This thread also brought back pleasant memories for me too........
Back in the fall of 73 I picked up a 66 Chev 4 door for $50.00 and it had a brand new $45.00 battery in it. The column shift was all gummed up and you couldn't shift it, that's why I got it so cheap. I just pulled out the column and cleaned it up, worked fine. My baby brother Steve was a Junior in high School and helped me work on car. Being the Older brother of 12 years he just about worshiped me. Well I gave him the car but our Dad wouldn't let him have one so we just kept it a my place and we worked on it together.
At the same time he worked part-time at a used car/trailer house lot. One day a 69 Chevelle 2 door hardtop got tradded in so he brings it over for me to look at. It had no exhaust, doors were sagging, bad brakes, body was pretty straight but needed paint badly, and it barely ran. It had a 350 with a 4 barrel and a STOCK 3 speed on the floor.
He wanted to buy it really bad so he came up with a little cash, his 66 Chev and I traded in my Sears riding lawn mower. We took it over to my place to work on it over the winter (I was really poor at that time and was doing bodywork, painting cars and doing engine work on the side), so it took a while to get the car done.
We got all the mechanical work done; carb kit, brakes, door hinges, dual exhaust, and then we tweeked the timing a little. He bought some nice chromies and put some nice Meats on it also. I said lets take it out for a ride..... wow it could turn them big wide tires over quite easily. I then asked him if he knew how to power shift, he says no show me. Man oh man when I threw it into second he says stop, stop your burning up my tires.
After that we started doing the body work, it was early Spring. His goal was to have it ready for Prom. It looked like we weren't going to get it done in time. That week I got it painted, stock dark green and then flat black on rocker pannels. I had to tell him that he had better ask our Dad for the use of his car for Prom (remember our Dad didn't know about this and his other car). Steve was really disappointed but knew it took time to get things done correctly.
Well I took the day of the Prom off of work and finished the car, rubbing it out and put on some pin stripping. Got done at 6:30 PM, called my parents house and asked where Steve was. They said he just showed up their with his date. I told them to hold him there as long as possible. I jumped in the car and drove over to their house (one block away) just as Steve and his date were leaving the house. I jumped out of the car and said... Here's your car brother...... His eyes were a little glossy as were mine.
He drove that car all through his college years and finally sold it. He found a Buick Skylark in the same shape that the Chevelle was and asked me if I would help him with it. I said Steve I taught you everything I know about cars and that you should do this one on your own, But that I would paint it for him though. That car was dark blue with a black vinyl top and again a black interior. He fixed the tranny, out exhaust on it, did the body work and put chromies with nice meats on it. I painted it Corvette yellow, one of if not my best paint job. You could not tell that the car wasn't orginally a yellow car.
He drove the Buick for about a year and tradded it off for....... His Old Chevelle - some how found it. But like most of us got rid of it and has all ways wished he could find it again...... He now has for a toy a 69 Chevelle convertable...... yup you guessed it.... it's dark green