[sammons]

... My R/T gets a new custodian. The thought of me croaking with out knowing for sure what/who would end up with it was too much. I signed it over to my buddy Tom, buy the time i got to my last name, my hand was shaking bad. Told Tom that was one of the hardest things i've signed. When i was 14 and started work at the Mobil service station, i stopped at the drug store after school to get a Coke and head for work. Came out of the store where a 3rd grader on an orange Schwynn Stingray says "Man that is one neat car", later found out the kids name.... Tom😁

I've been told it was stupid to give the car away. Somethings money just doesn't matter, this is one. Damn thing would be worth a small fortune on the open market, but it doesn't owe me a damn thing. I bought it with reverse out from a Grandpa that ordered it for his granddaughter during her Junior year of high school. It was being abused by boyfriends and had knocked the tranny out for the 6th time, warrenty denied. Met the man at the dealership, he was pissed. I asked what he would take for it, he said... let me see whats still owed. He went in and got the payoff amount from Chrysler credit, $382. He asked if i could come up with that, i said yes. Dad's buddy drove me back to Bucklin to get my money and dad and we all headed back to dealership and paid the man. He went in, paid it off came back out with lien release and title. We pushed it back out of the parking spot and i now owned a highly abused 18k mile high optioned  R/T convertible. There was only 296 R/T convertibles built for 1970, base price was $3,750, this one as ordered was over $5300.

Now she has just under 35k miles, rode hard and put up wet. How she was never recked in that time is amazing.

1st pic, 7th grade 13yr old me.
2nd pic getting ready to dig it out of my backyard in '86, (had dad paint it black in fall of '74)
3rd pic 1988
4th pic 2015 where its now sat since.

[EDNY]

Probably saying this a great story would probably be better described as a great emotional story.  I can understand your emotions - some sad - some happy - focus on the positive.  These hunks of metal have a way of getting inside us.

My story went the other way, bought my 1966 2dr Nova hardtop a couple months ago after a 44 year separation.

[sammons]

Ya, it's a sentimental thing. Not really like i lost it, Tom said it's always yours regaurdless of paper. I did have him put an automatic transfer on death to my brother on the title.

Ed, congrats on getting an old one back. I owned my '73 Mach 1 twice. But my old '71 Dodge sweptline short bed probably 6 times. Back in the mid 80s, Tom and his dad were buying a lot of cars. They bought the p.u. from his cousin, and it was the straw that broke the camels back with his mom. They bought it on a saturday afternoon and were knocking on my door sunday afternoon begging me to buy it, i did. 383 4bbl, 727 auto, 3:23 suregrip rear end. It sat up high and the original paint was all chocked out. I lowered it, added aluminum slot wheels, chrome bumpers, buffed out the paint and added the black stripes. I'd get tired of it sell it back to Tom, he'd get tired of it and i'd buy it back. The gal at the tag office said we should just put and/or on the title and save a lot of transfere fees😁

[TFoch]

At least you know the car is in good hands.  It's gotta be tough to let it go though!

[sixball]

It ia not just a car our lives revolved around these things. They are part of what we were and what we loved. They can out last us if cared for. They can be made new again.

our first new car was a 1970 Blazer. I ca see it out of the window from where I am sitting right now. Neglected but there along with a '62 Porsche Super 90 coupe. The two cars we came to Nevada with in 1972. They both need lots of work and it is doubtful I'll get it done. At least my sons are interested in both. Sometimes I wonder how many one owner early Blazers are out there or matching number 356 Porsches. I'm sure they are worth something but it doesn't matter. Maybe I should find someone to put them back on the road.

I admire you for making sure your R/T has a home. It was obviously a chick magnet!

[sammons]

Yes, it's in good capable hands. Thinking about this for several years, who would really want it and keep it. Not just sell it for the money. My choises were my girlfriend, brother or my buddies Cheech, Tom. My girl friend never really cared which car through high school till it came to my Mach 1, she fell in love with it. She hates bad gas mileage, so no. My brother has pleanty of cars he has to try and maintain. My buddy Cheech has had almost as many hours of seat time in it as me since we were 13 sneeking down the alleys. But other than basic oil changes, he hasn't the tools knowlage to deal with it or a place to keep it other than an open carport. Tom has been hands on involved with it since '86 when he took my transmission to trade school and rebuilt it. Tom can do bodywork and paint plus he was a ASE certified mechanic, plus he has the shop where its been kept for decades. These old muscle cars require a lot of upkeep.

I screwed up in 86 when i tore it down to repaint back to original blue. All R/T's came standard with 440 4 bbl magnums, 10.0 compression pistons. 6 pack upgrade was a bigger cam and  10.5. Dumb ass me thought it was 11.5. So i oredered 6 pack cam from Chysler and Std bore 11.5 pistons from Trw. We still had 103 octaine fuel here at the time, and it still needed more  in the summer.

I told Tom he should either tear it down and put original 10. Pistons in or just set it aside a put a low compression BB in its place. He talked about going to an E-85 carb and run that, but nearest station
with E-85 is 30 miles away. His problem now😁 

[Essex_29]

Wow, 51 years!
Nice story, Sammons. Nice to hear that the car of yours has a good home now.

Amazing how people keep their old cars like that. I guess there's also a difference in car culture, and in my
case, the fact that we lived in apartment buildings when I was very young. My dad owned eight cars in his
entre life, starting with a 1948 Citroen Sport, traction avant (front wheel drive). He always traded in his
old car for the next one, never owning a new car, never keeping the old one.
American cars were fairly unusual, in part because they were comparably expensive. Our neighbour in the
early seventies had a circa 1967 Plymouth Valiant, and I remember it as being huge.
My first car was a 1967 Ford Cortina I bought in 1983 when I was 17. 18 was the age when you got your
driver's licence and I have since owned 68 cars, 32 of them American made. I don't know where my
interest for cars came from, but it appears to have begun right when I was born. My dad showed me
how to change the oli in our rear engined Simca 1000 when I was about 5, I still remember that, but
he wasn't into cars, just did maintenace to save money.

[sammons]

Essex we, (in Kansas anyway), got what they called a restricted licence at 14 for school, work or parent errands. Then we got our regular licence at 16.

My little brother and i bought our 1st vehicle in 1970. It was a 1950 Chevy panel truck that the neighbor dropped the tierod pulling into his driveway after work, give the guy $1.00 for it. Took me mowing 4-5 yards to get the money for a new tierod end. Hours of fun driving in Grandpas pasture and camping in it😄
By the time i graduated in '79 i had been through 19 cars/trucks. I wish i knew what the count was today...  i quit counting many decades ago.

[Essex_29]

Oh wow, at 14! Good thing we didn't get that here, I was dangerous to myself and
others, still at 18. I've been a professional driver, trucks and since 1995 buses, so
I think I'm not too bad that way anymore.

20 or so years ago, I started a list of what is all the cars I have owned and have added
to it when buying cars, so I'm confident that I know exactly how many I have had.
Also sometimes people ask: How many American cars have you owned? So I counted
those in an own cathegory.

[chopper526]

Sammons, that is an incredible story of generosity. Good for you, man!!!

[sixball]

My brother got his license when he was 14. Farm kids could get them and I don't remember there being restrictions on them. That was Texas in 1954. In order to use the family car or Dad's pickup he had to take me with him a lot. I was 9. Within a year our '50 Plymouth was a lot shinier and had a set of Studebaker hub caps.(poor man's Moons) The newly painted '52 Dodge pickup had real Moons and his car club plaque. When I graduated high school in '58 he and I took his  '39 Ford coupe to California where he was moving to go to school. 18 & 13 in a pretty cool hotrod what a trip! We moved to California the next year so I had to wait until I wa 16 for my license but by then I had a '38 coupe ready that my brother gave me. I wish I had pictures of those side by side or any at all.