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Old 04-11-2016, 05:48 AM
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Kamakiri Kamakiri is offline
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Join Date: Jun 2002
Location: Buffalo, New York
Posts: 5,109
My 16 year old's first car!

Well, my oldest son turned 16 about 10 days ago. Took him on Saturday for his learner's permit. There's nothing that ages you instantly like the baby who you put into a car seat now being taller than you and getting behind the wheel of your Cadillac for the first time. Wait, didn't I buy that car just a few years ago? Oh yeah, he was in elementary school back then. Wow.

About a month ago I got a message from an old friend on Facebook. While he's local, I haven't seen him in about 20 years. Back then, we were all motorheads, and we all had cars that were easily recognized. Me, I had a red and white '58 Edsel with a 361 bored .030 over with an Edelbrock carb and a C6 transmission. Used to eat IROCs (the "hot" car of the day) for lunch. Wasn't really that much of an accomplishment....after all, those were what, about 200 HP back then?

Yep, we each had our "signature" rides. Mark had a canary yellow '70 Monte Carlo, Tim always had a mid '70s Malibu of some kind that he kept swapping a Laguna S-3 nose from car to car as he blew them up. Bill had a big lifted Dodge truck. Other Bill had a '74 Ventura. You get the idea.

Well, my friend Chris had this 4 door '76 Nova, lime green, with a small block 350 with a 4 barrel carb and a big K40 whip antenna on the trunk. It was in amazing shape back in the day, but wasn't the ideal car to deliver pizzas in, gas mileage wise. His sister bought it at a used car lot back in the early 90s in the state of Washington, then offered it to Chris for free if he wanted to drive it home to NY. So he did.

This was the early 1990s, I don't think my hands were ever clean back then. And my hands were always fisted around either a socket wrench or a beer. Usually both.

Fast forwarding to about a month ago, Chris sends me a message, saying that he still had the old Nova, and seeing the projects and project cars that I've brought back to life, he wanted me to have it...as long I promised to treat it right and bring it back to its former glory. It hasn't run in over a decade. The last time the car moved under its own power was back in the mid 1990s. He had the transmission rebuilt with a shift kit....something happened the next day when he went to drive it, and it wouldn't go into gear. He parked it, and never drove it again.

Meanwhile, he decided that it was time to paint the car, and sanded and primed it, removing all of the trim. But then life and children happened, and it never got finished.

Knowing that my son was turning 16, this was the perfect time for a father/son project. My son's beside himself with excitement.....we got it out of my friend's garage yesterday, and the flatbed will be picking it up today after he gets out of school. First time I've seen the car since I had bangs

And kudos to my '96 Caravan, which pulled it out of the garage easily with a tow rope...in spite of the fact that the brakes on the right rear wheel were locked up solid (hence the skid mark). Told my son that counts as his first time laying down a patch of rubber
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