[Vic1947]

I think this ought to be a fun one. I was so tired last night I didn't say much about the circumstances. A friend found the wagon on FB marketplace. It took several days to arrange a meet where I could see it in person. It was located about 220 miles from us near St. Louis which is an easy drive on I-70. It had belonged to an older fellow who had passed away and was part of his estate. His son said that his mom had passed about 15 years ago and there was no one around to tell his dad NO anymore, so he'd accumulated over a dozen project cars, including this one. The seller mentioned he'd had over 3000 hits on the car in the first 24 hours. And probably, a half dozen guys tried to trade him a Harley for it. I believe I may have been the first to show up with cash, though.

I'd arranged for my buddy to meet me there if I bought it and he would trailer it to my house. However, the car seemed to run okay and the brakes sorta worked, so Kathy and I decided I'd drive it home and she would follow. If it broke down, we could always call Jim and have him load it up and haul it the rest of the way. Plus, my brother-in-law, Rick had already thrown down and said if I didn't at least try to drive it home, I didn't have a hair on my azz.

It was raining lightly when we left and I didn't even get out of the driveway before it died... the first of many, many times. It has a new carb on it, but something's not right. I got good at shifting it into neutral and revving the engine to keep it running if I had to slow down. The wipers worked, but the blades were shot, so I had just a small patch I could see out of. By the time we got it out on I-70 pointed back to KC, I knew I was in for a Roadkill episode. It topped out around 65, but was doing pretty good for awhile. We stopped at all the rest areas and several truck stops to check on things, but it seemed okay except for being down on power. None of the gauges worked, but they'd added some aftermarket ones. The only one of those that worked was the oil pressure and it held steady at 40psi. You could tell the engine was staying plenty cool so we forged ahead.

At about the halfway point, it nosed over and wouldn't run but about 50. Pulled off the road and discovered that the rubber gas pedal had slipped off the throttle arm and was sitting under it. After putting it back in place, it resumed doing 65, but was having an increasingly harder time pulling the hills. We made our last stop about 65 miles from home and by then, despite all the problems, it looked like we just might make it. When we rounded the corner to go up the hill to our house, it was barely making 5 mph. Coasted into the driveway and it promptly died. But we made it.

My right shoulder and knee were throbbing and shaking from the effort. At times, I had to use my hand to push down on my knee to keep the gas pedal matted. Some Advil and a good night's rest took care of all that and I'm looking forward to the coming build. No delusions this time. Plans call for a Roadster Shop frame, LS or LT power, Dakota Digital, Vintage Air... the works. The downside is that I'll be moving Crusty down the road. I only have space for one project car and I need to sell to have the funds to do what I want. I missed getting a good spot in the December Mecum auction, but they said they'd call me when they open the books for the one in March. Till then, I plan to tinker around with it, get the title work done and start a build thread. Stay tuned....