You guys will hate me for this, but back about 1983 or so I picked one of these up off of the back row of the Ford dealer I was working at for $250.

Dealer took it on trade and was going to send it to auction but employees always got first dibs on auction bound cars. I was one of the 'favored' parts guys back then so the price was good.

I drove it home on Friday night and (here's the part you will hate) by Sunday it was a shell. By the following Wednesday the remains were gone.

The running gear (351C, top loader 4-gear, 3.50 Trac-Loc) and most of the electrical found its way into my '51 Ford F1 pickup a few weeks later.

Now, 25 years later, I will admit that I probably shouldn't have done that to that ol' Torino. But having had a '70 429 SCJ car a few years earlier and also having a '70 GT convert at the time I thought those fat bodied Torino's were pretty worthless. I do know better now of course.

Oh, but that '51 F1 was transformed into a flat black boulevard bomber with the addition of the new running gear. I made believers out of small block and big block GM cars every weekend. That was one buttugly truck, but that SOB would scream.

Moral of the story: SAVE THAT CAR! Or, as my Pappy used to tell me, DO AS I SAY, NOT AS I DO.

______________________________________
Murff

"Deliverance" was NOT a documentary!