You may remember the recent article Andrew posted about the ’57 restoration project. This is the same car, a lot less complete, in the middle of big changes from when I originally brought it home. As mentioned the car will have a full article when it is finished with the backstory. For now, the quick backstory is that I purchased the car as a gift for my father as a way to bond with him as we both get a little older and as a thank you for everything he has done for me. This article is less about the car and more about the time I have spent with him as we bring it back to glory. Often times we are so focused on the end results we forget to capture and tell the story of how the finished product came to be. As the world seemed to stop, it felt like a good time to spend more time with my dad on the project and make some progress.
Disclaimer, as you see some of these photos you will very much notice that they would most likely be frowned upon by any OSHA representative. That is just who my father is. The grizzled old man that does things the old school way. The man a little too set in his ways to try and argue with him now. Believe me, I have tried to reason with this man on numerous occasions, it is usually met with, “Ah” followed with a few expletives and a short but reassuring reason about why I am wrong. That is part of the reason I love my father, he is true to what he knows.
My father has always been the, “community dad,” in my neighborhood. He was and still is always willing to help, listen and teach my friends any time they come by. His style may be unorthodox but it always seems to work. I can’t remember a time in my childhood when I was not in the garage with my dad and two brothers watching them work. It shaped my love for cars and who I am as a person. From our dirt Modified until the ’57 this garage has housed a huge variety of projects over the years.
On this particular day that I snapped photos, we were working on removing the old door skin from the passenger door. Who doesn’t love some working action shots? My dad, that’s who. While he was skeptical of me breaking out camera, he told me if I stayed out of his way I could proceed. What my father did not realize is I was doing this for me, not him. These are the memories so many people never got to have with their dads and I am trying to capture as many as I can.
Admittedly it is going to be incredibly difficult to erase this exact type of image of my dad from my head. The king of flannel with a lit cigarette hanging out of his mouth working in his overly cluttered garage. If this man is not the embodiment of the old school dad then I would like to meet the man that is. What this picture doesn’t portray is the loud blasting of Bob Seger’s “Night Moves” over my dads 25 year old tape player. Truly an experience all on its own.
