John Byrd

I was pretty lucky when we bought this place. It had a huge, empty space underneath, and a bit of sawing, screwing on some hinges, painting, and some cheap and free shelving and lumber gave me a lot of "new" space ! The 1st two pics are how it was, the next two are the upstairs garage before and after moving the Studebaker and Mini down underneath, and the last one is just some of the new "garages" and storage space. It isn't finished yet, still lots I want to do, but so much better than we had in our previous two places over here. I was pretty spoiled in Alabama, we had a huge house with a huge garage and finished basement, a large shop with garages built on, a 4 car separate garage, and a barn. Yep, too much stuff as always, but.... as most car guys, we just can't help it. Karen is very proud of her mustang and our scooters being inside and just being able to press a button to get in or out, ha ! Lots of interesting stories, opinions, and photos on this thread, thanks folks !

I'll start my comment by asking : "did anyone see that 20 something Nash rumble seat roadster that looked great on the live feed that went for 12 grand ? WOW !!!! Now to the "drift away from the subject" comment : My wife only completely re-does the ... Paint inside and out, tears down walls, adds some, or modifies them, adds bathrooms, changes sinks, tubs, all faucets, shower assemblies, doors, both screen and hard, replaces windows, totally redoes landscaping, cabinets, shelving, etc, etc..... Nothing serious she says, mind you, but these Hawaii prices and wait times, wow ! ........ sigh....

Like so many say, folks seem to love the old cars, but I have to say our little 63 Mini seems to give folks the most pleasure. Most of course, have never seen one, and the comments are "all over the place" from adults and kids as well. The parents love it when I ask if they want to take pics of their kids in the car, and I have put an Ah-Ooga horn on it and tell the young'un to press the chrome button if they want a surprise. I have even had parents hug me and then ask if they can get their pic took in or by it. Fun and games with old cars !!! The most common thing about our Studebaker is nearly everyone has a story about who had one, and usually "just like this", ha ! Thanks for this post Mr. ....and Professor !

The only car I've had that was "born" the same year as me was our little 47 Standard Flying 8 Tourer.... Long gone from me, but I'll bet it will still be chugging along when I'm gone !

Hey, no one has posted a pink bike that I've seen, and this bike of my wife's is an antique by the rules (72 model), so how about this ?

My friend had a pink 58 Buick in high school, and there were a few Ford products painted pink and black around town, an occasional pink Caddy, Lincoln, and Nash's, but the .....uh..... most extreme ( ? ) pink cars to me were 2 new Mercury Cougars in a showroom in Knoxville, TN. in 67, and the pic of a local ladies car here in town. I painted a model car ( shown here, and my 1st car model ) of a 58 Buick the same color as my high school friends real 58, but I painted this model in 58, and Randy didn't get his real 58 until 65 or so.

Three different cars that immediately pop to mind that made me "want" were a 54 Studebaker Drivers Training car with dual controls that I was able to purchase, a big 1965 Pontiac Catalina 2 +2 with a 421 4 speed and one of the 57 or 58 4 door hardtop Mercury station wagons that the yard would not sell... And yes, those two rotted and were crushed I'm sure. So many others that should have been saved, but those 3 are my most instantly remembered from "junk yards" that I frequented in the 60s thru' the 90s.

I always thought this was a beautiful photo with those red hot manifolds, ...Ford might have "enhanced" it, but I've always wondered about the story that goes with it.

Yep, got two Hot Wheels cars, a Mustang Tee Shirt, a 20 dollar bill which I will probably spend on car stuff, and a hardback book about Motor Scooters...... OK, OK, a scooter isn't a car, but I've nearly got hit by cars MANY times on mine, doesn't that count ? Ha ha !!! Hope everyone had a great Christmas and will have a ...hopefully.... covid-less New Year.

A few pages back, I showed how the prepping for making parking under the house and making a driveway apron was coming. Well, the Stude and the Mini now have a new home, and can drive in and out without placing boards out from the street curbs ! I'm going to put some different hinges on the doors on the 55's side so they will swing back completely flat, and this will give me about 5 more inches of width. I am also building shelves, have ran air down there from my compressor, and am going to add a couple more lights. Oh, both cars go quite a bit farther back in there, this was a "pose" pic, ha ! The "proper garage" up top now has lots of room too !

Both my "old cars" finally moved into their new under the house stalls today !!! AND, drove in off the street on their new concrete apron. And yes, we are going to widen the Stude's doors by putting on some of those "fold-flat hinges !

intimeold, I think your sentence may be too long. According to the two Dauphines in my old home town, they must have been intended to not drive at all, as I never seen either one of them get all the way out of their driveways, ha ha ! I'm almost embarrassed to say it, but I still really like the looks of them tho'....

f.f.jones, the 1st new car I had, (and I special ordered it) was a 69 Fairlane Cobra. I ordered all the performance stuff, but left off just about everything else except "color-keyed" outside mirrors and twin rear speakers. Base models, plain Jane's, with a big surprise under the hood still is my favorite way to have a car. If it's an old used clunker with too much motor, even better, ha ! I do put different tires and wheels on if required for better handling and/ or traction, but try to use "dog dish" hub caps and black-walls. My wife on the other hand wants every option she can get on her cars....yuk !

John, I remember only one car in my hometown that had one. It was a perfect way to ruin a 61 Galaxie's gorgeous look.....

Paul Dobbin, that is the 1st time I've seen the "telephone dial" wheels put to an appropriate use, ha ! They killed the car's look. (Porsche 924 if I remember correctly) EDIT: Incidentally, our garage is not only too short, but not very wide....OR.... my cars are too big and we have too much "stuff", ha !

One of my "old" cars, the 63 Mini, is setting outside behind the house waiting until the guys finish pouring him and the other oldie, our 55 Studebaker coupe, a concrete pad to park them on in under the house.

Finally getting to do some more related to car stuff ! Cut two holes in the back wall of the house and am calling them garages/ storage areas ! We made the doors flush so it would show as little as possible, now to get an entrance (driveway) made on the South side of our lot so the "real" cars can get back there too ! The Mini comes down the narrow North side walk-way just fine, ha ha ! The concrete guys are gona' love me before all this is over.....and we had to get a big "lump" of lava jack-hammered out of the side the Mini's in. Life in Paradise does have a few challenges, lol.

This is interesting, and I have read each post. I have never thought about what exactly it is that pegs my "want meter", but after reading and considering everything, it's just simply "The Look" of the vehicle. Good or bad, that's it. Hmmmm, I'm a simpler guy than I thought I was, lol....

My "thinning the herd" moment came in 2009 and 2010 when we decided to move to Hawaii. We had about 24 acres, a really nice big house, two stand alone garage/ shop buildings, and a 2500 square foot, 9 foot high basement under the house as well as a large barn and an "implement" shed. We moved to a house over here that if I could trim off the roof peak, it would have fit in our Alabama basement and that 1st Hawaii house was also on a 6000 square foot lot in a subdivision. ( our 1st time not out in the country ). As you might imagine, there was a really serious thinning of vehicles... 13 cars & trucks, 22 motorcycles, 2 boats, 3 tractors with implements, and two car trailers.... and then, "stuff", and we've had 5 "yard sales" since we moved here, so I guess we're still thinning, ha ! Anyway, our huge "3 day" estate sale lasted from the 2nd day of May in 2010 until mid-December, and we were still giving away, throwing away, and hauling to the scrap yard. Yes, we had way too much, but we planned on living there forever and was always "fixing up" stuff to sell or trade up to something better that we couldn't or wouldn't afford any other way. What of it do I miss ? Only specific things occasionally in random talking sessions ( and then only while we're talking ) with folks that they would like to see or I would like to show them. I got rid of stuff that I swore would never leave my possession, and really don't actually miss anything enough to wish or grieve for it back. Of course moving to "Heaven on Earth" has a lot to do with being satisfied, and if we were still over there, I'll bet we would have had even more piled up by now, ha ! Life is fun and has been superb for us, even with all the things that happen or go wrong, and we feel so fortunate to have arrived at this point in our 46 years of marriage. PLUS, we took thousands of pictures and kept interesting documents of most of our life and stuff ! Another thing that is very satisfying is that selling all our stuff and property let us pay cash for the house here, and us simple Southerners think: "if you don't have a house or car payment, you're rich", ha !

Oh yeah, I meant to tell you the other day NewOldWood, that steering wheel is gorgeous !!!!

For the last couple of Saturdays, the turn signals in my 55 Studebaker have been "occasionally" acting up, you know, the worst kind of "acting up". These old cars have breakers instead of fuses for nearly everything too, so that tends to make the chase more difficult, as the breaker re-sets almost immediately. The left front has turned out to be the only one that doesn't light up, but to make up for it, BOTH of the little indicator lights on the dash light up and blink when the left signal is turned on. I have started , like any good wanna-be mechanic, chasing and changing and testing one thing at a time, but haven't found the culprit yet. After looking in my shop manual and seeing all the places and things that the signal harness is connected to or passes close to, I have decided that the Electrical Engineers at Studebaker hooked this system to every single thing they could to un-simplify the diagnostic process.... I think it is even hooked somehow to my house, as the garage light switch mysteriously quit working during one session. I love my old car, but I am thinking of ordering a large bore weapon or a huge "billy club" and pacing back and forth in front of it making threatening comments. I'll win eventually, but these old, tired, impatient, less flexible bones and muscles are getting their fill of this "hide the problem" game, ha ! As always, comments, teases, and even ridicule is always welcome ! EDIT: Found a loose wire hanging out of the "6 wire connector" up in the bowels of the dash....problem solved !!!

That is so neat ! I had no idea the Bug-eye stuff would fit, now I'm sorry I sold my 64, as I could have tried that too. Congrats, keep us posted on your progress.

OK folks, one more post about the striping job we did on Karen's Mustang, then I'm getting back to work on something I can get dirty on, ha ha ! We finished it yesterday evening, so I took it out to get highway grime, sand, and salt on it to "break it in" this morning. Neat car, hope she lets me drive it again, lol..

My jobs are pretty boring compared to most of these posts, but .... my bride is real happy with what I'm doing to her plain red Mustang, ha ! BUT, like Terry Harper, today we rode up and down the coast street on our little motor scooters and enjoyed our world !! ( my bride loves to splash around in the ocean ) On top of that, I left the Studebaker out all night with the windows down and wasn't worried about it... love this heaven on earth over here.