At the time of this writing, we’ve just celebrated another holiday season. It’s hard to believe it was my 51st and, fortunately, I’ve yet to be visited by the Ghost of Christmas Past. That’s not to say I haven’t racked up my fair share of slightly regrettable, misguided shenanigans (such as the parking brake speed test in a rented minivan while navigating a New Hampshire mountain road after a hike nearly 30 years ago). Or that I haven’t been visited by the Ghost of Project Past. It’s happened plenty, and not just during the panic-stricken gift shopping weeks that follow Thanksgiving.
Frequent visits from the Ghost of Project Past started as soon as I began attending the Spring Carlisle Swap Meet in 1996, followed a year later by my annual trek to the AACA’s Eastern Fall Meet held in Hershey. Back then, my restoration ambition was monumentally larger than my budget, and to an extent, still is today. The miles of Pennsylvania swap meet and car corral offerings was akin to feeding an industrial sized bottle of lighter fluid to an already raging fire. Suffice it to say, that’s a lot of project-car-that-got-away memories, many of which were captured by a succession of cameras for posterity.
If you’re anything like me, the ones that stood out the most haunt me beyond the obvious “what-could-have-been;” the “what became of them” echoes through my dream garage. Full Classics and family cruisers, and even trucks, share that space, as demonstrated by my Top Four offered here:
1929 Blackhawk Model L6 Weymann Chantilly
Buick, Cadillac, Oakland, and Oldsmobile weren’t the only companies that offered companion makes. Stutz unveiled its budget-friendly Blackhawk for 1929, though it was also less powerful and luxurious than its parent make. It also had no lineage to the earlier Stutz Black Hawk, which likely led to nomenclature confusion among Stutz clientele. In just two years of production, it’s been reported that only 1,590 were built in total. This example was spotted at the 2007 Hershey meet on vendor setup day, when it was thought to be the only Weymann Chantilly extant. Restoring uber-rare interwar cars can be daunting; however, this Blackhawk looked nearly, if not entirely, complete.
1946 Buick Roadmaster
When I crossed paths with this 1946 Buick Roadmaster for sale in Hershey’s 2003 Blue Field, a ’52 Roadmaster Riviera sedan already occupied a garage bay at my abode, so why not add a convertible? The Eighties-era Connecticut license plate hinted at its last road-going excursion, and clearly the Buick had some paint and trim concerns, but familiarity with the brand and its general completeness beckoned me. Unfortunately, I didn’t have the $16,000 it took to add this to my collection.
Circa 1956 Divco
Full disclosure: There was a small group of us that would descend upon the vast fields of Hershey cultivating the idea of restoring a Fifties Divco delivery truck in Dewars livery, replete with racks of 12-year-old spirits. Lo and behold, Hershey’s White Field offered a tantalizing reality in 2005, just before the rains arrived and converted the last remnants of grassy field into mud. In hindsight, and regardless of the truck’s condition, the $500 asking price was a bargain.
1960 Chevrolet Brookwood
Flash-forward to 2009 Spring Carlisle when my eyes found this Brookwood station wagon up on top of the fairground’s hill. It had somehow escaped the championship dreams of a nameless demolition derby combatant, to say nothing of the fact that the Chevy’s trim had not been scavenged. Yes, it had rot, and yes, it needed a ton of work, but it was hard to miss the sign that simply said, “make offer.”
I often speculate, dare I say believe, that a Hemmings reader purchased one I had ogled and has since restored it, if not returned the project to mechanical, roadworthy soundness. If so, drop me a line. I’ll be anxious to hear whether one or more of these ghosts’ rambles on America’s roads once again.
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