First off, I’d like to say thank you to everyone that wished me well, good luck, and safe travels. I had most of those on the trip...
The individual that I first found these doors from had an ad up on Kijiji for several months. In the pictures on the ad he showed what appeared to be an absolute hoard of G body parts, so naturally I was extremely interested in going to see what he had available.
The problem was, at that time it was the dead of winter up here in this arctic wasteland we Canadians call home (joking guys, relax!), and this winter was especially harsh with very poor highway conditions for driving a long distances most of the time.
By the time spring arrived (and late at that), I either had no disposable income to play with, or no weekend free to make the trip.
Until now.
After realizing I had a bit of coin left over in my jeans and a weekend without any commitments coming up, I contacted the seller to see if he was going to be around.
We played email tag back and forth all week right up until Friday where he repeatedly assured me that he was DEFINITELY going to be there when I arrived around midday.
Ok fine.
As Saturday morning rolled around, I awoke before the alarm to a howling wind storm that was battering the blinds in my room and an odd irritation in my right eye that I thought I recognized all too well.
After going through my usual morning routine, the weather looked to be alright, but the wind hadn’t died down any by the time the girlfriend and I left. It was going to be a long day of fighting a 40 mph headwind. The eye continued to feel worse and worse, and I had to resign myself to the fact that I had probably developed another Corneal Ulcer. (For those of you not familiar with one, look it up. It ain’t fun). Some of you that have been reading my build threads for several years might recall I had one a couple 3 years ago or so too.
But it was Saturday, I had been looking forward to this particular trip for months now, and there would be sweet FA I could do about the eye until Monday at the earliest anyways, so we pressed on.
About a 1/4 of the way there, I was seriously questioning the sanity of my decision to do so. The eye was getting swollen, irritating CONSTANTLY, and looking worse by the hour. Thankfully I came armed with a battery of different drops and medicines for it I had left over from the last time, so I was at least able to keep it in check for the remainder of the day.
Once the gf and I arrived there (nearly exactly to my “midday” prediction I might add, it was 12:15), I drove to the address provided and called his number on arrival.
No answer, no voicemail, no nothing.
Ok fine. I go up to the residence and bang on the door.
No answer.
Ok, wtf???
A neighbor saw us knocking on the door and said that he was going to be “right back”, he had an errand to run for his wife.
Ummm, ok. At the exact time I told him all week I was gonna be there? That ain’t cool, but whatever. Plus, the courtesy of a phone call beforehand telling us of this would’ve been nice!
After waiting nearly an hour and a half, I was thoroughly unimpressed and about to leave when he finally showed up. He came up to the truck and apologized profusely, I think he knew I was pissed. I’m willing to give benefit of the doubt, so I forgave him for his poor judgement and we went to look at the doors.
It turns out, it wasn’t the seller’s parts, it was a hoard that his best friend had up until his sudden passing. He in turn was responsible for the estate, and was charged with selling off what he could for his friend’s family.
The doors are as I mentioned earlier, about what I expected. Not perfect, not great, but better than what’s on the car currently, and certainly saveable.
After perusing the rest of the collection and finding nothing of use to me or anyone I know, we came to an agreement on a price for the doors and he helped me load them up.
I was more than a little disappointed that he had wasted so much of my time, I had planned to meet up with my friend, former GBF member and fellow G body owner Dana while I was there, as it’s been over a year since we’ve talked. That was pretty much out of the question now as it was getting to be late afternoon and I still had the 3 hour return drive to make.
On the plus side however, I was able to get a hold of Mr. NorthernRegal himself, Duke, who graciously invited us to stop by on the way home. Duke showed us around his beautiful Buick project, and we chatted for some time about what he’s already done and his plans for the car. Duke is good people, just like all of you here. If we lived closer together, I have no doubt we’d be helping each other out with our cars and thick as thieves.
Lol
Duke, it was a real pleasure to meet you and make your acquaintance. Thanks for opening your shop and home to us, it was a real pleasure. I want to wish you the best of luck with your project, I’ll be watching the progress.
On leaving his place, we stopped in Red Deer for fuel and a bite to eat. The rest of the trip was uneventful and pleasant, but we were both getting tired and looking forward to being home.
This has been a much more lengthy post than I thought it was gonna be, so I’ll leave the pictures and descriptions of the conditions of the doors for the next instalment.
Thanks for reading everyone,
D.
PS- Yes, I will be making arrangements first thing Monday morning to get my eye looked at. If it is indeed an ulcer, it’s not to be taken lightly and has to be addressed. Hopefully that’s not what it is, wish me luck!
D.
