mpd12150
Well-Known Member
As the 4th of July approaches, it also marks the second anniversary of the death of my 19 year old son who's life was tragically taken from him at the hands of 3 of his "friends" for a few dollars to buy some drugs.
I find it fitting that I start a thread detailing "Aidan's" dream car. I am a disabled and forcibly retired Police Officer, having broke my back in September of 2009 serving a search and arrest warrant on a house and individual that had an active cooking meth lab. Retirement was forced on me in 2012 when I was unable to safely do exercise my duties as a police officer/criminal investigator. Having to have surgery after surgery to be able to maintain even slight mobility, 4 in three years not to mention countless spinal cord procedures as well as subsequently being diagnosed with a degenerative neurological disorder that is excruciatingly painful.
At approximately 11:42pm, July 4, 2015, I received news that no parent ever wants to hear. My son, Aidan, was gone....
Life for me ended at that instant and without going into any detail because frankly it is just too hard, I decided I needed to build his car for him.
While I was a patrol officer in about 2001. I found a 1969 Dodge Dart GT sitting by some storage units in the town I was a police officer in. I pulled and looked at the car and noticed it had a for sale sign in it. A gentleman approached and said I promise I will get it moved just please don't impound it. I told him I was not going to impound it and just wanted to look at it. He open the door and hit the key and it started right up and ran smooth and strong. I took it for a quick drive since I was still technically on duty, brought it back and asked him what he wanted for it. He walked to me to his storage unit and said, if you will give me $1500 you can have all of these parts with it. I wrote him a check right then and said I would be back to get the parts the next day with my pickup and asked if he would keep the car for the night as well. He gave me the title and I left. I worried the rest of my night shift how I was going to explain to my wife...now ex-wife, that we had just become the proud owners of a 1969 Dart GT. To say it was not a pleasant conversation is an understatement. The Dart was sold to her father who stated that he would be restoring it for our 1 year old son. I then decided I would find another 69 Dart GT for my older son and no matter what it took, I would make it happen.
I found a 1969 Dart GT that was initially a very nice looking car and bought it for Aidan.
Aidan was killed and the car sat, even contemplating selling it because it was too hard to even think about.
I ended up in the hospital again and had to have another surgery and when I came out of the hospital, I had no feeling in my right foot, most of my leg, butt and had even more excruciating pain in my back. This left me walking with a walker and a cane and not having the ability to build the car Aidan wanted, even worse, it left me financially ruined. I sold a classic muscle car of mine that I have built over time to fund the build of Aidan's car and so it began.
I have a very good friend who has helped me through most of build and other friends who have pitched in where and when they could.
I have since built a nasty iron head stroked 408 with the help of a good friend who owns a performance and exhaust shop in my home town. (this was a huge expense that was not planned for when initially crunching numbers for the build and transformation) We also found that the transmission was junk and needed to be rebuilt, again, an expense that was not expected or planned. I have a friend who's girlfriend is a master upholsterer and she is doing the seats and we are using Legendary interiors, using their carper as well and headliner from Year One. The front suspension was converted to disk brakes after I traded a pair of 15x8 after market Mopar Rallys for 1973 Duster front disk brake set up. All new parks were used and QA1 Tubular upper control arms with big ball joint and BBP hubs. The lower control arms were rebuilt and all new steering components were used. The rear end was gone through, since the rest of the drive train was rebuilt we felt it was needed for safety and longevity as this car will be given to my only remaining child who graduates high school next year. When the rear end was rebuilt, we decided to do disk brake conversion on the rear as well and used Right Stuff components.
The car will ride on Mopar "cop car" wheels that will be painted the body color and red line caps put on...seemed fitting to put "cop car" wheels on his car since I was a police officer.
The body initially looked good and frankly was in nice shape short of a few spots but it was no where close to the factory color. The fender tag was still intact with the car and showed the factory color to be B7 Blue. I had the color mixed and the body was painted the factory color.
As of today, this is where we sit. I have run out of money to compete the transformation so it has been put in my buddy's shop and I will do what I can when I can and try to raise money to complete the car.
I have a pile of photos that were taken during the process of the tear down, body work, a few custom touches that have been done and there is another thread about the engine build for anyone who may be interested in reading it. (you can search my user name and it will come up) In the mean time, wish me luck building Aidan's Dream and anyone that wants to help put it together, donate parts or has so much money they want to share to help build...let me know and maybe with all of us we can make it happen!!
Thanks for reading about my amazing son...truly one of the 2 loves of my life!!!
I find it fitting that I start a thread detailing "Aidan's" dream car. I am a disabled and forcibly retired Police Officer, having broke my back in September of 2009 serving a search and arrest warrant on a house and individual that had an active cooking meth lab. Retirement was forced on me in 2012 when I was unable to safely do exercise my duties as a police officer/criminal investigator. Having to have surgery after surgery to be able to maintain even slight mobility, 4 in three years not to mention countless spinal cord procedures as well as subsequently being diagnosed with a degenerative neurological disorder that is excruciatingly painful.
At approximately 11:42pm, July 4, 2015, I received news that no parent ever wants to hear. My son, Aidan, was gone....
Life for me ended at that instant and without going into any detail because frankly it is just too hard, I decided I needed to build his car for him.
While I was a patrol officer in about 2001. I found a 1969 Dodge Dart GT sitting by some storage units in the town I was a police officer in. I pulled and looked at the car and noticed it had a for sale sign in it. A gentleman approached and said I promise I will get it moved just please don't impound it. I told him I was not going to impound it and just wanted to look at it. He open the door and hit the key and it started right up and ran smooth and strong. I took it for a quick drive since I was still technically on duty, brought it back and asked him what he wanted for it. He walked to me to his storage unit and said, if you will give me $1500 you can have all of these parts with it. I wrote him a check right then and said I would be back to get the parts the next day with my pickup and asked if he would keep the car for the night as well. He gave me the title and I left. I worried the rest of my night shift how I was going to explain to my wife...now ex-wife, that we had just become the proud owners of a 1969 Dart GT. To say it was not a pleasant conversation is an understatement. The Dart was sold to her father who stated that he would be restoring it for our 1 year old son. I then decided I would find another 69 Dart GT for my older son and no matter what it took, I would make it happen.
I found a 1969 Dart GT that was initially a very nice looking car and bought it for Aidan.
Aidan was killed and the car sat, even contemplating selling it because it was too hard to even think about.
I ended up in the hospital again and had to have another surgery and when I came out of the hospital, I had no feeling in my right foot, most of my leg, butt and had even more excruciating pain in my back. This left me walking with a walker and a cane and not having the ability to build the car Aidan wanted, even worse, it left me financially ruined. I sold a classic muscle car of mine that I have built over time to fund the build of Aidan's car and so it began.
I have a very good friend who has helped me through most of build and other friends who have pitched in where and when they could.
I have since built a nasty iron head stroked 408 with the help of a good friend who owns a performance and exhaust shop in my home town. (this was a huge expense that was not planned for when initially crunching numbers for the build and transformation) We also found that the transmission was junk and needed to be rebuilt, again, an expense that was not expected or planned. I have a friend who's girlfriend is a master upholsterer and she is doing the seats and we are using Legendary interiors, using their carper as well and headliner from Year One. The front suspension was converted to disk brakes after I traded a pair of 15x8 after market Mopar Rallys for 1973 Duster front disk brake set up. All new parks were used and QA1 Tubular upper control arms with big ball joint and BBP hubs. The lower control arms were rebuilt and all new steering components were used. The rear end was gone through, since the rest of the drive train was rebuilt we felt it was needed for safety and longevity as this car will be given to my only remaining child who graduates high school next year. When the rear end was rebuilt, we decided to do disk brake conversion on the rear as well and used Right Stuff components.
The car will ride on Mopar "cop car" wheels that will be painted the body color and red line caps put on...seemed fitting to put "cop car" wheels on his car since I was a police officer.
The body initially looked good and frankly was in nice shape short of a few spots but it was no where close to the factory color. The fender tag was still intact with the car and showed the factory color to be B7 Blue. I had the color mixed and the body was painted the factory color.
As of today, this is where we sit. I have run out of money to compete the transformation so it has been put in my buddy's shop and I will do what I can when I can and try to raise money to complete the car.
I have a pile of photos that were taken during the process of the tear down, body work, a few custom touches that have been done and there is another thread about the engine build for anyone who may be interested in reading it. (you can search my user name and it will come up) In the mean time, wish me luck building Aidan's Dream and anyone that wants to help put it together, donate parts or has so much money they want to share to help build...let me know and maybe with all of us we can make it happen!!
Thanks for reading about my amazing son...truly one of the 2 loves of my life!!!
