In 1985, I was in grade school (yes, for real!), and restoring a 1970 MGB/GT. Funny thing is, I was restoring an MG because my Dad thought it was harmless and was doing it with his blessing, BUT, I also had managed to aquire (without any parental knowledge) a really nice 68 Mustang convert that was bashed in the front that I sold for a $500 profit, turning the money into a 65 GTO 3x2 4 spd blue/white hardtop that was damn nice in original paint with the red/white/blue Sun tach hose clamped to the colummn. It cost a whopping $1500, and other than ladder bars and a few bolt ons, was in great shape. It was my older friends bad news brother's car, repoped by their Mom after the troubled kid was put in the clink for splitting a guy's head open after he made a move on his girlfriend at the time. Their Dad had worked for GM, Pontiac Div., and had passed away due to a heart attack the year before. All 3 boys in the family had Pontiacs. After driving the GTO to school (8th grade!) a few times, a guy offered me a rusty Toyota Land Cruiser FJ40 and $2k for the Goat! Well, I liked Land Cruisers as well, and after cutting a hole in the roof, it worked far better delivering newspapers on my route when I had a buddy drive and I could throw the papers in the general direction of a subscribers home! Plus, the plow was going to make us money in the winter! A couple of weeks passed, and that $2k was on fire in my pocket. I heard of an old T/A for sale in our neighborhood , and went to check it out. It was a 73 SD 4 speed car, up on blocks in an older guy's garage. He had started a "resto" years before but only got far enough to take all of the trim off and rattle can prime the rust. For $1500 she was mine! We got it running , and I distinctly remember it could get rubber in all 4 gears. Might have been the dry tires! I do know that an older (licensed) freind of mine took it out on the freeway for me, and at an indicated 140 MPH the front floor mats were levitating due to the rust holes in the floors.
A quick white laquer paint job and a lot of detailing later ( I worked in a body shop after school and had use of the place after hours), it was damn nice. Nice enough that a woman stopped by the local McDonalds when we had it there one day and said it was just like her husbands old car and she'd pay $6k for it. Sucker! In hindsight, I don't know which was the better choice - saving money for HS tuition (Jesuit college prep, still makes me cringe) or if I should have kept the car...
I later bought a brown 69 GTO RAIV convert that was just trashed (it has since resurfaced), as well as a lot of other rusty but cheap muscle cars. Mopars and Pontiacs were my weakness, and still are!
I know it sounds incredible, but this was how I spent my youth. The streets around my parent's house always had a few old muscle cars parked a safe distance away, and to this day I don't know how they didn't catch on!
No wonder I started a resto shop right out of school and now have a collector car dealership, huh? As much as it makes me happy to see these great cars restored to perfection and selling for big money, I still miss the days of being the "weird guy" who liked all of those crappy old cars! I miss the barn finds and unknown cars. I miss having buddies stop by in 69.5 440+6 Lift Off Road Runners with air shocks, glass packs, a trunk you could see the gas tank through, and N50 tires that we'd smoke the heck out of! Parking anywhere, going to the bone yard and buying fresh air hoods, multi carb intakes, Pistol Grip and Hurst shifters, etc.,all for damn near nothing before the cars got crushed!
Maybe I was born too late, but maybe not. Had I been around for the heyday I may have overloaded. But being a kid working myself through school with just enough money to buy the worst of the best muscle cars was something I will never forget. It was a great time to play with these cars. You could still buy them cheap, and enough people were catching on that you could usually sell a car for a profit if you put a little labor into it, and parlay that into the next great find.
Where would we be without our pictures, memories, and tetanus shots?
Thanks for the space to reminisce...
Colin