what to do if you have the "lost" car

yellowdart...
well your car is your car and you should not feel bad keeping it if it is a significant part of "your family." however, i can appreciate the original owners actions. my first major mopar love affair happened with a bronze 1968 340 4 speed fastback S barracuda that i bought in 1969 off of a plymouth dealer mechanic who had bought it new. i had that car for two years but then "thought" i wanted corvettes and sold the cuda and started on corvettes. the cuda then went throug a series of owners. many, many, MANY years later, i realized just how much my first cuda had meant to me and started searching for the car. to my amazment, THE ORIGINAL OWNER was in possession of the car (and still is as of this writing). naturally i contacted him to see if he would sell it back to me. well he is still the same nice guy he was 43 years ago BUT told me that he had "restored" the car to "driving condition" and was going to give it to his grandkid. i did "beg" a bit but he was firm in his idea of "keeping the car in the family." so i now have a "copy" of my first barracuda. yes, running the gears of the car i have now is not the same as if i could have gotten "my old cuda" back. but, i have to respect my old plymouth dealer mechanic friend's desires. i told him that if his grandkids change their minds, to PLEASE call me. he said he would. so i do understand both sides of these kind of stories. the photo below is from 1971 when first cuda was still sitting in my driveway (along with a 69 sportster ... which is another story altogether... yes, the idiotic paint job was my idea... what can i say, i was 17!)