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After the first week went by, I couldn't help but call him. It took me another week to finally get him on the phone. Our discussion was very short but I did learn that the car was no longer complete. I guess after 40 years, some parts had disappeared which should be expected. He had a guy do some work for him on the car but somehow during the process, the motor, trans and rear-end were stolen. And now the car has been sitting in a warehouse for the past 5-10 years. The black interior that my dad stitched up on my grandma's dining room table was still with the car. All of the fenders were there. The running boards were there. He was pretty sure he had the grill. He said he didn't know what it was worth so just make him a fair offer and take the car home. To say that I was excited was an understatement. I barely slept.
Well. We finally agreed to meet on the 22nd of December. I brought a trailer and several cashiers checks. Dad and I had no idea what we were going to find. Not everyone's definition of "in good shape" is the same. And the owner was very vague on the phone. The car was stored at his place of business. When we arrived, he greeted us and told us to pull around back and he would open up the overhead door. It was more exciting than Bob Barker revealing a new Cadillac behind door #3 on the Price Is Right. The car is now painted a cinnamon red. The firewall is missing as well as the quarter window garnishes, hood and a few other small parts. The body is amazing. The front half of the floor is new but not installed. The rear half has a couple patches but they may have even been there when dad had it. The wood is fantastic. The dash is uncut. The frame is another story. It's save able but the craftsmanship is shoddy at best. The rear was set up with ladder bars and an original cross spring but of course the rear was missing. The front end has some sort of disc brake conversion but it's sketchy. We're not going to use it. The tube axle was notched to clear some of the steering components. Dad and I agreed before we left that we would make a really solid offer for the car. We wanted to be fair and knew that it may be a one shot opportunity to buy it and we didn't want to insult him and lose the chance of buying it back. A fair price was reached rather quickly. The biggest obstacle was figuring out how to load the thing up on the trailer with no rear end.
Once it was loaded up on the trailer, we headed back to Illinois. We promptly removed all the fenders and boards and washed all of the body panels off. It looked even better as we cleaned it up. Dad sanded through a little of the black paint on the frame and sure enough the old red paint was under there. What a cool feeling it was to know that this was the car that pops raced around in.
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