northerndave
Well-Known Member
In my thread title, I hint at the scenario I find myself in.
Several years back I purchased a 69 road runner in good mechanical condition, a running, driving car with a shaggy body. A 35 yr old repaint, poorly done and artfully decorated with cartoon mural scenes and some old school panel painting.
Here's the shaggy old gal about to come apart for some much needed repairs.
She had some real quick dent pulling, mud filling and a really crappy repaint done, and it looked like it was done in a hurry.
Slide hammer pull holes in a quarter panel, with bondo noodles oozing through the back side.
She was kind of a mess.
I suppose it wasn't too far out of the ordinary as far as areas needing repairs.
Put her back to the original T7 with the white vinyl top, after a lot of metal work.
Remarkably, along the way we found that the engine and trans are not only correct but they are original to the car and everything matches up nicely, non conflicting with fender tag data. Bonus.
Hey, I've got my Road Runner back on the road, it's my car, not a customers car, but finally one I've done for me and I'm happy with it, I like the car.
Ok, here's where it gets interesting.
I get a txt message from a friend on Saturday.
He says there's a guy been trying to track me down, he worked his search through car clubs. Heard there was a guy that had purchased a white road runner with a crazy mural paint job and he was from my area. That's how he tracked me down, through car club members that kept pointing him north, slowly he zerod in on my area and was eventually talking with friends of mine who were reluctant to give out my number until they asked me if it was ok.
So I called the guy.
I asked him what's up? Do you know the car? Got some history with it?
He says yes, it was his first car, he got it used and went to prom in that car in around 1972.
He went on to tell me all he knew about the car, mysteries were solved, it was a fun conversation.
He explained the white paint job, basically the car belonged to his older brother in around 1974 when they had some midnight shenanigans that I'm lead to believe involved a chase, some dukes of hazard style body damage, and the urgent need for the car to change colors before the sun came up the next day. That's how the original T7 car became a white car.
He told about their 1/8th mile drag strip and how the car frequented that track, he went on to explain a string of owners that he knew of through the rest of the 70's and how one of them had the murals painted on the car in 1976.
If I understand correctly, the car eventually went into storage where it basically missed out on the 80's and probably most if not all of the 90's.
It came back into his possession for a short time and was sold to the guy I purchased the car from.
It was a really neat history lesson on the car, and eventually he explained that it wasn't necessarily him that was looking for the car. It was the original owner that is hunting for it. The guy that got this car brand new off the dealer lot as his first car.
He's looking for his car. Sounds like he wants it back.
This dude that I talked to on the phone is going to pass my contact info along to the original owner of the car.
Can you imagine?
I'm still just blown away by the idea that this guy is finding his "first love" after 45 years. What are the chances that it still even exists? Let alone it is road worthy and restored to it's original color?
That's like... drama fiction story stuff there, I'm still blown away.
Haven't heard from the original owner yet, But I just wanted to share the story here as I figured you guys might enjoy it.
Several years back I purchased a 69 road runner in good mechanical condition, a running, driving car with a shaggy body. A 35 yr old repaint, poorly done and artfully decorated with cartoon mural scenes and some old school panel painting.
Here's the shaggy old gal about to come apart for some much needed repairs.
She had some real quick dent pulling, mud filling and a really crappy repaint done, and it looked like it was done in a hurry.
Slide hammer pull holes in a quarter panel, with bondo noodles oozing through the back side.
She was kind of a mess.
I suppose it wasn't too far out of the ordinary as far as areas needing repairs.
Put her back to the original T7 with the white vinyl top, after a lot of metal work.
Remarkably, along the way we found that the engine and trans are not only correct but they are original to the car and everything matches up nicely, non conflicting with fender tag data. Bonus.
Hey, I've got my Road Runner back on the road, it's my car, not a customers car, but finally one I've done for me and I'm happy with it, I like the car.
Ok, here's where it gets interesting.
I get a txt message from a friend on Saturday.
He says there's a guy been trying to track me down, he worked his search through car clubs. Heard there was a guy that had purchased a white road runner with a crazy mural paint job and he was from my area. That's how he tracked me down, through car club members that kept pointing him north, slowly he zerod in on my area and was eventually talking with friends of mine who were reluctant to give out my number until they asked me if it was ok.
So I called the guy.
I asked him what's up? Do you know the car? Got some history with it?
He says yes, it was his first car, he got it used and went to prom in that car in around 1972.
He went on to tell me all he knew about the car, mysteries were solved, it was a fun conversation.
He explained the white paint job, basically the car belonged to his older brother in around 1974 when they had some midnight shenanigans that I'm lead to believe involved a chase, some dukes of hazard style body damage, and the urgent need for the car to change colors before the sun came up the next day. That's how the original T7 car became a white car.
He told about their 1/8th mile drag strip and how the car frequented that track, he went on to explain a string of owners that he knew of through the rest of the 70's and how one of them had the murals painted on the car in 1976.
If I understand correctly, the car eventually went into storage where it basically missed out on the 80's and probably most if not all of the 90's.
It came back into his possession for a short time and was sold to the guy I purchased the car from.
It was a really neat history lesson on the car, and eventually he explained that it wasn't necessarily him that was looking for the car. It was the original owner that is hunting for it. The guy that got this car brand new off the dealer lot as his first car.
He's looking for his car. Sounds like he wants it back.
This dude that I talked to on the phone is going to pass my contact info along to the original owner of the car.
Can you imagine?
I'm still just blown away by the idea that this guy is finding his "first love" after 45 years. What are the chances that it still even exists? Let alone it is road worthy and restored to it's original color?
That's like... drama fiction story stuff there, I'm still blown away.
Haven't heard from the original owner yet, But I just wanted to share the story here as I figured you guys might enjoy it.
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