I see so many good cars rotting like that, being allowed to slowly return to mother earth, by a-holes who think they have the most desirable car that ever existed, but at the same time, don't care enough to even try to protect or preserve them at all.
This reminds me...
A buddy of mine who was a teenager on long island in the early 60s used to walk to high school every day and this guy a few blocks from his house had a bone stock 32 ford 5-window, nice complete solid original car, all there, total dream hot rod raw material, just sitting in his side yard.
He happened to see the owner out in front of the house one day and asked the guy about the car and if it was for sale, and the answer was basically, "Oh, no no no....I'll never sell ol' Jezebel, no siree..gonna fix her up one day..." etc.
So, one day around a year later, he happens to see him out there again...and so he gets to talking to him and asks him if he'd made any progress with the car, and would he consider selling it. The answer was the same..."Oh, no, me and ol' Jezebel go way back...could never sell her...pretty soon I'm gonna start working on her, yessiree..."
This same routine went on here and there for years, with the 32 slowly getting rustier in the side yard, and slowly sinking into the ground.
My buddy happened to be home on holiday break from College (by now in his 4th year) and happened to see the owner outside again. The story remained unchanged. Ol' Jezebel was not going anywhere. "No sir-eee!"...
After college, getting established with work, shacking up with his wife-to-be and all that, some 20 years since he had first asked about the car, it's now around 1982 or so, he is home for a visit with his Dad and he decides to drive by and see if ol' Jezebel might still be around.
The years had not been kind to Ol' Jezebel... All the glass was busted out, there was hardly any of the black laquer paint left on the body, major rust issues had taken over (sitting under trees, and the salty long island air, and heavy condensation every single morning, had really taken their toll), several parts had been taken from the car, and it was sunk down to the axles in the dirt.
Just then, the screen door on the front of the house opened up, and the owner came out, he remembered my friend. They started talking about the car again, and the owner says, "...Well, I guess I'd better face up to the fact that I probably won't ever have the time to fix up ol' Jezebel. I was thinking now might be a good time to sell her."
Looking at my buddy with anticipation and nearly salivating, he asked him: "So Whaddaya think she's worth??". Obviously he still thought the car was worth a mint.
My Buddy looked the car over, rubbed his chin a little.
"About Eleven Dollars".
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