returned to PA, but I discovered a nasty truth of my
+overheating issues. I had a significant head gasket leak in
+cylinder 3 that was burning all of my coolant. I took stock
+of the situation, and decided my long term plan of an engine swap
+for the car had become the main plan. I removed the engine
+from the car, and it's been a work in progress ever since.
+
+[https://youtu.be/pjmYWnOauSE]
+
+In the Lake Report, I'll bring you up to speed on how the
+engine swap is going.