alvis
Smart man your father! Exactly like mine. The deck in the car packed up. I asked him if we could buy a new one, he shot down the idea with a salvo of sidewinders and told me to repair the original! Needless to say, I did, and it's running fine now. There are a couple of things that miss a beat now and then, but being of a mechanical bent, you come to grips with it rather quick. Plus it's enjoyable making something work like original for minimal outlay. Especially when the mechanic tells you you need a new such-and-such...
Now when he talks about having a body-off resto when I come back home from my studies in France, I refuse, telling him that only mechanical work should be done. He's rather happy with that. The last big operation was done last summer by my brothers, and that was the suspension. Everything was replaced or repaired. I'll see what's to be done next time I come back home to Islamabad.
asadishaque
My apologies for the misunderstanding. Going back to your old post cleared it up. One might say that hindsight is 20/20...
It's true, there aren't many cars around that are in their original condition. My mother's maternal uncle (Mamoon) had a Beetle that he bought new in '66. The last I saw the car was back in '94 or thereabouts where he lived in E-7. It was white, and in excruciatingly good shape. My father was looking for a second car those days, and he quite liked the idea of that car. Out of courtesy, my father didn't ask him if he wanted to sell. My mother remembered travelling in it a lot. The car had been everywhere, Karachi, Hyderabad, Lahore, Multan, Quetta, Khanewal, Peshawar, you name it, the car had been there.
He passed away in '98. I was in FSc. and I reminded father about the car. My father, again, didn't consider it polite to ask of the car, thinking it might have some emotional link with the family. He couldn't have been more wrong, when we asked about the car after a year or so. The family had sold it off for a paltry sum of 50,000 or so month or so after his death,. Talk about being proper! I was absolutely incensed. But obviously, what can you say to family? Having so many memories would normally cause a family to keep these things as keepsakes, but not in some. And my Nana Jee was very much into cars and bikes, whenever we met him, we used to talk about the things that the older generation did when they were young on cars and bikes in Karachi.
I've got a Jap SUV, that's been with us for 18 years already, only 12 years more to go before it will be officially a "classic" (word used with caution here...) It'll be soon have half a million kilometres under its tires, so it hasn't exactly had a pampered life. The only tinworm to strike as yet is in the right rear mudguard. I'll rectify it ASAP to prevent it spreading. Other than that, mechanicals are in fine nick.
Excuse the long post everyone!
Cheers!
sami
