My Dart GT used to be on display on the rack inside Quaker Steak and Lube in Clearwater FL. It was up on a service rack, and you could sit at the table underneath it and eat dinner, as we did often. It was up there for about 5 years. Turns out it was owned by a guy named Larry who runs the Thursday night cruise-in car shows there. He and I became friends, and I learned that he had restored the car for a close friend who enjoyed it for a few years before losing her battle with cancer. She left the car to him when she passed. He didn’t really want to drive it, so he had QSL put it up on display.
About 8 months ago, I went in one night and the car was gone! I found Larry and asked him what had happened to the car. He said that he decided to bring the car back home, and was probably going to put it up for sale. I knew I didn’t have anything remotely close to what the car was worth, but asked how much. He told me he would sell it for $16k. He was well aware that he could get 22-24 fairly easily, but he’s a good-hearted pastor who wasn’t out to fleece anyone. Well, I told him not to wait on me, but that I would see if I could pull something together, although We both knew I couldn’t afford squat.
I did, however, have a car that my wife and I had inherited from her dad. It was a beige 1965 Chevy Biscayne 2-door survivor car that had been a minor feature car in the movie “A Bronx Tale”. It had been my father-in-laws baby for 30+years. We didn’t drive it often. It was big, handled like the Queen Mary, and it carried a lot of memories of my father-in-law. My wife refused to drive it for fear of something happening to it and her then feeling responsible for damaging her dad’s prize possession. My mother-in-law wasn’t comfortable riding in it. The car had no AC, and we live in Florida. Add to this that I’m just not a Chevy guy. Well, we took the Chevy to a few cruise nights, and one night Larry half joked about taking the Chevy on a trade towards the Dart.
We all knew there was a disparity in book values. The Biscayne was worth 10-12k, the Dart 22-24k. Larry knew I loved that Dart though, and kept saying that it could be my wife’s convertible, to match my 67 Barracuda convertible. We joked back and forth for a few months, and the joking turned semi-serious. My wife wasn’t quite ready to let go of her dad’s legacy car yet. It was funny that despite him being a Chevy guy, my father-in-law had always joked with me about trading me his Chevy for my snazzy red convertible Barracuda.
Well, turns out I need to do some major dental overhauling this year. Extractions, bone grafts, implants....lots of pain and expensive to boot. Now I’m as twitchy about dentists as I am about clowns. My wife, saint that she is, made me a deal. Suck it up, promise to get the dental stuff done, and she’d give her blessing on trading the Biscayne towards the Dart. My mother-in-law, who now lives with us agreed. I called Larry, made the best offer I could afford. The Biscayne plus 4K. Larry said yes.
Larry had passed up several much better offers during this time. He had held onto the Dart, waiting for me to come up with something, because he knew I loved the car, and that it would go to a good home and be enjoyed.
I have replaced the radiator, hoses, and water pump, replaced the springs with new 2.5” lift springs, changed the rear differential to a 3.55, and new shocks all around this week. Still have to get the AC serviced and running.
Just waiting on my custom plate: 273V8
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