A Tribute to a Car

[PlymCrazy]

After taking ownership of the car I hunkered down to get to the bottom of a few issues that dad never quite got to.
1) The gas gauge didn't work.
2) The engine got hot when in stopped traffic.
3) The drivers brake light would intermittently fail to work.
4) The generator wasn't doing the job at idle.

I was proud as a peacock when I told dad I had fixed all that.

- I cleaned the potentiometer on the sending unit and that fixed the gas gauge issue.
- I installed a triple core radiator and a 6-bladed flex fan. That cured the overheating issue.
- After countless attempts to repair what I thought might be bad wiring or ground on the tail light assembly, the issue was that the turn signal switch wouldn't return fully home after a left turn. Manually "homed" the turn signal stick every time and that was the fix for the brake light issue.
- Brought the car to Golden Alternator/Starter on Elmgrove Rd in Greece, NY and they updated the existing generator/VR setup to an alternator (one wire IIRC). I believe those folks are still in business today. That cured the charging issue.

After all that, we stripped all the paint off. And tons of it. Body was solid all around. Just as dad suspected when he ran his magnet all over it before buying it. We repainted it black. Here's what it looked like. We redid the exhaust to exit out in front of the rear wheels. Thrush mufflers. Air shocks on the rear. Had one snag where I couldn't locate a rear drum for it. Wound up finding a match from a '58 Edsel down in a FL junkyard through an old Hemmings catalog.

 

[1STMP]

Wow. Yeah, usually new cars are associated with excitement and fun; the opportunity to show it off to family and friends while really getting to know its features. Sounds like you never had that chance. Instead you got to spend hours in it thinking about the loss of your dad.

The memories of that trip will always
be with me.
His funeral took place in the veterans
section of the cemetery, in December.
Very cold @ -20.
I was worried the engine would freeze.
as It didn't have a tank heater. The
heater worked well, though, and with
the hard top and steel doors on, it
was comfortable. The radio sucked.
2 days there, and two days back,
listening to nothing but road and
engine noise.

 

[qkcuda]

I'll chime in. Although I have had several Barracudas over the years, the last 1969 I owned, I had for 25 years and brought from a worn out 318 car to a 500 cubic inch 11.5 second 120 mph quarter mile sleeper. I decided to sell it when someone made me an offer I couldn't refuse. I had had wheel hop issues and front end issues that had thwarted my racing activities. Even so, I still had serious second thoughts when I sold it. I now have a new 1966 Charger project that is a much better cruiser, and has already made the 800 mile round trip to Carlisle twice. I would never have attempted that in the cuda, but I do miss the sheer joy of unleashing that power in the quarter mile. Torque makes me smile.

 

[440 PHIXX]

You had to see me coming on this thread Hawk lol...

My first car was a 1959 Ford, 2 DR Ranch Wagon. Here's a pic of it in 1984 when my dad brought it home for her 25th birthday. It had a BB 352 with a 2-speed Ford-o-matic in it and a 9" rear end.


View attachment 1503174



I was given (2) options on my 16th birthday. I could give my dad $2500 for his '56 Chevy or he'd give me the "59 Ford for free. I opted for the free car of course lol. Here's what it looked like in '89 when I got it. It had (2) repaints after buying it for mom, looking for the right color combo. I'm on the right. My Collie "Spike" is there in the right corner.

View attachment 1503175

View attachment 1503176

View attachment 1503182

Man… that is a kool wagon! If I hit that billion $ lottery… I’d get a ‘59 Chevy Sedan Delivery.

 

[HawkRod]

No wonder you had a vibration in the driveline before your last road trip LoL.

Haha. Well, actually, that was from me deleting parts of the iso suspension in the rear, although it took me almost 30 years to discover this!
A Slap Stik shifter is a great and very reliable shifter, and I don't quite remember what I had screwed up with it that allowed the ratchet mechanism to not catch. I have a faint memory that it was something with the handle (mine was cracked as many old ones were). But, that may not be accurate.
Regardless, somehow that brand new AAMCO rebuild handled the full throttle shift into reverse without damage - probably because the rear wheels broke loose!

After taking ownership of the car I hunkered down to get to the bottom of a few issues that dad never quite got to.
1) The gas gauge didn't work.
2) The engine got hot when in stopped traffic.
3) The drivers brake light would intermittently fail to work.
4) The generator wasn't doing the job at idle.

I was proud as a peacock when I told dad I had fixed all that.

- I cleaned the potentiometer on the sending unit and that fixed the gas gauge issue.
- I installed a triple core radiator and a 6-bladed flex fan. That cured the overheating issue.
- After countless attempts to repair what I thought might be bad wiring or ground on the tail light assembly, the issue was that the turn signal switch wouldn't return fully home after a left turn. Manually "homed" the turn signal stick every time and that was the fix for the brake light issue.
- Brought the car to Golden Alternator/Starter on Elmgrove Rd in Greece, NY and they updated the existing generator/VR setup to an alternator (one wire IIRC). I believe those folks are still in business today. That cured the charging issue.

After all that, we stripped all the paint off. And tons of it. Body was solid all around. Just as dad suspected when he ran his magnet all over it before buying it. We repainted it black. Here's what it looked like. We redid the exhaust to exit out in front of the rear wheels. Thrush mufflers. Air shocks on the rear. Had one snag where I couldn't locate a rear drum for it. Wound up finding a match from a '58 Edsel down in a FL junkyard through an old Hemmings catalog.

I think that's what starts making these cars special: when you hunker down and put blood, sweat and tears into your personal (and only) ride. Also, there is pride that goes along with the fact that you did the work yourself.

 

[Hey-O]

My first Mopar was a 1967 Dodge Dart GT. My dad drove it off the showroom floor. After 8 years, I got it from my dad as a second car to play with and in hopes of keeping it in the family. The 273 came out, along with the 904 and the 8.25. In went the 340, 727 and the 8.75. I traded it in for a new car for my wife to be. I found it several years later in a guys driveway about a mile from where we bought our second home. I stopped and talk to him and man was it screwed up. Nothing was left of it, except the plastic card that was in a pocket on the core support with my dads name still on it. He offered it back to me for 400 bucks, this was 1981. I walked away and as far as cars go, that was the biggest mistake I ever made, I should have bought it back.......... This is me after I restored it, after getting it from my dad. I was on my way to the dealer to trade it in. The picture was taken in front of my wife's parents house. That proved to be a sad day for my family........ Great thread!!

 

[PlymCrazy]

My first Mopar was a 1967 Dodge Dart GT. My dad drove it off the showroom floor. After 8 years, I got it from my dad as a second car to play with and in hopes of keeping it in the family. The 273 came out, along with the 904 and the 8.25. In went the 340, 727 and the 8.75. I traded it in for a new car for my wife to be. I found it several years later in a guys driveway about a mile from where we bought our second home. I stopped and talk to him and man was it screwed up. Nothing was left of it, except the plastic card that was in a pocket on the core support with my dads name still on it. He offered it back to me for 400 bucks, this was 1981. I walked away and as far as cars go, that was the biggest mistake I ever made, I should have bought it back.......... This is me after I restored it, after getting it from my dad. I was on my way to the dealer to trade it in. The picture was taken in front of my wife's parents house. That proved to be a sad day for my family........ Great thread!!
View attachment 1503511

Hardtop and vinyl? I don't see that combo on an A-body too often in my journeys. Maybe I need to get out more lol. Beautiful car man

 

[Hey-O]

Hardtop and vinyl? I don't see that combo on an A-body too often in my journeys. Maybe I need to get out more lol. Beautiful car man

Thank You!! Hardtop, vinyl, A/C, optional bumper guards and head rests. It cost 3600 hundred and my mom thought they were going to go broke over it!! It was one of the proudest days of my dad's life. He wanted that car BAD. I'd give a 100 thousand to have it back! I screwed up......

 

[HawkRod]

The College Years...

As I said in my previous installment, I could probably fill a small book with stories about the car, including during high school. The car was a reliable and sturdy daily driver car, and I spent a lot of time behind the wheel going places. I had installed a Sparkomatic cassette radio (or course by cutting up the original instrument cluster) along with Jensen 6 x 9 speakers in the rear. This required that I relocate the rear defroster motor. I solved this by putting a speaker grill on it and just letting it lay below the package tray. Now I had tthe latest technology anyone could ever want. My radio even had the 'skip' feature which allowed the automatic fast forwarding to the next song. What more could you want?!?

In 1983, I graduated high school and started college. I went to Penn State, but decided to do two years at a branch campus first so I could save some money by living at home. For you locals, I went to a campus called the Ogontz Campus outside of Philadelphia, although today it has been renamed the Abington Campus. A few of us from high school (guys and gals) were going there, so we made a car pool and took turns driving the group to school. We also hung out together at Ogontz and had lunch together. One day, a girl was eating her sandwich alone so one of the ladies in our group invited her to have lunch with us, and this became routine. She drove a Pontiac Astre wagon (basically a Vega wagon), until one day it blew the engine; it had developed an oil leak and then ran dry of oil. NOT a good thing for an engine.

Now it just so happens this girl was really cute, so I gallantly offered to drive her until she got a new car. She was staying at her grandparents house, so I would pick her up and drop her off there every day. This meant I would not be able to participate in the car pool, but hey - did I say she was cute?!? Of course, this provided the opportunity to talk to each other more personally.

One notable story during this period happened around January or February 1984 in the snow. Just as we passed a particular entrance to the campus, my future wife apologized and stated she had needed to be dropped off there. No problem I said, "I'll turn around". So driving slowly, I hit the throttle hard and spun the rear wheels so I went into a slide. I managed to spin the car 180 degrees and stopped the slide in the opposite lane, facing the opposite direction so I could drive back to where we came from. It was perfectly executed, if I may say so myself! I probably couldn't have repeated that almost ever again, but my future wife was at first scared and then a smile went across her face and she said something like "wow, that was cool".

One day, as I was dropping her off in her grandparents driveway, I was standing with the trunk open as she was getting out her bookbag. As we said goodbye, a kiss 'just kind of happened'. So my future wife and I started dating in early 1984. Maybe it was more thanks to her car rather than mine, but my Road Runner certainly played a part in us getting together. Later on my good friend Barry (who some of you have met at the FBBO picnic), asked to borrow my car so he could take his future wife out on a date. He wanted a cool car to impress her!

By late 1984, we were dating pretty seriously. Her dad's best friend's daughter got married, so we went to the wedding. I wish I had more pictures of the car during high school and college, but the fact is it was 'just a car'. Film was expensive to process, so I might take pictures at special occasions or vacations. But as a poor college student, you didn't just 'waste' film taking pictures of your car! So the below two pictures are two of the only known pictures I have of the car during this time period. They happened to have been taken at the wedding we attended.

I was sporting a totally cool powder blue polyester suit - Dig it!!!

Note also my added rims and tires. How could you be more cool than driving around with slotted mags?!? I had also painted the 'nostrils' in the hood scoop with white paint to highlight them - I thought it looked cool.

Once we transferred up to Penn State main campus in State college PA, I, of course, drove it to get there. Actually, most kids did not have a car there full time, since you basically walked everywhere around campus. Students like me who had a car had to pay to park the car remotely in a parking lot far on the northern end of the campus. There, the car sat for weeks on end without being started. I distinctly remember walking up to get the car one February. It had snowed several times, it was brutally cold, and it was windy (it was always windy at State College in the winter time - brrr!). When I got to my car it was buried in a snow drift so I had to dig it out. But lo and behold, the 'ol girl fired right up and ran!

On new year's eve, December 31, 1985, I proposed to my wife. I had plans for us to go out to dinner, but then her grandparents screwed it up and suggested we all go out together. "Sounds great", she said. Usually it was great, because that meant they would pay and save us poor college students some money. But I wanted to ask her privately, so I had to try and make backup plans on the fly. Turns out my backup plans failed too. So finally, as we were driving to her aunt's house, I pulled into a large parking lot by a movie theater off of Route 309 near Doylestown PA. She was confused and a bit concerned when I asked her to step out of the car. Beside the open passenger door of my Road Runner, I got down on one knee and proposed.

The very last day of college I remember packing the car with all my stuff. It was packed to the hilt, but everything fit! I drove off the campus to start my new life "post college", with my trusty steed to take me wherever my next adventure took me....

A couple of small side stories:
* One of the Ogontz, Penn State parking areas had a long, narrow, one way driveway to get to it. It was slightly up hill, but not steep. It had rained and then frozen overnight, and runoff had gone down the right hand side of the driveway for at least 30-40 feet and frozen into a sheet of ice. Cars would get to this area and get stuck, since an open differential always spins the easiest wheel. All these kids taking about how great their front wheel drive cars were in the snow were getting stuck. Well, here I came with my Road Runner and drove right up it with no issues - thank you sure grip! One in particular (that I had helped push out of my way), was astounded that my old hot rod could easily drive through that with no issues while his 'great' front wheel drive got stuck.

* I have received two speeding tickets in the Road Runner, both while driving up to Bloomsburg to see my future wife. In one case, I followed two 'rabbits" who were ahead of me - I figured that would protect me because the lead guy would get the ticket (this was back in the 55 MPH speed limit days). They were doing almost 80 MPH and I decided that was just too fast. I was slowing down and as I passed a cop with radar, I was just dropping below 70. Well, he pulls out and instead of pulling them over, he pulled over the punk in the hot rod. He said I was going 78 MPH, which I wasn't - he obviously tagged the lead driver but figured I was guilty too. I tried (in vain) to fight that ticket, but that is another story...

* The Road Runner got me to start using seat belts regularly. The seat belts had been rolled up and inserted back. I decided it might not be a bad idea to use the seat belts for long trips. I unlocked and got them out, but found out that my car had a buzzer and light that never shut off if you didn't put the lap belt on. So I put it on. Every time. I eventually got rid of the annoying buzzer, but by then wearing a seat belt was a habit so I just kept it up!

Next installment will be post college and restoration...

 

[Hey-O]

I'm a suckers for a gal and car story. Most of mine start and end there. I sold my dart for Theresa and she bought me my Coronet.

 

[PlymCrazy]

Wow Hawk, no wonder the melancholy with selling the Roadrunner. And we haven't even heard the least of it yet it sounds. I'm grieving over it with you now man. Looking forward to the next installment already.

 

[68BabyBlue]

As those of you who have followed my posts already know all too well, my journey through life has been chronicled by Plymouth GTXs, seven in total, with the one that started it all 54 years ago now residing in my garage. Hawk has provided the perfect forum for me to tell the story of Baby Blue, the one I owned the longest (1983-91, and 2013 to 2021). Though not the most impressive by many definitions, the car carried the most unique history, both in terms of how it came to be, the road it traveled, and my life path during years I owned it. It was a cross roads car for me both times, purchased the month I graduated from law school, and sold the year before I retired.

Baby Blue came to be in the fall of 1967, when Norbert Bender, a machinist at the Goddard Space Center in Greenbelt, MD, sat down with a salesman to place an order for a new Sport Satellite. After the salesman pointed out that by upgrading to a GTX, he would get an automatic transmission as standard equipment, Mr. Bender agreed to accept the 440. He ordered a minimum of options - vinyl top, am radio, full wheel covers, and a sure grip rear. He drove the car to work for six years, until the gas crunch of 1974. My friend Bob Miller, whose dad was also a machinist at Goddard, bought it for $600. Bob drove the car for nine years, as well as running it at Capitol Raceway on a regular basis. He maintained the car meticulously, and because of limited funds, never modified it from stock.

Bob sold the car to me in 1983, after he got married, and acquired the '68 Camaro his dad had owned from new, leaving no garage space for the GTX. I saw the car in a Hemmings ad the month before I graduated from law school. My wife and I had just sold our first home to raise cash for me to open a law practice. I had sold my first GTX, a daily driver, for tuition two years before. I was showing some promise as a potential trial lawyer, and I used my newly acquired skill set to convince my wife to let me replace the GTX I had parted with, using part of the funds from the home sale. She gave me a budget of $4000.

When we returned to PA, I visited Clark Motor Company in State College, and tried to buy the Dealer Demonstrator I now own. Bill and Julie Clark told me buy the Hemmings car in Maryland instead, so I did, for $1800. My wife was thrilled I came in under budget. We sold our late model Mazda pick up, replacing it with an old VW beetle, and a 1975 Valiant with factory a/c. The Valiant cost the same as the GTX. My wife took the Valiant; she was working a commission sales job, and needed the more comfortable vehicle, as she was in the car all day. I had just the commute to the law office, and my night job as driving instructor at a tractor trailer school, so I drove the beetle, a horrific step down for a guy who had daily driven a GTX.

The law office turned out to be the worst fiasco of my career. Although I won a jury trial (my only one, never been defeated) months after passing the bar exam on the first try, I was bleeding money from day one, but we kept afloat with my wife's job, and the 6$ per hour I was making at the driving school.

The first week I worked at the school, class was interrupted when the director demanded to know who the student was who had parked the "old blue Dodge" in the parking lot reserved for staff. He knew I had a day job as a lawyer, and was shocked to discover the GTX was my car.

Shortly before I won the trial, the attorney who owned the office lost the tenant in the upper floor of the building. I was getting nervous - my student loan payments, deferred for nine months after graduation, were about to come due. I saw no cash flow coming into the office from my boss, who happened to have a trust fund that covered his financial needs outside the office, and I was serously concerned about whether he would keep the lights on. With no other legal job in sight, I hit the driving school up for more money, and when that failed, I took a part time job driving a dry bulk tanker for small Chicago company that had set up shop in State College.

That week, I bought groceries on a credit card because I had run out of cash. I thought long and hard about selling the GTX to keep going with the practice. Instead, I took a full time job with the trucking company, and kept Baby Blue. When I told my boss I was leaving to go back on the truck, he was incredibly relieved, because I had spared him the agony of telling me he was selling the building and retiring. The small trucking company went on to become the largest dry bulk carrier in North America, with 900 units, and in 1997, I became a vice president and general counsel.

I traded Baby Blue off to buy another GTX as my fortunes improved, but destiny brought the car back to me 22 years later. Topic for another post.

My daughter in 1985, car newly painted with my truck driving money. On right in 1990, after I reached middle management.

 

[HawkRod]

As those of you who have followed my posts already know all too well, my journey through life has been chronicled by Plymouth GTXs, seven in total, with the one that started it all 54 years ago now residing in my garage. Hawk has provided the perfect forum for me to tell the story of Baby Blue, the one I owned the longest (1983-91, and 2013 to 2021). Though not the most impressive by many definitions, the car carried the most unique history, both in terms of how it came to be, the road it traveled, and my life path during years I owned it. It was a cross roads car for me both times, purchased the month I graduated from law school, and sold the year before I retired.

Baby Blue came to be in the fall of 1967, when Norbert Bender, a machinist at the Goddard Space Center in Greenbelt, MD, sat down with a salesman to place an order for a new Sport Satellite. After the salesman pointed out that by upgrading to a GTX, he would get an automatic transmission as standard equipment, Mr. Bender agreed to accept the 440. He ordered a minimum of options - vinyl top, am radio, full wheel covers, and a sure grip rear. He drove the car to work for six years, until the gas crunch of 1974. My friend Bob Miller, whose dad was also a machinist at Goddard, bought it for $600. Bob drove the car for nine years, as well as running it at Capitol Raceway on a regular basis. He maintained the car meticulously, and because of limited funds, never modified it from stock.

Bob sold the car to me in 1983, after he got married, and acquired the '68 Camaro his dad had owned from new, leaving no garage space for the GTX. I saw the car in a Hemmings ad the month before I graduated from law school. My wife and I had just sold our first home to raise cash for me to open a law practice. I had sold my first GTX, a daily driver, for tuition two years before. I was showing some promise as a potential trial lawyer, and I used my newly acquired skill set to convince my wife to let me replace the GTX I had parted with, using part of the funds from the home sale. She gave me a budget of $4000.

When we returned to PA, I visited Clark Motor Company in State College, and tried to buy the Dealer Demonstrator I now own. Bill and Julie Clark told me buy the Hemmings car in Maryland instead, so I did, for $1800. My wife was thrilled I came in under budget. We sold our late model Mazda pick up, replacing it with an old VW beetle, and a 1975 Valiant with factory a/c. The Valiant cost the same as the GTX. My wife took the Valiant; she was working a commission sales job, and needed the more comfortable vehicle, as she was in the car all day. I had just the commute to the law office, and my night job as driving instructor at a tractor trailer school, so I drove the beetle, a horrific step down for a guy who had daily driven a GTX.

The law office turned out to be the worst fiasco of my career. Although I won a jury trial (my only one, never been defeated) months after passing the bar exam on the first try, I was bleeding money from day one, but we kept afloat with my wife's job, and the 6$ per hour I was making at the driving school.

The first week I worked at the school, class was interrupted when the director demanded to know who the student was who had parked the "old blue Dodge" in the parking lot reserved for staff. He knew I had a day job as a lawyer, and was shocked to discover the GTX was my car.

Shortly before I won the trial, the attorney who owned the office lost the tenant in the upper floor of the building. I was getting nervous - my student loan payments, deferred for nine months after graduation, were about to come due. I saw no cash flow coming into office from my boss, who happened to have a trust fund that covered his financial needs outside the office, and I was serously concerned about whether he would keep the lights on. With no other legal job in sight, I hit the driving school up for more money, and when that failed, I took a part time job driving a dry bulk tanker for small Chicago company that had set up shop in State College.

That week, I bought groceries on a credit card because I had run out of cash. I thought long and hard about selling the GTX to keep going with the practice. Instead, I took a full time job with the trucking company, and kept Baby Blue. When I told my boss I was leaving to go back on the truck, he was incredibly relieved, because I had spared him the agony of telling me he was selling the building and retiring. The small trucking company went on the become the largest dry bulk carrier in North America, with 900 units. I traded Baby Blue off to buy another GTX as my fortunes improved, but destiny brought the car back to me 22 years later. Topic for another post.



View attachment 1503551View attachment 1503552
My daughter in 1985, car newly painted with my truck driving money. On right in 1990, after I reached middle management.

Great story Adam. These old cars are cool, but what makes them really cool are the stories and events they were part of. One of my favorite parts of the old car hobby is hearing these old stories.

 

[PlymCrazy]

As those of you who have followed my posts already know all too well, my journey through life has been chronicled by Plymouth GTXs, seven in total, with the one that started it all 54 years ago now residing in my garage. Hawk has provided the perfect forum for me to tell the story of Baby Blue, the one I owned the longest (1983-91, and 2013 to 2021). Though not the most impressive by many definitions, the car carried the most unique history, both in terms of how it came to be, the road it traveled, and my life path during years I owned it. It was a cross roads car for me both times, purchased the month I graduated from law school, and sold the year before I retired.

Baby Blue came to be in the fall of 1967, when Norbert Bender, a machinist at the Goddard Space Center in Greenbelt, MD, sat down with a salesman to place an order for a new Sport Satellite. After the salesman pointed out that by upgrading to a GTX, he would get an automatic transmission as standard equipment, Mr. Bender agreed to accept the 440. He ordered a minimum of options - vinyl top, am radio, full wheel covers, and a sure grip rear. He drove the car to work for six years, until the gas crunch of 1974. My friend Bob Miller, whose dad was also a machinist at Goddard, bought it for $600. Bob drove the car for nine years, as well as running it at Capitol Raceway on a regular basis. He maintained the car meticulously, and because of limited funds, never modified it from stock.

Bob sold the car to me in 1983, after he got married, and acquired the '68 Camaro his dad had owned from new, leaving no garage space for the GTX. I saw the car in a Hemmings ad the month before I graduated from law school. My wife and I had just sold our first home to raise cash for me to open a law practice. I had sold my first GTX, a daily driver, for tuition two years before. I was showing some promise as a potential trial lawyer, and I used my newly acquired skill set to convince my wife to let me replace the GTX I had parted with, using part of the funds from the home sale. She gave me a budget of $4000.

When we returned to PA, I visited Clark Motor Company in State College, and tried to buy the Dealer Demonstrator I now own. Bill and Julie Clark told me buy the Hemmings car in Maryland instead, so I did, for $1800. My wife was thrilled I came in under budget. We sold our late model Mazda pick up, replacing it with an old VW beetle, and a 1975 Valiant with factory a/c. The Valiant cost the same as the GTX. My wife took the Valiant; she was working a commission sales job, and needed the more comfortable vehicle, as she was in the car all day. I had just the commute to the law office, and my night job as driving instructor at a tractor trailer school, so I drove the beetle, a horrific step down for a guy who had daily driven a GTX.

The law office turned out to be the worst fiasco of my career. Although I won a jury trial (my only one, never been defeated) months after passing the bar exam on the first try, I was bleeding money from day one, but we kept afloat with my wife's job, and the 6$ per hour I was making at the driving school.

The first week I worked at the school, class was interrupted when the director demanded to know who the student was who had parked the "old blue Dodge" in the parking lot reserved for staff. He knew I had a day job as a lawyer, and was shocked to discover the GTX was my car.

Shortly before I won the trial, the attorney who owned the office lost the tenant in the upper floor of the building. I was getting nervous - my student loan payments, deferred for nine months after graduation, were about to come due. I saw no cash flow coming into office from my boss, who happened to have a trust fund that covered his financial needs outside the office, and I was serously concerned about whether he would keep the lights on. With no other legal job in sight, I hit the driving school up for more money, and when that failed, I took a part time job driving a dry bulk tanker for small Chicago company that had set up shop in State College.

That week, I bought groceries on a credit card because I had run out of cash. I thought long and hard about selling the GTX to keep going with the practice. Instead, I took a full time job with the trucking company, and kept Baby Blue. When I told my boss I was leaving to go back on the truck, he was incredibly relieved, because I had spared him the agony of telling me he was selling the building and retiring. The small trucking company went on the become the largest dry bulk carrier in North America, with 900 units. I traded Baby Blue off to buy another GTX as my fortunes improved, but destiny brought the car back to me 22 years later. Topic for another post.



View attachment 1503551View attachment 1503552
My daughter in 1985, car newly painted with my truck driving money. On right in 1990, after I reached middle management.

Adam, I pick up on new details each time I hear the story of BabyBlue.
Your victorious jury trial ..."My only one, never been defeated"

 

[68BabyBlue]

Great story Adam. These old cars are cool, but what makes them really cool are the stories and events they were part of. One of my favorite parts of the old car hobby is hearing these old stories.

Thanks, Hawk. I'm also fascinated by how the lives of so many of us in the hobby have intersected as well. During the time you were attending Penn State at the main campus, my car was a frequent fixture along College Avenue. From 1985-87, I frequented the Haagen Daz shop on the corner of Fraser Street on a regular basis (I easily downed a double scoop sundae with all the trimmings in those days,) we probably crossed paths without knowing it.

When I was driving the Demonstrator to Carlisle, I stopped for gas, and Bill Clark's son Rob pulled in beside me. What were the odds? You can imagine the conversation that took place.

 

[HawkRod]

Thanks, Hawk. I'm also fascinated by how the lives of so many of us in the hobby have intersected as well. During the time you were attending Penn State at the main campus, my car was a frequent fixture along College Avenue. From 1985-87, I frequented the Haagen Daz shop on the corner of Fraser Street on a regular basis (I easily downed a double scoop sundae with all the trimmings in those days,) we probably crossed paths without knowing it.

When I was driving the Demonstrator to Carlisle, I stopped for gas, and Bill Clark's son Rob pulled in beside me. What were the odds? You can imagine the conversation that took place.

I was in Mifflin Hall, basically at the corner of Mifflin and Pollock. IIRC, the creamery was the corner of Fraser and Pollock. Anyway, it was really close. As a poor college student, getting Creamery ice cream was a treat, so we didn't do it that often. But I walked along Pollock all the time, so I may very well could have seen your car. If I did, I guarantee you I checked it out!

 

[Budnicks]

great thread @HawkRod
loven' the stories from everyone

 

[PlymCrazy]

I don't quite have a story that connects my first car to actually meeting my wife. However, she did get her hands dirty working on that first car of mine (the said '59 Ford I mentioned previously)...

December 1988:
I was in study hall at Churchville-Chili HS and this one particular girl caught my eye, so much so I felt I'd regret it forever if I didn't at least give it a try. So I wrote a note and passed it along asking her out. She was a familiar face to me in passing over the previous school years, but I had never formally met her nor did I even know her name. She replied back (via note) and said something like "no, I don't even know you". The note went back and forth until she agreed she'd at least give me a chance to get to know her. About a month later she finally agreed to date me. That's the beginning of the journey with a girl who I'd eventually marry a few years later. Still with her today. We were 15 years old when that first note was passed...

Fast forward to circa 1992:
That '59 Ranch Wagon of mine needed a head gasket. Still only my girlfriend at the time, she helped me do a teardown to get to the head gaskets. She's a stickler for organization so she labeled everything using masking tape as the parts were removed. She even went as far as labeling which push rod went to what valve and cylinder and the direction it went back in. Together, we reassembled that motor and got it running perfectly with minimal issues. She had zero engine experience prior to that. But that experience with her has given me one more thing to brag about in regards to her ever since.


Here we are nearly 30 years ago.

And here would be my wife’s response to that goofy look on my face in that last pic.

 

[HawkRod]

Post College and Restoration

My wife and I got married right after we graduated college in 1987. I bought (very cheaply) a 1974 four door Dodge Dart as a "hand me down" from my parents. It was a leaning tower of power with the coldest A/C I have ever had - but that car is another story. The main point of bringing that up was that it gave me an opportunity to work on my Road Runner. I didn't need it as a daily driver now and I wanted to restore it, so I started down the path to do just that.

Now I want to take a minute to define the word restore, as it means something different to me today than it did back then. When I restored my 1970 Road Runner in 2014 - 2015, it was a rotisserie job where every nut and bolt was rebuilt, refurbished etc. AND, there was attention to detail and thought put into originality. I didn't touch the VIN plate, and I made sure the body stampings remained intact, etc.
When I started the restoration of my 1973 Road Runner in 1988, I wanted to fix the car up. "Numbers matching" and "factory correct" didn't even resonate in my brain. And quite frankly I'm not sure anyone else cared either. Additionally, while both my wife and I had jobs, we had student loans and a good number of expenses, so I was not flush with cash. I couldn't afford a "no expense spared" restoration...
...but I still tried as best as I could.

Here are a couple of shots as I was loading the car up to bring it to Bloomsburg, PA, where the bodywork was to be done. As you can see, I had already pulled off the front fenders and grill. The first shot is me driving it up on the trailer - it was still a running, driving car at this point.

Who knows what I was fussing over under the hood, but I'm sure it was important!

Rust has started in the rear quarter panels, and some behind the front wheels on the fenders - typical spots. Back then, there was no replacement sheet metal. So through my father-in-law's friend, I bought a Satellite in California and had it shipped back to PA. It was a perfectly running and driving car, and from a rust perspective, that car was immaculate. People said I should just bolt Road Runner stuff on that car, but then it wouldn't be my Road Runner, so I didn't want to do that. Of course, that would have been rebadging a car which is frowned upon today, but again, back then, no one really cared. Anyway, we started to tear the Satellite apart. I only have found one Polaroid picture of that parts car. At this point, the rear quarters had been removed for use on my car. I remember going up to scavenge other parts I thought might be valuable for the restoration - you can see my tool box in the bottom right of the picture.

A word about the color of the car. I had intended to repaint it the original color. Today, I wish I would have done that, because it was actually pretty cool in bright sunlight. A kind of root beer color that was brown without direct light, but then it turned a metallic gold in the sun. But the metallic paints faded/ degraded over time and just became brown. Done over again, I think it could be really cool. I even bought a replacement white stripe.
But then problems with the interior hit. It was a parchment gold interior, and my front seats were shot. At that time, Legendary Interiors only made black or white seat covers. If you wanted any other color you had to get white seats and dye them yourself. I heard that was problematic so that left me with a choice of white or black. Again, in hindsight, I would have chosen white to match the white stripe, but at the time I didn't want white due to it getting dirty. So black was my only real choice. I didn't want a black interior with the brown car, and I had always liked Lemon Twist (an available 1973 extra cost color), so I decided to change the car Lemon Twist.
Here are a couple of shots as my car was getting worked on.

I would have told you that the whole quarters were replaced, but looking at the picture above it looks like only patch panels were used? Again, I had limited finds (and I don't do bodywork), so I had to have this work done as reasonably as possible - no rotisserie restoration here was financially possible!

All this work took some time due to funds, parts, etc. But by circa 1992, the bodywork was done and the car was painted.

So at this point the bodywork was done, but nothing else. I at least now had a house (the same one I still live in) and a two car garage. So in the garage it went!

Somewhere, I have a picture where I had torn the entire dash out of the car, but I can't seem to find it. Below is a picture before I tore it out.

When the dash was out, I painted it black and added a tach (which it was not built with). In cleaning things up, I drilled out the VIN rivets and saw that the VIN had scratches in the black. Lo and behold, it was shiny underneath! So out came the steel wool and I polished up that sucker, got a couple of rivets out and reinstalled my beautiful work back on the dash. Of course, today, I'd slap myself silly for doing that, but back then, very few people cared, including, obviously, me.

I bought a black stripe and got that on the car. Little by little, it was taking shape! The interior still needed to be finished, but exterior wise, she was looking good!

Work on the interior stalled. My wife and I had two kids, and work pressures were there too. Family always had to come first, so when funds and time were available I made progress. Finally I signed up for a local car show called Lansdale Under the Lights. It was held June 1997 and this was the push to get the car done. Finally, after pulling two all nighters, I finished the car up at noon on the day of the show. The show started at 4 PM, so I had made it by 4 hours!

I was so happy I parked the car right in the middle of my front yard where everyone could see it! I have the original, full picture somewhere, but I scanned it in many years ago and started to make a 'car only' shot. Never quite finished but this is the only shot I could find from that day.

The car was done the restoration, and now it was time to start driving and enjoying it!

Next Installment: A 'Second First'

 

[68BabyBlue]

Hawk, your description of your car’s original color was perfect! My dad specified the same after agonizing over paint chips for a fully loaded Dart he special ordered in 1973. The first time we saw it in sunlight we were awestruck. But after owning a Lemon Twist GTX, I can’t say you made a bad choice.