Friday, February 4, 2011

The convertible

Funny how I can't remember what I had for supper last night, but the memory of old cars we had seems to stay in your thoughts of the past. I was reading  Dapper Dan's post about old Buick's he was fond of, and I guess a synapse fired in the old brain and the convertible the folks bought when I was in high school immediately came to mind.
It was a '57 Ford convertible. That car was slicker than a s**thouse rat!! Beige, with a beige top, and the police interceptor engine, man, it would fly! But... it came with it's own set of problems. If you drove it in the rain you were going to get wet, no two ways about it. The top around all of the windows leaked like a seive. The trans leaked, the rear end leaked, and if you filled the gas tank, it too, leaked out of the filler cap.
One saturday night, my buddy and I took it on a double date to the drive in movies, a huge rain storm moved in, and by the time it was over,  there was about an inch of water in the back floor boards, as the floor boards sat lower than the frame. We got wet up front as well, but it was a hot date, so we just put up with it and watched the movie (sure we did!)
I was working at a gas station  on the week ends, and took it to work to get the oil changed, and on the sly,  to weld two cut-outs into the exhaust system. They worked great until I came in late from cruising around and forgot to put the caps back on the cut outs. The next morning my dad went out to go somewhere in it and when he started it up, the ol' Ford roared like a tiger! Well, you can imagine the rest of that story!
The convertible stayed around for a couple of years despite her problems. Her on board gear always included a set of clean bath towels. Sure would like to have that car today!

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