Continuing with the story.......

Dino, the guy I bought it from, is a retired butcher. He's built some amazing rods over the years, and very graciously gave me the tour of his shop and a run down of all the cars he was working on at the time. His '57 Chevy pickup is a work of art, and was a monstrous undertaking to bring back to life. Seeing his work, and the quality of his projects was more than enough for me to make sure I kept in contact with him.

The story Dino gave me is that he received a call about a year earlier from another car guy he knows that had a neighbor lady that was retiring and moving out of the country. She had the sedan and was looking for someone to buy it. The car was originally purchased by her grandfather. He had driven it until sometime in the early 60's, when he gave it to his grandson. The grandson drove it while in college in British Columbia and maintained it in running condition until some time in the 80's. He gifted the car to his sister, who kept logs while it was in her care. The logs seem to indicate she was trying to restore it piece by piece but keep it in drivable condition. She had the wheels blasted and repainted and had new whitewalls and tubes installed at the same time. The brakes were all replaced, including all new soft lines and master cylinder. The radiator was boiled and pressure tested. The bumpers we're re-chromed at Seattle plating. She drove the car to and from every appointment, and even documented her trips; down to where she stopped to eat and how the meal and service were at the restaurant.

This is where it all went down hill for the old Dodge. Best I can figure from the logs is that she went on an extended vacation in 1991. The last entry in the log indicates she dropped the car off at a local shop "to get freshened up" just prior to leaving for her trip. From her on out I can only repeat what Dino told me she had told him. According to Dino, she returned from vacation and went to pick up her car. She had told them to freshen it up (I assume she had given specific instructions, but freshen it up is what the log says. The shop took "freshen it up" to mean "disassemble every removable part for a ground up restoration". Her car was in pieces, and she wasn't happy about it. She loaded it up on a trailer and took it home, where it sat until late 2015 when Dino purchased it. It sat in his garage until March of this year when I brought it home.

So, after being disassembled for 25+ years, the car is slowly being reborn again. What I found really cool about all of this is that Dino gave me a box of papers and photos he had received with it when he bought it. I have the original owner's manual that was with the car from new. It has all of the services logged down in it: new pistons in '47, the exact date it rolled over 100k miles (it says they pulled over and added a quart of oil). I also have the dealership window sticker for it, and many many photos of it all over the country throughout the years. Even though I'm not doing a stock restoration, having all of this history is an added bonus that few of us ever get to have with a project this old. I like knowing a little about it's history, and the idea of me being the one to put this old girl back on the road is a big part of my motivation to see it through.