Tonight I'm a little emotional. I just received an email with a picture of my original wagon. I actually sobbed for 15 minutes. After the car was gone (totalled by a drunk driver) I tried to find other cars to take it's place and while I came very close the viewing of this picture tells me this was 'the one that got away'. A few others were right about as meaningful but I never realized just how much the car meant to me. I was 16 years old when it was handed down to me back in 1979. I reinstalled the rebuilt heads my brother gave to me along with the car. He moved on to a 70 Buick GS and he gave me the wagon that my father had given to him. I finished putting together the motor and needed no instruction. I had love for the car at first sight and detail painted the motor. I went to a high school that was a vocational school where my trade class was autobody. I did the bodywork and paint in a friends driveway. I remember it like it was yesterday. I remember everday of owning this car like it was yesterday. The friends and girlfriend ,, having a whole life in front of you ,, it's too much to describe. It was Thanksgiving 1980 and I had just recorded Tom Petty onto an 8-track tape and decided to take a little cruise to listen to the motivational tune while cruising and then smash! .. she got hit by the intoxicated woman from out of nowhere. Memories flood my mind when I look at the picture. Not seeing this photo for 30+ years and them seeing it again it's truely awesome. It's weird but my life seems to have come full circle seeing this picture and I feel ok...yeah ... I feel ok. If a car you owned was as special as this car was for me, please share your story. This is my current and 3rd wagon - 1972 Cutlass - I restored this for the past 3 or 4 years. It too is a labor of love, but again.. the memories from 1980 are beyond wonderful.
You have a beautiful wagon now, but I certainly see how the loss of that nice little 65 would bring tears to your eyes even now. For me, it wasn't a wagon, and it wasn't wrecked. It was a 68 Barracuda convertible and I always regretted selling it. I bought it as a freshman in college and it served as my daily driver for eight years. But by then the trans was slipping, rust was taking over the quarters and I wanted a brand new 1988 Dodge Dakota 4x4 pickup (with air conditioning) for a daily driver. I parked this one with plans to restore it. I also had a 68 Barracuda fastback that needed rust repair in the quarters. Afraid of what might happen if I never finished the convertible restoration, I made the decision to restore the fastback first and never got around to the convertible. I still have the fastback, but I ended up selling the vert to a friend for a bargain price, bought a green 68 convertible in a bit better shape, and the blue one ended up traveling from Virginia to another owner in Redondo Beach, California where it was resto modded. I saw it years later at the Spring Fling Mopar show in California. It was good to see it was still alive, but I regretted selling it and seeing it customized broke my heart. Eventually my green 68 convertible will be painted the 68 only color of Electric Blue Metallic to match this convertible. I still have the white fastback, but will always miss the blue vert. I took this picture at a small Mopar show in the mid 1980's at Old Dominion Speedway in Manassas, Virginia.
Thankfully you have a picture to cherish. You should frame it. That Cuda' has character and you have good taste.. Ahhh the memories.
i dont have a 'lost' car story....guess i should be thankful huh? well...i guess i sorta do....my 61 2dr Falcon wag got mushed when i rear ended a car doing about 40...and they werent although i fixed it ....that was 22 years ago...and there it sits ...in the shop...Fresh paint and Body...21 years old...its never seen the light of day since it got towed home from the body shop...:confused: I cringe a lil every time i walk into the shop...but i just cant make myself work on it.....dont ask man....i dunno
Thanks. I really miss it. Now I'll be thinking about it while I'm lying in bed tonight. I remember everytime I drove back the 4 1/2 hour drive to college at Virginia Tech down I-81, once I got past Roanoake and all the speed traps on 81, the highway would open up an extra lane for trucks going up the mountains and I would get in the left lane and wind it up to about 110 mph going up each of those mountains knowing with three lanes going up I could fly past the slow moving traffic. I haven't done that since, but that little 318 had no problem doing taht going up every mountain near the end of the long journey back to school. Here is at the Mopars at the Beach Mopar show in Mayo Beach, Maryland in the mid 80's.
