People who let rare cars rot.

[gtgto]

Way back many years ago I was driving down a back country Missouri road and of I see an old farmhouse, and right there I spot what looked like a '71 B body, hummmmm, maybe a RoadRunner, maybe a decent old car and maybe it is for sale at a reasonable price???? Maybe never know. I drive up the lane to the old house and car, and I see it is running and some old looking guy sitting in it. Yep it sure looks like a 71 RR and has some patina, the old farmhouse looks like it came from the civil war, lots of patina! I get out of my pickup and strike up a conversatipn. I tell him I am a Mopar lovers have a few, and his old bird sounds pretty good.
He gives me the story of how he came to own it, we talked of some of the good times he had with the car, how he brought his kids home from the hospital when they were born in the RR , how they grew up and moved away, how his wife used to love the trip to town and the grocery store they made every couple weeks, how she had passed 10 years prior.... we talked and talked, and he just sat there listening to it idling and it sounded pretty good. I bragged on his old car, and he tells me how he comes out and starts it every week and just sits there hearing it run. He tells me how it used to sit under an old lean to of the old barn, but it was about to fall down and he moved it out there years ago, he tells me how he is too old and woreout to build a shed for it, no one on to help him do it, hates it to sit out in the snow. He says he can't drive it anymore, he has some sight issues. A neighbor lady does is shopping and takes him if he has to get somewhere.
I said lets take it down the road and "blow it out" I bet it could use it. So we do and he is so damned excited. It needed some tune up but it ran OK, sorta.
I asked him if he had anything we could use for a shed and he said yes old tin of the barn that fell over. I told I can put up a roof over it one afternoon easy. I told him it would be a coupe of weeks but I would be back. When I returned a few weeks later, he was not there. The next trip there I could find no one home, the old RR as not there, so I and asked a neighbor and said he had passed one night in his sleep.

That is an awesome story.....A happy ending would've been the car ending up with you.

I can see the barn find add now and the car price at around $25K when the car cost nothing to get if it was a family member. Keep your eyes open for a 71 RR barn find. What color was the car? Auto on the floor or column?

 

[barbee6043]

Bless you, man. You probably made his day just listening to him and offering to help him with a shed. You gave him something to hope for, even if he didn't live to see it.

I am now an old man like that guy in my story. I an still drive, work on my old cars, I an still see decent.
I was raised in the deep South and I as taught to say yes sir, yes mam, to respect my elders. I learned from a young age they had knowledge and experience that I did not have, may never have.
Sure I could have had the bad hots for his old RR, but back in the 90s, what 25-30 years ago, there were plenty of good old Mopars out there, just a matter of time till one fell in my lap again. He loved that car and the memories it gave him. It was not mine to try to take.
That old man made a living on that Mo. all his life, I respected what he did, I could have listened to him for days on end about it all, not just about his car. He raised a family, he made a living. He probably did not have a big bank account.
Point is also, we see old cars sitting outside for years, decades, sometimes we just don't always know the whole story. Sometimes it is more to it all, than what is appearant?

 

[barbee6043]

That is an awesome story.....A happy ending would've been the car ending up with you.

I can see the barn find add now and the car price at around $25K when the car cost nothing to get if it was a family member. Keep your eyes open for a 71 RR barn find. What color was the car? Auto on the floor or column?

It has been many years ago, seems like it was a light color, seems like maybe a faded yellow, other than that I really don't remember. Many old Mopars have come and gone over the years. I had a 71 RR back in the late? 90's, the 383 was gone and the PO had put a good 400 in it. It was a col. auto, I as going to change it over to a 4 speed, I had all the parts, but let someone else have it before I got it changed. It made me think of my first Mopar I bought in '85, a "71 GTX the PO had just pulled the original 440, sold it off, and yep dropped in a 400! Both were the same color that light ish yellow. Maybe it was a faded something else!!???? Don't remember. They were great cars back in that time, but NOT many people were into the 71 up B bodies!

 

[gtgto]

It has been many years ago, seems like it was a light color, seems like maybe a faded yellow, other than that I really don't remember. Many old Mopars have come and gone over the years. I had a 71 RR back in the late? 90's, the 383 was gone and the PO had put a good 400 in it. It was a col. auto, I as going to change it over to a 4 speed, I had all the parts, but let someone else have it before I got it changed. It made me think of my first Mopar I bought in '85, a "71 GTX the PO had just pulled the original 440, sold it off, and yep dropped in a 400! Both were the same color that light ish yellow. Maybe it was a faded something else!!???? Don't remember. They were great cars back in that time, but NOT many people were into the 71 up B bodies!

I thought this was a recent story....still a great story. Thanks for sharing

 

[barbee6043]

ebook

I thought this was a recent story....still a great story. Thanks for sharing

I would be not surprised for other people to have encountered similar. There are times I just crank up one of my old Mopars and sit there and let it run. Why? No inspection, no Tx tags, no insurance!!!!!!!!!!!!! I can afford Hagerty insurance, I can afford the Tx tag.......BUT....havn't fixed the damn wipers, somelights, and the friggin little light at the tag at the rear bumper to pass Tx friggin inspection!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! But I still love hearing it run! haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa