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The saga of the 64 Skylark Convertible


Guest Tom

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Like most everyone on this board. I've been a car nut all my life. I put together models when I was a kid and always looked forward to the new model introductions. Having worked in the body shop of a car dealer for a number of years, I decided I would like to restore an older convertible. This was sometime in the mid 80's. I poured over the ad's in Hemmings and other publications for months, driving my wife crazy. I finally spotted an ad for a '64 Skylark convertible for sale in Southern California. Asking price in the ad was $3500. Being from MN, a solid, rust free car was a priority so it sounded good. I called the number in the ad and talked to the owner. He described the car and then proceeded to tell me the price in the ad was incorrect. I was waiting for the other shoe to drop when he said the price was $2200, not $3500. This made me even more interested. I hired an appraiser to inspect the car for me and after getting a relatively positive report from him that the car was as described by the owner, I made the deal. We were to fly to LA and meet the owner who lived not far from the airport, pick up the car and start our drive home. It would be over the Memorial day weekend in '87 and my wife and I took the whole week off to give us plenty of time to get back in case we had trouble. The owner said the car ran fine, but he wouldn't be one to drive it cross country, but that didn't bother me. We would pick the car up and make the roughly 4 hour drive to Las Vegas that day and stay the night.

The tires on the car left a little to be desired, but we figured we could make it to Vegas that day and have them replaced. We started out and although you could tell the car was old and needed work, it seemed to be going fine.

I'm always amazed when I read stories about people who buy an old car that hasn't been driven for years. They change the battery, put in fresh gas, start it up and proceed to drive across country without a problem. I'm here to tell you that it doesn't always work that way.

The owner and his daughter

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Coming down a hill in the mountains near the Nevada border, I heard a loud pop and steam started coming out from under the hood. Thinking a radiator hose had blown, we pulled off the road, opened the hood to find the whole neck of the radiator had blown off. We were somewhat prepared for an emergency and had a CB radio with us. (this was before cell phones). It was getting dark , but finally someone stopped and took us to a gas station in Stateline Nevada. They didn't have any services so a nice truck driver took us back to the car and we were able to nurse it the couple of miles back to the Casino next to the station. We thought we'd get a hotel room for the night, but on Memorial day, guess where everyone from LA goes for the weekend? No rooms. We slept in the car. My wife is not happy. We leave early in the morning the next day since we can't sleep having borrowed a couple of water jugs, figuring we can take our time and nurse it the rest of the way to Las Vegas. Not so much luck. Next up comes a bad wheel bearing. The decision is made to have it towed into Vegas. The people at the service station are great, but there are other issues to deal with, so we walk to a hotel and beg them to give us a room so early in the morning.

The decision is now made to have the car shipped back. Out comes the yellow pages and the Hemming Motor News. Even though it is a holiday weekend, a couple of shippers are contacted, but cost is prohibitive. I get lucky and find a local number for a transporter. It's Sunday, but someone answers the phone. He just happens to be there working on some equipment. Can he ship a car to Minneapolis? Absolutely, he does it all the time as he ships rental cars all the time and even knows the area where we live. How much? $420, half when he picks it up, the other half on delivery. Done deal. We meet him at the service station the next day and he picks the car up. It will wait at his lot until he gets a full load. Next up is how do we get home. Call the airlines. You do not even want to know how much 2 one way tickets are on short notice. How about the bus? Call Greyhound. Roughly $200 each. It will do. We stay one more night in the hotel, take a cab to the bus depot in the morning and get on the bus for the 42 hour, yes, that is what I said, 42 hour, ride home. Now I know why people that ride the bus look the way they do. Not being able to clean oneself up for the better part of 2 days and no sleep takes it's toll on you.

We arrived home safe and sound and had a good laugh about it. The car was delivered right to our door about 3 weeks later. The pictures below are what it looked like pre-restoration.

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I had originally intended to wait a while before I started to restore it, but since we couldn't use it as is, I got started on it right away. What started out to be a basic redo to get it presentable turned into a "Might as well" restoration. For example, since the engine is out to be rebuilt, you might as well pull the body off the frame and have it sandblasted and painted.

The following pictures somewhat chronicle the resto without going into great detail.

The completed engine. I didn't even know it until after I got the car that it had the power pack option with the Wildcat 355. A pleasant surprise.

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The completed Chassis

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The body goes back on the frame with a little help from your friends

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Ready for paint

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Wetsanding and buffing the paint

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The completed car

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The car looked great when it was done. Almost too good. I was afraid to drive it for fear it would get damaged. We took it to a few shows, but at the time, my wife wasn't terribly interested in old cars so it was mostly my hobby. At shows people either loved or hated the color. Comments like, "even the interior is green" were common as were , "how come you didn't paint it red". Personally I liked the color and this color, Surf Green, was very popular back then. Watch the movie "My Cousin Vinny". The car in the movie is almost a clone.

Since we didn't use the car much and both my wife and I still wanted to get back into motorcycling, the decision was made to sell the car in '93 since we couldn't afford both. The car was sold to some brothers from Athens Ohio through an ad in Hemmings. The next pictures show it being loaded on the trailer for the trip.

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I saw an ad in Cars and Parts last year for a car for sale in Ohio which matched the description of this car. I never did call to see if it was the same car, but I would be interested to know if anyone in the club knows it's whereabouts. The VIN # was 3K3003743. I never should have sold this car.

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Neat story, Tom. I never noticed in your earlier posts that we're in the same "metro area." It would be great to see your Invicta some time. I own nothing of similar interest at this time, though. Just an '89 IROC Camaro that I stumbled onto and thought I could turn a buck with. But it's a nice little car, and I'm kind of addicted to driving it in fair weather. grin.gif

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Tom,

That's a great story and a good looking car. I am restoring a 64 Skylark Convertible right now (it is Granada Red) and I can only hope it comes out looking as good as yours does in the pictures.

Karl

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Guy,

Where in the metro area do you live? We always take the Invicta to the Spring Extravaganza Car Show sponsored by the Gopher State Chapter of the BCA the first Sunday in May so you can see the car there. Otherwise you can contact me and when the weather warms up and I get it out of storage, you would be welcome to stop by.

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Brian,

I really liked the color combination, but even my brother asked me if I was going to change it before I restored it. Once it was done, he thought it looked pretty nice the way it came out. I did get a number of comments at shows that complimented the color and that it was nice to see a convert that wasn't red.

Nothing against red as my current Sebring Convert is a metallic red and I've had any number of other cars that were red, but it just gets tiresome after a while looking at all of those red 55-57 Chevs at shows. I don't think GM ever made as many red cars in those years as there are restored ones on the road today.

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Tom,

Thanks for the invitation! I'm in Southeast Minneapolis over by the U of M. The last local event I went to was the big Fairgrounds show last fall. There were lots of rod and kustom cars, but a really good selection of originals, too, including some beautiful Buicks.

Where is the Gopher State show going to be held? I don't want to miss it, and I'll look for you there.

Looks like winter has finally hit, eh? I wonder how many people would believe how little snow is on the ground in this little swath of Minnesota, given all the blizzards elsewhere. grin.gif But it's at least decided to get COLD. blush.gif

Thanks for all your work on these stories. They are well-written and very interesting--worthy of publication IMO. All the info on the Invicta that you gathered through your persistence was fascinating. Imagine, a Minnesota car with factory air conditioning in 1959... practically unheard of.

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Guy,

The spring show is always the first Sunday in May. It is May 1st this year. Should be an easy jaunt for you as it is always held at the State Fairgrounds. Hope to see you there. Thanks for your comments on my stories. It takes me a while to write them as I tend to be over fussy about them. I reread them a number of times and make changes before I submit them.

This cold weather gives me an opportunity to work on stuff like this. Don't mind hanging around inside when it doesn't get above zero, but when it's nice, I'm outside, not behind a computer.

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Guest imported_Thriller

I joined the Gopher State Chapter after I heard about the Rochester National. I hope to drive my '62 Special down for the spring show...there'll be a bit of work to do to it in the spring before that 8 hour jaunt though. Hopefully spring comes early enough to get that done.

We have snow up here, but it's been a bit cool lately...a bit cold even for ice fishing in my mind.

Great story...your luck sounds a lot more like mine...I think I'll have to write something similar about my '62.

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