About the middle of my sophomore year of high school Hot Rod did a feature on a flamed 40 Ford Deluxe coupe and I thought it was the coolest thing ever. I wanted one bad. The following summer we took a family vacation. I had made my parents very aware of the fact that I wanted a car like that. So we're tooling along on some narrow state highway in Kentucky pulling a travel trailer behind an International Travelall. Dad and I spotted a 40 coupe but he wasn't stopping. I said let's see if its for sale! To my surprise he turned around and went back. It was a 40 standard coupe, complete, a little rough but a very good candidate for restoration or a rod build. Owner said she'd be willing to sell it. She asked $400. My Dad knew I only had about $60 to my name asked what I thought. Thats when I realized he was going to buy it for me or front me the money. I countered at $300. Seller was firm at $400. I reasoned that is was rougher than I wanted, it was a standard and I reall wanted a deluxe, we'd have to cut our vacation short to go back to IL and drop off the travel trailer and rent a car trailer, and Mom would have been really upset about cutting the vacation short. I said no, I'll get a different one later. We did find a Deluxe coupe on that trip. No eng, trans, or interior.....$1000. Also found a junk yard with lots of old stuff. They had just crushed all of their pre war stuff including a 40 coupe a few days prior. Mom asked my Dad if her uncle would have one. He had run a junk yard at one time. Dad thought about it and remembered seeing one when he had been there years before. We called Mom's uncle. Sure enough, he had a 40 Ford coupe. Had as in used to have. He had scrapped all his junk cars a few years before. That was 1975 and I still haven't gotten one! Years later I told Dad that I should have gotten the $400 car. He said, that's what he thought at the time.
In '84 I retired my daily driver '64 Marauder (the 390 was long gone before I got the car. It had a 352 in it). It had an electrical problem that I had diagnosed but not fixed and was otherwise drivable. I also had a '62 Montery 4 door. One tiny rust spot. It was a project car. I had put bigger brakes from a wagon on it. I had built an engine but hadn't installed it yet. Money got real tight so I junked both Mercs. I've always regretted doing that.
In '84 I retired my daily driver '64 Marauder (the 390 was long gone before I got the car. It had a 352 in it). It had an electrical problem that I had diagnosed but not fixed and was otherwise drivable. I also had a '62 Montery 4 door. One tiny rust spot. It was a project car. I had put bigger brakes from a wagon on it. I had built an engine but hadn't installed it yet. Money got real tight so I junked both Mercs. I've always regretted doing that.
. With money being tight, it wasnt meant to be a keeper, but sure was fun for a couple years.
