Garrell, when I think of the cars or parts that I had or could have had it makes me sick. First there are the ones that I COULD get, like the 62 Impala convertible, remember now, this is California a 40-50 year old car that has never seen a garage will still have zinc plated bolts that you can remove with a 3/8 ratchet by hand without so much as a grunt. So you can imagine what these cars looked like back when they were only ten or fifteen years old! So my brother brought home this 62 Impala conv, we are talking about 1975. He bought it just for the motor, the friggin car was complete and pretty nice and he pulled the motor and junked the car! I remember him and his friends over and one of them ran at the car jumping on the hood and running up the windshield to the roof and then fell thru the roof when he jumped up there!
We heard about a guy nearby who sold hot rods and we found ourselves at his place out in the back yard in a hot rod used car lot basically. This was about 1976-77, my brother bought a chopped and channeled 32 three window body from him for 50 bucks. The guy had a BEAUTIFUL 32 Two door sedan with a blown hemi in it. It was purple with purple plexiglass windows, I will never forget it, $1200! He had a chopped top 34 Coupe, fenderless with a hot SBC, $1200, the one that really makes me sick was the big buck stuff, the stuff WAY out of my world, a 32 Roadster, fenders and all, $4000 and a Phaeton was about $8000 or $10,000 and it was a super nice finished show car. He had a five window body, a SUPER NICE five window body that he had removed the floor to put in the Roadster,he wanted $50.
My God parents son was my first exposure to hot rods. I remember him driving me and my brother over to the near by school to play basket ball in his fenderless Model A coupe with the roof cut off made into a "Roadster". We got to the school and he opened the truck to get my brother out! There were pieces of wood going across the body rails as a floor! As my brother got out I could see the ground between these boards!
He had a bunch of bodies and cars out back in the field behind my house. I don't remember any details but forties and fifites cars. But one was a 32 Five window body, it was decent as I remember, usable, that's for sure. It went off to the wreckers with the rest of them one day when his dad got tired of them being there.
Then there was the ones WAY out of my world, you could buy a house at the time for what my brothers boss wanted for his two yes TWO Shelby Cobras! We are talking 1964 289 Shelbys! One was one of 30 made with an Automatic, (I think it's four that exist today) when I mentioned this car to a guy at a Shelby show a few years ago he pointed over at a car and said, there it is, that's it. Even though the car had been sold many times over the years it is that rare and he knew the history of the car and it wasn't even his! His boss also had a factory Ford sponsored race car with spare parts, both of these cars were sold for $12,000 each. :drunk: But that was BIG money so I don't sweat it. But the other doable ones, like the full race straight axled, 51 Henry J (minus a motor) for $500, that one kills me.
Brian