One of the "neat" things about covid-19 is that car shows and museums have been limited and/or closed completely. I say neat, because you know car guys, they like to show their stuff off, so what I've been seeing is rolling car shows, sorta like a cruise but not quiet.
Couple weeks ago, at home, I had to run into town to grab a part at the store. On the way I noticed a few older cars running around and it got my attention. I asked the guy at the counter and he said there's a rolling car show going on until 9pm (it was about 7pm at the time). WEather was "decent", typical for this area hot and humid, but nice enough. I sat on the intersection in a parking lot watching the old stuff run past and sometimes stop at the light. What did I enjoy seeing? Stuff driven. Don't get me wrong, I certainly appreciate the museum pieces, but what I do like is seeing them being used. I guess I'm kinda like Leno, I drive my stuff. Some of the stuff I saw was primered, some was multi-colored from restoration using different body panels from a junkyard, some of it was race cars in "street" trim, some was really old, some was 2020 year models. The coolest stuff I saw was the primered and in-progress stuff. I spied a 73 Ford Maverick 4 door (sounded like 302) in primer and a poor job of it at that. But you know what? The guy though he had a million dollar restoration. I ran into him later at another parking lot and commented on the car, and you'd have thought the guy was gonna cry. Nobody wants a Ford Maverick (although I've had about 2 dozen of them over the years and still own ONE), it's an ugly duckling, they all got crushed for a reason (ugly). Saw a half primered 1980 Ford Fairmont 2 door box top (not Futura), that one had a 460 stuffed into it, and part of the 460 was out of the hood. That's the way I grew up doing things, so I guess I appreciate it even more than really nice stuff. Another guy works at autozone has a 77 country squire (station wagon) that still has it's original 460 in it, but he "rebuilt it", now 552 cubic inch, P51 heads, makes about 700hp. It'll surprise you, but total sleeper. You'd never think anything when you see it. Dad had an El Dorado like that with a modded 500 in it, bad part about that car was that it was WHITE and the last time we drove it through downtown, "they" wanted it, and one of them made an offer dad didn't refuse (probably drug cash), so we stopped and called my mother, bring title to caddy, pick us up. The ol boy that bought it was ecstatic. Dad just bought another car to run us brat kids around in.
I painted my Mustang and it came out a LOT nicer than I expected, but now I really don't feel like driving it much. Kinda hate to scratch it up and I know it will get some scratches, but frankly I enjoy driving the other Mustang a lot better even though it has 1/4 the power, it has no clearcoat left, has been wrecked at some point and it's noisy, sounds like absolute junk. But I enjoy it more than I do the really nice one. I get just as many compliments in the junker as I do in the nicer one. About 4 times a week someone trying to buy it from me, and one day I'll have to do like dad did and just sell it on the spot & go buy another.
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