You can NEVER go home again !,... or can you ?

Man, my wife and I were just talking about this the other night. When we had our first son I taught it was time to be an adult and sell our OT car for more of a family car. My son was 2 years old at the time and cried like crazy when they drove off. My wife said we just made a huge mistake. I also felt like crying but I thought it was the right thing to do. NOT! My wife still misses that car. If I could find it I would bring it back for all of the great memories we have and would create.

With what you shared about the history I can't see how you could possibly walk away. Good luck with your decision and I sincerely hope it's the right one.

 

Not sure what car it is, but my first car was a 21 Window VW Transporter.
I wouldnt care what condition it was in, if I had the money and it was for sale I would buy it in a instant.
But, if it was a pinto. I would help cut that thing up.

 

Harms Way,
You know as well as I do that if you do not rebuild it, you will regret it the rest of your life. There are times that is just the right thing to do.
If you don't at least try, it will forever bother you.
I can see that Money is not the main factor here, reliving something we look fondly back on, is always a draw. what care is it what others think. You know what you want to do, so do it.

been there done that, was wonderful to bring it back to life, and then fondly motor about the countryside, granted it was not the same as the last time, but it was good enough to warrant the effort.

 

This is starting to get to me. Here is the one I could bring back if I could. 348, 3 spd. Lost a wheel one night and did some damage. A buddy wanted the engine and I sold him the car. He pulled the engine and set the body in the weeds to rot. He offered it back to me about 35 years ago. I went to check it out and discovered the entire floor was gone, probably most of the frame too. I hate to think of what it's like now. If there was any way it could be saved, I'd go for it, but there is no hope. I lost my virginity in the back seat of that Impala. If there is still the slightest hope for saving yours, do it. I do know how you feel.
Tom

 

I have not had to cope with the one car that "got away" honestly, i kept my first car..
BUT, i looked long and hard for my dad's old 63 Impala that he bought new, and said regardless of it's condition if i found it, i'd buy it. It could have been in two pieces, it still would have come home with me.
Never found it, but did find it's clone..it sad shape.
But bought it even needing a LOT of work.

All that being said, if i was in your shoes i'd buy the car back.
Some times you can't be logical and try to weigh out the cost's. We are strange creatures and will spend a lot of time and money just simply because we want to....
You live once...and chances are you won't sell it once you bring it back to life anyway so as long as you're not going to go hungry restoring it, the cost's won't matter anyway.

Best of luck...and i want to know what the hell it is!
hahaha

Tony

 

i almost sold my dads OT pickup. really really glad i didnt. if i had to sell stuff, that would be the last thing to go. my uncle wants his car back. hes not looking for it...i am. i think you should do it. you found the love of your life in that car. it might be metal but its family. a wave of nostalgia is strong emotion; and there is nothing like it. i think the fact that you are tempted to do this is the reason do buy it. there are those out there that never looked back. never thought twice about it; you are clearly not one of them. just think of growing old together and cruising in that car. you wont regret it.

 

Nostalgia is a seductive liar.

 

Wish I could find the 1964 GTO I had back in 1986, supposed to be in Oak Park now.

 

In the spring of 1965, a wonderful childless neighbor couple gave me my first car, a green, 4 door '54 Dodge. It had been their first car, and they showed me home movies of it on their honeymoon. I gave it to a friend when I was drafted in the fall of '66. It was getting tired by then, so he ran it in a figure 8 race at some point, and junked it. I came across it in a little country junk yard in the late '70's and felt that same emotional pull. The place was a swamp, the car was partly submerged and in full decay. I sat in it, and touched it, and walked away. That's how I remember it now - forlorn and abandoned. I wish I'd never seen it. If it was still there, I'd bring it home and park it behind the barn.

 

If it makes you feel better buy it. Id do it without thinking about it if I felt like it. Its just money, you can make more tomorrow. Regret sucks.

 

it's your baby, it's too far gone, your the one that has to put it out of it's misery. buy it, part it out...give it a fitting end.

 

NO WAY!
Tom

 

Take a look around the HAMB at the absolute scrap that has been brought back from the dead. How bad can it be?

 

Exactly,,HRP

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dzINc8fTDhE

 

When my parents got married, they bought a '79 Vette from a friend of my moms, for the most part it sat in our driveway, most of my childhood was spent in that car pretending I was Batman, it was my favorite toy, I was about 12 when my dad sold it to my cousin for 2k (I cried when it left), he did nothing with it, 6 years later he wanted to sell it for 3k, I should of bought it.. but didn't have $$$.. the feelings came back, I wanted to cry..

Fast forward to me being 24, I had the money, couldn't find the car anymore, it sold to some doctor who redid it I heard, so to fill the VOID I went out and bought a C5 vette, was it awesome? YES!!.. My dad never wanted to drive it though.. I think cause he was still guilty about selling the '79.. he's like that. I got over it.. sold the C5 and well.. THAN BOUGHT MY DAD a '54 Chevy Truck.. Just cause I thought he'd look good in it, and you know what.. He does!.. AND he drives the sh*t out of that truck!!..

I asked him if he'd ever want to sell the truck to buy something cooler.. He looked at me like I was CRAZY!!.. I can tell he'd never let it go.. HAHA

I guess the truck is cooler than the vette ever could be, to him...

My Point is... well.. don't have a point.. but I guess I'm over wanting the old vette.. although I still love that body style to this day, Id never buy the old one back cause its been replaced by something that means more.. and reading this thread has made me realize that that truck should never leave our family, thanks. -Anthony

 

Put a video of it on Youtube, we need to know what this heart throb is!

~Alden

 

Do it. We all have this sickness. I would do the same.

 

I just got a car back that I had when I was 18 (I'm 34 now). I will start a build thread in the next couple of weeks (or months) when I start work on it again. It has a very cool story before I got and the time between now and when I got rid of it 10 years ago. It is a major project, but it was saved from the crusher 4 years ago and might end up with some parts from a Joe Bailon Custom from the late 50's...hopefully I did not say too much.

 

Hopefully you haven't told the current owner why this particular car is so important to you, or you will have absolutely no dickering power. Don't think I'd do it but not in your shoes.

 

I was talking to a body man the other day - he had just finished showing me a 1966 Mustang which he had been restoring for someone. He explained to me how all the panels were formed by hand, since the aftermarket stuff fit poorly. Engine and suspension were all dialed in and it was a slick set up. I figured it better to not ask how much was put into the car, but he must have been able to tell the question was on my mind. The guy then explained that he had built the car the owner had always wanted, and proceeded to show me a pile of parts in the shop, which was almost a whole car. He explained to me something that we all know, but I had never heard put in this way: he equated it to romance. He said it was a horrible business decision to invest a lot of money into a car, but as with romance, we let our emotions run us, which is many times, a much better pay off than any monetary investment.

Buy the car in whatever condition - it has the memories most of us could only wish to have in ours and it has a romance (theoretical and literal) that is unparalleled.

 

Our 1954 Ford "Ranch Wagon" is prime example of a car that was purchased new and abused for many years by my wife's grandmother in her flower shop business hauling 5 gallon buckets full of water & flowers splashing all over creation

And then passed on to her father who used it for hunting & fishing,,to the point of water coming inside the car with the tail gate down while launching his boat,,and not having a truck using it to haul concrete blocks.

My wife learned to drive in this car,,when I played in a Band her grandmother let us use it after hours to hall equipment.

It finally was given to my wife,,she drove it and we even brought out twin girls home from the hospital (35 years ago) and then shortly after that a front spindle self destructed,,at that time parts were not easily found,,no internet,,so it sat in our barn for another 20 some odd years and continued to deteriorate.

I pulled it out of the barn shortly after joining the Hamb and quickly learned it was too far gone and would cost a kings ransom to get back into shape,,long story short I was urged to dive in head first into a shallow pool,,105 patch panels and 9 years and 1 month later she drove it for the first time,,,it was worth every penny for me knowing that family history will live on with the love she has for that old wagon. HRP

 

I last saw my old 58 impala that I drove to high school and some years after---I grew up a couple of hundred miles from here---forty years ago sitting on a corner for sale right here in town--wife said no--I wussed---I still look every time I pass that corner and hundreds of other places ---would I trade my vette I have had for 47 years ---HELL YES---GO FOR IT---black 62