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My dad had always been a Ford guy. Born right after WWII, he grew up in a small town in Missouri and his back yard bordered the back of the Ford Dealership. He says he wandered over there almost every day and looked at all the cars. When the Thunderbird came out, it was love at first sight for him. He decided right then - that someday he would own a little two seat sports car.
Dad married my mother young, and pretty quickly my sister and I were born. The family had one boring sedan after another, and Dad still never had his two seat sports car. I remember we had a Mercury Cougar station wagon in the late 70s (yes- they made that!)
In the fall of 1982 Dad was promoted at work and got a significant raise. He decided that it was now or never for that two seat sports car. The problem was Dad did not believe in buying foreign cars, and the Thunderbird had not been a two seater for decades. He was going to buy new, and had started reading about the new Corvette. When he finally decided on Corvette, the 1983 model kept getting delayed. I remember as a high school kid we went from one Chevy dealer to another asking when they would get a 1983 model.
One crafty salesmen talked my dad into a brand new 1982 model they had in the showroom. A beautiful car with plenty of power. I remember him washing and waxing it all the time, it was his “baby” he would say.
For my junior prom I drove my date using Mom’s 4 cylinder Fairmont, it was a terrible car. Almost immediately afterward, I began begging my Dad to let me take the Corvette to my senior prom the next year. I bugged him about that for months and he would always reply “No one drives the Corvette but me.” For my senior prom I had a gorgeous girl to take, but she and I would have to take my mom’s crappy 90 hp Fairmont. I remember getting my picture taken in the front yard and Dad had this funny smile on his face, he said “Drive safely tonight.” And handed me the keys to the Corvette!
I was in heaven! I went to pick up Holly and after pictures, we took off down the highway to a well-known steakhouse in the city. A lot of our friends were there and watched us pull up. The valet parked the Vette and I was feeling pretty cool!
After dinner we came out and couldn’t find the car! Everyone was freaking out! I was crying thinking of having to call home. The cops came and did a report, and commented that the Valet’s foolishly left the keys in the ignition of the vehicles. Easiest heist for a car thief. Dad and Mom showed up and took my date home (prom was over by this point). I was literally sick in the bathroom when we got home because of how disappointed my dad was.
With no leads and no witnesses, I figured we would never see the car again. Dad never did. He replaced the Vette with a Pinto! I despise those cars to this day because of this whole ordeal.
It is now 2015 (Dad has been dead for almost a year now). My mother gets a call from the state crime bureau, talking about a recovered car. She has no idea what they are talking about. They keep saying 1982 Chevrolet and she keeps saying my Dad only owned Fords. She hangs up, thinking it is a scam. When she tells me about the call I AM FREAKING OUT! I finally get in touch with them they have the car and will release it to us! It was recovered at a junkyard. Who knew junkyards are required to do title work? We finally got the car, it is in my parents yard, trashed. But it is ours and we will rebuild it!!!!
WOW!! What a story! Keep us posted on what all you do with it! This is really neat! I am sure there will be a large group of guys on the forum here cheering you on!
What a great story, with a happy ending.
I hope you will restore it to factory 1982 specs.
That would be nice, and I'm sure your dad will smile down to you :- )
It would be great to see the vendors here step up and start sending parts to help wth the rebuild. They could get a lot of free advertising if you agreed to document all the parts used and show finished product along with this cool but sad story. Keep us in the loop.
01-01-2016, 10:47 PM
Stolen - not forgotten - recovered
Jerry