What's your motor vehicle history?

[putnam6]

A while back I got a line on a '76 GMC Jimmy.  Kid that owned it got his GF prego and needed money.  Had a tired 350 V-8 in it, and a busted trans, but the body was straight (except for the front left fender).  Bought it off him for $500 bucks.  Didn't screw around with trying to repair the fender, just ordered a new one and replaced it and the liner entirely.  Pulled the engine and trans, and swapped in a Corvette LT-1 engine I'd just finished getting balanced and blueprinted.  Put in a 400 trans I had also.  I'd had the engine in the shop just looking for something to put it in.  The Jimmy had the low back interior, so I just gutted that entirely.  Found a crashed Blazer Silverado series which was loaded, picked it up for a song and the interior was showroom new.  I started just thinking I wanted the high back bucket seats, but wound up pulling the entire interior and swapping it into the Jimmy.  What had started out as a beater hunting truck was now turning into something special.

Rebuilt the front and rear ends, transfer case checked out good.  Changed out all the lights and dash electrical.  Sanded it down and primed it up.  This thing was shaping up like a million bucks.  Sprayed it down with a 2 stage lacquer paint job (DuPont Corvette Orange), inside and out.  By then I was in 'the gonzo zombie zone'.  Striped it up with some white pinstripes (painted on).  Put the whole new interior back into it (tan leather) over the top of all new carpet.  Yanked the intake manifold and put on a Edelbrock high flow intake and topped it off with a Holly 750 cfm double-pump 4 barrel.  Tore out the old exhaust from the manifolds back, and dropped in a set of Hooker headers w/ straight 2" dual exhausts with some glass packs about mid way back.  Put some Methods and new shoes on it.  Drove it out of the shop and that thing was gleaming!  And, boy howdy, would that puppy get up and go!  Man, that thing would leap straight up off the ground when you mashed the throttle.  I literally have pictures of it at a dead stop where you can see daylight under all four tires!  Those old full-time 4wd's would do stuff like that.  Absolutely loved that thing!  When you'd mash on the gas you could see the whole front end twist from the torque.  Once I'd gotten into 'the groove' rebuilding that old Jimmy, I just couldn't stop.  By that point it was way too nice to ever beat on it up in the mountains elk hunting, so it mostly sat in the shop as a garage queen. 

Every place I drove that thing someone wanted to buy it.  Wound up selling it to this older fella I knew who collects and restores square bodies for about $20k (I had about $9k in it by then, plus my time).  Wish I would have hung onto it now.  I can't touch one of those for under about $45k in not nearly as nice condition as the one I built.  Watched a similar one go across the blocks last year at Barret-Jackson and the dude fetched $80 grand for it.  His had more chrome on the engine, and all braided lines, but otherwise almost identical...wow!

P.S. - Part of my sales deal with the older fella was I've got him on the lookout for a '71 Chevy "Cheese grater" 4x4 (my dream truck).  When he finds it, and he will (if anyone can), that will be a full frame-off restoration from the ground up.  Told him to buy it on sight if it has potential, I don't care how much it costs.  If he can find me a 2500 I've got a half a mind to do a resto-mod with a 6.4L Cummins turbo diesel.  Now wouldn't that be cool!!

Yeah, I don't think I'll ever buy new again, 

You spend that much time, money, and effort on a ride, it's no wonder you get attached. I never had the skills, tools, or room to restore properly, but relatives and friends did.

My Dad found my older sister's car 1972 Nova 350 SuperSport, it was fairly beat up, but Dad got it running cherry. The exterior wasn't decked out too much, but it would haul ass. So many guys were jealous of her ride, that she got a few speeding tickets IIRC. My brother then inherited it, and got it looking sharp as hell. I was hoping to get it, but my brother got an offer and sold it. 

I'd give my left nut for a restored ride like this today.