Thursday, July 03, 2008

Car 54, where are you?

As soon as you saw that title, did you think "Good Lord, he bought another car!"? If you did, count yourself in for 7 new blog kharma points.

I first saw this car about 3 years ago in the Shopko parking lot. I fell in love with it then, but it wasn't for sale. so what could I do. Nothing, except admire it from afar. Six months ago little bro' sees it in the K-Mart parking lot and gets to talking with the owner. Tells him about my LTD addiction and gives him my cell number in case he ever wants to sell it. Well, the guy held onto the phone number for the six months, because 3 days ago he calls me and tells me that some guy gave him my number and said I like old LTDs. We talk, I go look at it, we settle on a price and I get the money. $2,000. It's a 1972 Ford LTD Country Squire with a 429 CID Police Interceptor engine in it. The guy babied it, oil changes every 2,500 miles, ran only premium in it, and it looks and runs like he was telling the truth, plus according to the title he's owned the car since October of 1979. Dual exaust, the interior is excellent, not a single tear in the cloth apolstery and the carpet is even clean, like that could be it's original color clean. The original AM/FM radio still works, although I don't have any 8-Track tapes to see if the player works. Looks like I'm going to have to take a trip to the D.I. It's beginning to show some rust in a few places, but just surface. He already told me that I'm going to need to replace the ball joints, which are relatively easy on these older cars. The only other problem I can see is getting the back door to work properly, the one that swings out and folds down too. Well, it used to swing out, but the window didn't go down, so Danny and I tear into it, get the window to go down and then try to fold it down tailgate-wise. Big mistake, it kinds got stuck between swing out and fold down. It's closed, so I can drive the car, but the tailgate won't open either way. Overall, though, another good deal....

3 comments:

A Paperback Writer said...

I am laughing.
But I know you've been wanting a station wagon. Does it have the rear seat that faces backward? That was always my favorite part of my neighbors' station wagon when I was a kid.
8 tracks: hmmm.... I think I still have a few kicking around (but no player to use them in anymore). Woud you prefer Donny and Marie, Shawn Cassidy, or Herb Alpert and the Tiajuana Brass?

Max Sartin said...

Yeah, trhe station wagon is all part of the big plan - one of each iteration of 70's LTD. It doesn't have the seats in the way back, but it does have a TON of storage space where the seats would be. As for the music, I think I'll go for Donny and Marie.

A Paperback Writer said...

I'll see if I can find it. :)