The Lost Hot Rod

One-off to please

- GREGG OVIST

As an avid car enthusiast, and owner of GEEZZUP.COM, a classic car locator service, I spend a lot of time combing through the internet for cars for my clients.

One day I was looking through Craigslist and I found this post that showed no pictures just said” Old Classic Car for Sale” Normally, I would not even look at this type of post. There was something about it that intrigued me. This is where my journey started with the ‘54 Coupe.

I reached out to the contact from the post and after numerous calls and leaving a few voicemails that went unanswered I gave up and moved on to other vehicles. Months later I received a call from Cal, a very nice older gentleman, he said that he was returning my call from the previous month inquiring about his car. I asked if the car was still for sale, and he said that it was. I asked if he could send me some pictures. He said he was unable to send me photos (come to find out he had an old flip phone).

After speaking with Cal on the phone 3 or 4 times I decided to take the 1 ½ hour drive to see the car in person. On this first meeting with Cal (and the car) my curiosity peaked. Cal told me the story of how he obtained the car. He explained to me that he lived close to Al King’s shop and always admired the car sitting out front. He offered to buy it several times but Al would not sell it. One day it had a for sale sign on it and Cal, without hesitation, bought it from Al immediately.

Cal had also told me that the car was never in a car show that he and Al drove the car like a “normal car”.