I was enjoying some Sunday afternoon basketball this past weekend when my 4-year-old grandson urgently called me.
“Papa, come see this cool car!”
So, I stepped out the front door to see what got him so excited. This kid loves cars of all types.
Parked outside of my neighbor’s house on a car-hauling rental trailer sat a monstrous relic of the past. Turned out it was a 1970 Lincoln Continental Mark III that had seen its best days long ago.
Solomon and I walked out for a closer inspection. It was sort of a maroon color, or had been. But it seemed to have everything intact, with no (major) dents or busted headlights.
I looked it up on the Google, and a 1970 Lincoln Continental Mark III is 18-feet long and weighs 4,866 pounds of pure steel. That will come into play later in this story.
It might as well have been a yacht on the back of that trailer.
Anyway, as we were oohing and aahing over the behemoth, my next door neighbor, Akili, walked out and joined us. He was the proud owner of this vehicle, which he purchased with the intent of restoring it to its former glory.
Akili brought it to his house to store in his garage where he can pursue his restoration project.
Solomon and I went back to our yard, where I remained as my grandson played with friends from next door. A few minutes later, I watched as Akili slowly backed the trailer into his sloped driveway until the back of the monster was in the garage.
Akili’s son, Corey, had joined him as did a third man, Tim, who is their family friend. They unhooked the Lincoln and gathered at the front as if to push it off the trailer and down the ramp into the garage.
That led me to walk over and offer to help them push it off. Offer accepted. It wouldn’t be so simple
Akili climbed up the trailer, got behind the wheel and took the emergency brake off. Did I mention the car had no actual brakes beside the emergency brake?
The three of us in the front began to push. Nothing happened. Two-plus tons of steel didn’t budge.
As we puzzled over the next move, my neighbor from the other side of my yard came over and asked if we wanted her to ask her husband join us. There was a chorus of ‘yes!’.
We were soon joined by her husband, Greg, who brought a hydraulic jack and some apparent experience in moving huge vehicles.
So, I’ll fast forward. Akili put me behind the wheel with instructions to take the emergency brake off at his signal. Greg jacked up the front of the trailer. Everyone pushed. The car moved only a few inches. I sat.
Eventually, Greg jacked the trailer high enough that it tilted back and the car rolled into the garage, but not completely off the trailer’s ramps. More puzzling over the next move.
Wheels were blocked, the car was jacked up and pushed by all of us this time. It finally came free of the trailer and then was positioned in the garage with about 6 inches of clearance to close the garage door.
Whew!
All of this took well over an hour. When the car was finally in its proper place, everyone cheered. Someone even said, “this was kind of fun.”
Well, I wouldn’t describe it exactly like that, but was great to see neighbors working together and helping another out of a spot.
I’m going to be impatiently waiting to see the finished product emerge in all of its 1970s glory from that garage one day.
BONUS! LYRIC FROM ‘HOT ROD LINCOLN’ by Commander Cody and his Lost Planet Airmen:
“My pappy said, “Son, you’re gonna’ drive me to drinkin’
If you don’t stop drivin’ that Hot Rod Lincoln.”
Jim Stafford's BlogOKC 