Friday Puzzlers - '63 Gasser

Well, there's a blast from the past - this is my old '63 car, a "Fleet Special". We dragged this car out of a field in Sterling Heights, Michigan in 1976. The car had previously been a Michigan State Police highway pursuit car, and was equipped with a 325hp 383. I sold it in 1991 to appease wife V2.0. The car had seen a few iterations, originally a bracket car sponsored by the old Sambo's Restaurants. We were then sponsored by a local speed shop for a few years before attempting a less-than-accurate Max Wedge clone (ish). We then raced it as "ThunderWedge", before retiring it with tubs and steamroller tires as a "Pro-Street" car.

When I sold it, it was '72 Plymouth dark blue B9?), with a '64 aluminum hood and a hand-formed aluminum front bumper. It had a '67 440 with a custom ground Crower hydraulic cam, '62 crossram and heads, Hooker adjustable headers, Turbo Action 3800, Series 60 shifter, and a 5.13 8 3/4. (I had broken the 4.89 and all I had lying around was the 5.13). I sold it to a local who drive it a bit, then traded it for a '69 6-pack car. The car bounced around Ohio and Indiana, I caught up with it again in 2004-ish in Midlothian, IL. The aluminum parts were gone, as was the drivetrain - someone had cut the floor out and left the roll bar hanging. The guy who had it was a guy who bought and sold Mopar stuff (called himself Mopar "(enter name here)". He wanted $6K plus just for the body, which I considered but just couldn't bring myself to do.

I was contacted in 2007 or 2008 by the guy who built it into the gasser, wanting historical info (I think he was preparing to sell it). I surfaced again recently at "Lucky Motors" in the Chicago area in the low $30K range, then was on eBay in the high teens - I see it is now in the New York area.

If you look closely at the photos on the Lucky site, you can still see the MSP Blue paint in spots. I recall sitting the better part of an afternoon painstakingly cutting the lettering from a "Direct Connection" sticker and applying it to the rear-view mirror, where it remains today. I had patched the body with pieces cut from a VW Beetle sitting behind Saginaw Dodge - I think they are still there. The car looks good, but is rough under the paint.

This is the car I couldn't get a transmission mount for in the late 70's, which spurred development of the first Polyurethane transmission mount around 1996 (I had taken the pushbutton transmission out to install a later trans after breaking two '65 tailshafts in the late 80's) which eventually led to the formation of Imperial Services.

Forgive me if I've shared this story on the list before...