And I complain about washing my car. ... View more

I had a rebuilt 307 chevy motor laying around.  I casually mentioned to my brother in law that I needed to find an old truck to put it in.  He called about two days later and said "I'm bringing the tow truck.  Let's go pick up your old truck.  It's in a junkyard in Alma, Texas."  So far, a tow truck, an old truck, and a junkyard were all mutually exclusive. However, he is my brother in law.  He is a preacher.  So we went.   It was a SWB 61 Chevrolet Apache 10 with a 235 6 and a radio.  I swallowed hard.  It would not start.  The bed was rotted out.  The paint was my favorite Chevy blue with rust details.  The brakes didn't work.  So of course I forked over $500.  He hooked it up and towed it to his shop and told me to come over next Saturday. Next Saturday I show and start going through the truck.  It had 76,000 miles on it.  It was a farm truck and looked it.  But we started the close examination, and it actually was in great shape.  It was filthy, but no dents.  The interior had not been torn up.  The bright work looked good.  More work than I wanted....but this is my brother in law.  By the end of the day that six was purring.  A piece of bailing wire stuck in the axle had beat the rear brake hose over the axle.  I spent three or four dollars on that replacement, and all of a sudden I have a running and driving truck.    We went to work.  Got the 307 in.  Replaced the clutch while the transmission was out.  And now have a running and driving truck with no mufflers.   Fast forward to today, and that truck is still going strong.  Well, Hagerty is putting it back together for me.  The brake pedal went to the floor.  The body is stock, but it has a 350 TPI and power everything.  I have way too much money tied up in it but always walk away with a trophy when I show it.   My brother in law is now gone.  But every time I climb in that truck I have those memories.    And, as you can imagine with any good brother in law, there are even more stories.  Like the time I had that truck painted and it was perfect.  I put a new oak bed in it.  I was telling my brother in law that now I couldn't use it for a truck anymore.  It looked too good.  He called me up a couple of weeks after that and asked if he could borrow my truck.  His was down and he needed to go pick up a couple of boxes.  I gave him the keys.  It came back the next day and the inside of the bed was all scratched and dirty.  He was grinning and said he knew he had to help me get over the nice part.  I was pissed and he was right.   The $500 turned out to be a great deal for the truck.  The 10's of thousands since then not so much.  But it gets driven.  It draws attention.  And it wins trophies.  Although I can no longer use it as a truck, I solved that with a new F150.  And I am still with my first wife. ... View more

I bought a 90 SHO.  What a car.  326,000 miles.  There were two tuners that knew what they were doing.  I was going to make this thing fast.   Sure enough, I made it fast.  HP up by 50%.  What I went through to get there was crazy.  $$$$$'s, plus some.  Inconvenience, plus some.  Out of state travel to get stuff done, plus some.  I took it out to Texas Motor Speedway with 300,000 miles on it.  Ran it 2 hours in 30 minute sessions between 4,000 and 8,000 rpm.  Had to put 110 octane in it to cool it down.  Destroyed my upgraded brakes.  Had a blast but, looking back, what it took to get there was not worth it.    I sold it to the guy that did a bunch of the heavy duty engine modifications. I asked him why he bought it.  Turns out that I was the only one that had done ALL the available modifications, both west coast and Atlanta.  He took it racing and loved beating unsuspecting BMW's.  After a year of flogging he busted the transmission, which was the big weak point in the whole set up with no options to replace.   So what did I do?  I bought a 2005 CTS V.  Then a 2010 CTS V.  Put 200,000 miles on each.  Then I bought a 2018 Z07.  The difference between these and the SHO?  They are bone stock.  They all go real fast out of the box.  AND, I made zero modifications, nor will I make any modifications to any late model car that I drive, either down here or in Heaven.  It is as is, from the factory.   Now my two old cars?  Well, that's a different story. ... View more