Well now that I have started the ball rolling for the new So Cal chapter, I thought I should probably send in some pics of my rides. Both cars have kind of interesting stories behind them.

The first is a 1961 Mercury Comet with a 170 Inline Six. The car has 86,000 original miles on it.I had been searching the papers for a couple of weeks for a good everyday driver that would have some style to it when I ran across the Comet for only $850 o.b.o. I called up right away and was told that two people were already ahead of me to see the car. The lady I spoke to (a nice elderly lady who was the daughter of the original owner of the car) told me she would take my number and call me if she did not like either of the buyers. It seemed like a strange statement, but I gave her my number and continued my search. To my great surprise the next morning the lady called me back. So my wife and I drove out there to see it. The car was beautiful and ran fine except for a leaky fuel pump. She told me that both people ahead of me had made her offers on the car and she had turned them down. She did not want to sell the car to anyone who did not really want it. After all, this was her dad's car he bought brand new in 1960. We were prepared to give her the full $850 right then but she said she would not accept that much. She asked me to find out how much a tow truck and fuel pump would cost. I told her it would come to about $200.00 total, so she deducted that from the price! She even drove to the local Auto Club with us to make sure I would not have any trouble registering it. I had the car towed to my home, I put a new fuel pump in, and now I drive it full time.

The second car I own is a 1948 Packard Deluxe 8 with a 288 Straight 8. This car has a pretty interesting history as well. Browsing around on a barter site one day and saw something with the simple title of "Classic Auto." I checked it out and it was a 1948 Packard. The guy wanted $4500.00 in barter dollars. It turns out that this guy has a car collection of  40-50 cars. He bought this Packard from the original owner back in '75. He drove it for a bit and then parked it in his storage building in WA State where it sat since `77. About six months ago he was selling off a few cars and this was one of them. I contacted him and we struck a deal. Three days later the car was here. What a beauty she is too! Luckily the guy had drained the whole car before storage. I filled up all the fluids, put a charge on the big six volt battery, and the thing fired right up!! All I have to do is some basic tune up stuff (plugs, rebuild carb, etc.) bleed the brakes, and fix the stuck shifter and the car will be road worthy!