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Wow! There seems to be a lot of this
about. I found myself having a serious conversation with
fellow museum members about getting my Imperial's 392 rebuilt and then
selling it, which would mean dumping the car. It is logical and sensible
and I'd hate myself in the morning.
On another car list I became involved with, they
are experiencing quite a crisis. Many folks who bought these cars are
aging out one way or another and there families either don't want the burden of
these cars or look at them as potential cash cows, or both. So at the same
time there are far fewer buyers for Studebakers, there are quite a few high
quality, well tended to, vehicles on the market, so the prices are
plummeting. So the logic of doing ground up restorations on most cars is
becoming less and less wise. The final result will result in, to use a
financial phrase, a market correction. Ultimately some of these quite good
cars are not going to be saved. And most car museums are already full
up. I went to the Central Texas Museum of Automotive History, about 100
miles from San Antonio, and there none of the post 1960s war cars are
anywhere near as interesting as the older cars in the vast
collection. (And many of the cars are on permanent loan from owners who
may never see them from one end of the year to another.)
I feel your pain, Steve. My car looks almost
as bad as the poor old Plymouth they dragged up recently. From almost
every perspective resuscitating it makes no sense at all. Except . .
. oh the big exception . . . the car drives so well and is so much fun when it's
going down the road. I don't know how many opportunities you have had to
drive yours in all the time you've had it. I don't think I've got what it
takes to abandon mine, yet. But the priorities in our lives do
change. As Joni Mitchell said, "Everything comes and goes, just like
lovers and styles of clothes."
Good luck with your tough decision. I hope
everything works out well for you.
Hugh
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