The Sting

I'm sitting in my hotel pondering whether to order a crappy pizza or muster the energy and hunt for my food in the urban jungle of Charlotte. I get a strange email in broken English on my iPhone telling me they will gladly pay $50.00 to pick up my car. What the....(rubbing my chin). Son of a nutcracker! I see a picture what is clearly my 57 Oval on a flatbed! Fumbling for my phone, I call for my wife after mis-dialing in a panic, and ask her to go into the garage and make sure my car is in there. She seems to be taking her sweet time and I continue to press and ask her if she sees it or not. "Why?" she simply asks.

Now you have to understand that there is a dance that Whitney and I do. Having been stolen from before, I always lock the doors and keep the garage door shut. She (innocent and naive.....snicker, snicker) doesn't seem to have the same priority. I always have the same comment that if we leave the garage door open when we are not home someone will go "shopping" in our garage. Mainly for my tools!!

Coming back to the story at hand.......at this point, I'm sure that someone has gone shopping in our garage and has taken my car away and it's gone for good! Suddenly, she stops me as I begin to tear up and tells me, "Happy Anniversary :-) ".

Silence......What is she talking about? Come to find out, she arranged to have our neighbor's co-worker to come and pick it up. Steve next door helped out to get it out of the garage.  They all had been in on the Sting for weeks!  Chris will finish up some of the minor body work and then prep for paint and paint the body, doors, hood, decklid, wheels, and misc parts. I was slack jawed! After the shock faded and the reality set in, I was STOKED! In a about 45 days I'll have a beautiful painted body in my garage to set right down onto the finished chassis.

 A couple of weeks later, I head over to Chris' shop to take a look and talk about what needs to be done and what direction to take.  He had the Oval already on a welded rotisserie with the apron welded and the rear bumper mounts welded in.  It was very well done.  Not grafted on without any care or thought of potential rust that might come back and haunt you, but almost surgically implanted after the worn out part has been removed.  I was impressed.