Uncomfortable Celebrity Status

[vegastre]

Uncomfortable Celebrity Status

Lately, about the only place I drive my car is down to the local gas station to get gas. It's a project car (see project journal forum) and hasn't seen the open roads in a number of years. Man, it seems after I fill up it takes another twenty minutes of answering questions about the car before I can leave. People love this car and I feel a bit uncomfortable talking about it because I remember the days when I would get those looks at the gas station and i could read there lips, "I can't believe he drives that piece of shit on the road".

It's all good, because in a weird way it gives me some inspiration to carry on at this late date and makes me realize we have created a interesting little niche for ourselves because if it's happening to me in Texas it's got to be happening to you.

viewtopic.php?f=20&t=39854

[cosvega76]

I hear ya, Phil! My wife has come to know that a fuel stop may take a while. She'll can shoot back with a fact or two at an impromptu question at a stop light. Even wearing my Cosworth Vega jacket has been known to start up a conversation in unusual places.


Chuck

[dindin]

HA HA so funny, I was driving around my neighborhood and some girl yells out..NICE CAR!! then I get some kids yelling RACE CAR!! Then on the highway some guys yells out..OH MY GOD... A VEGA!!

Not to mention them dreaded gas fill ups..Just avoid all eye contact if your in a hurry..

Al

[79MonzaSpyder]

My Monza has no driveline in it. It has about a 1/4" of dust on it and its patiently waiting in the corner of my shop for me to finish the resto on my truck so I can start on her, (hopefully later this spring),(trucks in final paint). Knowing how difficult finding parts for a factory type restoration was going to be I started the quest years ago to source the needed parts. I live in Canada, parts are very hard to come by here so my quest usually takes me to the US through this forum, eBay, Craigslist etc. and honestly a lot of word of mouth. I have found more parts asking people if they might have something than I have by people actually listing them for sale. As you might imagine shipping to Canada is very expensive in comparison to shipping within the USA. So I'm lucky that I live 15 minutes from a Canada/US boarder so I have a US Post Office Box and ship all my purchases there and then just cross and pick them up, saves tons on shipping. Now that I have bored you all to death, this is what I get every time I cross the boarder, (understand I generally walk across as it's usually faster than driving since my PO box is the build right beside the US Customs building), they start by asking me the usual questions and as soon as I say I'm picking car parts they always ask for what car? I say a Chevrolet Monza. I get the dear in the headlights look. Then they start typing on there computer, the next thing they say is, "like this?" and they spin the monitor around so I can see the screen and the have googled Chevrolet Monza Images so they can see what I'm talking about. I get the occasional CBP officer that says, "Oh, my buddy had one of those back in high school". This usually ends up sparking a 5-10 minute conversation and then they let me go on my way. So, I can only imaging what will happen when it's is actually running and driving on the road.

[vegastre]

That's a funny story,
Considering the whole build a wall on the Mexico border deal. I saw a report where there are neighborhoods where one half is Canada and the other the US and you can just walk form one country to the other. Ya, down through the years I have collected so many H-Body parts I have no idea what I have and where I have stored them. At one point I was going to re-cycle them but now I have to remind my self that these are rare parts, very rare in some cases.

Anyway, a buddy of mine has a 66 Mustang that he has spent about thirty grand on and he gets less looks and conversation at the gas stations than I do. BTW, he has a 72 Vega in the works and has spent about ten grand on the body and paint alone, been in the works for awhile but he swears he will finish it. Years ago we often went to this one particular junkyard together for H-Body parts till we became known to the owner as the "Vega Brothers".

[79MonzaSpyder]

Very true, I see another 68 Camaro and unless its simply OVER the top it gets a glance and that's about it, but if I see an old Hudson or Nash I do a double take and want to have a closer look.

And the boarder bit, I watched a program a couple years ago on odd things and there is a Canadian town some where in eastern Canada that part of the town is in Canada and part of the town is in the US. The only gas station is in the US so they have to cross the boarder to get gas. The interviewed on home owner that his house and front yard is in Canada but his back yard is in the US so he pays Property taxes for Canada and the US. Apparently it was some surveying error done years ago.

As for the H body parts, ya most of them are worth gold and a few have reached platinum or diamond status. Unlike a Camaro or Mustang there are virtually no H-Body reproduction parts to speak of so we are working with an ever diminishing supply of parts. My project is taking a 1980 V6 4 speed quad h/l Monza Spyder and cloning it into the car that I wanted to buy back in 1985 but just couldn't find a decent specimen, 1979 V8 4 speed quad h/l Monza Spyder. Had I realized years ago when I began the process of acquiring the bits and pieces to do this that I would need basically acquire just about every bracket, pulley part and piece as the stock V8 stuff is pretty much all H Body V8 specific I'm not sure I would have went this route. That said I'm in way to deep to bail now. I will never see all the money I spent on this build but its building a dream.....isn't that supposed to be "Priceless", LOL!

[CDA]

I don't drive my car as much any more but I try to take it out at least once a week (yes, even in the winter if roads are dry). I usually drive between 15 to 20 minutes, and within that short time period I can guarantee that someone will make a comment. A friend of mine didn't believe me so I took him on a short ride and sure enough I immediately got a thumbs up from one driver and later another driver took a picture. My friend was amazed.

I've also had my car mistaken for a Ferrari.

[vegastre]

I watched a program a couple years ago

Ya, that must have been it,
I guess we better mention that Canada takes there Border very seriously. I have been up your way a couple of times. Man... the four headlight Monzas are beautiful cars. I owned a 2+2 Monza. Sold it to a guy in Australia, When I questioned him about the purchase he said Monzas were a big deal there. Of Course this was about 1984 or so. A dream is a dream is a dream. Reality or not it always keeps you looking on the positive side. Believe it or not some of the best times I had was driving my 72 Vega GT for my daily driver. Never failed me even in the worst of times and this is when people on the road would look at the Vega like it was a piece of crap. I'll settle on priceless too.

[vegastre]

another driver took a picture. My friend was amazed.

Like I said, "celebrity status",
Last week I went to the gas station and then to Taco Bell. A person walks up asks if he could take a picture of the car, I said sure and this was while I was sitting in the "To Go" line. He never ask a question but he looked at the SJ with a puzzled face, took the pic, said thanks and walked off. I gathered he thought he was looking at a Spaceship.

[vegastre]

Update: Nov/2019
A couple weeks ago a neighbor stooped by and told me a car cruise was being held just up the street at a BBQ restaurant. My neighbor ask if I was going to put my car in the cruise? I told him not really because the SJ is still in build status. Primered hood, no passenger seat, no mufflers, just rough around the edges. I decided drive it anyway no mufflers at all. I arrive at the cruise sounding like I had my "Cut Outs" open when I was a kid. I parked the SJ in the cruise visitor parking area. People started asking questions immediately so I opened the hood and wholly cow a crowd formed around it almost instantly. I felt a bit embarrassed at first till I realized all the comments were positive. I'm not saying I was the hit of the show but i did cause a 'ruckus' in the parking lot lol

[beakerztoyz]

hahaha.. my dust collector doesn't even go out enough to need gas.. I did take it out once a few years ago though I washed it and took it to a parking lot on a saturday afternoon and it generated quite the positive response form the few people who saw it. I was surprised.