This thread will be an on - going discussion about my 1953 Pontiac Hearse.
I was 12 years old when I realized the beauty that was sitting rotting away in Grampa's scrap yard. I proceeded to tell him how much I liked the big old car and asked if I could buy it when I got older, if I got enough money that is...
Well, Grampa passed away when I was 16, and I was fortunate enough to spend his last year running his store while he watched over CCTV from his bed. In his dying days he told my father that he was willing the Hearse to him, but that he intended for it to be passed to me.
I am not sure how long the beast lie un - fettered, but in the fall of 2000, my father fired it up and drove it 2 km down the road to his own scrap yard. He informed me that it definitely needed new brakes, LoL...
After moving it around a few times (a dying scrap yard has infrequent visits by a crushing truck) he finally moved the 56 Chevy out of the shop and brought the hearse in for safer storage, until one day when he needed to make room for a container load of terracotta figures from Indonesia. The Hearse was then moved from its nice dry pad to hiding in the trees, ensuring the crushers wouldn't eat it up. Two weeks later the shop burned down, but the hearse lives on!!!
In 2014 my father decided he was going to crush everything on the lot and sell the property, and so I had the mission of finding a way to get my cars out of there before the crusher got them. First priority for me was the Hearse, and sadly my 1982 Camaro Z-28 was left there with a perfectly good 350 engine, likely to be crushed...
It was 1 week before Halloween, and I love Halloween, so the hearse was a welcome addition to the spooky set - up I add to each year! Sitting in my driveway with fog machines underneath and strobe lights inside, the car drew more attention from the adults taking the kids around than they were paying to their own kids, LoL.
Now it is on the brink of being spring 2015, the weather has been favourable in Calgary, compared to the rest of North America it seems, for most of the winter, and I am beginning the task of bringing the beast to life.
I was 12 years old when I realized the beauty that was sitting rotting away in Grampa's scrap yard. I proceeded to tell him how much I liked the big old car and asked if I could buy it when I got older, if I got enough money that is...
Well, Grampa passed away when I was 16, and I was fortunate enough to spend his last year running his store while he watched over CCTV from his bed. In his dying days he told my father that he was willing the Hearse to him, but that he intended for it to be passed to me.
I am not sure how long the beast lie un - fettered, but in the fall of 2000, my father fired it up and drove it 2 km down the road to his own scrap yard. He informed me that it definitely needed new brakes, LoL...
After moving it around a few times (a dying scrap yard has infrequent visits by a crushing truck) he finally moved the 56 Chevy out of the shop and brought the hearse in for safer storage, until one day when he needed to make room for a container load of terracotta figures from Indonesia. The Hearse was then moved from its nice dry pad to hiding in the trees, ensuring the crushers wouldn't eat it up. Two weeks later the shop burned down, but the hearse lives on!!!
In 2014 my father decided he was going to crush everything on the lot and sell the property, and so I had the mission of finding a way to get my cars out of there before the crusher got them. First priority for me was the Hearse, and sadly my 1982 Camaro Z-28 was left there with a perfectly good 350 engine, likely to be crushed...
It was 1 week before Halloween, and I love Halloween, so the hearse was a welcome addition to the spooky set - up I add to each year! Sitting in my driveway with fog machines underneath and strobe lights inside, the car drew more attention from the adults taking the kids around than they were paying to their own kids, LoL.
Now it is on the brink of being spring 2015, the weather has been favourable in Calgary, compared to the rest of North America it seems, for most of the winter, and I am beginning the task of bringing the beast to life.