Lola and my Boy

[Lola]

Hi there! I’m new to the board, and a recent owner of a 59’ Belvedere 2d hardtop with a 318 and a Powerflite. Like many a marriage, the experience is not exactly what I thought it would be when I inked the deal, but I am committed to making the relationship work for the long haul. Here’s the story: I was visiting a soon to be divorced friend staying with a childhood buddy in Ledyard CT. In previous visits I had noticed a ‘cover it’ type tent in the corner of the driveway, but didn’t give it much thought till I visited after a storm had blown up the Thames River that the house is situated on and blown the tent away to reveal the reddish orange behemoth. I asked about it and he said it had been in his family since new and had been redone at one point, but had been banished to the tent when he needed the garage space and had been dwelling outside ever since, about 5 years. It looked OK and had some rust, but he had a lot of replacement panels for it. My 15 year old son was on one of those reality singing shows in LA at the time and was beginning to advance in the competition, making some real cash in the process. He was making sound financial decisions with his Mom, (saving for College, putting away for contingencies and retirement) so I sent him pictures and asked him if he felt like throwing thousands upon thousands of it away by adopting a classic car. I informed him that you don’t really own something like this, it owns you and you serve it. If you do it well it will provide you with enjoyment beyond measure. If you don’t it will leave you a broke and broken man. He understood that he was signing on with me to be a willing steward of a forgotten piece of Americana and that if he bailed on the responsibility, he’d make back about half of what we had into it, (that marriage reference again). He saw the pictures, and she looked damn good, (those FINS!) He named her ‘Lola’ at first sight and off we went. We paid $4,000 for her, $2k down from the asking price but we still paid $2k too much. And I drove it home. The tranny shifted fine and it doesn’t smoke or tick or knock. It pulls awesome and sounds great despite its 95k miles. It has a comical amount of play in the wheel and the bias ply wide whitewall tires catch every nook and cranny in the road. It has no power ANYTHING. What could be more perfect to teach a new driver to drive on? Like taking him to a brothel staffed by professional wrestler type girls for his first experience. “If you can handle this kid, you can handle anything”. I had looked under it and checked the frame where it sat and saw it was solid front to back, but when I got it up on ramps I had a moment of horror that people must feel when they’ve had their first moment of clarity after committing a horrible crime. “What did I just DO?!?” The rockers and rear quarters were an adventure in swiss cheese rusted metal that was held in check with Bondo. When you rapped on it, it would mock you with a shower of rust and chunks would fall off. No problem, I just went to the trusty internet to order up some replacement panels. (I can hear you all collectively groan). Apparently, this car wasn’t popular enough for anyone to have made replacement panels for it, so I came up snake eyes. They would have to be manufactured by hand, at an $80 per hour body shop labor rate because I sure as hell couldn’t craft metal into the shape of a car. My son came home during a break in the show and his enthusiasm hadn’t waned in the slightest. He was like the protagonist in that silly horror movie about this car, in love with it despite its many flaws. In fact, he was resolute. “I’ve always wanted something to learn to work on cars with, and this thing is as simple as a lawn mower under the hood. Besides, we’ll do it together”. How do you say no to that. We diagnosed a bad generator, blown heater core. Pathetic breaking system, (although the drums look pretty good, the master cylinder was rusted and the size of an apple). Needs new break lines, although the fan motor works for the heat/vent, who knows where it blows out because all the ducting’s made of freaking paper that has long gone the way of the dodo. The horn makes a noise, but it’s a sad, forlorn dying cow kind of thing. But that was about it. Everything else was sound and working. The previous owner let us keep the plate and his reg and insurance that he had just paid, so we tooled around town with it. You might as well be driving a Lamborghini. EVERYONE stops to look at this thing, and they all smile and want to talk about it. If you cant make friends driving this car, it’s your personality, bud. We happened upon a childhood friend of my wife’s who just happened to have a 57’ Belvedere 4 door and a garage where he did classic car restoration. He has a guy working for him who specializes in… wait for it rust repair and body fabrication! He makes $20 an hour and I get the parts. This was about half the price of the three quotes I had just gotten so I agreed. It’s been there all winter and about 80 hours and $4k later, 90% of the rust has been cut out and new 20 gauge steel has been laid in its place. It looks great and will be solid for at least another generation. It will get new paint in the next few weeks and then we’ll start the mechanical work. I figure Ill be into it for about $10k before its reliable and safe and it’ll be worth about $8k at most (?). But still, can you put a value on sharing an experience like this with your son? (The answer to that is yes, about 10k). I could have gotten an appropriate first car for my son with that money. A crumple zone equipped, airbag clad, good gas mileage sensible car, and my wife cant figure out for the life of her why I didn’t. I don’t think I have to explain it to any of you. I would love any information anyone could provide that could add a little proverbial Vaseline to help the restoration of this car go easier and less painful. I complain, but I’m happy to have an antique back in the family. This is not my first marriage to an iron maiden you see, and although the first one (68’ Firebird 400 Convertible), ended poorly, I’ve missed being in love.

[Dick Koch]

Hi, my name is Dick Koch, what is yours. Welcome aboard, any and all questions will find an answer here. First I suggest you brouse "Show your ride" in the forum and you will find many restoration stories with all the trials, tribulations frustrations, and successes of bringing these treasures back to life. Besides the satisfaction you will get for yourself the greater one is watching people rembering the old days when they had one just like yours. If you would send the Vin number and Matthew will add it to his register and send you the build data. Lots of pictures would be nine also.
Dick

[WDJ40]

Hi,

Welcome to the 59 Plymouth Forum. I have been a member on this forum just short of two years.
You will find this site very useful and it has a lot of archived information.

I am also located in south eastern Connecticut.

Larry
WDJ40

[Lola]

Good from afar, but far from good.

[Lola]

My name is Dave Sunshine and my sons name is Braiden. Thanks for the welcome! I'll post more pics as I can, and I'll try to put up the VIN tag tonight. I'll check out the rest of the forums. Thanks!

[big m]

Awesome story!!!

It's nice to hear that you found a shop to tackle the metal work, at a reasonable price too. The car looks great! Your son looks somewhat familiar, too, what show was he performing on, was it the Voice?

---John

[Lola]

Yup, He finished in the Semi Finals in last year's Season 9. He's doing online school now so he can write and record new music, as well as playing ever bigger gigs. He opened for Huey Lewis and the News the other day and will open for Blues Traveler in July. Check him out at www.braidensunshine.com. This old Belvedere will undoubtedly make it onto an album cover at one point, but not till she's a little more presentable.

A friend found us a new generator, master cylinder and a spare carb at Carlisle last week. Now we need a heater core. Ill post more pics as I can.

[Lola]

Some of the rust repair pics.

[big m]

Yup, He finished in the Semi Finals in last year's Season 9. He's doing online school now so he can write and record new music, as well as playing ever bigger gigs. He opened for Huey Lewis and the News the other day and will open for Blues Traveler in July. Check him out at http://www.braidensunshine.com. This old Belvedere will undoubtedly make it onto an album cover at one point, but not till she's a little more presentable.

A friend found us a new generator, master cylinder and a spare carb at Carlisle last week. Now we need a heater core. Ill post more pics as I can.

Thanks! I and my wife watch that show from time to time. Your son is extremely talented, wish him the best!!!

[Lola]

I should tell you that we are making this car a safe, solid reliable driving car, not looking to make it a pristine trailer queen. It will be rolling down the road if not daily, pretty close to it, at least in nice weather.

[big m]

Nice.
I drive my cars as well, personally I enjoy the feeling of resurrecting something that was forgotten or discarded, making it serviceable, then using it as it was meant to be. Fielding comments and questions when you stop at a gas station or store has more value to me than car show awards.

---John

[WDJ40]

Hi,

I like your story ... great story on how you found this car in Ledyard Connecticut. I am a local DJ that plays the Oldies at our local Car Shows.
I play music at most Car Cruise nights in south eastern Connecticut, the U.S. Navy Base and some Regional Car Shows as well.
That hits home for me, Ledyard is my home town and I thought I was the only one in Ledyard who owned a 1959 Plymouth.

I have a few places that I purchase parts for thes 1959 Plymouths, brake shoes, wheel cylinders, etc. Most of the places are well documented on this forum .... just search and somewhere you may find a lead.

Your car looks fabulous.... you guys have done a lot of hard work....most of these cars are truly are a love in the making project.

I read in the New London Day all about your car and the surprise birthday gift to Braiden (thought he was going to a Car Show in New Jersey).
You live about 20 miles from me in Old Lyme .... not that far from Ledyard.

Maybe we can bring both of our 1959 Plymouths to the Ledyard Fair in September ... side by side ... when Braiden performs on Saturday night at the Ledyard Fair for all the locals. My car is named Runaway .... named after the Del Shannon song "Runaway"

Larry E.
WDJ40

[Matthew Keij]

Welcome! More youngsters into the 59's is always good.

Looks like a decent car, you need some rear bumper guards but I'm pretty sure someone here can help you with those.

Post your vin and data plate and I'll decode them for you!

[Lola]

Awesome! Thanks for the VIN decode, cant wait! It should be on the road in a few months, so it more then likely will be at the fair, see you there!

[Lola]

Next round of pics. these were the ones I took where it was sitting to send to my son to see if he was interested in going in on it. It was a 20 footer then (Looks great from 20 feet). The parts laid out beside it were inner fenders and inner and outer rocker panels, which couldn't be used because they were to a 57'. Still have em' if anyone is interested.