I write this with a heavy heart. I’d never thought I’d shed tears over a car, but here we are.
My dad and I purchased this car out of NE PA in 2019 and trailered it 2000 miles back home to San Diego. It was VERY rough. I spent about 2 years removing most of the bad metal and then drilling apart of ‘69 cougar parts car spotweld by spotweld to obtain original metal. My dream since purchasing the car was to restore it to a high level, concours driven or trailered. We had purchased close to $30K in date code correct parts.
From 2021 or so until July of this year, I didn’t make much progress - instead focusing on my ‘67 GT 390 Cougar which was a much more reasonable project.
Looming in the future, was the reality that my mom was going to sell her house (I was renting) and I’d have to find somewhere to put 5 cars, 3 of which were Eliminators we had collected since 2019.
I reluctantly sold a Green on white ‘70 Boss 302 eliminator as I knew it’d be a quick sell. I looked for that specific car for about 13 years.
Next we sold a Blue on white ‘70 428 eliminator which I wasn’t too attached to, but it was a good car.
Lastly I had my ‘67 GT 390 and my ‘69 428 SCJ Eliminator W code 4 speed (1 of 4 built). My ‘67 ended up at my moms house and my ‘69 sat on a flatbed trailer at my dads rental house. The car was essentially a rusted shell with no floorboards/tail panel. I simply did not have anywhere to put it, renting a apartment with a garage which is taken up by all my equipment for my business. My dad wanted his trailer back as well as his parking spot back. The only option - either pay storage for the unforeseeable future, or cut the vins out and scrap it.
I NEVER wanted to rebody the car, no matter how bad of shape it was. In my opinion, anything can be brought back with enough time and money. Problem is, no time and no money.
With pressure mounting, I told my dad to cut the vins out and scrap it. He had a buyer for his trailer. I didn’t know it would impact me in this way. This dream ive had for 6 years, and the car I planned to keep for the rest of my life and pass on, is gone.
I don’t have it in me to rebody it. The motivation to build a fake car doesn’t exist.
Sorry if this was a long post. Just venting I guess
Sean
