Motion Pictures Should You Have Kept It?

Jive-Bomber submitted a new blog post:

Should You Have Kept It?

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Unfortunately, there has been more than 1 or 2 that I have regretted selling. My '56 Belair and my '50 Catalina are the two that I most regret.

Not actual photo of my '56 but exactly what it looked like!

 

Yes,several.But in my teens and 20's my thoughts had many paths.

 

Hmmm...My father`s `61 Studebaker Hawk 4 speed in Flamingo. Should have kept that one....

 

'36 three window. Paid $140. Sold for $300. Made a killing...

 

A list as long as my arm, fortunately I was able to get one of them back. HRP

 

Yes, should have kept a couple. Luckily got one back but still regret losing my 59 Vette. One reason I haven't gotten rid of my old Chevy is that I think I would regret it later even though I have lost interest in it.

 

Nope, there's a reason for every sale. Had i kept everything, I would have a very impressive flathead v8 parts collection by now though. I can't complain though.

 

I think everyone has the damn i wish I hadn’t sold it thing. I know for me there is a couple of them i still think about.

 

I still have the truck I got in 1977....that's enough for me. Many others have come and gone. That's ok, they were fun for a while.

 

I've sold several cars that I wish I had back now but weren't important to me at the time. Had a 50 Merc in 1966, bought from a friend of my older brother, sold it and bought a 57 BelAire two door post, sold it and bought a 64 SS. Would like to have another Merc and a 57 but not willing to pay what they sell for now, guess I don't want them bad enough. Also had a 56 BelAire four door hardtop and a 49 Ford F1 in the early 70's as second cars but once again sold for something else I wanted at the time. Got three Model A's at the moment and would probably sell the stock 29 but the wife likes it. A 30 pickup with a counterbalanced and inserted engine as a daily driver, showing it's age since it has sat outside for over 15 years, thinking about upgrading and selling it. A half built 30 V8 A with a flathead and will depend on how well I like it as to weather it stays or goes. Decided a long time ago that you can't keep everything and really no regrets.

 

My problem has always been that whatever I have at the time is absolutely worthless to anyone except me. That's including a 1957 Dodge Coronet 2dr hardtop, a 1963 1/2 Galaxie Sports Roof, a 1960 Ford Starliner, 2 1951 Fords, one a business coupe and the other a 2dr sedan. Also a 1953 Ford Customline coupe, and a dozen Falcons..... not going to list all the off topic cars that now bring good money but were a dime a dozen when I owned them.

 

I always regretted selling my '55 Bel Air Sport Coupe, it went to Honolulu Hawaii in 1986, I wonder how it looks now. Photo of foreign magazine coverage era 1984-85.

 

I have so many questions for the lady in the video.... how did you keep it from rusting away in Wisconsin? She made it sound like that 57 is her only vehicle. Has it been painted? Is the interior original? Very cool story.

As to the question, my 40 Ford Sedan I sold two years ago. Shoulda kept it longer. But I don't think it was a forever keeper.

 

62 rebel's list is right up my alley.

 

Should of kept this one!

 

There's only one vehicle that I regret selling. At the time they were cheap and not a lot of people wanted them. Now not only is the type of truck I had highly sought after, but I find out that it was the model with the least numbers made.

 

Oh, lots of them. But I always remember them as being much nicer that they really were. Case in point:
For years I had a "wanted" ad on the HAMB classifieds for my trusty 57 Pontiac. Truth is, I sold it because the engine developed a wrist pin knock, I blew 1st gear out of the Muncie, fell asleep one night after a party and smacked the I-84 guardrail with the left {!} side of the car....crease from headlight to taillight and a carb fire ruined the paint on the hood...prolly warped the metal too. Got assholed at a stop light so hard it broke the motor mounts..may have tweaked the frame, I dunno.
But it looks good in the photo, eh?

 

My story is similar to Ryan's.......My '60 'Vette was 1 of 1.......Tasco Turquoise, matching interior, 315 HP fuel injection, power windows, power top, 4-speed, hard top, posi, etc. I sold it in '71......it recently sold at Barrett-Jackson Palm Beach last April for $190K. If only I had a crystal ball.......

 

I did keep my highschool car/hotrod ,one of them anyway,having built two starting in Jr high. But one was stolden in late 64=my full custom Henry J that had made Car Craft mag. in jan of 1963. I'd like to think I would of kept it also?but not likely,keeping my 28A hotrod bobtailed roadster was hard enough over the years from 59 when I did it. I did have a 54 Vett for only a week in 63,but Dad made me give it back{I had traded the "J" for it and the kid screwed up my "J" by showing off to his buddys,making it backfire/tell he blow an intake gasket. At that point his Dad told him they were going to get the old Vett back. And my Dad didn't want a lawsuet. And then there was a 55 Study Speedster,well you know over the years there is more then one,I'd like back !!

 

Wander if that 57 ever had any restoration work? Sure is Slick!
...had a few I shoulda kept but then I may not have gotten to enjoy all the others I acquired over the years.....sell one or trade, get another etc.
Life

 

I didn't keep them all, but I kept the one that matters....my first one....

 

My father said to me one time, why didn't you keep that '57 Bel Air hardtop? I then asked him why he didn't keep that Hudson convertible with the Twin H.

 

This thread made me think of my old T Bucket. The one I'm building now has a stretched body. The way CCR builds a stretched T Bucket is by moving the drive train 8" forward to fit the extended body. If I had kept my old T, all I would have had to do was move the motor and transmission mounts forward 8". I'd be driving her now.

But, when I sold my old T, I was just plain bored with it and I always knew I could build one better and with a lot more attention to detail.... so I am. So, no real regrets, but I think about what may have been... sometimes.

 

Too many to mention but kinda regret selling my original 57 Fuely BelAir a couple of years back-wife said to keep it but Oh well-Kept her 55 Chevy-had it 41 years and it's not going anywhere! Also regret selling my 50 Olds 88 coupe-it was a great car and in excellent shape with a few period mods-sold it in 67.

 

No regrets. Why? No rear view mirror in my life.

 

Every thing I ever sold of left for a reason. Some were good reasons, some were not.

15 years ago I actually had a chance to buy back one of my favorite off topic cars. At the time it was priced right, but was in rough condition, just like it was the 1st time I bought it. Standing and looking at it, I couldn't picture building it any way other then the way I built it the 1st time. As the years had passed between that 1st time I built it and the 2nd time I had the chance to rebuild it, my life had changed dramatically. The car I built the 1st time would not have fit into the life I was living at the 2nd chance. I walked away without regrets.

It was that point where I realized that all of the cars and trucks from my past probably wouldn't fit where my life has progressed to. I decided it was time to leave the cars of the past, in the past. Something new and exciting may be just around the corner that will fit well in my current life. I don't want to miss that chance because I was too busy looking back at things from my past. Gene

 

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ I agree with Gene, there are two projects I sold that I'd like to find and have again, but chances are very good I'd never finish them, I'm happy with the current ones. Bob

 

My shoebox about 10 years ago.

 

Hello,
Grace Braeger’s 57 Chevy 4 door hardtop is a fabulous looking car. she was a traveler with a trunk full of necessities like a spare gas can and radiator coolant. She is a classy lady… she drives her memories daily!

Having owned a couple of cool cars as a teen and twenty something adults, we can all look back as to that question: should you have kept it? Each hot rod had its ups and downs. But, if we had a great big garage for storage and selling each car wasn’t predicated by necessities for the future, (college, growing family, etc.) we probably would have kept all of them.

The first 40 Ford Sedan Delivery was Flathead powered, a downgrade from what was in it when I first saw it driving around in Bixby Knolls. As cool as it was and as much fun it gave us for thousands of miles, it served its purpose during those fun teenage high school years.

The 58 Impala was the most fun and a holds a suitcase of memories growing up as a teenager. It was a racer, cruiser, show car, and all around cool car. If we had kept it, the value would have increased all of these years later. At the time, no one thought of storage of old cars, but used them as daily drivers. They were to be sold when it was necessary for the next step in your life. The Impala was sold to a friend because I needed a long distance reliable car (1965 El Camino) to get to and from college up in Northern California.

The 1940 Willys coupe 671 SBC was a car that fit the action for a couple of teenage boys doing their first hot rod build. It was extremely fun watching, learning, and having fun building something from scratch. Skills learned back then still hang around, today, but, mostly in our heads and applications if needed.


We could have kept the Willys coupe as everything was pristine from the hood back to the chromed, rear bumper. The hood had a slight dent and the front fenders were slightly pushed back when it hit the flexible chain link spectator’s side fence at Lions Dragstrip. The front bumper was totaled. It was the devastation of the interior, the huge hole in the cabin floor and the resulting memories of what took place in 1960 that put a damper on recovery. Bad “JUJU”… would have continued.

Today, someone would have told us we were crazy taking the empty body to the scrap yard for peanuts. But, if the voodoo feeling was not there in the aftermath, we would have kept the Willys coupe for a total rebuild, this time with a B&M/C&O stick hydro with a blanket. (Getting our mom calmed down would have been another story !)

Jnaki

After a stint on a custom, Harley Sportster and a 2nd Ford Sedan Delivery, our lives slowed down a bit and the necessity for an expanding family arrived. Those two enjoyable vehicles were sold to enhance the family’s future lifestyle.

“Kudos” are given to all of you guys that have a stash of hot rods old and new. But, when we were growing up, one just did not store a car away for the future. The future was right around the corner and selling the old car for a more reliable new one was the mode of the day. In some heated conversation back in the 60s: It was said that… “lives change, so does the daily mode of transportation to fit those needs.” (busses, cars, bikes, motorcycles, etc.)

Struggling for the future was built in and we somehow succeeded.