RC Bashers

I have a picture of my grandfather standing next to the old Ford. Its dated 1968, & he'd just brought it home. Its red & sporting a set of '66 Mustang hubcaps & wide whitewall tires. You can see the pride on his face. Man, he loved the car.

I remember him telling me about how much he liked the body style when they first came out. He wanted to go right to the dealership & buy one, but he had just gotten married. They had a baby on the way, & his military training had taught him responsibility. He couldn't justify a brand new car payment. Alot of people could stand to learn that in todays world!

Grandpa never gave up his dream of owning one, though. In '68 he bought a 2 door '57 Fairlane 500 off a used car lot. He paid cash & got them to throw in a set of Mustang hubcaps that were hanging in the lot's showroom. It had a 292 Y block & a 3 speed on the column. He & my grandma owned & sold many other vehicles afterwards, but the Ford would always stay around.

In about '72, grandpa decided it was time to redo the car. He had a friend that owned a body shop, so the '57 was prepped & repainted a sand color, & the interior was redone in two-tone green. Grandpa was a damned good mechanic, so he pulled the engine & went through it. It got a hotter cam & he balanced & blueprinted it.

Over the next 10 years, he drove the snot out of the Fairlane. But time began to take its toll. There was a little fender-bender in the early '80s. Some idiot in a big old pick up truck brushed the '57s drivers rear quarter, which resulted in a broken taillight & a bent rear bumper. A tree limb broke & fell on the passenger front fender in '84. Rust was doing its share of damage, too. Then in the winter of '85, the motor started knocking. Grandpa parked the car in his backyard until he could take the time to restore the Fairlane once more.

After a couple years, grandma talked him into taking the car out to thier ranch. I think she was tired of having it sitting behind the house killing a large patch of her yard! I remember me & my father helping load it up on a trailer & going with grandpa to the ranch- I guess I was about 11 at the time. The motor had a knock, but I really liked the Y blocks exhaust note.

So there it sat, under a pole barn out in the hay patch. I wasn't out on the ranch (thank God!) when a couple of my cousins & thier friends decided to put a battery & some gas in the car. It fired up- motor rattling away- & they careened around the pasture chasing cows & driving through the brush. My dad swears the only reason grandpa didn't kill 'em when he found out was because grandma wouldn't let him.

The car didn't fair well at all out there- my uncle backed into the '57 with the John Deere while moving hay in '92. The passenger side was crushed ahead of the back tire, & when he pulled forward the tractor hung the door & pretty well tore it up, too. That did it- grandpa hauled the remnants back to thier house, cleaned it up as best he could & put it in the garage.

In the late '90s, grandpa found a door & a pair of decent bumpers. I remember grandpa telling me about his plans to rebuild the old girl when he came to see his new great grandchild. He & my dad swapped out the replacement parts, & pulled the motor & transmission. But time was now taking its toll on grandpa, & he never got around to seeing the Ford on the road again. We lost him in '07.

A few weeks ago, my dad called up to tell me grandma had decided to sell the house & buy a condo down at the coast. She was torn on what to do with the Fairlane. It was in pretty rough shape, but the car was a genuine part of the family. I was telling my wife about it over dinner that night when I noticed my boy's expression. He'll be 14 soon, & has already been talking about buying an "old car to fix up". I asked him what the look on his face was about, & he said he'd be proud to bring great grandpa's old Ford back to life, if his great grandma would let him. A phone call later, my tearful grandmother said the car was his- just come & get it.

We hauled it home this past weekend. My boy is geared up & ready to start on it. I can't tell you how much I'm looking forward to helping him restore the Fairlane. Here's a couple pictures of the '57 as it looks today:

wow, that is great. That story damn near brought a tear to my eye. My grandpas Fairlane was a *0's model El Camino. My dad and I fixed up a black one for him and dropped a .30 over 350 in it with a nasty little bump stick and gave it to him one year for his b-day. He raced every teenager in town. He called it the Black Cat. He used to say stuff like, "she was on the prowl and ran across a snotnose in a Mustang, had to teach him a lesson" He got so many speeding tickets in the car that he almost lost his license, and grandma made him sell the car. He moped around for a few months and hardly ever smiled after that day. So dad and I picked up another Elky for him. Grandma was pissed that we'd go behind her back like that, but grandpa needed his fix. We slowly worked on getting it up and running until he got alzheimers in 08. He entered stage 2 faster than the dr's expected. We sold the El Camino to help pay Dr. bills. Next thing we knew he was in a nursing home in stage 3, he left us on Christmas Eve in 09. I can truly appreciate what you and your son are doing here. Oh, and the model looks awesome!

Unfortunately that training is lacking in modern military. I'd guess at over 80% of enlisted people live paycheck to paycheck with huge debt over them. It seemed like I was the only one with any money left by Monday.

Great story on keeping the family together.

This story marks the first time I wrote up a "history" for one of my model car projects. Never tried it before, but response to it has been very positive on the couple other sites I had it posted on. My plan is to eventually build a couple more versions of the same kit & add to the storyline.