Concretes Hugh,
I only wish that could happen to me. I have the 60 I just picked up finding
myself scratching my head wondering how am I going to do it. I am very happy
for you. Good luck..
Tim
-----Original Message-----
From: mailing-list-owner@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:mailing-list-owner@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]On Behalf Of Hugh & Therese
Sent: Tuesday, March 09, 2004 8:57 PM
To: Imperial Mailing List
Subject: IML: It's gonna happen
Just as the Undertones predicted, "It's Gonna Happen." I am so excited, and
yet I realize that my news may not delight everyone on the list, but here
goes:
I have managed to find a company that will rebuild, for free, "my" 58's
392. It came about in such an unexpected way, I am still totally surprised.
I was talking to the owner of a local trucking company that has always been
very generous to the museum, SMT Truck Lines, San Antonio's last independent
trucking firm. He is funding a new spiffy gate for the museum, and I was
letting him know I now had the engineer's drawings for submission to the
city for final approval. Our conversations always free range and there was
something I needed to get his blessing to do. There is a big car club
charity event every year on behalf of the many small towns to the south of
San Antonio and, as the Imperial is not running and one can hardly use a
Lincoln, even a 63 convertible, it's either MOPAR or no car, I had the idea
to take our big 1958 American LaFrance fire truck. I needed to make sure
SMT is OK with this as they refurbished it some years ago at enormous
expense, I might add. Also, if the thing breaks down, I will need their
oversize wrecker to get it back to the city. He agreed and thought it was a
great idea, but he wondered why I was taking the Imperial as usual. He had
heard I had spent an inordinate amount of time getting it running again
after a head got cracked, and then getting the brakes up to par as well. I
told him the car was smoking like crazy and consuming oil almost as fast as
gas but that due to a variety of circumstances, including poverty, I could
not say if I would be able to get it fixed within the next two years.
What happened next is the surprise part. He said that as manager of the
museum I needed to have a good car to run around in and that as they had
both the mechanics and the tools to do the job he would like to help me out,
providing that it was OK with me. I have been doing really well at getting
things done at the museum and am involved in two other major projects as
well as the gate so I told him that I'd be absolutely delighted if he would
get the Imperial fixed up.
He asked if I would be able to tell them where to get any parts they might
need and I said that I was sure I knew where to get them. I said I would
order them but he won't allow me to pay for them and that they would order
anything they needed when the time comes. Fair enough.
Even though I have two jobs, I am earning around half what I was at the end
of 2002. It took some time to come up with a situation that would allow me
work part time at the museum, and I must say I am enjoying the challenge. I
was hoping to find a company that might work on the Imperial. I have found
an independent automobile A/C operation that is considering getting the 58's
front and rear A/C going again so they can use the car in their adverts,
along the line of if we can get the A/C to work on this thing, we can
certainly fix yours.
I will be driving the car to the trucking company on Friday. I don't know
when I will be getting it back but it will be so cool to be able to drive it
again.
Hugh
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