Greg, you may very well have seen my Uncle Jerrys cars floating around Lakeland down there. He lived on South Florida Avenue going towards Auburndale/Winterhaven area. He had a 2 door and a 4 door '51 Chevrolet.

This whole business of "well you shouldn't have done this" and "why did you do that" is why he got to where he never drove them to car shows and ended up not driving them anywhere after his friend who knew how to work on them passed away. He first restored a 2 door '51 to factory, with cloth seats, but a 261 or 265 (whichever was the 6 cylinder stovebol engine) in it instead of the original 216 babbet (or however it is spelled) bearing engine in it because it had better power and reliability that he was looking for. People were always getting on him about going all original but with the 4 year newer engine. Well he didn't like that. He drove the car for 12,500 miles anyway.

Then he restored a 4 door. Well he was a carpenter and liked driving the cars to work or afterwork. But saw dust gets stuck ing those clothseats and won't hardly come out. He would spend hours with tweezers cleaning seats. (He never thought to use packaging tape.) So he restored his 4 door with vinyl seats to the original colors. People at car shows got on him about that.

He always said "Well if it upsets you so much, restore one the way you want it built and I'll build mine the way I want it!"


Pictures....

 

Duane your uncles cars are very nice. I understand that the owner of a car has the right to do what he wants with them. I have my thoughts and opinions and usually keep them to myself.