"Dru" (therealkennyd)
10/14/2016 at 12:11 • Filed to: None
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"Dru" (therealkennyd)
10/14/2016 at 12:11 • Filed to: None | 1
| 6 |
About 2.5 years ago, my paternal grandfather passed away in one of the most sudden and tragic ways imaginable. He and I were never very close, especially as I got older, so once he had passed I felt extreme regret and remorse and wanted to hold on to anything I could.
Grandad was a hoarder to the extreme. He had a couple dozen acres of land in rural NC, across two properties, so he had room to hoard.
One of the things he held on to was a 1977 Ford F-150 extended cab that he had owned since new. It was green over green, and despite half of the glass being missing, lending it to being a house for random critters, the interior was mostly in tact. It hadn’t run in years, and I never asked why. This could have made an awesome shop truck build, were I so inclined. Being an extended cab would make it unusual, and thereby undesirable to many wanting a regular cab, but it was a vehicle my grandad owned for nearly 4 decades, so it was special to me.
But there were several issues. Grandad was leveraged to the hilt, and my now widowed grandmother needed every penny she could muster. The two properties were worth only slightly more than their respective mortgages owed, and she lacked the physical ability and the desire to tend to either. So everything had to be sold off.
I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that she would have given me the truck had I asked. But I also knew I had the 4Runner project going (still going by the way), and this one would just sit on my parents land until I could get to it (read: years).
My dad actually found a local hot rod shop who agreed to take it in exchange for getting rid of a lot of trash and junk from the land. The guy in question fully intended to turn it into a rat rod/shop truck. I like to imagine it turned out like the below:
I can at least take solace in the fact that there is a good chance it went to a loving home. But my natural ball-of-anxiety self also knows it could have been sold for scrap metal.
It slipped through my fingers, but I knew it was always going to.
If you’ve got a similar story, please share.
extraspecialbitter
> Dru
10/14/2016 at 12:19 |
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This thing. Friend hadn’t driven in a long while and couldn’t get used to the controls in time to avoid a guardrail or something. He offered it to me for free, but I had no space for it in my condo lot.
Also, it’s
juuust
old enough to me that I need to put this sucker in a garage. Oh well. Repairing it would’ve been a pain anyways.
shop-teacher
> Dru
10/14/2016 at 12:24 |
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I don’t have a similar story, but I can understand why you let it go, and why that was hard. I think you did the right thing though. Letting it sit for years, usually leads to letting it sit for more years, and by the time you “get around” to it, often it’s too late. By letting it go to somebody who likely saved it, you know it’s out there somewhere, being used the way it should be. Or at least it might be, and you can fantasize about finding it again someday. To my mind, that’s better than watching it rot before your very eyes.
Years ago, I tried to find a car my grandfather had owned and sold before I was born. I actually found the person who he sold it to, and he remembered who he had then sold it to. But that person had long since passed away, and the trail went cold. The upside is, I still get to fantasize about finding it someday :)
Tristan
> Dru
10/14/2016 at 12:28 |
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I had a dentside Supercab in high school... half ton, 4x4 long bed. I wish I kept it.
Currently, I’m being offered a ‘77 Highboy, but with lots of cars in the driveway already, going to school full time, working 2 jobs and a baby due any day now, it ain’t happening.
crowmolly
> Dru
10/14/2016 at 12:37 |
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‘61 Buick Invicta.
Helped out a friend’s neighbor with a bunch of household stuff just to be nice as she was elderly and having some trouble. Over the course of maybe 6 months.
It was her husband’s car and had sat for maybe 30 years. Needed just about everything but the body was pretty laser straight. I never knew she had it until one day she offered it to me as I mentioned my hobbies.
Even though it might have been a fair deal given the amount of time I had given up, I didn’t have room, time, or money for another resto. So I told her what it was worth if she wanted to sell it (so she wouldn’t get burned by some asshole).
I think her kids sold it for her and she moved into assisted living shortly after.
Urambo Tauro
> Dru
10/14/2016 at 12:56 |
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Not a car, but my grandfather offered me a kerosene heater which would have been awesome to have in the garage for wrenching during Michigan winters. I had to turn him down because I just don’t have the room for it. The garage is packed, and any additional stuff would be stuck in the walking path. I’ve inherited hoarding tendencies that go back at least a couple of generations, and it’s something that I struggle with every day to overcome. Declining a free space heater like that was a bittersweet victory for me.
functionoverfashion
> Dru
10/14/2016 at 13:04 |
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Mine isn’t nearly as heart-wrenching, but it does involve a brown wagon. My grandmother bought a 1981 Aries K wagon new in 1981, while retired and living by herself - this was the stereotypical ‘church on Sundays and grocery run’ kind of car. By the time she passed away it was used even less because she lived with my aunt who did all the driving in her own car. The Aries had no special emotional ties whatsoever, it was just a time capsule in need of a home.
I was in college and needed a car. At the time I loved the idea of a 30 year old wagon
with front and rear bench seats
and about 30k miles, zero rust. On paper it was nicer than anything I could afford.
I couldn’t pass up a free car; practically hitchhiked my way to my aunt’s house (500 miles away), and proudly hit the road. I immediately regretted it. This thing was a piece of utter garbage. I had come from a 1990 Honda civic and this thing felt 100 years older. Its handling was scary. Acceleration was glacial. Brakes? A mere suggestion. I had a few close calls on the highway and genuinely worried for my safety because of my inability to work with modern traffic.
Nonetheless, it made it home over 500 miles and I started driving it daily, for about a week. On a trip to Boston a radiator hose went. Not knowing what else to do at the time (it was late at night) I called AAA and flatbedded it to my parents’ trusted mechanic. He said the obvious which was that it needed a lot of hoses replaced due to the age and sitting unused all those years. It also needed tires, shocks, and after all that it’s still a 30 year old K car. Basically I decided I was better off saving my pennies for a more modern, safe car. I ended up with a high-mileage but well-maintained Honda Accord 5-speed, which I loved and drove everywhere for the next 5 years without a hiccup. We gave the Aries to a friend who didn’t keep it very long either. I suspect it’s still running, though, wherever it is today.
Sometimes I regret not taking the time to learn and do the work myself, because I’m sure that car would have been easy to work on. Plus front bench seat!! But I really do hate automatics, and that car really was awful to drive. I am conflicted about the decision to this day.