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Topic starter
20/10/2019 1:23 pm
My story of two of my 55 Fords, enjoy and
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This wagon is exactly like the one in my story color and all.
The first one was in the late 1960's. I was walking through one of my favorite wrecking yards, Doyles Auto Wrecking in Roseburg, Oregon when I saw a complete 1955 Ford Ranch Wagon that I just really liked. It was the base model with a 6 cylinder and standard trans. with overdrive. It did have a radio and heater but no other accessories. The interior was in good shape and the blue paint a little faded but I wanted it. John Doyle told me the engine was bad but I bought it anyhow.
I did a complete rebuild of the engine, had four recap white wall tires put on and a paint job that cost me all of $75.00 in a friends shop. The wagon cleaned up real well and I was happy to have it.
One day we decided to drive it up to Portland to visit my best friend Ben. Ben always like my cars and he really liked this wagon. His wife had a sewing machine that my wife wanted so I traded the Ford for the sewing machine. Well it seems that my wife (first wife) never did use the machine and another friend of mine said his wife wanted the machine so I traded it for a myna bird they had. I always thought I wanted a myna bird and here was my chance. It seemed that the bird had picked up some bad words and didn't hold back saying them. Then the job of cleaning the cage so often (it was a dirty bird with dirty language) just didn't set well so I was looking for a new home for the bird.
In the meantime Ben had traded the Ford for a 55 Chevy he wanted more. He told me that the guy really didn't want the Ford and planned to sell it, I never knew why he was willing to trade his Chevy for the Ford if he didn't want the Ford but I decided to contact the guy and we made a trade, the Ford for the Myna bird so I had my 55 Ford back. I later found a 1956 VW that I liked and traded the Ford for the VW. I did a rattle can blue paint job on the VW and buffed it out and it looked good for a rattle can job done in my garage. I drove that for a while and sold it and never saw the 55 Ford wagon again.
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This is exactly like the one in this story color and all.
A few years later in 1979 I lived in San Diego, one day I saw this yellow and white 55 Ford Fairlane at a used car dealer who sold mostly nice older cars and I bought the Ford.
I worked at Pearson Ford in the Truck department as a service writer and I took the 55 in to show it off. It looked nice but did need some cosmetic work so at the shop I started in on it. I removed every bit of chrome trim and had the car painted the same color and I polished all the trim. The car had a nice green interior that I liked so I left that alone. I even drove up to Los Angeles to get all the decals for under the hood and so when it was done it looked like it came off the showroom floor.
I really liked that Ford but one day on a Sunday drive we drove through a nice neighborhood and there sitting at the curb was a nice older car that at first I didn't know what make it was but it had for sale signs in it so we stopped. I looked it over and it was in great original condition and it was a 1927 Hupmobile sedan. I talked with the seller and we worked out a contract for payments and I bought it and drove it home that day, nothing down, talk about trust by the seller.
Well I knew something had to go so I decided to return the 55 Ford to the used car dealer and just cancel the contract on it and they did because they got it back in like new condition and I was again a happy camper.
I drove the Hupmobile to work and my boss and several of the guys got in it and pretended to be gangsters and we had a lot of fun with it.
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1927 Hupmobile 6
After the Hupmobile I bought a 1974 Vega GT wagon the first of three Vegas that I would own one day.
20/10/2019 2:27 pm
Good story, nice cars. A 72 Vega was the first new car I ever bought and....
... I also love wagons and did this '57 Sedan Delivery restomod way back in the early 2000s. A rust bucket basket case I bought on the internet and took the guy's word that it was in "good shape". Six years and IDK how many $K later, I traded it for a 72 Corvette.
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Topic starter
20/10/2019 2:37 pm
Beautiful work.
20/10/2019 3:31 pm
omg...what an awesome story !! I'm sure wondering how that Vega story goes as my grandparents bought one and lets just say it didn't work out too good for them...a total p.o.s. I had warned them...
Topic starter
20/10/2019 4:11 pm
I had three Vegas and never had a problem with them, all
Three were 74,s and GT,s and I really liked them.
20/10/2019 5:39 pm
My grandparents bought a '76 or '77 and it was a p.o.s. We had it towed from from L.A. where it broke down to Anaheim. Thank-you Leon Kaplan for his radio show !!
20/10/2019 5:41 pm
BTW.. did anyone here listen to Leon on KABC 790 in Los Angeles on
Sunday morning?
21/10/2019 2:46 am
I'm getting the picture that you are a car rescuer - taking the ugly ducklings and making them whole again. Funny about the the Myna. Birds are not clean pets, but for those who don't mind cleaning cages and the floor beneath them they can be loving, loyal pets. (I'm not one of them.) Any how, in your original story amazing how the Ford came home to roost, so to speak.
21/10/2019 7:26 pm
Nice color change on the 57 Chevy panel wagon!