I'm TOTALLY bummed...

  • Thread starter Thread starter Gil
  • 19 comments
  • 751 views
Gil

Gil

Bird man
Premium
Messages
6,977
Messages
old-guy64
As most of you "old-timers" know I lost my Dad at the beginning of August last year.
I was talking to my mom today, and I found out that she found someone to buy my old car.
It was the car that Dad bought her as a wedding present in late August of 1962. It's the car I left my own wedding in in 1983.
I was hoping one day to have the space and resources to put that car right myself.
Sort of so I could "go cruising with my dad" in a way.
Any way, I'm totally down.
I know I really just miss my dad.:(
 
She sold it last week.
I found out about it today.
I told her 5 months ago to go ahead and sell it. Partly, because on one level it was okay with me. On another level, I thought it would be very expensive and time consuming to restore a 1962 Thunderbird. On yet another level, I simply thought that mom would never sell the car, and that in time I would develop the resources to do a full resto on it.

In reflection, I will be all right with it. But I literally grew up in that car.
I was taken home from the hospital after birth in that car,
I used to go everywhere my dad would take me sitting on the glovebox between the seats in that car,
My first date, My first cruise nite in Salinas, CA, My first race, My first date with my wife...
The constant for all those events was a well-loved, peacock green, '62 T-bird Landau.
 
That's a really nice car. I was watching some auto auctions and they had quite a few resto t-birds from the 60's on there. I'm sure it has a good home though.
 
Well, it was time for it to be sold Gil. It would have been a burden on you and/or your mom, and hopefully she sold it to someone who will take care of it and love it.

It was like that with my mom's '80 Corolla...we sold it in '96. My mom loved that car. It was her best car, she had owned like 9 cars before it. She wanted it to go to a good home, and we found someone who told us that he would take care of it. Needless to say, we saw it go down our street several months later...rust forming on the fenders, bumpers all cracked and cut up, it was so sad. We only saw it once or twice after that...we donno what happened to it...
My dad use to auto-cross an Opel Manta GT back in the 70's...when him and my mom were moving to a new house, he had to sell it. He didn't have to, but he did for some reason. It was his baby, he even made a square rug with the Opel emblem on it that he would display with the car at the autocrosses. He modded the car, not heavily, but he did very well with it. Sortly after he sold it, he saw a door from it on the side of a highway. It was his, it had trim that he put on it. The poor Manta...I have one of the only things left from it, the rug, hanging in my room. My dad has some slides of it. He soulda kept it, it's a rare car in the US.

So, hopefully the guy that bought your dad's T-Bird will take care of it real well. Maybe you could even go see it in the future.
 
That is the one major consolation. The Guy who bought it is going to restore it for his wife to drive. Ironically, my dad bought as a wedding present for my mom.
He plans to bring it by the house for my mom to see after it's restored. I hope he does.
 
Originally posted by Gil
That is the one major consolation. The Guy who bought it is going to restore it for his wife to drive. Ironically, my dad bought as a wedding present for my mom.
He plans to bring it by the house for my mom to see after it's restored. I hope he does.
Click to expand...


Dude, I'm sorry about the car man. I hope you feel better real soon. The idea of the guy bringing the car back and showing your mom once he is finished is a real nice idea:)
 
I was in a similar situation, with a similar result, but in the long run it's for the best. My father had a 1933 Chevrolet Eagle Six phaeton (four-door convertible) that was about the fanciest thing Chevy made in that era. It had been his aunt's car (my grandfather was a Chevy dealer) but he had gotten it during WWII, and driven it until the early 50s, when my first sister was born. He still drove it occasionally in my lifetime before parking it in the back of the garage. I remember sitting in it as a kid and pretending to drive all over the world. He had started restoring it bit by bit, rebuilding the engine himself, and getting the brightwork rechromed, and had disassembled it for frame-off work. He died with the car disassembled... and of course my first reaction was to put it back together and finish the job. However, I didn't have time money, facilities, or skill to do the job he would have done. My mother found a buyer from California who drove all the way to Maryland to trailer it back, so I know it's in better care than I could give it. He has also promised to send pictures and I'm eager to see them.

Events like this do stir the emotions. I'm glad to see that you're accepting it well.
 
If you'd seen me directly after I talked to my mother, you'd have not thought I was taking it well.:lol:

I probably cried for an hour. Then, I started working on acceptance.
 
It's funny how possessions can hold such strong emotional ties. I remember crying when my Dad sold a car (it was a 1981 Audi quattro). I thought the world of that car, and I couldn't believe that there was anything that would make him want to get rid of it.

But such is life.

You're right though Gil. The tears are more about your Dad than the car, and it's healthy for you to feel these emotions. I hope you will be able to place the car with him in your treasured memories, which will enable him, and the car, to live on in your spirit.

You have my thoughts.
 
I have two really good pix of it. When my more computer literate child comes home from his date I'll have to get him to help me post them.
(The scanner is possesed:eek: )
 
It's a T-Bird. But it ain't my baby.
My 'Bird is blue-green with a white top.
My son and I found <---That one while trying to make a custom avatar.
 
Originally posted by GilesGuthrie
It's funny how possessions can hold such strong emotional ties. I remember crying when my Dad sold a car (it was a 1981 Audi quattro). I thought the world of that car, and I couldn't believe that there was anything that would make him want to get rid of it.

But such is life.

You're right though Gil. The tears are more about your Dad than the car, and it's healthy for you to feel these emotions. I hope you will be able to place the car with him in your treasured memories, which will enable him, and the car, to live on in your spirit.

You have my thoughts.
Click to expand...

I remember threatening to drive my dad's car into a river if he would go through with selling my mom's car. Which he did.

Hang on, I've got some stuff to take care of.
 
Well Gil you can keep track on the car and one day buy it back? Keep the owners number and ask him to call you with any future owners details.

I will be getting a MkII Golf next year that was my Grandads baby. He was never a car enthusiast but that was,"his car", and he looked after it well.

It's heading on 50,000 miles which means it'll be great for my first few years of driving. It's not a GTI so I won't get burnt for insurance but the 1.4L engine should maintain good economy whilst being a bit faster than a 1.0L.

However I will inevitably get a bigger, faster car at some point and couldn't see myself selling it. But when I get my own place I should be able to keep it without paying to run it.
 
Well I haven't had a car that I have particularly been attached to yet. Infact I have only had cars that have pissed me off, well my new fiesta isn't that bad but still nothing memorable. Im sure I will understand how you feel when I get a decent car and I have to do something simmilar. Anyway condolances mate and at least you get to see the car restored. Just make sure to visit it regularly and give the owners hell if they dont treat it right. :)
 

Latest Posts

Back