Has anyone had the opportunity to build, or finish a build that had some special meaning? I remember talking to my dad a while before he passed and how he kind of wishes he was able to finish his 40 Ford tudor standard. If memory serves he wanted it black with no running boards, babymoons with white walls. It had a 302/C4 with the forbidden front suspension. I think he just wanted to keep it simple with a few little details here and there. Who knows maybe someday I'll be able to take his ideas and make them happen.
My Pop had a old IH pickup (one year to new for this site) and a 69 Mach 1 after the state would not give him another driver's license. He gave me the IH and my brother the Mach 1. I tore into the IH, shorten the frame, installed a Chevy short box, and painted the truck a Corvette yellow, and had a buddy redo the interior. The only thing that was the same as when my Pop had was the steering wheel. After 10 years of use, I still use the truck while my brother is still looking at the Mach 1. The highpoint of the IH ownership is what I took my Pop and Mr. Mach 1 brother out for breakfast and while driving down the road, said, "you know Pop, we could of been riding in a Mustang Mach 1".
The car I am currently working on. Was my Dads (The actual car. Not just one like it). I remember riding around in it as a kid. He passed a little over 20yrs ago. Me as a kid (Ignore date. Digital picture of an actual picture) Now:
When I was 4 my dad bought a new mercury 1951 I got to ride in it till I was 11. I loved the car so I have a 51 now and still get misty thinking about the rides and vacations in the old merc.
This then make it street legal. Other possibility, make an old times trailer , load the car and tow it with my ‘48 F1 to car gatherings .
My Dad was a 100% Buick guy so they are in my blood. The first new Buick he bought was a 55 Special four door sedan, I was 4 years old and still remember the day we drove it out of the dealer's garage. It served our family well for years. It ended up being my first car when I was about 14. I drove the wheels of it for over two years when I hit a deer, put a radiator to get it back on the road. The next week the rear end shit it self so it got parked and I bought a 65 Skylark. I always had a soft spot for that old 55 so when I saw one listed I could afford it came home with me. It looks like hell but it is Arizona car, solid as a brick, runs like a top with great patina (I call it surface rust) Hope to have it on the road next summer. Plans are for a dark blue paint job with like blue top like the first one. The best part is the guy I bought it from was going to restore it and had bought almost every NOS piece of chrome including bumpers back in the late 60's and he thru it all in with the car !! Wish Dad was still around to see and drive it!!
My Fargo, a build I started when I was 13, 30 years later I’m driving it. My dad worked on it with me until he passed away. A future project will be my ‘59 Dodge Custom Royal, that was the car my dad always wanted but never got.
Posted before, we've got a build thread going on "Sam"... The old truck is more of a driver quality restoration than a hotrod or custom. I don't have the heart to customize it. My dad wasn't a big car guy but leaned more to original style when he did find an old ride that interested him. I took my first ride in this bouncing across a hay field with Daddy feeding cows out of the back. I might have been five years old, and being a runt, could see over the dash, barely, standing in what was left of the floorboard. It took me from age 12 until my thirties to talk Dad's farmer friend/boss out of the old truck. Crazy as it seems, I don't even want to change the steering wheel, as every time I grip it, I'm reminded of those old calloused hands that worked so hard to provide for me. I'd give anything to have him along for a ride in it. Yeah, I'm a sentimental sap. And when I'm finished, I'll be a sentimental sap with a rolling time machine.
I have my late Son’s 82 F100 pickup. I pulled the engine and have it in my Lincoln. Someday I’d like to do a frame off build on it like he was going to do. Would be finished in hot rod flat black like he wanted. Don’t know if I’ll ever do it though. Maybe when I get the Lincoln where I want it, if that ever happens.
When I acquired my heart issues I was in the hospital going over the bucket list, one thing on it was getting my truck together that was a 2 decade plus stalled project. Thankfully I was able to get it together including another bucket list item, a roots blower on that baby.
This past March, I lost my father. I am currently finishing up a divorce, but I am quite sure that my Dad's Forty will become mine once that nonsense is over. His car was the spitting image of his first car, that my grandfather bought for him in 1950. He traded the first one off in 1954, and always regretted it. So, in 1966-7 he saw an identical car on the road and chased the guy down and bought it. It has been in his garage since. I was born in 1972, so it has always been a part of my life. We talked to no end about what we were going to do with it. I have a very good roadmap of what he wanted, and it will be built to reflect his wishes (well, 90% or more). Pics will come in a new thread once it is officially mine.
It's been languishing now for 15yrs as an 'on and off build'. I'm planning on it being my 'swan song' and last [home] ground up build, as such I'll be putting my heart and soul into finishing it before I get too old. Before dad passed years ago he got to see an earlier similar 'long term' ground up restoration (OT 66 Fairlane convertible)
A little history on my 34 Dodge delivery. I was told that it was bought new as an ambulance in 1934. I did proved that to be true when I sand blasted it down to bare metal. { The original paint was white with green crosses.} It was then built in the 60's as street and dragstrip car. I first saw it as a kid on my bicycle. It did a massive burnout at the traffic light in our small town one night. I told myself then, that I would buy that Hot Rod some day. I pestered the owner, over, and over to sell it to me. He findly did! I was probably around 25 at the time. It had went throught several Buick torque monster mills. The frame wasn't boxed, and had been twisted out of shape pretty bad. So I found a 33 sedan in a junkyard for parts, and for a good frame. I've had it for over 40 years now. The seats fold fowards so I can sleep in it at the beach, or at rod runs. So yes it is a Dream car, and very { Sentimenal too! }
Absolutely! In the late 60's I was just out of high school and I bought a '40 Chev coupe. My buddy and I made it into a gasser with 413 Mopar, Torqueflite, and '59 Mopar rear axle. Drove it for a year until I got drafted, and sold it to another friend. Ever since then I regretted it, and wanted another old Chevy coupe, but really hoped it was a '39. I liked the '39 Chev grille and taillights much more than my '40. Two years ago I found my '39 coupe at the local swap meet and bought it cheap, because it was a rust bucket! It kept me busy the last two years building it into the image I had in my head of what I wanted back in the late 60's. Never wanted a show car, just another old gasser style car I could drive the wheels off, and enjoy.
Dad's truck. Dad wanted to get back into hot rodding after a long break to raise a family, and he bought this. Over the course of owning it 20+ yrs we had a lot of fun changing & rebuilding everything working on it together!!! Engine, EFI, A/C, wiring, wheels and tires, custom headers and exhaust, custom Ron Davis radiator, custom gas tank, gauges, Impala steering wheel, Baer 4 wheel disc brakes, 12 bolt rear end, DynaMat. We changed everything but the bitchin flames!! LOL. Had great times going to all the Good Guys shows, Bakersfield Hot Rod reunions doing push truck duty, and other cruises and shows, etc. Now that I have inherited it, since I lost my Dad to cancer, I have continued to work on it, and use it and enjoy it in his memory!! Love and miss you Dad!
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