Angry Car Hunting

Sadly this week has been very difficult, our dog Pudgy was not doing to well, and yesterday we had to put him down.

It has been a hard week, but I'm back on the case.

RIP Pudgy Brutt, you had a good 15 years of life, and we will miss you.



My mother has a little camper in Wisconsin where we vacation on weekends, that is why many of my finds are from the Southern Wisconsin region. Well while on vacation up there, we had a large fight and I decided to go for a drive.

I knew of a few cars sitting North West of our campground, so I headed that way, first. It was a beautiful day to just drive and clear your head.

Driving through the countryside, I didn't really expect to find anything that cool, or interesting. Maybe I would find an old truck, or Camaro. I wasn't ready to find a Mopar family in the middle of nowhere.

I come over a hill and there in the driveway is a 1964 Plymouth. All decked out, looking really good. So I hit the brakes and pull into the driveway just in front of the Plymouth. I get out and started talking with an older gentleman there. He was the father, and the Plymouth was the Sons car, but they had others lying around.

The son came out and we began talking about cars and Mopars. I was telling them about my adventures and the recent Hot Rod Power Tour I had just attended. The interesting part was that they had actually read the Power Tour blog I had up while doing the tour.

The two of them began showing me the rest of their projects, they had a 72 Duster out front they were working on, they had a Mopar in the garage, but I cannot remember exactly what now. However, out back they had an old Dodge in the back garage, along with a sweet old school Suburban I believe.

We chatted for a while more, and I told them I had more to explore. So I said my goodbyes and continued on my way. I kept exploring the area for another hour or so, and then headed south to the Janesville area.

Heading into Janesville, I remember seeing a 78 Aspen R/T on Craig list for sale. I called the number and arranged a meeting to view the car.

I made my way through Janesville to the Aspen. It looked good from 20 feet, but upon closer inspection, it needed a lot of work. There wasn't a straight piece of metal on the whole car. It ran, but everything leaked. So I passed on the car and continued on my little adventure.

I made my way through Janesville, I believe it was west. I found a little parts store on the outskirts of Janesville that I decided to stop at. I find if you are nice to the people that work in the town, that they will lead you to good finds.

Chatting with the guys there was a lot of fun. I missed the general car chatting of Napa. We talked about everything from Mavericks to Mopars. I spent over an hour just chatting away with these guys I never met before.

After the car talk, they gave me a few good leads, and I parted company. They gave me the direction of a GTO sitting in someone driveway for a while.

I finally found where the car was supposed to be, but instead there was a Nova in the driveway. The same time I pull up, the owner pulls up. I get out of the Caprice and begin chatting with him about the parts store guys and the GTO. In addition, he told me he just moved it behind the garage to protect it. And it wasn't a GTO, but a LeMans with GTO sheet metal.

He shows me through the garage, where he was building a nice old truck, and out back, behind the garage was the LeMans. It was rough, everything had rust and bondo. It was a very big project, and I knew I would pass on it, but I had Pontiac friends that could have been. So I took down the information on the car.

I stayed there for a while, chatting with the guys. Talking about cars, women, adventures we had had in our lives. It was a lot of fun, and I could spend hours just chatting away, but I had to start heading home. I knew I was not going to return to the Camper, and daylight was growing dim.

So I headed back to Chicago, the day started out horrible, but throughout the day, meeting new people, finding cool old cars, it turned out to be a day I will never forget.

Ryan
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HemiPwr70@aol.com