The End of the Road...?
The End of the Road...?
The End of the Road...?
Probably not.
Since December of last year, I’ve chronicled the resurrection of this car from the moment it left it’s previous owner until today. If you’ve followed the blog you’ve seen a portion of the time, effort, sweat and materials that go into a “restoration”. There’s certainly more that could be done, but the tipping point of cost versus value starts to move into areas that don’t make good fiscal sense.
At this point the car is more or less complete. I’ll continue to update the blog as I perform more work on it, but at this point the frequency of that will decrease significantly. It’s now what I would consider a very high level driver quality car that is reliable, functional, and can be used as much or as little as one might choose to. The cosmetics are great, everything works as intended, the chassis and suspension have been returned to more or less new condition and the interior is close to being as perfect as new. It’s a real treat to drive and always turns heads wherever it goes.
I take great pride in returning this car to it’s former beauty. If you’re a car person and you’ve never undertaken a project like this before, it’s difficult to describe the feeling you have when it’s complete. To the average person it’s a stunning example of a vintage car that is rarely seen on the road today. There’s nothing to describe the experience of a, “That’s a cool car!” or a thumbs up from a fellow driver on the street or when stopped at a stop light. It certainly makes the time and effort seem justified when it happens.
Is there a negative side to this? Certainly. For those of us who go to these lengths, our critical eye will never let us escape the “defects” we see when we look at the car. While the driver in an adjacent car, or a pedestrian on the sidewalk sees the car and is suitably impressed, when we look at it we’re deconstructing it or zeroing in on things that can still be done.
Is it an obsession? Maybe. It’s more like working towards a goal that we can never attain. No matter how much we can do, there’s always another item or task that can be done to improve things (in our minds.) It’s never good enough. The key is knowing when to stop, which is a point that is quite fluid depending on who you are and the expectations you have for the final product.
The Heckflosse/Finnies are great cars. Their styling spans the mid century and New Frontier. There’s a bit of Ponton in them as there is domestic late 50’s/early 60’s tail fins. It’s an iconic design that says modern and classic sophistication in the same sentence. As fewer and fewer are on the road today, I delight in assuring that at least one of them will carry on.
Sunday, July 28, 2019