R_J_ wrote: Just some stuff fill in the weekend doldrums.
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Below is a picture of our 1966 Cadillac Sedan de Ville 4-door hardtop.
You would have to know exactly where to look to tell a 1966 from a 1965.
The stacked headlights lense bezel is a little different.
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A 4-hardtop was a new idea, the Sedan de Ville actually outsold the Coupe de Ville that year.
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It sat at a my friends motel parking lot in Palm Springs in the hot desert sun with a for sale sign for at least 6-months.
There was absolutely no interest.
Who wants an old gas hog, with warn out paint and metal springs where the upholstery rotted away?
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I put in a stink bid for $2,000.
The disinterested owner, the Cadillac was from his fathers estate, said yes.
I put a big piece of cardboard over the springs so that I would have a place to sit while I drove it away to Phoenix, Arizona, about 300 miles away.
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I had a contract in Phoenix to participate in designing the autopilot for the Boeing jetliners.
That should make you wake up in a cold sweat, the airliner you are on is actually operating using code that, that idiot RJ wrote [LOL].
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Ok, making a long story short.
I contracted all over the country, typically for about six months.
Now, if you rent a car for more than a month or so, its cheaper to purchase a local beater to drive around rather than to rent car. Basically the local beater is free, and making - a penny saves is a penny earned - you money.
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I picked up a 1967 Chrysler Newport fastback hardtop while contracting to Chrysler in Huntsville, Alabama. We had to get a pitchfork to clear the leaves and brush away to even see it.
The owner was happy to get $25 from me for the title.
It was just to be a junker until I left town.
Now here is the unexpected surprise.
I kept fixing it up and fixing it up.
When the time came, even though much was held together with bailing wire, I decided not to purchase an areoplane ticket, but to attempt to drive it back to California.
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Got it a new Imron paint job, which is currently illegal except for industrial applications.
Today I love that car, it is one of my five 50-year-old vintage cars with very low milage engines in perfect operating condition.
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Engines: I lost count of how many hundreds of thousands of transcontinental miles that I put on that Chrysler.
After more than a hundred thousand miles or so, the 383 V8 would be shredded, and I would putll out the engine myself and replace it with another.
I think we are on out forth engine, a beautiful custom rebuild with nothing held back.
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Back to the story.
I am in Phoenix, Arizona, and I thought it was time for yet another new paint job for the Chrysler. But I could be several weeks without a car.
Perhaps I could play the ‘find an old beater’ trick again.
That’s when my friend told me about the 1966 Cadillac.
After all, I was looking for a junker.
Once again the junker became a keeper.
When it came time, I drove it back to Newport Beach, California.
I then got on a areoplane back to Phoenix, and drove the 1976 Chrysler back.
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Segue
It typical young American spends a significant amount of money in his life purchasing new automobiles.
What a waist of life.
If that money were put to productive uses rather than consumed, one could have quite a lot of investment capital and be economically independent, like RJ.
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So many drive around in a $60,000 Corvette, perhaps with his arm around a ‘dolly’, saying look at me.
I am a example of what you could aspire to become.
This is a disservice to youth.
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I say it is better to drive a vintage Automobile, perhaps with arm around a ‘dolly’, saying look at me. I am a example of what you can do without squandering your life paying for new automobiles.
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I have never spent more than $2000 for a automobile.
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The 1966 Cadillac
The previous owner must have been very old and very rich.
It has an Eldorado Country Club sticker - one of the worlds most expensive and exclusive.
It today, still has less than 30,000 miles on the odometer.
It just sat out in the desert for about 50 years and went no where.
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We went to a limousine shop and got an after hours price of $2000 for an excellent job.
We went to an upholstery shop and spent a $700. Mort posh that the original.
We refurbished the dashboard ourselves.
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We went to the entered the Cadillac Club car show.
We got the second place trophy for out division.
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Everywhere we go in that Cadillac, we are like celebrities.
Almost everybody waves at us from the adjacent cars and sidewalks.
At almost every stoplight, someone tries to start up a conversation.
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Hopefully the picture from that Cadillac car show materializes below.
We live in those low hills that appear over the bridge.
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RJ
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