Last Time Under The Hood

My husband has worked on cars almost all of his life. He and his father were owners of Jerry's Front End and Brake shop until they closed the doors in the late 90's. Nick also worked for the local dirt track on weekends to make a little extra money.  

They spent many days not only servicing customers cars, but as I can remember, were always piddling on a race car in the side bay. Nicks father had a few race cars as he was a member of Carolina Vintage Stock Car Racing Association ( CVSCRA). One of his race cars was given to a museum. I'm not sure what happened to the others, but there was a last one and the only one I remember. A 1949 Ford. 

Nicks dad raced this car until he was in his 70's. After each race, he would pull it into the home garage and fix the dings and tune it up. Nick and his dad would often be under the hood getting it ready for the next race. His dad passed away about 10 years ago. The race car has sat in the garage waiting for new life ever since. It became dusty, weathered and stalled. 

The day came this past weekend. The car had a buyer. Nick wanted to get it running so the buyer would be satisfied in the purchase. He worked for a few days getting her running. She was alive now. The sound of the motor would make the hairs on the back of your head stand up. 

When the buyer arrived, I was able to snap a photo of Nick under the hood one more time. 

 

She was running like a charm, or like a race car sitting for ten years would sound awaking from a long hibernation. Vroom vroom! Sounded nice but I'm the weird one and liked the smell.

The car was cranked, the money was swapped and it was loaded on a trailer. The buyer said he liked the way it looked. He doesn't plan to paint it to anything different. He also plans to put it back on the track come November.

 

It will race again and I'm sure Nicks dad is looking down and smiling. It was sort of sad to see it leave as all the brothers stood by watching but it was time to let go.