Where were you in '85?

[SamLBInj]

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In January 1985 I was driving back up from Miami after finding this 1971 440 Six Barrel, 4 speed Cuda Convertible (1 of 5 produced). I paid $2500 for the project. It had been through a series of owners in Miami including a drug dealer who sold it, and then stole it back shortly thereafter and in a police chase launched it into the ocean! It had all of its original drivetrain (in the back of the U-Haul truck that is). The car needed new quarters, fenders, trunk, doors, upper cowl but the floors were perfect! -never buy a Florida car that spent any time near the beach: they rust from the top surfaces downward. I restored the car within a year and then sold it to buy my yellow 71 Hemicuda ragtop. The comical thing is that I hear rumors that the person who owns it now (after paying $350K for the car) is claiming that the sheetmetal is all original!

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You sure this was taken in 1985? Looks more like 1975, I can just about hear Skynard playing Freebird in the background...
I had just moved back from Florida a little before that, there was a guy in the Keys who had a 70 or 71 Hemicuda Ragtop and 2 or 3 hemi Superbirds...does that ring a bell? Maybe it was that drug dealer guy
Sam

[njsteve]

So I'm a little "dated" looking Actually, it was Bob Seger and the Silver Bullet Band in the background. I bought the car from a collector in Miami. He saw the "before" photos and after results of 383 Cuda ragtop I restored that I pulled out of a wrecking yard in Colorado in 1982, (I traded a 4 cyl Vega someone abandoned on my property for it) I had the Cuda at the '84 Mopar Nationals (see attached) and he asked me if I would be interested in another major project. I was happy to oblige him when I saw the polaroid of the car and he recited the VIN to me. He was the one who filled me in on the cars interesting history.

[MrsBillyBobcat]

[ QUOTE ]

You sure this was taken in 1985? Looks more like 1975, I can just about hear Skynard playing Freebird in the background...

[/ QUOTE ]

Sam,

You forgot to look at the bottom of his jeans (no "bell bottoms")


Here's a pic of my husband Bill from 1985 (which was before I met him). That was when he was restoring his '69 Royal Bobcat. By the way, he only paid $700 for it in 1979

Rita

[MrsBillyBobcat]

And here's my husband's "Playboy" shot from that time


I asked him to tell me the story behind this photo (since it was before I met him) and this is what he told me:

He was at a car event, and being the president of a car club, he was approached by the event coordinator looking for convertibles to pick up "some people" and bring them to the show. Well, the "people" were "Playboy Bunnies" . So he went to the members and asked if anyone would be willing to use their car to pick up "some people" from the hotel. No one was interested at first, as they were all having too much fun at the show and did not want to leave. Well, when he told them that the "people" were "Playboy Bunnies" , they all changed their minds! He even had guys volunteering to go home and get their cars!

The picture was taken at the end of an exhausting day of escorting "bunnies" around.

Rita

[csx289]

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

[55chevy]

In 1985 I was in the 7th grade.... for fun I would go off-roading with the family 8hp Sears lawn tractor. aaaahh.. the good ol days..

[77Z28]

In 1985 I was a junior in H.S. and was in the process of taking a tired, but all original, 1974 Nova Custom, 2 door, 350 auto car into the street hot rod car you see in attachment a year later. Bought the car on Christmas Eve of 85 for $1,200. Was originally pea green color with tan vinyl top.

One of the neat things I found after I bought it was the rally rims you see in picture under the full cover factory hubcaps.

After graduation from H.S. that Summer we were scheduled to move to Atlanta. Before moving,Dad said the metro area where we would be living had emissions checks on cars up to 15 years old and my car would not pass and I had to sell it. So reluctantly, I sold it and soon once in Atlanta we found out the emmissions checks were only for cars 10 years old. I still give my Dad crap occasionally about him screwing that detail up.

Todd

[Supergas990]

In November of 1985 I was a sophmore in HS and bought my 1967 Malibu (30 days before I could even get my license). My mom and I went to look at it and bought it on the spot without even driving it.

When we told my dad he was suprised, but not as suprised as when he drove it home for me. He told me that there's no way in H*LL I would've gotten the car if he'd have driven it before we bought it! (Guess it was all those years of AMCs and Renaults that lulled him into his slow car mode)

$2,600 looked like a ton of money back then, but that car was my life. Lucky for me I opted to keep it, even though it needs some love to get back it's former glory it's still in the stable. Hopefully, my son will want to drive it one day!!!

Now I can't wait to get my father to drive the L78 Chevelle I just bought. It ought to be another eye opener!!!

Blair