Well I had planned to wait until I had made a good bit of progress before posting this, but I'm excited and parts are taking awhile so I might as well get started. I'll start out with a little background, my dad has been a fan of 40's for a long time. Unfortunately it has never worked out for him to be able to get one. His liking of them however, got passed onto me pretty early and I've wanted one since I was a little kid. This past May, I graduated from college and got my first real job which meant I finally had the ability to seriously start looking for one. I got so busy with moving and settling into my new job though that it got pushed to the back burner for a while. Then, back in November, I was visiting a few of my friends that are still in school and just happened to find this in a parking lot in town.
Needless to say, seeing it reminded me that I needed to start looking and the hunt was on. For the next couple weeks, I was all over craigslist and facebook marketplace. One day, I found this.
It looked pretty nice but when I saw the price I immediately scrolled past because it was over the budget I had set. About a week later, after finding nothing but either junk piles or 40K plus dollar restorations, I decided I should check it out again. I went back to the ad and luckily it was still available. I looked through the rest of pictures and saw that besides the weird rear bumper, tow bar, spare mount on the hood, and being spray painted, it seemed to be in pretty good, original shape. There wasn't much information in the ad so after I went back and forth for awhile, I decided it couldn't hurt to just message the guy and try to find out a little more about it. We went back and forth a few times and I ended up asking if I could go look at it. He said he was busy so it would be a couple weeks before I could come out which was fine. For the next couple weeks, I kept looking but didn't find anything I liked, so I messaged him again. He said he was good for me to come take a look. I told my dad about it and we decided to go that weekend. At first I was just planning on going for a look, but my dad convinced me if we were driving over there I might as well take a trailer and some money just in case. So I got that together and that Sunday after church we hit the road. We got to the place it was being stored and the guy told me I could hop in and pull it out of the garage to get a better look if I wanted. I hop in, hit the key, it turns over once or twice, and then nothing. The key was completely dead. Thankfully it turned out to just be the battery so we pushed it out a little, hooked up the jumper cables, and it fired right up. While I let it warm up, I took a good look at everything. I crawled under it and over it and looked at everything. I was very happy with what I found. The underside was really dirty but from pushing and tapping on everything it all seemed very solid. The interior and body was also really solid and in good shape. The drivetrain was all original but looked pretty good. The rear seats were in it and it had a spare, an old hi-lift jack, a set of jumper cables, and a little storage tray above the front seats which were a nice bonus. At that point I was really liking everything and it was warmed up so I decided it was time to take it for a test drive. I hopped in and went to take it around the block. This was my first time driving a 40, but I had read plenty of warnings on here about how slow they are, how bad they ride, how bad they drive, and how bad they stop so I was a little nervous. Everything went great though, I got it up to about 55 on the test drive and it rode bumpy but no worse than I expected, tracked well, the steering was fine, and the brakes worked great. Once I got back, I was really wanting it but still wasn't quite ready because it was a good bit more money than I had planned on. Then the guy told me the story of how he got it. The guy he bought it from had bought it new off the lot in Birmingham in 1972. After that, he had just used it around his farm and hunting camp in Montevallo, AL until he died in 2021. From there it had sat for awhile, until his daughter decided to sell it. The guy I was talking to had bought it, kept it for a few months but then I guess decided he didn't have time for it and decided to sell it again. Then he pulled out a folder and started showing me paperwork. The original owner was super meticulous. He had the paperwork for pretty much everything that had ever been done to it. The coolest parts were he had the receipt from 1972 when he bought it from the dealership, the original owners card, and the paperwork from when it was imported to the US from Japan. After finding out I would basically be the second owner and seeing all the super cool paperwork that went with it, I knew I had to have it. We talked for awhile and I got to a number that was way more than I had intended on paying when I started my search but one that I felt like it was worth. Then we loaded it up and brought it home.
Needless to say, seeing it reminded me that I needed to start looking and the hunt was on. For the next couple weeks, I was all over craigslist and facebook marketplace. One day, I found this.
It looked pretty nice but when I saw the price I immediately scrolled past because it was over the budget I had set. About a week later, after finding nothing but either junk piles or 40K plus dollar restorations, I decided I should check it out again. I went back to the ad and luckily it was still available. I looked through the rest of pictures and saw that besides the weird rear bumper, tow bar, spare mount on the hood, and being spray painted, it seemed to be in pretty good, original shape. There wasn't much information in the ad so after I went back and forth for awhile, I decided it couldn't hurt to just message the guy and try to find out a little more about it. We went back and forth a few times and I ended up asking if I could go look at it. He said he was busy so it would be a couple weeks before I could come out which was fine. For the next couple weeks, I kept looking but didn't find anything I liked, so I messaged him again. He said he was good for me to come take a look. I told my dad about it and we decided to go that weekend. At first I was just planning on going for a look, but my dad convinced me if we were driving over there I might as well take a trailer and some money just in case. So I got that together and that Sunday after church we hit the road. We got to the place it was being stored and the guy told me I could hop in and pull it out of the garage to get a better look if I wanted. I hop in, hit the key, it turns over once or twice, and then nothing. The key was completely dead. Thankfully it turned out to just be the battery so we pushed it out a little, hooked up the jumper cables, and it fired right up. While I let it warm up, I took a good look at everything. I crawled under it and over it and looked at everything. I was very happy with what I found. The underside was really dirty but from pushing and tapping on everything it all seemed very solid. The interior and body was also really solid and in good shape. The drivetrain was all original but looked pretty good. The rear seats were in it and it had a spare, an old hi-lift jack, a set of jumper cables, and a little storage tray above the front seats which were a nice bonus. At that point I was really liking everything and it was warmed up so I decided it was time to take it for a test drive. I hopped in and went to take it around the block. This was my first time driving a 40, but I had read plenty of warnings on here about how slow they are, how bad they ride, how bad they drive, and how bad they stop so I was a little nervous. Everything went great though, I got it up to about 55 on the test drive and it rode bumpy but no worse than I expected, tracked well, the steering was fine, and the brakes worked great. Once I got back, I was really wanting it but still wasn't quite ready because it was a good bit more money than I had planned on. Then the guy told me the story of how he got it. The guy he bought it from had bought it new off the lot in Birmingham in 1972. After that, he had just used it around his farm and hunting camp in Montevallo, AL until he died in 2021. From there it had sat for awhile, until his daughter decided to sell it. The guy I was talking to had bought it, kept it for a few months but then I guess decided he didn't have time for it and decided to sell it again. Then he pulled out a folder and started showing me paperwork. The original owner was super meticulous. He had the paperwork for pretty much everything that had ever been done to it. The coolest parts were he had the receipt from 1972 when he bought it from the dealership, the original owners card, and the paperwork from when it was imported to the US from Japan. After finding out I would basically be the second owner and seeing all the super cool paperwork that went with it, I knew I had to have it. We talked for awhile and I got to a number that was way more than I had intended on paying when I started my search but one that I felt like it was worth. Then we loaded it up and brought it home.