'59 Chevy

I picked up a Rod and Kulture magazine the other day while out finishing my Christmas shopping. I've been checking out the car mags the last couple of years looking for inspiration to work on the Volkswagen and maybe someday give the old Plymouth the love it deserves. I like Rod and Kulture because it always has plenty of traditional hot rods as well as old drag racers. It also throws in a cool motorcycle or two and a couple of really nice pinups. Pretty much everything an old fart like myself is interested in with a minimum of advertising.

The latest issue has a '59 Chevy custom that is really nice. The car is somewhat of a mystery as to who built it but it's a really nice example of what an early '60's custom car looked like. It's got an upholstered trunk, lots of tasteful chrome and a 348 mill. Really sweet.

We had a '59 when I was a kid and it was nothing like this one. Ours had a 235 Blue Flame six with a three on the tree. It was my Mom's driver and my older brother's farm vehicle. He was doing a little farming while still in high school, so the old stovebolt got put to use hauling seed and fertilizer out to the fields and I'm pretty sure it hauled a couple of little piglets around as well. I remember borrowing it to see my future wife when we first started dating. The throttle linkage was sticking from all the dirt thrown up around the gas pedal so I tied a piece of baling twine from the linkage to the glove box door. I'd grab it to idle down the motor when I let off the gas to shift. Don't try this at home, kids. It was soon replaced by a '62 Impala that also had the six cylinder.

Now that GM is on the ropes, it makes you wonder if maybe they should have continued to make vehicles as rough and ready as those old ones. My family and I had a variety of straight six powered cars and trucks, the earliest I remember being my '48 Chevy Fleetmaster. The long stroke gave the motor plenty of torque and the gas mileage was every bit as good as what my Dodge pickup gets. The Dodge beats the pants off them for horsepower of course, but as a high school kid with no formal training, I could fix anything that needed to be fixed.

If the big three all go out of business, maybe I'll try to find an old Chevy to fix up for my next car. I still remember the drill for winter time starting. Heat lamp and a blanket or a dipstick heater. If it's going to be below zero, you better have both. Pump the gas a few times and turn the key. Do the throttle dance 'til she's running good and then head for the house. Run back outside in a couple of minutes and drop her off the fast idle cam so she's not going to run the rods out the bottom. If it was going to be real, real cold, you would get up in the middle of the night and start it as well. We didn't have any remote starters. We just figured it only had a remote chance of starting and did whatever we could.

I did stop in the local Dodge dealership the other day to see about a new truck. The one in the showroom had a sticker of 50 grand. You could fill a whole barn with project cars for that price. Oh wait. I have a whole barn full of projects.