More Old Car Memories
As I mentioned last month, Steve Vandenbergs' Barn Find series has gotten me thinking about the cars I have found and sold over the years. After I moved to Dayton, Ohio, in 1980, I realized rather quickly there were lots of hot cars there as well. In 1979, I met and became good friends with Chuck Hansen, who was then freelancing for Super Chevy magazine. He later became the tech editor of Car Craft magazine and, most recently, the former host of Horsepower TV.
At that time, Car Craft was checking out the car cruise scene in cities across the Unites States. Chuck mentioned he was considering coming to Dayton for Car Craft, so about three months later, I put the word out on the street that he was coming, picked him up at the airport, and I showed him around. Dayton was literally on fire that night, one hoppin' hot rod mecca with several jammin' cruise spots around town.
That same night, a friend of mine had his Shelby GT 500 convertible out. Incredibly, he had talked his parents into buying the Shelby for their second car in 1968, and he had inherited the car later in life. We were all just hangin' out and cruisin' all over town, having a great time. My friend and I eventually ended up at the same stoplight, and for about ten seconds, the GMC Sprint 454/four-speed I was driving (I still own the car) showed the little Blue Oval in no uncertain terms who was boss. At that point, Chuck (a very experienced driver in his own right) got seriously uncomfortable riding shotgun with me, but he still had a BIG smile on his face. I guess Dayton left a lasting impression on him because by the end of that year, Car Craft had named Dayton the top cruise-in city in America.
When I first moved to Dayton, I was still earning a living as a civil engineer. As I said last month, being a surveyor allows you to see places that most of us never get to see. While I was on a land survey on the north side of Dayton one day, I cruised by an open market with part of their property behind a chain-link fence. This open market was across the street from the largest junkyard in Montgomery County, so many vehicles were being crushed there. Lots of cars were behind this fence, but I could make out a red '66 Belvedere II that looked like it was in pretty good shape. Because of the way the car was parked, I couldn't see it well enough to tell much about it. I was then put on another job and didn't get back to that side of town for about a month, but I didn't forget about the car.
The next time I got the chance I tooled over to that side of town, and lo and behold, the owner of the property was there and the gate was open. I walked up and asked if any of the cars were for sale, and he replied, "Everything is for sale, son." I asked if I could take a closer look at the car, and he said sure. As usual, grass had grown up all around the car. After I beat and brushed the weeds out of the way, I then looked down and right there on the fender was a 426 Hemi emblem. I couldn't believe it. I opened the hood and, unfortunately, an old-style 318 had been installed for the Hemi, but everything else was there. I talked to the guy for another couple of weeks and finally bought the car for a song. I towed the car back to Kentucky and stored it for several years before I sold it again for a then handsome profit.
As I look back, I wish I had kept that one, too. By the time I sold it, the only thing that I hadn't found for the car was the engine. Restored, it would be worth close to $100,000 today. I guess what they say is really true: Hindsight is always 20-20.