Part One Part Two Part Three Part Four The Search There I sat, 2 and a half months ago, holding six thousand dollars in cash. I had just watched my 1969 Chevrolet C10 Pickup loaded up on a flatbed towtruck for the first leg of its journey to Australia. Out in the garage was everything I had dreamed about for the last year... my 1929 Model A Roadster Pickup – Modified. I had drawn pictures. I have a huge collections of images scraped from every corner of the Internet. I had plans & schemes. I saw it in my sleep. The $6K was enough to turn this rough pile of parts into the loud, violent hot rod that I lusted for. I even named the damn thing. The Oxblood Special. What made me decide to sell the carefully collected parts. Why was I tossing my chance to have a real Roadster? Since I was a little guy I have always loved the lines of the early 50's Chevrolet sedans. All the trim, lowered just a bit, hopped up engine. Shiny paint. Tuck and roll vinyl. Perfect Mild Custom. This was my chance. I could build that hot rod, and it would kick ass, but it’s not what I had always wanted. The other reason is my sons. I can take my sons in a sedan, no way in that death trap modified. Like flipping a switch in my head; the hot rod was out and a new dream started. I had to find a 1949 to 1953 Chevrolet 2 door sedan. All trim intact. Original interior. Not chopped. Not lowered… Stock as a frickin rock. The search was on. Ebay, Craigslist, friends – I was consumed. Click – click – click I found one in Long Beach. Blue. In the crappy Craigslist pix it looked straight. All the trim was there. It looked like and older restoration. It had skirts and wide white bias plys tires. A beauty. The guy was asking $8000. Ug. I emailed him a lowballed offer… $5500 and my Model A (the stack of parts is worth about $3000). No deal. He was firm on the 8K and had no interest in a project. Back to my search… 2 weeks went by. I emailed Jeff (his name is Jeff) and offered him $6000. No response for 3 days. The answer was a simple “No”. Three more days go by… Another email “The lowest I would go is $7000.Your Welcome, Jeff” I loved the “Your Welcome” part – he was giving in! I waited 10 days. (it hurt) My wife and I were going through the ringer in other parts of our lives. It seemed like so many things were falling apart… I was extremely unhappy. She says to me “Just buy the car, if it only makes you happy for a week it will be worth it”. I emailed Jeff and offered him $6800. He accepted! (Don’t think he was happy about it, though). I was given the instructions on removing the money from the bank from my wife. She handed me a couple of checks to cash… one was a check that she had gotten for her birthday. I was floored. Man this chick must love me like crazy. Saturday came and a buddy of mine and I loaded into my Nissan and drove up to Long Beach. We made record time up there… and there it was. A little strange bodywork here and there, cracked wind-wing. It made some bad transmission noise, but I expected that from Jeff’s descriptions. The deal was on, I was hooked. I must have rocked a big dopey smile all the slow ride back to Lemon Grove. 60 MPH top speed. A mile from my house the clutch failed. My friend Shane jumped in and got it started in second. He bombed it all the rest of the way to my house; me driving my Xterra infront of him giving him the thumbs up to let him know that the intersection was clear. Another search was on: I needed a replacement rear end, a clutch and a transmission. <table style="width:auto;"><tr><td></td></tr><tr><td style="font-family:arial,sans-serif; font-size:11px; text-align:right">From 1952 Styleline Deluxe</td></tr></table> More soon…
I sure like the way this story begins. I think we can all relate. Keep up the good work...and keep us up to date as your story plays out!
Welcome to the asylum! It is good to to see another crazy 49-52 guy. The car looks great as is, just get her fixed and drive around with a proud grin on your face. (like it's possible to just leave it alone- snicker). So what is the plan for this fine ride?
Thanks guys - I'll have part 2 posted soon. And yeah, 49ratfink, they are pretty funny looking, aren't they! - Joe
The Jalopy Journal
