Great memory!

Thinking back on my original post I was in error. My real first car was a 1930 Oldsmobile I bought while away at military school. It was in a barn across the street from the school campus. I bought it for $60. spent $10 on a head gasket and got it running. Unfortunately, my folks wouldn't let me bring it home, so I abandoned it.




I actually had another car, in-between. I wanted a dune buggy, but my parents wouldn't hear of it. My folks went away for a two-week cruise, leaving my grandmother in charge. I brought home the Corvair I had purchased a week before they left. I moved their cars out of the garage while my friends brought over their cutting torches and sawzalls.

The first thing I did was cut the top off, then I removed the doors. I cut away the floor pan between the door posts and bolted both halves of the car together. As you can see in the picture, granny didn't look real thrilled.

I got the car running and tooled around the neighborhood listening to the now-flexible car creaking as I went down the road. I knew I had to do some serious welding. A friend's family owned a Standard station. I was told I could use the lift and their stick welder. I drove the car on back roads to get there, only to find the lift occupied by a project that wasn't moving out quickly, so I parked the car behind the station and walked home.

I came back the next day and the car was gone. My friend inquired and found that when his grandfather came in and saw my work of art he thought someone had abandoned a POS behind his station so he hooked it up to their tow rig and took it to a scrapper where it was deemed to have no salvageable parts and was immediately put in the crusher.

That old guy probably saved my life.