Car of the Month
Carol & Rod Davison's 1965 Convertible

In 1964, I and a lot of other people would like to have had enough money to buy a Mustang. $2600 for a convertible, forget it. So I waited till 1974 and helped my oldest son buy a 1965 coupe with Canal Zone license plates. It was set up for racing. What a mistake! I had to learn how to work on 65's in a hurry. Fortunately he did not get a ticket, but it wasn't because he did not try. Then a couple years later my youngest son found a 65 fastback, unfortunately it needed a lot of work. So here we go again. I wish I had kept the fastback, but my son decided he needed something else.

So in 1991 I discovered a 65 convertible in my friend's garage and asked if he would sell it. He could not make up his mind what price he wanted. His wife said you have so much money just give the car to him. No way, I ended up giving him $3000 for the car. What a mess! It was a faded brown color and full of bondo. I think it was left out in the weather with the top down. You can imagine what that did to the interior. I tried to drive it around a bit, but every time I took it out the gas filter would plug up due to all of the rust in the gas tank. One time I took my sister in law for a ride and we had to push it home because of the plugged fuel system. Needles to say I had to replace the gas tank. I took the engine out and had it rebuilt. Then I had the 4 speed transmission gone through, new clutch, universal joints, rear wheel bearing and the differential rebuilt. The clutch kept slipping (no idea why), the transmission mechanic finally put in a racing clutch. It is very stiff and hard to push, but does not slip. The radiator was in sad shape, it got replaced. I installed the ball joints and tie rod ends. I redid the upholstery with a catalog kit.

Now comes the challenge, the body. I bought must of the parts from Big D in San Leandro. The first time I went there, there was no one around. Finally after standing around a young man showed up and said they were not doing any business today because the owner had just been shot. Great! Later I bought several body parts and brought them back to the shop that I had hired to do the body. As I was unloading the parts a lady from a nearby shop said I should check with office before unloading any more parts. As I went into the office I was informed by a law officer that the shop was being closed within the hour due to foreclosure. The officer said that I could take my car out of the shop. I got it out in a hurry. Unforntunety I had given them $500 down (not to smart) and never got the money back. I had trusted them because they had done a good job on my 65 coupe. I shopped for another body shop to do the work. I ended up at a body shop in Los Gatos. It was being managed by a friend of a friend of mine. Actually it was the friend's girlfriend. Her son, who was the owner, was in jail for wife beating. We agreed on a price as long as they could work on it when they had some slack time.

After a couple of months their two body men were fired. Now what? She finally hired a body man, John. John had just got out of prison for tax invasion and I don't know what else. He still owed the government some $90,000 for a school loan, so he had to be paid under the table otherwise his wages would have been garnished. This was all happening over a period of about 1 year. There had been little or no work done on the body. Finally the owner said that they could not finish the work for such a low price. She said that if I would help with work they would get busy and finish it. So for several weeks off and on I would go to the shop and do what I could. John and I became good friends and some of the stories he told about his past were unbelievable. His girlfriend brought him to work one day in a brand new corvette. John said she had been in jail for shooting her husband. He was a wife beater.

Finally the body work was getting done and I had to decide on a color. I always wanted a red convertible so I chose the Corvette red as it was the brightest red I could find. In 1998 it was just about finished and I had a new top installed. I decided that the brakes were not the best as all 65s and 66s were. I took the car to Joe and had disc brakes installed. His mechanic discovered some front end problems and fixed them. I had installed a used steering column (big mistake) and they took out most of the play. A couple of years ago we decided to take the car to Hot August Nights. Carol was hesitant because the car was old, no air conditioning and she said it probably would not make it. I stated that almost everything on it was practically new. We drove it there and back with no problems except a bumpy ride over route 80. This car along with our 65 coupe, are a long way from being show cars but on a retirement income it's about the best we could do. I drive the coupe every day and we have a lot of admirers of the convertible.

Carol & Rod Davison