Introduction:
Bitten by the Bug
As is usually best when telling any story, let's start at the very beginning. This all goes back to my Italian class my Sophomore year of high school. As it turns out, David was also in that class, and he'll play a pivotal role in this story. During downtime, David would hop on Craigslist and look at decommissioned Crown Vic p-71 cop cars (he was at the time looking into buying one as his first car). Somewhere along the line, I suggested he look for older American classics instead. This led to not only him scouring the internet for classics, but also to me looking as well in an attempt to "help" him. Well as you can expect, that plan failed miserably, and I was eventually bitten by the bug as well. The first car that made me want to buy a classic was an extremely beat-up gray 1950 Plymouth Deluxe sedan for $1000. Something about the poor car sitting forlorn in a field along with the ad's description saying "If it doesn't sell in a month, I'm scrapping it." made me want to rescue the poor car.
A 1950 Plymouth Deluxe in similar condition, courtesy of Desert Valley Auto Parts.
I took the idea up with my parents, who weren't too enthusiastic about it. There was no room in our small two-car driveway to fit a third vehicle, and the garage was full of everything but a car. Plus, I had little to no experience working on cars. While I'm mechanically-inclined and a fairly fast learner, I'd still be starting from scratch with a classic car. Plus, the car's condition wasn't too appealing, either. Almost every panel on it was dented, and the ad mentioned something about it needing floors. Not to worry, though, as I found another '50 Plymouth Deluxe for $1750. This one was navy blue and in good cosmetic condition. The only issue was the motor had been pulled for some reason and was still with the car (yeah, good luck starting off on a car with its engine removed). As you can imagine, this back-and-forth between my parents and me went on for some time. A few cars I remember finding were a really rough, '53 Plymouth Cranbrook for $450 (the head was off the engine), a '51 Cranbrook for $2000 (fairly complete and supposedly running), and a few Galaxies and Thunderbirds. All the Impalas I saw were too expensive, so I figured it'd be awhile before I could afford one. As time went by, I gradually began to save up money and educate myself in the art of automotive repair. I did the CV axles on my dad's old CR-V and the starter in my mom's Pilot. I also watched tons of Youtube videos and read up on the basics of everything from carb rebuilding to brake bleeding. By the Summer of 2021, I had enough money saved up and a part-time job, which was enough to convince my parents to let me actually look at a few cars.
By this point, my interests had moved from 50s Plymouths to the small compacts of the 60s, like the Falcon, Dart, and Valiant. I found a couple "affordable" examples of each, but most of them were too far away to consider purchasing or needed too much work. I was trying to check out a '66 Chevy Bel Air 4 door sedan, but the owner stopped responding to me after a few weeks. Then, there was a '67 Falcon 2-door that sold before I even got a chance to see it. That bummed me out for a bit, but I eventually came across a '63 Comet 4-door for $1000 that looked promising. I messaged the owner, and we agreed upon a time to meet. Upon initial inspection, the car looked to be in decent shape. The owner had told me beforehand that the rear frame rails needed some help, but the rest of the body looked solid. Even the floors were intact! I couldn't believe that such a solid car like this could be had for only $1000! I had been entranced by the car, captured by the forlorn, de-grilled front end staring at me when I pulled up, as if to call out "help me!" I just had to save it. Those frame rails couldn't be too bad, right? Just a quick peek under the rear end will confirm...
The car was identical to this one, courtesy of Copart.
Holy crustification! It's a miracle the car's even sitting level at all! This is definitely something beyond my scope as a novice mechanic. I politely thanked the owner for his time and told him I'd have to think it over. I contacted a local shop and was quoted $1500 for the repair (more than what the car was selling for and probably worth) and was told lead time was unknown or possibly a year out. No thanks! I told the owner that I liked the car, but I had to decline purchasing it due to the rust. Even if I learned how to weld, I wouldn't have had the tools or space to prop the car up, drop the rear end, and weld up the frame rails. Those shackles are longer aftermarket replacements, which lifted the rear end up and eventually compressed the leaf springs until they were flat. At that point, I might as well just spend another $2000 to redo the rear suspension and trunk. Although the motor (200 ci out of a Granada or Maverick) looked good, the car was ultimately not worth it. And so I pressed on, a little bummed out, but undeterred. It was around this time that I noticed some old cars behind the fence at North Providence Auto Salvage and decided to check them out. That part of the story can be found in my Summer 2021 junkyard trip to NPAS in the main ONEC blog. After that incident, not much happened, and I pretty much accepted the fact that I wouldn't be buying a car that summer when August rolled around. While on FB Marketplace one day, I noticed a new ad for a '65 Impala for $4k. I gave it a look and thought it was cool, but ultimately out of my price range. "Wow, a '65! I never thought I'd see one for that low in that solid of shape. Too bad I can't really afford it." When I saw the price had been dropped to $3k and casually mentioned the listing to my mom, she completely broke character and basically convinced me to go take a look at it. But that's a story for the next installment. I'm sure you can see where things went from there.