This is the only photo of her car known to exist. Sorry about the tear and the
Scotch tape. That's me, pulling into the driveway.
I have no idea why the photo is so blurry - either it wasn't the world's best
camera or I was pulling into the driveway at the usual 60 MPH.
Grandma's car. Hey, it was a car and that's all that really counts. It was literally just driven to church on Sundays, at least until I got my hands on it. I once got it up to 90 MPH one night on a downhill stretch of the Congress Expressway in the Chicago suburbs. Ah, the Invincibility of Youth!
I even managed to break a rear leaf spring one night "power shifting" and had to scramble to fix it before Grandma got back from a trip. My first experience in the bowels of JC Whitney's (Warshawsky's) gigantic indoor junk yards in Chicago.
I was always making plans to customize it somehow. It wasn't the world's best car for the base of a custom but it was all I had. Typical "Rod & Custom" ideas of frenched headlights, bullet taillights, chopping, channeling and dechroming. Maybe even chrome the flathead six.
I actually did own it for a short period after Grandma passed away. I sold it to a young lady who thought it was pretty neat. It didn't cost her much and it was clean.
Here's a better photo of someone's 1951 project car I found on the Web (sorry, I lost track of the owner's name and couldn't find it again when I searched recently). This was a special Plymouth model was relatively attractive as far as 1950 Plymouths go. At least it was a "fastback".
And here is what a "project car" looks like before it becomes a project (1952 model).
Grandma's car even had the same aftermarket add-on turn signal seen here in the
interior. Just imagine power shifting with that ancient "three-on-a-tree" shift
lever!
