Dan and My Coupe

[Carnut]

I've been an indoor car show kind of guy since I entered model cars in
Starbirds Wichita Show in 62.

First entered my Coupe in Starbirds Wichita Show in 67.



In 70 or so I did some body work on the Coupe and painted it in flatblack
and laid on some tape 'pinstripes' thinking it was done.



Entered the Coupe in Starbirds Wichita 71 Show and had Starbird come up to me
while getting setup in my spot and tells me he didn't want any 'unfinished'
cars in the show. He thought it was cheating paying customers to have
'unfinished' cars for them to look at. Heck, I agreed and no hard feelings
left the show.

Since I wanted to continue participating in the Starbird Shows I decided I
had to do a 'shiny' paint job on the Coupe. So I sanded and filled and sanded
and filled and sprayed on a 'shiny' black lacquer paint, color sanded,
hand rubbed and all that.



During this time my mother and brother were on hardtimes and were living with
my wife and I in our single garage house. I had done all the body work and
paint on the Coupe in that garage.



That single garage was a little wider than most and had a convenient place
along the side wall for my work bench. In that garage I kinda specialized
in tuneups and carburetor work on the side. At that time I had a 2.5 gal
can of carb cleaner on the bench for 'dunking' disassembled carbs for cleaning.
No one had ever accused me of being a good housekeeper so my tools were usually
spread in disarray on the bench top with some hanging on pegboard on the wall
above the bench.

One evening, as my freshly painted and rubbed Coupe was sitting in the garage,
my brother came to me and asked if he could get some pliers from the garage, ok.
Shortly afterward I heard a 'crash, bang' in the garage and kinda wondered
what it might be. So, I opened the door and saw my 2.5 gal carb cleaner bucket
on a wet floor and my brother trying to wipe off the cleaner which had splashed
all over the side of my freshly painted coupe. Course the lacquer was slowly
washing off with my brother helping it along trying to wipe it up.

To this day my brother still wonders why he wasn't killed.

Sometimes I wonder as well.

[rumrumm]

That's a great story. Do you still have that coupe?

[Carnut]

That's a great story. Do you still have that coupe?

I retired in 2002 and due to preceived financial necessity and realization of
my declining health I decided to sell the coupe to my nephew Troy Pate in the summer of 2003.

http://carnut.com/photo/garage/pate/_picsm9.html

Troy grewup with my coupe and wanted it and Troy being a 'real' car guy I trusted him to take car of it and he has done me proud.

After owning the coupe for close to 40yrs there was much consternation amongst my peer group that it was sold, but such is life.

[Charlie Chops 1940]

Great story - that's sure how stuff happens. I promoted a few shows in the early 60's in conjunction with my old car club, the Road Gents., and wouldn't have even considered having a primered car in the show. It wasn't "finished",  as you relate. Times have changed, and so have we. Primer, shiny, doesn't much matter to me now as they are all drivers. Shiny is my preference, but I can live with spots.

Phat Rat and I were members of the Road Gents at the same time - early 60's - and we both have the plaque dangling on the back of out hot rods.

Charlie

[alchevy]

Indoor shows must be like that....only wishing the "finished" cars in there. My car is no where near "finished" needing painting and interior, but it's fun to drive like it is. Had over 25,000 miles of fun since July of 2003 in it. The fact is that I don't have to spend a lot of time polishing mine right now and if I get caught in the rain, it doesn't matter to me as much as if it was a "finished" car. I put my car in a local indoor show one time and won 3rd place in my division. Don't think the promoters liked it being in there that much, but I get more comments from folks because they like to see cars under construction. These things don't get put together in a week like they do on TV shows that the non-car-people are seeing on now-a-days. Well getting back to the indoor show, since it was indoors, I was able to shine it up pretty good and in the pictures, it looked just as good as the "finished" cars. So much so that folks thought I had painted it! After the show was over with, and the "finished" cars were being loaded into closed trailers, I was driving mine out the door and all of the way home having a blast! Folks were eying my shiney wax job on my "unfinished" car all of the way home. I got home and looked at my car out in the sun and it did look good for an "unfinished" car. Forgot to mention that I won the 50/50 at that show and took home $695....enough to buy an A/C for my "unfinished" car.
AL