In 1959 my father asked to borrow one of the family's cars while he was home on leave. He was given permission to use his mother's 1936 Plymouth but it wasn't running right so he decided to tune it up. Plugs, points, a coil wire, and many hours later and it still wasn't running right. His brother and brother-in-law tried to fix it several times over the next few months but finally my grandfather pushed it into the garage and left it for dead. In 2003 I was offered the car and after a short bidding war with a mysterious "someone else" I managed to strike a deal for $3500 plus a day's labor cleaning out the garage bay where the car was parked. In 2004 we bought our house. The Plymouth was moved into the barn and put on blocks where it's been sitting ever since.
Today I put the family into the car and took them for a drive.
I am really excited about this. This is the first time it's been on the road since '59. I still have to add the auxilliary oil filter (oil filters were an option for many years), change the rear shock links (the shocks are connected with sway bar links), finish installing the fabric top (you couldn't buy a one piece stamped steel top on a car until after WWII) and install the rear glass. Plus there's cleaning, changing the driveshaft boots (leather boots wrapped around splined ball joints) and maybe some other rubber pieces if time and money allow. But it's driveable at low speeds for short distances.
The goal now is to get Grandpa and Grandma into the car for a ride. I'm hoping to get a picture with Grandma, my father, myself, and my two kids in there as well. Grandpa will be 99 this year and I believe Grandma turned 97 so the pressure's on to get it done. I don't expect Grandpa to be in condition to go for car rides at 100 but if he is and if he asks, I'll try to get the car down there for him (two and a half hour drive with a modern car at normal speeds). I'm sure I'll spend the day giving rides to cousins, aunts, uncles, &etc as this car has achieved somewhat legendary status. I hadn't even seen more than a headlight or fender until the day I made my final offer on the car.
I've been able to find many of the parts for not too much money. For example the ancient NOS muffler and tailpipe which had two digit Walker part numbers for a total of $45, and the original exhaust clamps from Ebay for $5 each, and the replacement leather boots for $11 each. I've rebuilt all the brake hydraulics with kits currently available (but almost impossible to locate by application), rebuilt the carb with a 1950's vintage carb kit that was NIB($25), rebuilt the fuel pump with an Ebay kit ($45), replaced all the glass ($100) with most of the associated rubber ($220) and the fabric top ($150 for cloth and gasket). So much of this car was in good shape and usable that it's been absolutely amazing. I've also been creative in a few other places. The original size wheels are 17" and replacement tires and tubes will cost me $650 including shipping. I spent a bunch of time researching options and realized that a spare tire from a Caravan with 15" wheels is 16" diameter and has an extremely vintage look. For now that's what it will ride on. Should be ok as I don't expect to exceed 65 mph. :) I'll probably install hubcap clips and the original hubcaps so it looks truly original. The fabric I used for the top is a black awning material. It looks close enough to the original to be passable and didn't cost $70/yard like the stuff from the specialty vendors. I just spent time with cleaners and spray lube getting the vacuum wiper motors to work to avoid the $279 rebuild cost. And I dug out an old replacement speedo cable core kit instead of buying a one size fits all cable for over twice the cost.
How to end this? Well, Grandpa told me he would have traded that car in several times if had run well enough to get to the dealer. But running so badly he didn't think they'd give him enough to make it worth towing in. All I can say is thanks dad for getting the firing order wrong! That's the only thing that had kept it from running right for all those years!
