[FleetsidePaul]

Originally Posted by special-K

That car was truly sweet. Garage kept original owner low mile car. It looked restored. This was around '95. The old guy rubbed the side of the garage opening backing out and he decided it was time to stop driving. It was basic as can be, 6cyl/3spd manual steering & brakes. Back then I said if it had been a big block Caprice I never would have bought it for my kid's first car. Back then every car built in the '60s wasn't necessarily all that valuable. He was good to it and was a hit with the girls. My thoughts were build a 409 COPO Wagon when he was done with it. He ran it through HS and college, 7 years all together. It met it's demise when he was giving a cousin his first driving lesson. That was poor judgement. Who needs to learn to drive in a big old car with manual steering and 3 0n the tree? The cousin turned it into their grandmom's driveway and took it way too wide (manual steering) and was heading for a big tree. All confused and inexperienced, he got all crossed up on the depress clutch pedal thing and rammed the tree. My X thought I'd kill him if I saw it and never let me see it (Grandmom was her ex-mother in law). I don't know what difference seeing it would make. The car was done and he needed something else. I called a buddy who is a '65 fullsize fanatic, and owns a junkyard, to come pick it up.

I wish I had pictures of what he did with it. He already had a nice Caprice wagon for his wife. He had our body shop friend convert it to a 2dr using sport coupe doors and made a sedan delivery out of it. It got a blown big block, tubbed out, triple tail lights, and painted that sunset orange color GM had in the early '00s.

I bought a 67 Toyota Corona for $400. Same story. An elderly woman had hit the garage pulling it in. She was the original owner. It was in nice shape except for a dented fender. and that wasn't even that bad. But her son had pulled the plug on her driving. I guess that wasn't the first incident.

I gave it to my nephew. He needed a car. He was so happy. You would have thought I gave him a Ferrari. He drove it all through college and delivered pizzas in it to make ends meet.

I gave it to him outright and never asked him for any money. I refused to take any. He came over one time and when he left I noticed that there was $400 in cash sitting on my table. I may have refused the money but he refused not to pay. He was a good kid. Still is.