Cars, and Furthermore \nby Barry Bauer
\nThe history of a person\u2019s cars probably says a lot about the person. In my case it\u2019s about my first car, my first new car, and a clunker in between.
\nI got my driver\u2019s license at the age of sixteen but because of my living situation I never drove again until I was eighteen. That\u2019s when I bought my first car with my oldest brother\u2019s help, a 1955 Ford Tudor Sedan with a very clean interior but some rust on the outside.
\nI worked half the summer of 1962 doing body work with fabric patches to cover the holes and a gallon can of Black Magic to fill in the low spots. All I had in the way of equipment was an electric drill, a disk sander attachment, plus lots of sanding paper with homemade sanding blocks.
\nBecause there was a 1956 Ford dragging main every weekend that was painted \u201cLincoln Green\u201d I decided to go with that color. I think the car was owned by Gary Ernst. Bob\u2019s Auto Body, on N. Lansing St. at that time, told me they\u2019d paint it for twenty bucks but I had to wet sand it, mask it off, and wipe it down with paint reducer. That much I could do so I bought a gallon of Lincoln Green from Paul Automotive and Bob\u2019s painted it.
\nI finished the job by adding white wall spats (fake white walls) and cone hubcaps and I enjoyed the rest of the summer dragging main on the weekends. Everybody that was anybody was downtown then.
\nI eventually sold it to a friend because I needed the money.
\nMy next car was a 1957 Chevy convertible. What a piece of crap that was. The roof leaked and I was told later it didn\u2019t have the original engine in it. 57s came with a 283 cubic inch engine and I was stuck with an older 265 which eventually blew. With the help of a neighbor I put a new top on it which stopped the leaks but the car still smelled like a wet sock going down the road.
\nI worked at Cain Buick & Pontiac at the time and when the owner, Norm Cain, found out I\u2019d bought a car from another dealer he raised holy hell and demanded I get rid of it. Looking back at it I know I was wrong but being nineteen at the time I didn\u2019t think about stuff like that. I quit my job there and went back to work at the St. Johns Egg Station.
\nIn 1963 I started working at Federal-Mogul and I told my brother I wanted a new car. I had in mind a 1964 Pontiac Catalina. He wanted me to hold off until I had more time in at the shop. I told him that was fine but I was going to get a 1965 Pontiac Grand Prix if I waited.
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\nKnowing how great the Pontiac design engineers were at that time I ordered a 1965 Pontiac Grand Prix sight unseen. No photos, no nothing. When it finally came in I wasn\u2019t disappointed. Talk about having faith in something. I could have been stuck with one of those bombs they came out with a couple of years later. I had picked the right time to make my purchase.
\nA couple of years later I traded it in for a 1967 Buick Riviera but that\u2019s another story. Even today I still have dreams of that Grand Prix and I dream that I stored it out in my father-in-law\u2019s barn and could go out there anytime and drive it into town to drag main once again.<\/p>\n