1963 Olds F-85 Wagon - Decay and Resurrection

Due to changes in my employment situation, I will no longer have a lease vehicle available through the company I work for.  So, we are having to press some of our old cars into service as backup transportation, for use whenever one of our daily drivers becomes disabled or needs to be in the shop for other reasons.

This 1963 Olds F-85 wagon was on its way to greater splendor as a full-on kustom, when my son's 1963 Mercury Meteor project sidetracked us, and we parked this car.  It has decayed considerably!  So sad.  But we will bring it back to life, better than ever.

This is the car we drove back from Georgia in February of 1994, following our pilgrimage to Flannery O'Connor's hometown.  This car is variously nicknamed "Wise Blood", after Flannery's novel, or "Lucynell", after a character in one of her short stories. Eliot was less than two years old when he rode from Atlanta to Detroit with me in this car. He is now 17.

Here is how she sounded yesterday, when we re-wired her new electric fuel pump.  The "enhanced" exhaust note is due to the passenger side muffler, which is coming apart.  I like it.