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Yes, I recognize the combination of yellow primer covered by thinning gray primer.
That was a new piece of sheetmetal. As were the rear quarters. Poor car got the tail smashed in while I was sitting at a stop light. The insurance company totalled it, and I should have let it go to a junkyard way back when. But no, I kept the car, and took it to a body shop, and spent goot money to have them pull the frame, and put on new quarters, tail section, and a j/y trunk.
And when I went to look at the results, I realized what a waste of money it had been. It just didn't look right. The rear fender lips were uneven. The bumper mounts were off center behind the sheetmetal openings. The tail lights were slanted. The only original remaining sheetmetal (sides of trunk openings) were layered thick with bondo, and one side was even lacking the lip at the top where the chrome trim sat. Viewed from afar, it just looked 'off'.
Then and only then did I realize that most modern body shops simply didn't have the skill to work on something like an 1800, and that the value of an 1800 wasn't enough to justify taking it to one of the few shops that could fix it right. So I didn't bother painting it. Which was slightly serendipitous, because after a few years casual use the delayed effects of the salt they use here in MO in the winter struck with a vengance. And seemingly overnight the sills and front fenders (inner and outer) all perforated.
All said, about a 10 year transition from near perfect 75,000 mile garage queen from CT when I bought it in 1988 ($5500) to rusted, beat up parts car. I kept it around for a while, thinking I'd use the drive train in something interesting (like a Duett). But it just depressed me to see the sad thing sitting there slowly rusting away in the driveway.
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'63 PV544 rat rod, '93 Classic #1141 245 +t
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