Still on the Road

It's always a bit of a surprise, but delightful, to find something old still being used long after most people would have retired it. A perfect example is this old car which I saw a couple of weeks ago in a local parking lot when I went out to buy groceries.

Based on the similarities with the first car in this recent post, I am thinking this is an early-1950s model Bel-Air, perhaps, before they added the classic "fins" to the design? Just as with that bright yellow car in the other post, though, I doubt purple roofs on gray cars were fashionable when this car was new. 😂

I remember working with a man many years ago who had a hobby of renovating cars like this. He would buy old cars that were ready to be scrapped, carefully inspect them, and do whatever was necessary to make them road-worthy again. He had a list of vendors that told vintage automobile parts — and this was in the 1980s, the days before the deregulation of the Internet for public use, so he used mail-order catalogs and telephone to find the items he needed, then sent a check by mail and waited for the items to arrive. If he was unable to find a part he needed, it was no problem as he worked as a Master Tool & Die Maker, so he could just make the part, himself! When he finished an old car and had it running, he enjoyed driving it for a few weeks and then sold it, taking the proceeds to purchase his next "project car."