posted 11-16-2003 09:06 AM                  

this car was a true "Christine" if there ever was one....
....the beginning
....the '73 CUDA was delivered with damage by the transporter....they had dropped a chain on the roof while it was still on the trailer.....did some minor paint damage.....
...the car wouldn't start once it was in the dealer prep shop, they worked on the carb and it seemed okay....
....my wife is hit in the rear with only 79 miles on the car, it suffered a tremendous hit but was still driveable...
...car was repaired and driven to Texas...I found a full set of socket wrenches under the hood the dealership left there while repairing the new car a second time...
....less than 3 weeks old it is already not starting again, take it in to a new dealership in San Antonio...I was their first ever customer, first day open...they replaced the carb....
.... a few days later the car gets hit in a parking lot on base....rear quarter this time is all thats damaged....while getting repaired again, it wouldn't start....seeing a pattern here.....
.....back to the dealer .....they replaced the ignition system and rebuilt the carb that was only a few weeks old....it ran fine they said..
....to greatly shorten the story at this point it finally had 3 carbs replaced(and several carb rebuilds) and 4 electronic ignition systems before they gave up....it would just die while driving it down the street and not restart for 30 minutes.....that part of the car we lived with for 2 years....
....arriving back in Indiana for the great ice storm...the car was crushed under my neighbors tree....the tree split from the heavy ice and crushed the roof to the seats...I was able to wiggle into the car and drive it out of the mess and down a snowy, icy slope to the street....I was younger, stronger and full of adrenaline....I "pushed" the roof back into place with my bare hands by sitting in all four seat positions and pushing up with my forearms.....the car looked nearly as good as before....the roof did have ripples in it that would later be fixed.....
....the repair shop changed the color for me and applied the worst paint job I had ever seen........

at this point, I had a car with very low miles that had been wrecked twice and crushed once, looked like crap and still didn't run worth a $hit....

PHASE II....I sold the CUDA and bought a red '61 Vette with no engine...figured it would be as dependable as the CUDA ...the new paint was door dinged the day I sold the car, almost broke the deal

posted 11-16-2003 09:49 AM                  

What a Great story! I'm still wiping away tears of laughter.

Perhaps this thread could initiate "Prowlitzer Award" competition?

So far your only competion is Ed's compelling docu-drama piece on the "Heritage of the Poulan WeedEater"??

Chromer