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A Special Mopar Kept In The Family

wilmacmike

Well-Known Member
Local time
9:39 PM
Joined
Mar 10, 2016
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Location
Carson City, NV
Hello from Carson City, NV again.... A little bit of a long story.. Sorry I can ramble on...

Well here are some pictures of my Polara 500 I bought from my Uncle Vince.
Its been sitting outside on their drive way for years (since at least the late 80's).
It runs, and moves. It needs some work. The brakes are bad, a little light rust here and there, the front right fender is dented.

Here is how I was able to purchase the car.

This car was given to their son Jeff about 28 years ago (he was 20 then). I had just sold my third Polara 500 about that time. Whenever I would see my cousin Jeff or my uncle Vince they would both say "we still have that Polara". I was always telling them both that "if you ever want to sell it let me know". They would laugh.

Shortly after Jeff inherited the car he started to pull the interior out to change it from red to black. I remember the day I had stopped by, he was just re-installing the rear seat. It looked very nice in black. He had pulled the pasenger seat out that same day to get the quote on both front buckets. To this day the front seats have not been reupholsterd, and the passenger seat was never re-installed.

Sometime later he swapped a 383 4 barrel in for the standard 318 motor. He was always tinkering on the Polara. It was his dailey driver for quite awhile. Then he fell in love and got married, had a little girl. They bought a familly car, started a very successful photography business. Life got in the way of his time to spend on the Polara.

So it sat in my uncles driveway. Jeff would use it once in awhile. My uncle would started it up every so often to keep the motor oiled up.

I had gotten a terrible phone call one night in early February from my sister.

Jeff was killed in a horrible car accident. He had gone over a cliff in his jeep while driving home one night or very early in the morning. His vehicle went down about 150 feet or so while hitting some redwood trees on the way down. No one knew he was down there, until a lady was walking along the road and noticed the tire marks in the berm alongside of the road where he went off. She saw his red jeep at the bottom of the cliff.

The doctor said he was down there at least two days. He had not shown up at work on Monday morning. I think he was found wednesday morning. According to the autopsy he died instantly from a broken neck. No body is for sure on that, as he was bruised from his seat belt. But he was found in the passenger seat as if he was trying to get out of the jeep.

While at the funeral my uncle said something that I thought was a little odd to say at that time. "Mike, I still have the Polara".
My heart sunk... I told him, not now. Lets give it some time.

My cousin Jeff was very well known and loved in the bay area and mostly in the Santa Cruz area. He was a surfer who surfed all the time in Santa Cruz as well as many places around the world.

He built special Norton motorcycles he would race around the mountains in the area where he lived. Alice's restaurant has a memorial with his piture dedicated to him on their wall.

Its funny though. The road he died on is the the very popular Skyline Blvd. in the Santa Cruz mountains which he drove every day and night for over 20 years. He was killed just about a half mile from his home which sat right on Skyline Blvd. just down the road from Alice's restaurant.

I had been praying for the Lord to bless me in some way so that I might be able to afford to purchase one last Polara 500 so that my wife and I could enjoy the muscle car hobby together (I think I finally shook the sports car thing).

When my uncle Vince said I could have the Polara, I told him I would sell my 1937 DeSoto hot rod and my 1966 MG Midget so that I would be able to pay him for the car. He and my aunt worked very hard all their lives for everything that they had. No body helped them along the way. I could not take it for free. So he gave me a price, I paid him, and now its mine.

When I got the title I found out that Jeffs name was not on it. It was not yet transfered to him. The title was still in my uncles name.

So somewhere on this car I will put my cousin Jeff's name on it in remembrance to him. Maybe a dash plaque?

Love you Jeff.

R.I.P. Jeff Vincent Adan

We have to be careful of how or what we pray for. You never know what kind of pain God might put us through to enjoy our blessings.

God Bless America.....





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wilmacmike, Today at 8:26 PM Edit Report
wilmacmike, Today at 8:26 PM
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Sweet!
 
Nice, the Polara really held up well after being neglected all those years. Condolences to the family.
 
Bittersweet. Nice that the car is still in the family and your cousin is memorialized.
 
Great post!
Heart wrenching story, the car was destined to be with you and family
 
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