Now, Don't Jinx Me! Finally, A Red Update for you all. . .

[Gen2Cudas]

One King Hell of a lot of water under the bridge. . .absolutely tons of personal, professional happenings. . .

This all started back in Spring 2009. . .

 

[Gen2Cudas]

What you see is my 1967 Plymouth Barracuda, bought in Houston Texas from Sollock and Turner Plymouth by my Dad; it was the demonstrator model and had 3000 miles on it when he brought it home. . .

I was 9 years old.

 

[Gen2Cudas]

If it could talk. . .

I ate, drank, slept in this thing. . .I was in the cargo area when my dad had it up to 117 on the Katy Freeway, losing to a friend's 390 Ford Galaxy. . .

 

[Gen2Cudas]

I learned to drive in this thing- mostly doing what we called "pig trailing" on the backroads around Lake Travis, Liberty Hill, all the Texas Hill Country. . . mostly looking at the White Tail deer for hours on end. . .

. . .I went to high school in Her: me, a short haired little introverted nerd with a blue lunch bucket, a plastic wind breaker. . .

. . .had my first minor wreck in her trying to get on the highway in the rain ahead of an 18 wheeler. . .that man had to have chewed up his own seat cover as I spun a 180 right in front of him as I hydroplaned out of control into the guard rail. . .

. . .got her fixed and painted back up. . .

. . .spent my time learning how to work on her, tuning her up, polishing her up. . .cruising Georgetown and Austin on the weekends in her. . .

. . .got my first ticket in her. . .

. . .did College in her. . .

. . .dated girls in her. . .

. . .totaled a Subaru DL in her in Austin going to work; towed her home and replaced waterpump forward on her from junkyard parts. . .got the same guy to do the paint and bodywork again for me that did it in High School. . .

Honeymooned in her in Estes Park Colorado; drove all over the Southwest in her. . .

. . .put the second motor in her in a weekend with a buddy, worked all weekend on it- and broke it in and drove it to work that Monday morning with no sleep. . .

I have been in heat, rain, hail, ice, snow, name it in this car. . .been scared in her, mad in her, tired in her, excited in her. . .

. . .drove my new Son home in this car. . .

. . .and my new Daughter. . .

. . .and finally, finally, finally parked her after over 300,000 miles and 4 engines, and lots and lots of memories made.

 

[Gen2Cudas]

This piece of automotive history has been in my life for most of it. It took care of me when I was learning how, took my thrashing of it and kept on going, sometimes limping home but getting me there. It gave me something to do, something to keep me interested, something to learn about things mechanical with, something to dream about improving. . .I think it made a positive impact on me and mine. She has a name and a soul.

She deserved to be brought back.

I finally got the chance to start that in 2009.

 

[Gen2Cudas]

Pics as recap:

 

[toplscuda]

Awesome story looking forward to the resurrection

 

[Gen2Cudas]

My Daughter and I tore her down; she is 22 years old now and has learned about cars from working on them along side her Dad. . .

 

[Gen2Cudas]

More:

 

[Gen2Cudas]

This thing was tired. And, for the longest time all I could do was keep her on the road- kids and working and all that goes with that kept me from doing little more than keeping it street legal. Rough from lots of time, lots of wear, lots of exposure.

 

[360DartGT66]

I love your story and already gave the thread five stars. It's great to see the story unfold from my armchair in Sweden where the sun is just coming up.

 

[Gen2Cudas]

I'm good with mechanicals- But, I know my limitations, so I found a local guy to do the bodywork and paint, simply feeding him the materials as he needed it to get the car done.

For lots of reasons, it took a long time to make any progress:

 

[Gen2Cudas]

This is work done from 2009 to about 2011. Slow but. . . slow. Good things happening- floors in, frame ties in, repair of years of abuse and wrecks. But time going by. . .

 

[Gen2Cudas]

In November of 2011, I finally get the old girl home. . . .

 

[Gen2Cudas]

Damn nice job done for me. Colorado Red, a ghost stripe in a Toyota hue that really stands out in the Sun, the valence cut for dual exhaust. . .

. . . beautiful canvas, just waiting to be finished.

By the way, thanks and many to this site for so much information, encouragement, parts, comraderie. . . .

Joey, ChallengerGary, BillGrissom, Dan(Teeth&Tires), cudacrazy67, and more of you. . .

. . .and CaptainKirk.

 

[Gen2Cudas]

CaptainKirk's story far outshines my own in depth and detail. Reading his account and waiting/hoping for him to get the Duke finished has had a huge impact on many here. . .and on me.

With this I hope to return the favor.

 

[Gen2Cudas]

In April of 2012, I get a call from my Mother. "I need you to come help me with your Father."

They had been trying to live independently in their home in Georgetown; getting on up in years, not taking the best of care of themselves. . . and lots more that my brother and I found out in the months to come had been going on behind the scenes there.

My Dad had a strangled hernia and had to have surgery asap. Not optimal shape for it, but no choice. Into the hospital, anesthesia leaves him in a coma for a time. . .and when he comes out he is. . . kind of dim. Not the same vigorous, sharp person that he had been, that I knew. Onset senile dementia is the diagnosis. . .and I find that my Mother has been having to deal with this for quite some time before we become aware of it. She was still sharp, still balancing her checkbook, still doing crosswords, Suduko, etc. . .but he was confused. Apparently been that way and they had kept it to themselves.

Short story, he has wound problems, stays in the hospital and in therapy for a number of months. We decide to move them into the house with my brother in Waco, empty their home, sell their house, etc. Lots of work, lots of travel lots of lots of.

And then out of the blue, my mother goes to sleep one night in June and never wakes up.

I won't go into all the stress and strain of the funeral and the following months. Suffice to say that my Dad is a difficult addition to my brother's family with his medical and memory problems. Not pretty, not easy for anyone.

2012 was not a good year. 2013 either. In addition to all the personal fun, my company gets sold to a competitor- with all the upheaval attendant to that.

And then my father was diagnosed with stage 3 lung cancer. He lasted 9 months of 2014.

I was holding his hand along with my sister when he passed.

 

[Gen2Cudas]

More pics:

 

[Gen2Cudas]

Pay no mind to that last picture; simply a denizen hunting for his supper as we worked into the night here recently (Smile).

More coming, including pictures. Stay tuned!

 

[1967 'cuda]

It may sound callous to say that 'life goes on' but throughout the years we all have things to endure that we wished we didn't have to. - Sorry to hear about your folks. I've lost both of mine and miss them dearly.

- Love the '67.

 

[Gen2Cudas]

I necessarily left out a great amount of detail of a private nature in last night's posting- and thanks to those that commiserated with me for my loss. I am very sure that a number on here have had similar experiences if not worse. . .but though miserable and unavoidable, they were a chance for me to Learn- and act.

I watched two great people essentially work their whole lives until they were too broken down to enjoy their retirement- and then die too soon. They did outlive their money such as they had, so that was a victory of sorts. . .

. . .But I considered it lives cut short, and experiences to be never enjoyed.

And it scared me out of my socks- at 56 I am only 22 short years away from their end time.

So my Wife and I are making a number of lifestyle changes:

Smoking- I quit the month my Dad was diagnosed. Buying someone a casket will do that to you. Still have the picture on my phone to remind me that my people make it only to 78 while smoking. . .

Exercise, eating better, downsizing, changing how we will live and prepare for the future going forward. . .for we do not wish to be that kind of a burden to our children either. My parents didn't wish to be; they tried not to be, bless their hearts; it just worked out that way.

. . .and not slaving away until we simply can't work any more. As lovely as money is, Time with our loved ones is more precious- way too precious to waste on people that do not appreciate it. Fortunately, we are almost debt free and our children are each a year away from finishing their college- so a career change is in the works that should allow me to sleep in my own bed 7 days a week.

So, we visit family more often, have been trying to reconnect more with ourselves and our family and friends more. . .

. . .and getting projects done before it is too late.

Here are some more pictures. My Son and I have worked hard this Spring and Summer getting Red to this point. Please keep your fingers crossed that we can get her street legal by Winter.

And Thanks so much for all that I have enjoyed here on this forum and for all the help and support.

 

[Gen2Cudas]

The ralley dash is one from Mr. G's when he was open, bought back in 2009; if you look real close you will see that the vacuum gauge has been swapped out for a tach. . .and that it is running. The oil pressure is fine, just having a small grounding issue with the nearby vacuum advance on the distributor. Electrical mods courtesy of another member on this site.

The radio is from a member here; it is AM/FM and works great through a properly selected single speaker. An upgrade to a hidden stereo system (computer streaming?) is contemplated.

As always, gremlins. The underdash heater core I had personally pressure tested before installation failed. Thank goodness for no carpet. But, had to take in back out, split it and put in a new EBAY heater core last week.

Rear shows all the EZ Cool I laid down way back when. Interior, carpet and side walls are ready to be installed over it all.

 

[Gen2Cudas]

Exterior:

Paint and body done back in 2011; windshield and back glass installed by a friend locally in 2012; that stainless steel trim I have had stashed literally for this car since the 80's. It took a heck of a lot of cleaning, massaging, and polishing to finally get it on there yesterday.

 

[redfastback]

Great looking red fastback!!! Nice job! Sorry to hear about your folks.

 

[Gen2Cudas]

Wheel well mouldings I have been sitting on since 2010; finally installed.

You will notice the rear chrome, bumper and the back up lights are, well, original. Not in bad shape, useable driver stuff. My Son and I talked it over and decided to get this Girl back on the road now rather than wait for all the upgrades I hoped to put on to be ready. So, it is sitting on its original 14 inch wheels, SBP 7.25 rather than the 8.25 and front disks I have stashed. They aren't ready to hang yet. . .but we will do it as we get the time and can take the car off the road for short time improvements. The idea is to enjoy her now, not some indeterminate time in the future. . .

. . .good stance though.

Now, to build driver quality grilles out of all the parts I have left (BIG grin) . . .