Before showing you Garetts Olds just for fun heres a little history on my two sons and what it's like to be car guys kid, hope you can relate, let us know in our guest book, tell us your foundest car memory or dream when you were growing up.
Well you grow up listening to swear words about rusty bolts and scrapped knuckles alot - you get hauled to car shows, cruises, parades, junk yards, part stores etc. Sometimes you even get on TV leading the parade.
A lot of your friends are car guys kids, You build model cars and get a really big thrill when your 1/24 scale car wins a bigger trophy than your dads car does.

You might as get you a little older see cars you like come and go

but then one day you get first car and the world changes, its almost never new may not even start and you may have do some work on it but dad tells you we can fix her up real nice.

You got to go to your high school prom in something like this with one of the princessess or your friends brother the mechanics mean machine .

Here is my youngest sons college graduation present and the story of its resurection from his going down a 40 kph highway ramp at 80 with his foot over the brake. My oldest owns the 75 Buick Riviera an hasn't started working on it just yet.

About a month or so before graduation our youngest informed us he had saved a few hundred dollars, everything was paid up and he wanted to buy a car, after two years away at college he was tired of walking. We had to talk him out it fast.
- you see since we had helped the oldest buy his Riv the the fall before.

we were planning surprise him with his 1989 Olds Royal Brougham Fe3 which was already in the garage with ballons and a banner on it.
The warning dont buy a car without your dad checking it first worked. and a few weeks later when finished classes and came home
he got his grad reward.
He then wanted to go back to show his college friends, mom wasn't to sure about that idea he had hardly even driven on the highway and it was a long way from home. Dad understood showing off your new car - so off he went.
Well sunday morning went he was to back home the weather was bad mom phoned and said stay put. 20 yr olds are invincible and just dont listen sometimes and a couple of hours later we got the phone call, " my car went of the road and is stuck in the trees -- I'm ok just cant get it out"
report was he just broke the signal light and dented the fender a bit.

heres what it really looked like, and this after pulling the fender out so the door would open.

so to work on it we go first step get her apart check the alignment, no use trying fix something thats sub structure is bent, he gets lucky everything measures up under the sheet metal, so cleanup fix rockers and paint under fenders
might as well cleanup and detail under hood while its apart

next step is to find parts, he gets lucky again a week later I find a donor, shown here with the wrecked parts. Its an exact colour match has all the parts he needs in good shape the back end and rear sub frame are rotted bad, he drives it home for $250 -

The donor is such a good match the keys from them fit each other. Lots of extra parts we make use of the front clip the drivers side doors and one passenger door just because its better than his original.


some fresh silver paint and rust repair along the bottom and she is ready to go back together.

a few days later heres how she looks


straighter than before, nice under the hood, and a couple of small custom touches.

interior all done

All thats left is a few small things and figuring out what to do with the nice interior still in the parts donor.

The olds was a really nice when we got her - a great first car - just few dents and some paint work, and a bit of mechanicals needed - Garrett ran it of the road learned about hydroplaining - we rebuilt it and he learned a lot more.
She handled fantastically - The Fe3 package makes a hugh difference in these cars - we have a regular 1987 delta 88, Garrett doesn't like driving it because it not like his.

Jan 2007 update - end of Fe3
This is how his came home tonight, hopefully he learns to slow down in bad weather after doing this to his first car.
I'm glad he didn't get hurt and that mine is not like his now - I need something to sacrifice to the salt gods
to see
The winter beater that used the extra parts and now inherites the remains of Garretts first car and a bunch of cars we used to own goto my 1979 Toyota page

Remember what happened to your first car - drop a message in my guest book and share the story - Garrett won't forget what happened to his ( I have these pictures).
As we looked for a replacement the words "it not like mine was" followed by "If you liked it so much you should have learned to slow down after smashing it up the first time" were uttered more than once.

She bent a bit to much to think about fixing even though my winter beatter has most of the required parts - the structure has been comprised, so all the new and good parts will be saved for the beatter 87 Olds.

We spent the past week looking at a bunch of cars - finally found something he liked - it doesn't drive as nice, has a lot less power(a good thing), but it has almost a many electronic toys as the Olds - is in great shape - was dirt cheap - biggest problem is the speedometer doesn't work - sensor is on the way - still needs some touchup cleanup waiting for nicer weather click the link for some pictures of her.

Garretts second car - 1990 Chrysler Imperial
PS
We did find the sister car to my 87 olds in about the same condition with just few more miles on it the guy was excited to see another just like the one he was selling (for three times what I paid for mine), he thought it was totally loaded until Garrett told him about the stuff that was on his.

My Olds is not special enough for Garrett, his has good taste in cars - so we now have a Chrysler amoungst the buicks for the first time in many years - Well at least its not a Neon, in fact I kinda like it, not as much as my Buicks, or his Fe3 and don't tell Garrett I think I prefer it over my Olds and Yukon too.

Interested in 1/24 scale cars - check some of mine
You can also check out My Garage
to see my real cars or myMy MSN scale car and buildings group for more 1/24 and HO models