How long have you had your ride?

[savvy59]

Stefan,

Others may know of a product that goes under the car that may be more effective, but I have found that heat/sound shield does a pretty good job inside the car.

Here is one site that gives you a good description:
http://www.stockinteriors.com/heatsound ... PgodsRXcmQ

Most automotive stores carry a similar product. You can always search Google for (automotive heat shield) and you will get many hits.

One word of caution - there are some really cheap brands that only have small plastic air bubbles between two layers of foil (similar to bubble wrap for packing boxes). These bubbles pop when used under carpet and therefore lose some of their heat resistance quality.

I used the better quality product and it was installed everywhere; under door panels and kick panels and from toe board (firewall) to the top part of the back seat area. It also works great as a lining under the headliner - but my headliner is original and I have no plans to tackle that job right now.

Let me know if you have further questions.

Curt in MD

[savvy59]

John,

Thanks for responding to my survey. Ten years is a long time to hold onto any car. Again you are another 59 owner that has gone above and beyond the call to save a classic. I just can't even imagine the amount of work needed to graft convertible pieces onto a hardtop car.

Some car owners here just cut off the top and rework a convertible top from another car and call it a convertible. The car I am thinking of happens to be a 51 Ford with a '68 Galaxie convertible top - and no it does not pass for a 51 Ford convertible.

Good luck in your efforts to find the time to actually get started on the project.

Thanks again for the response.

Any Others like to share your story???

Thanks,

Curt in MD

[big m]

Here is a pic of my nearly completed chassis, along with five years or so of dust. Also, a pic of the donor body for the convertible where I have stored it. ---John

[big m]

Here is the donor body for the project. I got tired of moving these bodies around, and needed them inside, so I built this rack. ---John

[savvy59]

Okay John - Help me out...

The engine/frame looks great. It looks just ripe for a new converrtible body (sometime in the future).

Now I am just a little confused. Your finished product will be what year body/frame?

I am looking at the rack and think I see a 1958 Convertible up top, a 59 Plymouth hardtop in the middle ( I am guessing this was the body you started working on years ago with swiss cheese) and the bottom appears to be another 58 hardtop.

So which car will be the final car??? I am guessing the bottom car (1958) with grafted 58 convertible parts (top car) and maybe some 1959 (middle car ) parts???

So now that you showed me the rack - please answer the obvious question. I thought I saw a brake drum on level two indicating you may have some elevator type system where you can unload these bodies. If Not please explain how the heck you stacked three bodies on top each other?

Still Grinning in Maryland,

Curt

[big m]

Curt, the center car is the '59 hardtop body that I will be using for the project. It looks a bit ugly as the previous owner had put paint stripper on and it just removed a portion of the second color. The only rust hole is a silver dollar sized one behind the left rear wheel. The car on top is a '57 chrysler, and the one on the bottom is a '57 Belvedere hardtop. Oh, and getting these to their perches was no magic trick, I have a very big forklift that easily goes that high. ---John

[savvy59]

John,

WOW That must be some forklift to pick up a car body (end to end) and place it 16 feet up in the air!!!!

So I am guessing that the rusty 59 hardtop (original car you started with) and rusty 59 convertible (picked up recently) are located elsewhere?

Well if it works, all the better to have them stacked up in dry storage rather than sitting outside.

Thanks for the response.

Curt in MD

[big m]

The original hardtop body has been cut up into sections, the repairable pieces saved, and the rusty ones scrapped. I sent the floorboard to a gal in Wisconsin for a '58 she is restoring, as I had already replaced it with a good one, and don't need it now. The same with the replaced trunk floor, it went to one of the members here for their car. The rusty convertible is still on a trailer in Pennsylvania, waiting for my friend to deliver it west. Pretty crazy how this is going? ---John

[sportfury1959]

Thanks Curt,

For the hint. It’s not exactly what I had in mind, but to tell the truth I don’t even know exactly what I want

John,

it's rather interesting: Other side of the world, different people, never talked or seen each other, but almost the same picture!

Stefan

[Ron Keij]

OK, it took a while but here's the story of our Sport Fury:

Ever since I was about two years old I was completely car crazy and I knew all cars and models that were seen in the streets of the Netherlands. And since I was born in 1962 there were a lot of 50's cars still around, but unfortunately US cars were very rare because they were very expensive here. And among the US cars the Mopars were the rarest cars, all you would see were GM cars and espescially the Chebby's. According to my dad I decided that I would buy a 59 Impala when I would grow up When I grew up I kept my interest in US cars but money was short and needed for the family. When the kids got older and my wife got a job we had some extra money to spend and we bought a jukebox, a Wurlitzer 2104 that started the 50's disease. We kept buying stuff and when the living room was completely filled with 50's stuff I said to Marjo that we needed a finishing touch.

That finishing touch had to be a finned US car and we started looking. We have seen a lot of cars that were over priced or pieces of junk, and three times we were in doubt if we would buy the car or not. The first one was a 59 Impala, it was affordable but there was too much work on the car so I let it go. Next was a near perfect 58 Oldsmobile and that one was rejected because the seller was a real asshole who treated us like a piece of %$^#. The last one was a 58 Buick, also a great car but the price was a bit over our budget altough we seriously thought about ways to expand our budget.

Matthew had already given up hope and said we would never buy a car. Then one night we were watching the movie "Christine" on TV and Marjo said I hope we can buy a car as great looking as that car someday.....
The next morning she was a bit sick and went back to bed, I was bored and decided to surf on the net. I discovered a new auction site and found a link to "oldtimers" and when I clicked it the first car was my car. I called Marjo and asked her opinion and she was instantly feeling better. She grabbed to phone to make an appointment with the seller and within 15 minutes we were on our way. After a two hour drive we were there and the seller was on the phone (he received 12 calls in 2 hours). After he hung up he took us to the garage and we were speechless. I checked out the car and asked the seller if we could talk privatly for a couple of minutes. When I asked Marjo what do you think her response was BUY IT!!!!

I made arrangment to pick the car up the next weekend and we drove home to tell Matthew the news. At first he was a bit sceptic about the car but when he walked into the garage that next Saturday (August 9th 2001) he was sold I drove the car home and it was like a dream, everybody was waving, taking pictures and honking. I drove straight to Marjo's work in the centre of Rotterdam and I was really amazed how much attention this car got in rush hour

About a month later we went to our first car show as owners of a car where a man came running to the car and said "I want to buy that car!". Marjo said "no sorry it isnt for sale, the guy offered $10000 more than what we had paid for it and her answer was still the same.

After a little more than 5 years we still are convinced that this car was made for us and it will be with us forever.

[Faulkner]

Thanks for the complete story, Ron. I had heard bits and pieces, but never the whole thing. I hadn't realized, for example, that you bought the car after you did the house in '50's flair.

Does Marjo read the list? So....

Of your two loves -- which do you love more?

No need to answer! I already know.

Dan

[batmobile]

i've had batmobile 3 1/2 years now, doesn't seem like that long. if u told me when i bought the car that i would have the car no farther than i do now, i wouldn't have believed u. but i guess life happens, things get in the way. i'm crossing my fingers and toes, hope i can afford to fix her by tulsarama. most everyone has heard the story, but if u haven't here it goes: bought the old gal from a junkyard in my hometown, the yard i frequented the most. it mainly had clunkers, 70s and 80s era, just another yard, u know? well this car was right by the entrance (the drive). there were 3'-4' tall johnson grass around it, i walked by it many times figuring it was a basket case. skip a few years to summer of '03, my buddy needed a carb for his old ford, noticed the cars were starting to thin out, so we were talking to the owner. he had to shut the yard down due to epa violations, and he was crushing a good deal of cars so he didn't have to move as much (the old fart opened up another yard under his daughter w/in months, but he still runs it, hehe) well somehow or another i asked him about that old plymouth over there, claimed it drove into the spot that it was sitting at years prior (tagged expired in '89), and aside from weathering, just in the shape it was in when it was parked. he asked if i was interested, i said i was, i shot a $200 price out, said he wanted $300 so no deal was struck. the next day (i believe it was) went by his local diner and said i would give him $250 (with a determined look in my eye), he kind of gave me a sly smile, an odd smile, kinda stuck in my head. i guess he was thinking of the movie, and kinda wierd if u think about it. the movie is not the reason y i offered him $250 though, it was all i could afford at the time. he replied yes, so i went to pick it up a few days later. i was gonna use my dad's untility trailer, had it in position and everything, but decided that the car was too wide, 1/2" on each side was too tight. he offer to tow it across town for 10 bucks (gas), so i aired up the tires best i could and away we went. rr tire barely made it, stopped midway to add more air, but ran out so we had to just hope it made it. when i first aired up the tires, in the several inches of dirt, looked just like the movie, i just have the image stuck, the car rising up. money was tight for a while, but progression was there, then i had to move feb '04 and progress halted until this jan, and a little more this summer. hope to have the dents fixed soon, and will find a motor and tranny as soon as i have the money. looking for a smog era 360 and a 5speed. car already has later model rearend with integrated p brake. -- j

[Nighthawk]

I got my 59 Plymouth in July of 2004,i had first saw it on a car dealers lot in April of 2004,i stopped to look at it because i hadnt seen one of them in years,and while i liked it i thought i didnt really want another old car because i have a 59 Chev that i got in 2001 ,id owned 2 oldies before,the other being a 58 Chev which i sold in 2003,but i kept going by to check on it and then after driving it and some negoitiations i bought it right then and there,its been a great car,i take turns with it and my Chev on which one goes to cruise nights and car shows,ive often thought im nuts owning two oldies,but i love the both of them and dont want to part with either one!

Bob

[savvy59]

THANKS EVERYONE

There are so many posts now I can't keep up with my reading .

Great stories from everyone.

I need time to read each of them again they are quite interesting.

Thanks for responding to my original question.

Does not seem like any of us are ready to part with our vehicles whether we have held them 5 years or 15 years!

Curt in MD (now overwhelmed with Posts)