Made the trip out to the Philly area this weekend and hauled the new heap home. Despite the slightly bent 51 grille, the car is a 52 Bel Air. I've never bought a car more or less sight unseen before, but I've been looking for one for a while, and at the price I got it for, I figured it was worth it in scrap alone The trip was pretty uneventful overall, but getting this thing loaded onto the trailer was a little bit of a chore (not running and no brakes). I wasn't having much luck finding anybody local who was free this weekend with a trailer, so I rented a uhaul truck/trailer and went to get it myself. If I had it to do over again, I would probably just get it hauled 1 way with a rollback. The cost probably would have been pretty close to what I paid for the round trip rental. I have some more pics that the little woman took of the car that I'll try to get posted when I get a chance. This pic makes the car look a bit better than it actually is, a bondo "artist" got ahold of the car before the guy I bought it off of. Aside from the dechroming, the car appears to be pretty orginal mechanically. Still has a straight 6/3 on the tree (which I'm ashamed to admit I have no idea how to operate) although I suspect that the 6 might be slightly later model and I haven't had a chance to find/run numbers to verify what the motor is yet. The reason I suspect a later/non-original motor is that I was told that the standard shift 52s were all 216s, and this has a 235 (perimeter bolt) valve cover/head on it. The plan at this point is just to get the thing mechanically sound and get it inspected, then drop it a couple inches from the nosebleed altitude it sits at now.
The Jalopy Journal
