I flipped vehicles for years, possibly thousands of them.
Each one was like a new adventure with it's own unique challenges.
On the other hand, I still have a few rides I kept, one, my 1966 Chevy Caprice just crossed the 30 year marker of ownership a couple of years ago.
In 1965, I took a shine to the newly released '65 Chevy Impalas.
Later on in life gaining one became elusive to me as I was more interested in the Camaro and Firebirds from the musclecar era and gravitated towards those bodies because of their lighter weights.
One fall while looking for a winter rat (a winter rat is a beater car or truck that was bought just to preserve your pretty rides from the ravages of my most despised season of winter
) my Caprice was located at a price I was willing to part with.
The original intention was to use it for that winter, then if it survived it rather unscathed, throw a quickie paintjob on it and flip it in the spring.
After realizing how clean the old girl was, she got cosmetically restored and brought into the inner circle.
Then once again after I scattered the engine just driving it normally, the performance bug bit me and I started throwing money at it.
It became a big heavy slow wannabe dragster that was no longer enjoyable driving it on the street.
Then I broke a section out of the frame pretty bad so it had to be disassembled for the repair.
After beginning a total restoration, it was decided that it would best serve me as a dedicated dragster, so when she finally comes out of hibernation, she will be a much lighter version of what she was with nearly 5 times the power output of her original engine
My Caprice was the first Chevy to bear that name in 1966 instead of it being a sub-model impala tag, so it does hold that significance as well.
Anyway, back on point, change is inevitable with products that are designed to fail.
Not only cars, all manufactured items are made to last a finite life, with some fairing longer than others due to their quality.
It is called planned obsolescence for a reason and unless you are both willing and skilled in preserving them, they will eventually serve their secondary purpose of selling new units.
On this round I'm sunk nearly 8 times the original retail cost of my old Chevy in it so far and will likely end up at 10 X upon completion just to put that into perspective.
That's not counting the tens of thousands of dollars worth of tools and equipment required to pull it off either, nor the several thousand hour of work it has required so far.
And it takes a lifetime of gaining mad skill levels as well.
By the way, I will be making my NHRA Super Street classed ride semi-legally street driveable so my racecar can still serve as a finicky miserable to drive ten second streetmachine.
Funny how that works, ain't it?
