Well, not exactly. But I still haven't really come to terms with being able to own such a car. I've always had a thing for them, but always passed it off as more of a "when I hit the lotto" pipe dream. So anyway, I saw this car listed in an estate auction about two hours from me and never really thought anything of it until a good friend of mine sent the link to me again a few days before the sale. That got me thinking... If I happen to be free that day, maybe I'll go check it out. So the day of the sale comes, and I reluctantly head out to see the car knowing full well it is a car well out of my price range. I get there about 20 minutes before the car is slated to cross the auction block and check it out.
Over all the car is great, its about 85% restored and seems to be a fairly good job at that. One look at the engine for me screams that it would run with little to no effort, oil and anti freeze where they're supposed to me, it all looks good. But I'm still thinking I'm wasting my time here. The last thing someone my age should be thinking of buying is an old car of this caliber, I mean, for what these things go for I'd be much better off going to college. but I stay to watch what happens.
It gets to be time to sell the cars from the estate and a thunderbird goes first, the car goes for alot more than I thought it was worth, especially for the condition. So as I am about to leave bidding starts on the 36, I almost can't believe what is happening, there is little to no interest in this thing, and the auctioneer explains it will be selling without a reserve. (Luckily I had been saving to put a down payment on a new daily driver car and I had some cash with me. Not alot be any means but enough for me to quickly calculate the buyers premium and tax in my head.) So I bid, no more interest from the crowd, and its sold. Unbelievable.
So I bought the car, giving it only a quick once over, and not taking any inventory of any of the parts that are included with the sale. I pay, and arrange to pick it up the following day (Halloween).
As we are loading it I realize that the entire interior as well as a complete top are included in the boxes and boxes of parts. Talk about a home run... We drag it home and immediately start tinkering with it to see if we can get it running. After a new fuel pump and some streamlining of the wiring harness we get it to run. It fires right up but has a froze up waterpump and a rather prominent rod knock in the rear of the engine. Oh well. I haven't taken it apart yet because I can't drop the pan with the newer engine in the car. It hits the front crossmember before it slides back so I'll just cover all the bases and pull it out to go through it when I get a little time. I also have a project that is on the homestretch, so I'm gonna wrap that up before digging into this thing full force. Plus, who wouldn't like to look at a 36 cabriolet sitting in their garage while wrenching at night??
Some of the details about the car. It was bought out of New York sometime in the 1970s by the gentleman who's estate I purchased it from. The frame was in very poor condition and it was swapped out with another. The original engine was junk so a 1946 59ab and 39 trans were put in in place of the stock units. While he was doing modest updates to the driveline he converted the car to 42-48 hydraulic brakes. I am fine with these upgrades as I plan to do as much driving as possible with it so it saves me a little work. I will be going through the entire driveline this winter to fix all issues like brakelines, wiring, kingpins, spring shackles, and shocks. I'm hoping to have it on the road by next summer. Sorry about the lack of photos, I really haven't had an opportunity to shoot any good ones of it since I got it. I hope to post some updates of my progress on here if anyone is interested in following along.