Okay…it was time to get a hobby, or so I was told. Scratch my head and think. (Hmmm) What to do? I know. I’ll build a hot rod. As a young boy sitting in the barber shop with my dad and brother I would read Hot Rod magazines that were laying around. Since that time it had always been in the back of my mind to try it someday. I enjoy challenging myself to do things outside my natural abilities. So a hot rod it would be.
Several years of surfing the Internet, going to car shows and combing the back roads of places traveled came up empty for that perfect car to build. I had found a few that were good candidates but had not found “the one.”
I saw a 50’s model Dodge Wayfarer on eBay and decided I could make a lead sled out of the car, so I bid my money in hopes of winning. The fates were not with me on that attempt. “Keep looking,” I told myself.
Time went by and the Southwest Streetrod Nationals were coming for the weekend to Oklahoma City. So there might be a good chance to find a project and get ideas. Told the wife I was going and she mentioned meeting a friend of hers and her husband at the show Saturday. I said OK. She said the husband had an El Camino that he was working on, so we had that in common.
I went by myself to the first day of the show and went to look at the swap meet area. There it was - a Dodge Wayfarer, a complete car and running. I talked with the owner and the asking price for Friday was still a little too high for me. So I thought, “Pass and see if the price drops by Sunday.” Thinking they would not want to drag the car back home, I waited. That was smart thinking on my part I thought. Ooops! The Wayfarer was gone on my return on Saturday with the wife. I was dejected but not out of the game.
The friends we were to meet couldn't make it Saturday. They missed the big event; I spied a 1939 Chevrolet 2-door Sedan on a trailer and walked over to get a closer look. The car was basically solid I thought (blinded by the hunt and all those shiny cars out there). I talked to the owner. After a little haggling and to the disbelief of my wife I said, “Write him a check.” After being asked twice what I said, she wrote the check. I had my project now it was time to bring the dream alive. Just a little sweat equity and I would be hotrodding down the road.
Several years of surfing the Internet, going to car shows and combing the back roads of places traveled came up empty for that perfect car to build. I had found a few that were good candidates but had not found “the one.”
I saw a 50’s model Dodge Wayfarer on eBay and decided I could make a lead sled out of the car, so I bid my money in hopes of winning. The fates were not with me on that attempt. “Keep looking,” I told myself.
Time went by and the Southwest Streetrod Nationals were coming for the weekend to Oklahoma City. So there might be a good chance to find a project and get ideas. Told the wife I was going and she mentioned meeting a friend of hers and her husband at the show Saturday. I said OK. She said the husband had an El Camino that he was working on, so we had that in common.
I went by myself to the first day of the show and went to look at the swap meet area. There it was - a Dodge Wayfarer, a complete car and running. I talked with the owner and the asking price for Friday was still a little too high for me. So I thought, “Pass and see if the price drops by Sunday.” Thinking they would not want to drag the car back home, I waited. That was smart thinking on my part I thought. Ooops! The Wayfarer was gone on my return on Saturday with the wife. I was dejected but not out of the game.
The friends we were to meet couldn't make it Saturday. They missed the big event; I spied a 1939 Chevrolet 2-door Sedan on a trailer and walked over to get a closer look. The car was basically solid I thought (blinded by the hunt and all those shiny cars out there). I talked to the owner. After a little haggling and to the disbelief of my wife I said, “Write him a check.” After being asked twice what I said, she wrote the check. I had my project now it was time to bring the dream alive. Just a little sweat equity and I would be hotrodding down the road.
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