I am not sure what possesses me to do this, but I buy parts for cars I don't own...yet. It has happened for years. Back in 2002 I bought a '66 Falcon dash pad at a swap meet. Great price, good looking Aqua pad that was the lone Ford part in a Chevy guys pile of four barrel intakes and cylinder heads. he didn't even know what it fit...but I did. And I didn't even own a car it would fit; but I was potentially almost about to--eight months later.
So this last week I was at Temple Auto Parts (a salvage yard) in Batesburg, SC and spotted a 1969 Torino Clock for the dash panel of the 1968 Fairlane I almost near am about to go get. So I snagged it. Why do I do this? I dunno, a deal is a deal is a deal? I am somewhere deep down an eternal optimist and not the realist I present myself as? Hmmmm. No matter, I scored a CLOCK!
Jeff Ford
Producer
We typically will “learn by doing” around here. Since there are no professionals lurking off camera Vinnie and I have to do what you would have to do if we didn’t exist—learn on one side then show you how we do it on the other. This is why most of the cars I’ve ever built are better on one side than the other.
This was my justification for finishing off the driver’s side door. The TMI Deluxe Door Panels, NPD vent windows, and door glass were installed off camera so we could learn again (the last time we adjusted glass on a classic was over 10 years ago) how to make the door glass go where it should and look as good as it could doing it.. And helped us to discover that we may have to do that panel all over again as the wiring for the window relays may be sitting like a damsel in distress on the window scissors. Oye.
This month marks a year since I brought home a certain small, green car. I had managed to put 10,000 miles on it never straying any further from Lincoln than Kansas City. I don't consider KC a road trip, it takes me just a couple hours to get there.
It was about time the little green one got to go on a proper road trip. Enter my friend Jim. Jim lives in Colorado Springs and had a birthday this last weekend, so perfect opportunity to go west! The picture above is from Thursday night. I drove halfway Thursday then finished my drive on Friday. No drowsy driving for me. No sir.
I love long road trips. They help clear and settle my mind and I get to see really cool things. Like this wind farm I drove through. The road laid out before me to the horizon is freeing and something that I think a lot of us enjoy.
The little microbe handled this trip very well. Through high winds in eastern Colorado to massive traffic on the tollway by Denver to the road getting a bit bendy going into Colorado Springs the car handled it all.
Now to say I am enchanted with my Fiesta is an understatement. Poor Jeff has to hear my whining the couple times I have had to take it in for a warranty repair and I am given a loaner Focus to drive. But this trip made me love this car even more! And we get to do it again next month!
So, who has road trips planned?
Carra McClelland
Voice of AutoRestoMod
From Jeff:
I miss my all weather classic car. You know, the one that you drove in any weather, any where...mostly because that was your ONLY ride? I can remember driving through rain swollen streets in Houston in my '71 Mach 1 to pick up a date, driving my '68 Cougar to a friends house in the snow in Houston; because I could. Now we tend to be afraid of rain and hide our rides because they might get dirty. When did that happen?
The picture I included is of a high school kid's '73 Mach 1. It was parked at Chickfila in the great snow of 2010 in Aiken, SC. Why? because he had to work and the Mach was his only mode. So, he drove it.
That said, how cool would it be to be able to jump in your classic car on a rainy day and take off; I like it. How about you?
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