Of course, I was thrilled to find this piece of history and when I heard the words “it’s for sale ya’ know “ I thought, oh hell ... we really do NOT need another project now. We have 2 major projects waiting, not counting what needs to be done to the cars we have on the road already. We were in Florida ... AND on a motorcycle ... and this would require another trip down here with a trailer, not to mention somewhere to put it ... and I should be working on the magazine.
So as you can see from the pictures, we purchased the old girl and moved her to a friends place in Ormond Beach on the east coast and we will try to get her home in the next two weeks.
I’m not sure what I’m going to do with it, fix it, sell it, or trade it, but it was way too cool to leave rotting under the palm trees in Florida. Does anyone know a cure for “motorhead disease”?
Big John
UPDATE:
As it turned out, I had the last weekend of March off, the ‘49 was waiting patiently for me in Ormond Beach and the Daytona Spring car show was at the Daytona International Speedway with an estimated 3,000 cars in attendance. Don’t you just love a plan when it comes together? So Friday morning with my 16 year old son, Bill, my good friend Glen, (Trust in Rust), my wife’s Suburban and a 16’ trailer we headed south.
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It was a good trip, we even got to see if the original spare tire from 1999 that had never been out of the truck still held air and with the help of the owners manual we even found the jack. Saturday morning we headed out to the show to see the sights and did a little shopping at the swap meet. Saturday evening we loaded up the ‘49 and headed to Bellair Plaza, the local crusin’ spot.
As we were leaving pulling the ‘49 behind us, I wondered when the last time this car had been to a crusin’ spot. Hell, the front tires are 750/14’s bias-ply wide white walls. I don’t think they even make that size anymore. We headed to Jan & Libs Hi-Tops tavern for a little liquid refreshment and a late night snack.
Sunday morning we headed out later than we wanted to, took awhile to explain in English to the motel owner we wanted to check out (go figure). Made it back to Richmond by about 1:30am. I have to tell you the ‘49 looks happier in my driveway than under the Florida palmettos.
Keep drivin’, Big John
