Not sure if you fellas remember Brian Safford and his '62 Dart, and not sure if he's still in our awesome group given he no longer has the car (it was wrecked), but I thought I would pass along a story about a motor just for fun. Several years ago (maybe 2004?), when I was in the middle of building my Fury, I obtained a rebuildable and complete 413 core from someone in the group. I had it on a stand in my garage and one day Brian stopped by to talk all things Mopar. Long story short, I went in another direction motor-wise and sold the 413 to Brian for what I had paid for it.
Brian's goal was to build it out and put it in his '62 Dart. He eventually sent it to Muscle Motors in Lansing and they went through the block, crank, and heads with their usual magic. Brian had all the components bagged and crated and then I believe sent it to his son in Nashville for assembly. A few years down the road Brian's '62 came to a tragic end after his son crashed it (thankfully his son was uninjured). Last spring Brian pinged me and asked me if I wanted to reacquire the motor, albeit disassembled. Of course I obliged and made arrangements to pick it up in Nashville on the way back from a visit with some relatives in Tennessee. Somewhere in between that call and my getting to TN, Brian pinged me again and said apparently everything except the block had disappeared and was believed to have been stolen. Nevertheless I picked up the block on the way back from TN as planned.
Fast forward a few more months and Brian's son contacts me to tell me low and behold the rest of the parts were found. By luck this was a few weeks prior to my TN kinfolk heading this way for the holidays. We made arrangements for my uncle to pickup the goods in Nashville on the way here last week and now it's all laid out in my garage ready for my next build.
I want to thank Brian for keeping in touch with me and his son for hosting not one but two visits to his home in Nashville to pick up the parts. Brian and Garrett, I promise to make a ground-pounder out of this 413!
This is another testimony to the camaraderie and graciousness of the folks in this group.
Merry Christmas,
Jim
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