You know Tom when I went with you to pick up that funny car we talked on the trip over that if it turned out to be nothing it would at least be fun playing with.
We picked up the car that day and the fun did begin. Looking over hundreds of pictures and reading tons of magazines before even thinking about what car it was seemed at the time like alot of trouble. When we was looking at all these pictures we kept coming up with the red/black car that just didn't look like all the others. In the end that came to be the deciding factor on which car we decided it had to be, it just didn't match the other cars that the pictures showed as Dick's.
Then we finally started by cutting away years of misuse and abuse and trying to get down to something savable which was quite a job. After several hundred hours of work we had learned how to re-gelcoat a body that some had said was junk. Re-built a chassis that the engine had been moved in at least twice, changed from a auto to a manual, foot brake to a hand brake. During all this time we had kept on looking at all the pictures we could find, reading all the articles possible and talking to who we was told at the time was the best we could talk to for verification and information on what we had.
I remember the day that the lettering was put on the car, we were both speachless when we stood there looking at what had transformed in my shop. At that moment we knew that we had brought back to life a tribute to a great driver and a time gone by.
Now we load up and go to our first show, to where the experts are, nervous yes, confindent no way. We get there, set up in the booth of one of the experts and start asking questions. Is anything wrong with the car, what do we need to do to make the car more period correct and so on and on. Man it felt good to see the hundreds of people come by and look at the car and alot of them tell us the stories they had with Dick and the car.
Next the trip to Englishtown and the meeting with what seemed like everyone else in the world who knew anything about Dicks or anyone's funny car as far as that goes. Still wanting to find out everything we could about the car and if we had what we thought we had, we asked questions. Sometimes to the point of being afraid that these experts and racers and mechanices were getting tired of talking to us. We found out several safety items that needed to be addressed on the car, but all the experts there gave nothing but praise to the car and our hard work.
This goes on for a couple more years. And I will have to say we had a blast.
Looking back on everything now we could have spent a lot less time trying to make sure that we had what we thought we did. Less phone calls and travel time seeking out the experts and getting their worthless opinions and just had more fun with the car. Shoot I should have bought that other car they had for sale. We thought it was just a nobody car but heck if I could have got all these experts out there working on it there is no telling who's car I would have now.
Sell it........Park it.......Set it on fire......it doesn't really matter....Life's too short for this rabbit-$hit....
Let's move on to something else.....Lets have some fun!
