I wasn't going to say anything because it doesn't look like it's going to happen but...
One of the times (probably 1980) when I saw the 2 part, made for television, 1976 HELTER SKELTER movie, the 1959 Ford really caught my eye! The double headlights, the front grill, just the whole shape & style of the car looked neat to me.
Fast forward to the end of 2016, I spotted a 1959 Ford for sale on Craigslist. I sent a message to the seller, but no reply. I messaged the seller again after 2 weeks, still no reply. Another 2 weeks I messaged the seller again and finally got a response, the car was still available.
The seller had it listed for $1,500 and it was going to need a ton of work.
I'm in Arizona and the car was in California, in the Los Angeles area. So February of 2017, my sister & brother-in-law took me to California to go see the car. It had rust holes along the back & sides of the roof, more than I could see in the picture posted in the craigslist ad. And I would need to have other things fixed that I couldn't see.
I told the seller to let me think about it, $1,500 is a bunch of money for a car that doesn't actually run. The seller told me he would be willing to work on the price because he knew the car was going to need a lot of TLC.
I went back home to Arizona and kept in contact with the seller like once a month, just to make sure he still had the car. After making a couple of offers the seller finally said the lowest he would go is $800 for the car so I accepted his offer. This was in July 2017. I asked my sister & brother-in-law if they could help me bring the car back, whenever they had time. My brother-in-law was going to be starting a new job soon so we had to go at the beginning of August. I didn't realize until weeks later, that on the day that we went and picked up the car, I paid the seller & the seller wrote out the bill of sale, it was August 8, 2017.
I tried to save money by going to this guy who didn't have a steady job but worked on & fixed cars. He was recommended by my brother's friend. I've had quite a bit of work done on the car here at the house by this "shade-tree" mechanic but the last few times he came to work on the car, he acted like it was a bother. After he put the new generator in the car, I couldn't get it to start anymore, and trying to get the guy over here to find out what is going on with the car & why it won't start was like pulling teeth.
Funny but true story...
While the car was parked in the driveway, I tried out the gears on the car, because the seller had told me the car didn't go in REVERSE. I put the car in REVERSE and it went backwards. I put the car in DRIVE, and it went forward. So the guy drained the transmission and put a new filter, gasket, and we filled it with new transmission fluid. We opened up the gate to take it for a test drive but while backing out, the engine quit on me. He said he needed to adjust the carburetor better because he had just rebuilt it. So the guy came back a few days later, adjusted the carburetor, and we set out to take the car out for a test drive. I back out of the yard and onto the street, put it in DRIVE to pull up to the curb, but the car doesn't move FORWARD. He tells me to put the great shift in all gears and try to pull forward, so I do and still, no go. Only moves in REVERSE! So I had to drive it to the corner, make a U-turn, and pull it into the backyard, all in REVERSE!
LOL...
I thought about naming the car
BACKWARDS-BETTY or
REVERSING-ROSIE
:oD
The younger guy who was working on the car for me, told his mechanic friend about the transmission. He came & took the transmission home to rebuild it for me. After about 2 months, he brought the transmission back and I paid him $1,000 for rebuildingit. The younger guy came over the next day and put the rebuilt transmission in the car. We tried out the different gears, but it still didn't work. It was doing the same thing.
As of right now, for the past 7 months or so it's been sitting on jack-stands in the yard, so I'm going to have a mechanic who has his own shop go through everything to make sure things were "fixed" right. To me, it seems like everything that was worked on was put back loose!
We'll see what happens...
Quick update:
I just talked with the mechanic who has his own auto shop. He said he'll be coming over next week to work on the car, so hopefully the car will be road-ready in a few months.
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William Marshall's Mini Metals pics:
