Monday, June 26, 2006

The '39 Chevy 2-door sedan

On the main highway leading to my folks town 35 miles southeast of us, sat this vehicle...



It's a 1939 Chevrolet 2-door sedan. Not the most popular classic to hot rod or restore, but I have seen them at rod shows and they clean up nicely. From what my F-i-L tells me, it's been sitting on that trailer for over a year. No takers at the bargain basement asking price of $3,000.

I'm not in the market for a project of this scale right now, so I just logged it for future reference on the flash rom in my brain and didn't think anymore of it.

Back in April, S meets a woman at work that is really cool and really nice.
We'll call her Terri.
They get to talking and it turns out that Terri's husband is looking for a hobby and is kinda into old cars.
We'll call him Bob.
Turns out Bob has never restored or rodded a car before, but he was looking for a project to learn on/work on.
Bob and Terri are DINKS so they have plenty of disposable income.

Hearing of a fellow potential hot rod enthusiast, I pulled several photos and listings of "roadside projects" that I had been collecting since moving here (always on the lookout for some rusting vehicle sitting in a barn or out in a field), and thought about sending them to Bob, but somehow never got around to it.

As the seasons tend to do, Spring turned to Summer (car show season) and I told S we should meet Bob and Terri at the upcoming NSRA rod show. A few emails later, we had arranged to hook up with them on Saturday (it's a 3-day show).

Long story short, we didn't end up going on the same day so we never got to meet and greet.

However, Terri calls S that Saturday night and tells her that Bob is seriously looking at a '49 Dodge Wayfarer he found at the show that day. I had never even heard of a Wayfarer, but okay, if that's what he wanted.

End of story. Or so I thought.

The next day (Sunday) we were driving home after visiting my in-laws and I noticed that the '39 Chevy and trailer were no longer parked by the side of the road.

Figuring that the owner took it to the rod show to sell it, I wished him good luck, and thought to myself, "there's another project temptation removed from my wish list."

The following Monday, S emails me from work and tells me that Bob didn't end up buying the old Dodge afterall

Instead, he bought a 1939 Chevrolet 2-door sedan.

I'm thinking, there is no way an amateur with little to no restoration skills, let alone rodding skills, would buy that rusty old '39 Chevy that I saw sitting by the side of the road. I mean, it would be a huge project for ME with my meager skills, let alone someone with no experience at all.

Curious now, I sent the pics I had taken of the rusty '39 to S and she sent them to Terri.

You guessed it. It was the same car.

File this under, "life is a very small used car lot."

Here's what a '39 Chevy could look like restored. This is a 4-door sedan that was at the LA Roadsters show for Father's Day, but you can get a general idea.


Bob has a long way to go.

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