This is fantastic news, Hugh!
I sounds like rather than free, that you are being compensated for a lot of
hard work that you have already done for the museum, which is fine too. Either
way ENJOY!
Paul
In a message dated 3/9/2004 11:57:11 PM Eastern Standard Time,
hugtrees@xxxxxxxx writes:
>
>
> 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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