Spring Fling 35 Apr 15 & 16, 2023 Van Nuys CA -info & roll call
Thanks guys. It really has been an emotional roller coaster getting to this point. My dad bought the car for my mom as her first car in 1975, he already had a '72 Demon 340 at that point (which later got totaled, while parked, by a drunk driver in front of his parents house.) Myself and my 2 older siblings all came home from the hospital in this car after we were born. At some point the '70 Road Runner 440/4spd came along and the Demon moved to a storage yard. The daily driver became a K-car ("a door is ajar" if anybody remembers the alert system that spoke to you for everything?!) and the guzzler/rusty Road Runner was sold (I still remember the day it drove away for $1000!!!)
The Demon sat for too long and rotted out (as they all do) and after my mom passed (at 37) my dad decided it was time to start picking away at it... instead of jumping straight in, he and my brother restored my brother's '71 Swinger for "practice" using the Demon for reference. Once that was complete, we started in on the Demon using the Swinger for reference.
It was always a "when I feel like it, I'm in no rush" kind of project which took right at 20 years (with a few fires lit under his butt along the way, his neighbor and myself jumped in anytime he'd let us) to get back on the road. I think one of the biggest motivators to finish the Demon was when my brother passed at just 35 in 2017. I can't count how many times I heard my dad say "I gotta get it ready for Spring Fling" Unfortunately his health started deteriorating over the last few years so he only put 111 miles on it before he passed just over a year ago at 64... but damnit, he finished it! Most of his friends and family never knew he got the car done until they saw me drive it to his funeral.
It's not perfect, but he was trying to keep things accurate, he even took pencil rubbings of some of the decals so they could go back on just as crooked as they were from the factory. The 6 pack had been pulled from a T/A Challenger at his high school job (a Chevron service station, back when they'd do real service like engine rebuilding!) in favor of a 4bbl, so he got a good deal on the takeoff parts. His parents (my grandparents) wouldn't let him buy the T/A he wanted because it was (according to my grandparents) a "race car."... but he had a plan to build his own 340 6 pack, so originality be damned, the 6 pack stays on this car! I'm still picking away at the details, but my dad will be proud to see his baby finally make it to the show... even though he'd have given me a hard time that "this ain't no trailer queen!"
I look forward to hearing others' stories at the show!