Classic car bug bites
When I got the classic car bug, I got it bad. I wanted a cool old car and I’d stop at nothing to get one.
It turns out that the cure for the classic car bug is to acquire a classic car. That’s when you really find out what you’re made of.
It was the turn of the century and I’d been a parent for four years or so. Those are the trench warfare years when you sacrifice all your time and energy keeping your kids fed, amused and safe. Safe in particular, since your kids’ hobbies might include breaking lamps and trying to stick their fingers in the socket. Hours seemed like days, particularly over an endless winter. By the time spring finally arrived, I figured I’d paid my dues. I deserved a cool car.
It’s funny how you can talk yourself into and out of anything when you have the classic car bug. I was smart, I thought. I knew how much time and money it takes to restore a car and how unlikely cheap jerseys it is to get that money back when you sell it. Ideally, you’d buy a car that some other guy has done all the dirty work on. That was my plan.
The trouble is that I’m pretty cheap and the cost of a restored vehicle was out of my range. That’s when I saw this totally unique 1963 Pontiac Grand Prix. It was unrestored, but SO COOL. It was a two door hardtop with power windows and a 389 V8 just like the GTO! The paint was hideous, a cracked and faded white. But the interior was juicy: Brand new carpet, miles of red vinyl, bucket seats, console.
If you want to test the theory that love is blind, check out a car with flaws that you really want. When I opened the trunk, it was nothing but bad http://www.cheapjerseys11.com/ news: A landscape of rust. No worries, I thought. I’ll just get somebody to weld in some new sheet metal. That’ll be the first thing I do, no matter what.
Mechanically, it ran fine other than a click click click from a sticky valve. Maybe some STP could free that up. And the floaty ride? Just needed some shocks, that’s all.
I got it for 2,200 bucks cashed in an RRSP to do it, in fact. Yeah, I had it bad.
Reality has a way of interfering with your dreams when you’re the proud owner of an unrestored classic car. I couldn’t afford to paint it. Not right away. I couldn’t afford to get the engine and transmission rebuilt. Not right away.
Time was a problem as well. With two little kids running around, I couldn’t work on the car during the day. And my wife worked evenings, which meant that I could retreat to the garage only after the kiddies were in bed. and I was already exhausted.
And so I embarked on what you might call a Camrestoration simple, little, cheap things that didn’t much matter. Like spiffing up the engine. I discovered a product called Simple Green that degreased the block like nobody’s business. Then I removed the valve covers and painted them a nice baby blue. Presto: That was my engine rebuild. I never did get around to having sheet metal welded into the trunk. Instead, I applied a thick coat of Tremclad rust paint. It ran through the holes and dripped onto the garage floor and hardened so well that there’s no scraping it off. Good stuff, that Tremclad.
My idea of bodywork was replacing the window sweepers that keep rain from running into the doors. When I took the rear side panels off, I found four inches of silt.
At some point, I borrowed an auto restoration book from the library. The next owner? I’ll show him! I’ll have this car forever and it will be perfect!
Four years later, the next owner was handing over cash and driving away in my still unrestored Grand Prix.
It was like putting a book away before you’re finished reading it. Turning the TV off while the game’s in overtime. No sense of completion.
The next time, I’m buying a fully restored car no matter what. epaper, Digital Access, Subscriber Rewards), please input your Print Newspaper subscription phone number and postal code.
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