1969fbird
08-24-2015, 12:21 PM
Hi all, I am new to this world and new to this board. It appears to be a nice place from what I can see. I was never really a car guy as I was too busy with the rat race, raising kids etc and never really had a hobby of any kind to speak of. I have never been able to work on cars or repair/build things around the house other than very, very simple things. It just wasn't me. Wasn't my deal. The complete opposite of my father and my brother and many of my relatives. I always say I only own a hammer because someone gave it to me....partly joking but not that far from the truth.
Edit: This got longer than I was anticipating.........I intended to tell my story of how I came across this 69 Firebird...I got a bit carried away. If this is in the wrong place or not the kind of thing wanted here, just feel free to move it or just delete.....
My father passed away 3 or 4 years ago and I inherited his 1930 Model A. It was kind of his baby for years. It was in pretty nice shape overall. He had restored it himself (basically original) about 25 years ago and the last 10 years of his life it really didn't get out much due to his health and it probably hasn't run in 6 or 8 years minimum but his friends assured me that it would run with a small amount of work.
Kind of sad to say I never really had that much interest in that car other than knowing my dad loved that car so I was going to take care of it....and also to go look at it from time to time and it was a nice conversation piece with friends and family.
I had a few shortly lived thoughts of getting it running and putting it in a couple small town parades. Particularly, the town my dad lived in as many of the people who knew him would get a kick out of it. But It has never left the storage garage I have it sitting in and I just didn't have the desire to work on that car or learn how.
After my father passed, my brother was pretty upset when he found out that he didn't get dads old model A. He is a car guy. Always has been. I understand why he was upset. He's a car guy, I wasn't. That fact is very well known. However, as I explained to him and a few butthurt family members (on some other items) it wasn't my decision. It was dads. that was ugly for a while. Such is life.
The reason I received the car is that my fathers wife made it known to me over 20 years ago that he wanted me to have the old car some day. Mostly due to the fact that I was responsible and my life was very stable and my brother wasn't responsible or stable for most of his adult life, up until recently. (after dad died) I also made a habit of coming around to see them from the time I was in college until he died. Particularly the last few years when he was sick. He was an alcoholic his whole life and his wife had a hard time taking care of him over the years for many reasons related to that in addition to his declining health the last 5 years or so. I assisted her quite a bit at times. The others didn't really take the time to come around that much over the years and really didn't know what his wife had to go through with him and the things I helped her with a few times.
So I kind of understand why there were some hurt feelings and I tried explaining that it wasn't my decision, but that didn't always go well. Everything is fine today. At least as far as I am concerned.
To make matters worse, the times my brother did see my dad, he always told him he wanted that car someday. He was tactful about it. He offered to buy it. Dad never really responded. I never said a word either and dad's wife always said "there is going to be some hurt feelings some day". I was also the one to break the car news to my brother a few months after dads death. Fun stuff.
From day 1, my brother pestered me to buy it from me. I declined for the first 3 years or so. About a year ago, I finally agreed he could buy it from me. He started making payments to me when he could.
As I mentioned, my brother loves old cars. He owns(ed) 2 1969 Firebirds he had bought over time from some old guy. Both were in need of quite a bit of work to restore but not that far off from at least running.
One is a convertible. The coup, he got running the past year or so and had started driving it around a bit. As I saw him driving it a few times, that car really intrigued me. It still needs quite a bit of work to restore it but it "looks good" from a distance and runs reasonably well....
One day a few months ago it hit me.....So I said to him...."Tell you what....let's trade. Even up". He said no way. He wanted them both. I bugged him a couple times over the next week or so and he wouldn't give in. In fact, he gave me another $500 to get his total up to $2,500 that he had paid me for the Model A.
My wife is a genius.....she said "You know he's going to need the money someday and he'll come around to trading" Sure enough, last week, he calls me and said he was ready to go ahead and trade....but I'd have to give him his $2500 back. I said DEAL!! Pretty sure I made out much better on this than him...... :)
So here I am.....I now own a Firebird and have quite a bit of interest in getting this thing restored. I've got a body shop guy that is working on a quote to tell me how much it will cost to restore the body and I've got a mechanic that is going to help me determine what the engine and other mechanical needs are.
I'll make another post now (pics later too) to talk about restoration options.
Edit: This got longer than I was anticipating.........I intended to tell my story of how I came across this 69 Firebird...I got a bit carried away. If this is in the wrong place or not the kind of thing wanted here, just feel free to move it or just delete.....
My father passed away 3 or 4 years ago and I inherited his 1930 Model A. It was kind of his baby for years. It was in pretty nice shape overall. He had restored it himself (basically original) about 25 years ago and the last 10 years of his life it really didn't get out much due to his health and it probably hasn't run in 6 or 8 years minimum but his friends assured me that it would run with a small amount of work.
Kind of sad to say I never really had that much interest in that car other than knowing my dad loved that car so I was going to take care of it....and also to go look at it from time to time and it was a nice conversation piece with friends and family.
I had a few shortly lived thoughts of getting it running and putting it in a couple small town parades. Particularly, the town my dad lived in as many of the people who knew him would get a kick out of it. But It has never left the storage garage I have it sitting in and I just didn't have the desire to work on that car or learn how.
After my father passed, my brother was pretty upset when he found out that he didn't get dads old model A. He is a car guy. Always has been. I understand why he was upset. He's a car guy, I wasn't. That fact is very well known. However, as I explained to him and a few butthurt family members (on some other items) it wasn't my decision. It was dads. that was ugly for a while. Such is life.
The reason I received the car is that my fathers wife made it known to me over 20 years ago that he wanted me to have the old car some day. Mostly due to the fact that I was responsible and my life was very stable and my brother wasn't responsible or stable for most of his adult life, up until recently. (after dad died) I also made a habit of coming around to see them from the time I was in college until he died. Particularly the last few years when he was sick. He was an alcoholic his whole life and his wife had a hard time taking care of him over the years for many reasons related to that in addition to his declining health the last 5 years or so. I assisted her quite a bit at times. The others didn't really take the time to come around that much over the years and really didn't know what his wife had to go through with him and the things I helped her with a few times.
So I kind of understand why there were some hurt feelings and I tried explaining that it wasn't my decision, but that didn't always go well. Everything is fine today. At least as far as I am concerned.
To make matters worse, the times my brother did see my dad, he always told him he wanted that car someday. He was tactful about it. He offered to buy it. Dad never really responded. I never said a word either and dad's wife always said "there is going to be some hurt feelings some day". I was also the one to break the car news to my brother a few months after dads death. Fun stuff.
From day 1, my brother pestered me to buy it from me. I declined for the first 3 years or so. About a year ago, I finally agreed he could buy it from me. He started making payments to me when he could.
As I mentioned, my brother loves old cars. He owns(ed) 2 1969 Firebirds he had bought over time from some old guy. Both were in need of quite a bit of work to restore but not that far off from at least running.
One is a convertible. The coup, he got running the past year or so and had started driving it around a bit. As I saw him driving it a few times, that car really intrigued me. It still needs quite a bit of work to restore it but it "looks good" from a distance and runs reasonably well....
One day a few months ago it hit me.....So I said to him...."Tell you what....let's trade. Even up". He said no way. He wanted them both. I bugged him a couple times over the next week or so and he wouldn't give in. In fact, he gave me another $500 to get his total up to $2,500 that he had paid me for the Model A.
My wife is a genius.....she said "You know he's going to need the money someday and he'll come around to trading" Sure enough, last week, he calls me and said he was ready to go ahead and trade....but I'd have to give him his $2500 back. I said DEAL!! Pretty sure I made out much better on this than him...... :)
So here I am.....I now own a Firebird and have quite a bit of interest in getting this thing restored. I've got a body shop guy that is working on a quote to tell me how much it will cost to restore the body and I've got a mechanic that is going to help me determine what the engine and other mechanical needs are.
I'll make another post now (pics later too) to talk about restoration options.