Last month, I drove out to Alberta to do some inspection work at a coal-fired generating plant.
On my way back, I stopped in Winnipeg to visit Walter and see my old Challenger.
I had fully intended to pick up my friend Brian along the way to share this auspicious occasion with me, but Walter pretty well kiboshed the idea, claiming it would violate his need for privacy.
~Whatever~.
So I made the journey to his place and lo and behold there it sat. It was almost unrecognizable at first, as the purple paintjob I had labored over so many years ago was only visible where the trim had covered it. A new set of quarterpanels and a new AMD hood adorned it...and not much else. I recognized the welds I had done on the cowl area where the inner fenders had seperated. Walter also produced some more familiar items, such as my pistol grip shifter, the gas cap without the trim ring, and the infamous backup light without the 'E' in Dodge.
Of course it still had the original transmission with the shortened input shaft, but the original engine was long gone.
The seats I had recovered in a different grained and colored vinyl were still exactly as I had left them.
Walter had fixed the rear frame rail where the tie-down mount had pulled through, and had done considerable metal replacement on the floors, cowl and driver's side rocker panel.
It was a weird feeling seeing this car again after half of my lifetime's duration. To be honest, it made the hair on my arms stand up (which I made a point of showing Walter).
After spending most of the afternoon shooting the breeze and having lunch with Walter and his charming wife Suzanne, I had to leave.
Before I did, I wanted to impress upon them how much this car meant to me, even after all these years. Walter wanted to make a point to me as well: he's owned the Challenger for the last 11 years and has a degree of attachment to it as well. In fact, he's not even sure if he wants to see it go anywhere. But he did concede that if he were to let it go, I'd have first dibs on it.
I wasn't about to twist his arm to sell it either, as it's in good hands and he's doing things the way they should be done.
And besides, I've got a Charger just begging to be reassembled and used, so I have some priorities to attend to before I gather more projects.
Maybe someday I'll have my Challenger back.
I'll be keeping in touch with Walter, that's for sure!
