Rich-L79
Mar 18th, 04, 11:03 PM
First a little background. Some of you might know that last fall I finally acquired a '65 Chevelle 2-door wagon, something I've been looking for for quite some time. I really wanted a nice driver I could enjoy right away and just tinker with. In the end I bought a very solid California car but it was a basket case. I rationalized that at least I'll be able to make the car everything I want it to be instead of redoing someone else's work.
Anyway, ever since I got the thing home in October, all the money I began to set aside to do projects to bring it along to rebuild it as a hot rod kept getting swept up for other things. Just as I saved up enough to rebuild the rear axle, I decided it would make more sense to pay off one the wife's credit cards. Then Christmas came and we all know what that does to any budget. After the first of the year the Christmas bills were a tad higher than they should have been but we got rid of those. Then I find out that the wife had two more credit cards she was paying ridiculous interest rates on with fairly high balances. After we consolidated those into our 2nd mortgage line of credit account (the interest rate is almost nil and at least I can deduct mortgage interest on my taxes) I was left with no ready cash and no credit with which to play with my new toy.
It became obvious the wagon project was going to be much more long term than I had hoped. All I have at this point are piles of dirty parts waiting for a budget to help make them like new again. In short, my least favorite part of a car project was going to greatly extended. The part I enjoy is when the parts are all freshened up and you can begin to put things together into an assembly that little by little begins to resemble and actual car.
Anyway, a few weekends ago while we were traveling to Denver for my mother-in-law's wedding, we took a pit stop at a small-town Wal Mart somewhere in eastern Colorado. Since we were going to be there a while I gravitated to the toy section. There wasn't much in the way of 1:18 but I saw some Muscle Machines so I decided to look those over. When my eyes landed on the 5-car sets I was shocked to see a set called Grocery Getters; all wagons of some sort. Of course the '65 Chevelle 2-door wagon was part of the set but the kicker was that it was a copy with a flat hood and it was painted metalic maroon! My goals for the wagon included painting it maroon like my SS coupe! The diecast fates were smiling on me again when I found a set in which the body had come loose on one of the cars. I took the set up front and asked for and got a 15% discount since the one car was damaged. In the end it was only missing a screw and I was even able to repair the broken car!
http://www.amhost.com/scooter/temporary/maroonmmwagon.jpg
The rest of weekend was a nightmare (don't ask) but we survived it.
But due to one silly little diecast car I am now re-energized about getting to work on the wagon project (albeit slower than I'd hoped) this Spring. I've even managed to put some cash aside and with my tax refund to help it along I should be able to get that 12-bolt rebuilt!
Anyway, ever since I got the thing home in October, all the money I began to set aside to do projects to bring it along to rebuild it as a hot rod kept getting swept up for other things. Just as I saved up enough to rebuild the rear axle, I decided it would make more sense to pay off one the wife's credit cards. Then Christmas came and we all know what that does to any budget. After the first of the year the Christmas bills were a tad higher than they should have been but we got rid of those. Then I find out that the wife had two more credit cards she was paying ridiculous interest rates on with fairly high balances. After we consolidated those into our 2nd mortgage line of credit account (the interest rate is almost nil and at least I can deduct mortgage interest on my taxes) I was left with no ready cash and no credit with which to play with my new toy.
It became obvious the wagon project was going to be much more long term than I had hoped. All I have at this point are piles of dirty parts waiting for a budget to help make them like new again. In short, my least favorite part of a car project was going to greatly extended. The part I enjoy is when the parts are all freshened up and you can begin to put things together into an assembly that little by little begins to resemble and actual car.
Anyway, a few weekends ago while we were traveling to Denver for my mother-in-law's wedding, we took a pit stop at a small-town Wal Mart somewhere in eastern Colorado. Since we were going to be there a while I gravitated to the toy section. There wasn't much in the way of 1:18 but I saw some Muscle Machines so I decided to look those over. When my eyes landed on the 5-car sets I was shocked to see a set called Grocery Getters; all wagons of some sort. Of course the '65 Chevelle 2-door wagon was part of the set but the kicker was that it was a copy with a flat hood and it was painted metalic maroon! My goals for the wagon included painting it maroon like my SS coupe! The diecast fates were smiling on me again when I found a set in which the body had come loose on one of the cars. I took the set up front and asked for and got a 15% discount since the one car was damaged. In the end it was only missing a screw and I was even able to repair the broken car!
http://www.amhost.com/scooter/temporary/maroonmmwagon.jpg
The rest of weekend was a nightmare (don't ask) but we survived it.
But due to one silly little diecast car I am now re-energized about getting to work on the wagon project (albeit slower than I'd hoped) this Spring. I've even managed to put some cash aside and with my tax refund to help it along I should be able to get that 12-bolt rebuilt!