Everybody must have at least one. Here is mine. Back in the 60's, when I was 15, there was an old lady that lived a few miles from me. Now if you have seen "Hoarders" on t.v., you know the type. She had shit piled all over the place, buildings packed full, etc. Back in her woods sat a 1938 Ford 2 dr. The rear was up on blocks, with the differential hanging loose from the springs. The car was complete. The window glass was pretty much "fogged" and you could hardly see from any window. I tried to buy it, but she wouldn't sell. I kept after her and finally she agreed to sell it to me for $20.00, ONLY if she could keep the back seat for "sentimental reasons". Her words, not mine. The woman was 80 years old, I didn't ask what those reasons were. I paid her the $20.00, bolted up the rear end and my brother and I pulled it home with our Ford tractor. We put in an old battery and some gas, pulled it about 10 yards and it started! I have never seen anything smoke so much! The mechanical brakes didn't work, so when it started, I ran into the back of the tractor. I drove that thing down the road at 62 mph. That's all it would do. No brakes, barely able to see out of the windshield, and tubes sticking out of the cracked tires! How did I ever live to be 63? In later years, after that lady had died, my brother and I went back to her place. It had been pretty much picked over by that time, but there, under a tree, right where we left it, were the remains of that back seat. Those were good times. Tom
thats proabbly why the highway patroll checked brakes as part of a traffic stop then?? failed that before too, but the engine blew up a little while later think of it they never check tires and brakes anymore unless the DOT finds you
The old car story that everybody has probably heard in one form or another . Is the one about the old lady selling the 1963 Chevrolet ( the years change depends who you hear the story from) in the paper for a crazy low amount and the car was a 63 Corvette . Story goes it belonged to her son who died in Vietnam. They even wrote a song about that ol' tale. Always wondered if there was any truth to that one. - Mayor
Driving my 50 Willys Jeepster through town in FL and an old lady, over 75, walks up to me at a light and says, "I lost my virginity in a car just like this". So I pulled over to the curb and let her sit in the car for a few minutes. She had a dreamy look in her eye and said, "Thank You"
Lost mine in the back seat of my 59 Impala 2dr. HT. Later lost a wheel as I was going home one night. Tom
Was loading groceries in the trunk of the sled at a local market. Older Mennonite lady came up with her cart and asked "Young man" ( I'm 65) is that a Hudson ? I said no,that's a Mercury. She replied "Well you ruined it".
I was putting gas in my shoebox and a guy walks up and asks, "What was it before you got a hold of it?"...I had to laugh..
Wasn't there a 53' corvette found brick walled in a corner of a store basement? Someone showed me the newspaper clipping with a pic of the wall being taken down and showing the vette behind it but I don't think I ever saw a whole story on it; This was probably around 1980..
Back when I was about 11 years old and my brother was 2 years younger. We were on a (vacation) to to a farm of some relatives in South Dakota. Well they had some old tractors , an old c cab truck, and a 32 chevy coupe. We got the 32 fired up and proceeded to tear up the turned over corn fields, me driving and my little brother on the running board. It took awhile but I finally threw him off, scraped him up pretty good but he got back on the running board and off we went for another round. Man that kid was tough. But later we had to clean out the hog pens That wasn't as much fun.
I got SO tired of hearing that story about any number of collectible cars, so I decided to do a "turnaround" on it and had a lot of fun busting people's bubbles on what was clearly a BS story... I'd ask all kinds of questions about the car, what color? 4 speed or automatic??? IN the garage or BEHIND it??? etc... and when I'd get enough information to BS them right back I'd get all wide eyed and say "YEAH I BOUGHT THAT CAR!!! Made a TON of money on it too! The lady was really sweet and when I said that I wanted to get it back into the hands of someone that would restore it to the way that it was when her son bought it, she lit up like a Christmas tree and gave me a GREAT deal on it as long as I PROMISED that it would get restored..." Didn't hear that story NEARLY as much after that.
Back in the 70's, my dad's brother (both car guys from way back) had a 59 chevy 4 door that he had picked up pretty cheap. Each of the five kids was given the car as their first car to learn how to drive, and then after THAT car, they'd get something a little more current. When the two youngest cousins had their turn with the car, and every time that we'd visit, we'd have a contest to see who could back the car down their 1/2 mile gravel lane the fastest... How we never wrecked that car I'll never know!!! My uncle also used to have a big family reunion every year, and a few days after bitching out my brother and I for going off-roading and abusing the hell out of an old 73 Plymouth Fury that we had originally bought as a "winter beater", we went to the reunion with my mom & dad. Later in the day as we walked up behind my dad, we got to hear the tail end of the story that he was telling my uncle "Remember the time that we bought that Model A and were running from the cops and had to drive it through the woods all the way back to the house in the dark so that we didn't get caught...??? And remember that other time when....???" We stood there and took in two or three good stories and THEN let our Dad know that we were standing there listening. He got kind of a sheepish grin on his face and NEVER gave us a hard time for the stupid crap that we did with our beater cars after that.
Good One!!! The 'Vietnam Car' has been around forever - first version I heard it was a factory dual-quad '57 Chevy sitting in a garage, and the garage burned down!!! There was a '57 Chev hardtop sitting behind a fence at a run-down property about 4 miles from my place that was SUPPOSED to be a Vietnam Car. If you stopped to ask about it rumor was an old lady would come out and curse you out..... Property was sold about 2 years ago, fence came down and the '57 (badly rotted along the rockers and sitting on the frame) was flat-bedded out.....
Actually, I bought a "Vietnam car" for real. No hot rod Chevy but it was a 1964 Triumph TR-4. British Racing Green, wire wheels, under 20,000 miles (This was in, maybe, 1985). Same story, the owner never came home. The family owned an old ice house in New Lexington, Ohio and the car was stored there. Vandals had broken out the windows and the tires were flat but the car was extremely nice.
My dear departed Dad, my brother and I, went to Dean Martin's home town, Stubenville, Ohio to buy a 38 Dodge pickup back in the early 70s. Back then we always used a tow bar to drag shit home. It was an old 1ton version with a 9' box and was an ex oil field work truck...no rust!! We checked all the tires real good and put the best ones on for the long ride back to Motown. It just didn't want to follow us real well on turns. Stiffer steering, big ol tires, long way from home. I was maybe 15-16 at the time and I volunteered to ride in the truck and steer as needed to get it back in one trip...in November! Damn that was cold ride, and when it got to be too much to deal with I'd shove in the clutch and just tap the trans to lightly grind the gears and Dad could hear that and pull over. One of those things I'll never forget. We intended to shorten the frame and box to 1/4 ton dimensions but we ended up really liking the long wheelbase once we got it home. It ended up with all 65 Caddy drivetrain and I used it as my driver for my HS graduation. Here's some old shots:
I sorta have the reverse Vietnam story- Growing up, my neighbor was a Vietnam Vet, and while he was in country, his Mother had sold his pride and joy - a midnight blue '57 Bel Air - since then, he had dreamed of getting another one, but of course a growing family always put the kibitz on that, until 1981(I was 11) his wife, along with my Mother and Mrs. Barbie from across the street were "pro" yard sale/estate sale shoppers -they found a 57 210 in a barn at an estate sale - no one had known it was there, and Mrs. Graham bought it and brought it home - it was in rough shape, but he immediately had it tagged and bought new bias plys for it...and then it sat. In the rain. And snow. A year later, Mr. Graham finds out a family at the far end of the hood is moving away, and had a 57 Bel Air for sale - he promptly grabbed it up, tagged it and it too, sat. In the rain and snow, right behind the 210, on the street...I, being the only kid in the hood with no pre-license project, bugged the hell out him to sell me one of them to build...No Dice. I swear I asked him about the cars every 4-6 months or so, always, "nope, I'm gonna restore them soon"... I'm a few months from turning 41, and have now bought my childhood home from my parents...yep the cars are still sitting there, in the elements, although he did have a driveway poured and they sit there now- all he has ever done is replace the tires when they rot an fail...He still hasnt budged, although he has hinted at the notion of selling them, he just wont give them up yet. His wife has urged me to continue to inquire about them, that he'll soon crumble, but damn, its depressing coming home every day from work and seeing those cars sitting there, waiting. Both cars have been insured and legally tagged for 30 years, yet neither of them have been driven in that time, and I think the last time either of them were even started was 1988.
Well my "first" car was a 1981 ford ranger my dad had given me, it took me a week to trade it for a 42 ford jeep. This was summer and i had no license, the jeep had NO plates. Im getting rather close to home when a cop tries to pull me over, so i slow WAY down and dont stop, im scared out of my wits and then veer right down a 45 degree hill into the scrub brush dessert of northern california. I immediately stomp the pedal and head home, hiding the jeep in the back of the house under a tarp. Certain there would be helicopters and such after me. Well my dad found it and laughed that it took me no time to trade it for something old. I never told him about my 5mph "chase" with the police. LOL
FWIW, there's an annual safety inspection required in WV Edit: just remembered, I'm pretty sure there's an exception for cars with antique tags.
Back in the 80s, I was working at a Salvage yard in Ohio. I get a call from an attorney who is settling the remains of an estate. Tells me his client has a 63 Chevrolet that needs to be sold asap. With the legend of the above 63 Corvette in mind, I ask him details about the model of the car. All that he can recall is that his client bought the car new in 1963. The attorney is not a car guy and he doesn't have the details with him. No, he has not seen the car but knows the car is parked in his client's garage. He is anxious to sell the car and close the estate. This is not the kind of car that our yard would want but, if I don't buy this car, it will turn out to be a 63 Split Window with ALL the options. I offer $35.00. He accepts. I send out a flat bed, including the 35.00 to pick up the Chevrolet. Hours later, the truck returns. What I had just bought was indeed a 63 Chevrolet... Corvair. Seems that the client's garage wasn't enough to protect the 63 as it was rusted from top to bottom. The boss wasn't pleased with my executive decision. I coughed up the 35. bucks from my pocket and instructed the flat bed driver to take the remains to the scrap pile. Oh well, it was a cheap bet that I was willing to pay. I did not want to be the source of another "Legend of the 63 Chevy that I shoulda bought" Dale Cleveland OH
This is great! Hopefully the backseat in my new '38 has remained chaste all of these years, but ill give it a good cleaning just in case!
Back in the mid 60's when I was 4 or 5 my older brother and I were playing in the family sedan. I think it was a late 50's Buick or Olds. He was behind the wheel as I was pushing buttons and stuff. At one point I pulled the column shifter to neutral and the car proceeded to roll backwards down the dirt driveway, both of us screaming all the way not able to reach the pedals. The car finally stopped when the rear wheels fell into a cellar hole. My 1st driving experience !!!
When I was 18 or so, I worked at a heat treating shop. Off in a corner was a door with crap piled aorund it. One day I opened the door and inside were 2 Avantis. Both with Paxtons. Years later, the place closed, no idea what happened to those 2 sweet and mint cars.
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