Cars

List of my cars

Simple enough. From the first to the current. A somewhat interesting and bittersweet study in automobile ownership.

1970. 1965 Ford Mustang. Nickname: The Crystal Ship. Grandma gave it to me for High School Graduation. Silver with red interior. 200CU in-line 6. I was way to young to appreciate this classic car and wonderful gift. I trashed it and eventually sold it for $100 to Steve Campbell. Dude, you owe me.

1973. 1950 Chev 3/4 pickem up. Fire engine red with driver side spot lamp. Black tuck and roll interior. Seriously on last leg and burnt a quart of oil per month. Nickname: Henry. Spun a bearing in Port Chicago, CA on way to Spokane. Roadside sale for $200. More on this down the line.

1974. 1949 Chev 1/2 pickem up. With a 65 Chev 289. Rebuilt by Robert Shaw of Brewster, WA. I worked the apple harvest that summer and fall to buy this baby ($500), and we painted the NRPS logo on one side of the camper and the Dead's skull & roses on the other. Wish I had a picture. Drove it to LA after the apples came off. When back in LA I got a notice from the Berkely, CA police that they had impounded Henry and would I please come and pick his red ass up. So me and The Hulk rented an LTD and drove up to spring him. Turned out the Navy E1 that I sold him to never re-registered so he was still in my name. What a deal.

1975. 1975 Chev. 3/4 Silverado 454 with a 12' self contained cabover. Red. Big, gas hog (8). We drove it from LA back to Brewster and tried to life the life of a young married couple. Didn't work out that way.

1977. Traded in the Silverado for a 1971 Chevy 1/2 and a '75 Fiat 128 for Cindy. She hated it, and was starting to feel likewise about me.

1980. Back in Seattle after divorce and Mt. St. Helens. 1973 Chevy Impala wagon. POS I bought for $200.

1981: Ford Courier. Light utility vehicle. Perfect for the local handy man, pictured here building a deck for the Scheniders.

1983: Another Courier, green this time.

1984: Dodge Van. Bartered for roof job. Junk.

1988-89, An Audi Quattro and a Triumph TR-7, both from Baldwin Motors of Preview Publishing fame. The former was totaled on Saturday afternoon by non-attentive senior citizens and the later overheated on me one too many times.

1990: Chevy Blazer. Brand friggin new, off the lot. Had a decent corporate job and leveraged that to get the loan. Beautiful 6 cyl. Black. We had lots of fun in the Blackbird.

1993: Chevy Blazer. Traded in the Blackbird for the Bluebird. Mistake. Lost equity and eventually down-traded for a '89 Toyota SR5.

1995: Sold the SR5 to Mindy and returned to Diego Garcia for another stint for the DoD.

1996: Back home with a used Chev S10, Grey Folded. Bought somebody else's mechanical headaches for $1,000. More junk.

1999. Volkswagen Vanagan. Brown and Tan. Billy called it the Talivan. I like it until somebody smashed the window. Donated it and had it towed.

2002: Back from DG again and this time bought a '91 Ford Exploder from Jeff and Jill for $2,250. Have had it ever since and it's going into the shop next week (while I am in Australia) for new tires and shocks.

I shudda kept Grandma's Mustang.