I May have waited too long. A cautionary tale.

[Lord Warlock]

In the summer of 78 I got my charger r/t se, it was my first car, and I drove it to high school during my senior year, it was the car to beat at my school, holding the reputation as the fastest car at school that year.  My dad wouldn't let me drive it my first year of college, but I did drive it my 2nd thru 5th years of college, and when I graduated, made a deal with my dad to trade it for one of his cars while I was in the Air Force, with the agreement that I could buy it back when I got out.  Which I did.  I've had the car sitting in my garage for over 35 years now, I eventually even had a two stall garage built just to house the car.  The car was very straight, very little rust (back window ledge and lower rear quarters/trunk floor) but it was complete, all the parts were there, and the engine has always run even though I never drove it on the road.  During college I managed to blow up the original matching number 440 and swapped a 383 into it, and a year later another 440.  After the second engine swap I decided I never wanted to do that again, so decided parking it made more sense to me than to risk blowing up the motor I took out of another 69 Charger RT.  Figured I'd never get a date correct motor that if someone looked hard would find it was original to a 69 charger r/t.  So I put it in the garage and I became one of those detested owners that were going to rebuild it some day.  People would see it and knock on the door and try to buy it for chump change and while I would let them look it over, never seriously considered selling it.  Even to the guy that offered 12k for it in the early 90s.  Probably a fair price at the time, even if I thought it was a little low.  

Life intervened, married to my high school sweetheart, after the Air Force, we moved to Jacksonville Florida and settled down, eventually having two kids.  The car became an afterthought, I figured I'd have plenty of time to fix it up and kept putting the family first and ignoring the old charger which waited patiently for me to come back and play with it.  I always had a daily driver that was a performance car of some sort, mustangs, dodge stealth turbo, cobra's and now a challenger r/t.  But always planned on fixing up the charger in the garage.  From time to time, I'd do something minor to the car, but never really accomplished much, stripped off the vinyl top because there was a bubble under it in one spot, and used fiberglass to seal the trunk floor that had surface rust (bad decision).  

Around 2004, my best friend from high school who I had kept up with regularly, and was also into cars and went with me to car shows every year, up and died from a heart attack at 44 years of age, a few months before he was going to retire.  And it lit a fire under my ass to stop putting things off and finally start working on the charger, so I made it a point to begin the restoration of the charger, hoping to finish it in 4 to 5 years, and enjoy it during my own retirement.  I stripped out the interior and the process began.  10 years later it still wasn't done, progress had been made, and as long as I made progress each year, I was happy that I was enjoying the car and learning new skills as I took on each new section.  Even with my friends memory motivating me, I always thought I'd have time to finish the job and enjoy the car again.  I stripped the body down to bare metal, removed everything that I could easily remove and store, started restoring the original grille, took each section apart and rebuilt it as good as I could, if I broke something I replaced it, but if the original piece was roadworthy, I opted to keep it and use the original if possible.  I removed the back glass and started the body work repairing minor rust along the window channel that had leaked into the trunk back when I drove it regularly.  Back then, I didn't have a welder, didn't know how to weld, but did know how to trim sheet metal and rebuilt the ledge that held the window in place.  Back then, I used pop rivets to hold the sheet metal into position, then used epoxy putty to mold and seal the edges of the metal.  When I was done, the ledge looked new, and now the ledge would hold he back glass properly.  That success pushed me to move on to the quarter panels and fix those as well...only this time I figured welding in the replacement quarter made more sense.  Got a welder from my dad who had one he wasn't using, and spent a few weeks figuring out how to use it, spent weeks online studying how to weld panels, and eventually got the quarter welded in.  

One job led to another and I worked on the car on and off for the past 10 years, even taught myself how to paint cars (10 years of practice) fixing and painting other cars in the family till I was satisfied I could do a quality paint job on the car.  Then spent a few years prepping the body and painting the car until I was happy with the results.  The more practice I got, the more anal I became about results.  My resulting paint job now isn't quite mirror smooth, but its better quality than any new car I've had in the last 15 years.  

In 2013, I finished a lucrative contract job as a software engineer for a major client in town, and decided I would take several months off to focus on the Charger and try to get as much done as I could before going back to work again.  during the project I was on, I accumulated many parts I knew i'd need, and stockpiled them (trunk floor, gas tank,  brakes, brake and fuel lines, etc) and between November of 2013 and March of 2014 made a ton of progress on the car.  Not finishing it, but getting it mostly back together and ready to start up again and possibly drive soon.  Still have small stuff to finish like gauges and wiring and a few chrome pieces to replace or rechrome, but overall made positive progress.  

(continued)

[Lord Warlock]

While visiting family for winter holidays of 2013, I started waking up in the middle of the night often to go to the restroom, never had that issue before, but ignored it figuring I was getting older and its a common thing to encounter.  In May of 2014 I experienced blood in my urine one evening, and went to the doctor to have it checked out, a bladder infection was suspected, took antibiotics and it cleared up, but a week later I was pissing blood.  Not a good sign, wen to the primary physician and had some tests done, evidently my prostate had grown to about double its normal size and explained the night time trips to restroom.  Doc gave me a rectal exam and said there was a problem with the prostate and to go see a urologist.  After several CT Scans and a biopsy, learned I had advanced prostate cancer, was immediately started on hormone therapy and lined up several procedures to prepare for radiation treatments. Even at this stage while the diagnosis wasn't good, there was always a 96% chance they'd fix it and i'd be fine.  Although the treatment drained my energy, I no longer had the energy to work on the car.   I spent the rest of the year from Sept through December going to radiation treatments every day for 10 weeks.  3 months later I took my first PSA test to see if the cancer was under control, and while my score had dropped from a 5.9 psa to a 2.6 psa it was still too high so they put me on a hormone blockade to drop he psa further.  That didn't work, and in 3 months my psa doubled to 5.4 indicating radiation didn't work, and the hormone treatments weren't working either.  I was transferred from my urologist to a Oncologist to prepare for Chemotherapy.  Now I am going through my 2nd month of chemo, my life has changed dramatically, I have no energy, and am finding it almost impossible to finish the small work on the charger.  I no longer work, I'm permanently disabled and living with castrate resistant prostate cancer, and am faced with a short life span at what I consider a young age of 54.  There is still a chance that Chemo will work, if they figure out the right approach in time.  But I get to endure an infusion of toxic chemicals every 3 weeks, and deal with debilitating side effects on a daily basis.  I don't know if I'll feel good enough to even take the charger out for a drive again, much less work on it to finish the project.  Who knew that i'd have to worry about this at a young age. 

As it sits now, the charger is still sitting in the garage, and I can't get fuel to flow from the gas tank to the fuel pump, and pretty much too weak to get under the car and work on it.  I may figure it out and get it started, or I may have to ask the local car club to come over and help finish it.  I may never get to enjoy the car like I had planned.  Expected life span with my cancer is 6 months to 40 months average, its incurable, but it can be stalled.  I keep hoping for something to work.  The cancer doesn't hurt much at all, its the treatments that suck green donkey balls. 

A word to the wise, IF you have your dream muscle car, don't keep putting off getting it fixed up, You never know what will happen to your health, it can change drastically from one day to the next.  Don't hold off til retirement to fix your favorite car, I'm finding it more common than not that a majority of us wait too long and never get to enjoy our hobby even if we've owned the car our entire lives.  Get off your ass and get the car up and running.  Enjoy it while you can, don't worry how pretty the car is, just get it back on the road, you can always make it pretty later.  Don't let the family and kids dominate all your time, make sure you take some time for yourself and enjoy your passion.  The kids will eventually grow up and leave you, your car likely has been waiting for you longer than the kids have.  (I love my kids and my wife, but they don't care about my motivations, they only really care about theirs)Go out and enjoy your passion with cars.  The longer you wait, the more expensive it will cost to complete the project.  It will never be as cheap as it is today to get it running and on the road again. 

[myk]

Personally speaking, every member of my immediate family has experienced terminal cancer except myself.  I figure that in my late 30's I'm probably nearing the point where my luck will run out, which is why, at the disappointment of my personal banker, I've decided to throw every penny I have at the Charger; to hell with the future., tomorrow and all that.  After all, you just never know when you're number is up, and the Charger means more to me than anything else anyway. 

I hope you don't focus on the idea of how much time you supposedly have left.  Sounds to me like you're in the company of family at home, friends like us online, and most importantly you have your wits about you.  Thanks for sharing your experience and passing on your realization about time and allowing some for our personal interests.  You've been here this long, so don't give up just yet...

[tan top]

  awwww no !! sorry to hear this !  i'm at a loss what to say !  fingers crossed  it all works out with the treatment  ,  10 years ago my dad had a scare with his , but  , luckily  it turned out to be , something else !  life can be crap at times !  if I were closer would help to get ya charger running & stuff .

[myk]

Yeah I wish we were all closer.  I'd love to help get that Charger running and then go cruising with you, Dirk, Shawn, Bryan, Warlock and everyone else who wanted to come along...

[E5 Charger]

I am so sorry to hear about your cancer and know first hand how much chemo can suck. I pray that the chemo does work and you will have many, many more miles of driving your Charger.

[Nwcharger]

I'm sorry to hear your troubles. Literally bought me to tears. I wish you were closer to me. I would devote my personal time to get your charger going for you at no charge. Just to be able to see another person enjoy there car would bring me much joy. Please try and take care.

[richard parker]

really sorry to hear that you are going thru this my friend. keep your head up and stay positive things will work out. stay strong.

[303 Mopar]

Prayers are with you my brother, and hope you recover and get that sweet Charger running soon!  Your local club sounds like a great place to ask for help, and you can bet any guys here that are near you will jump at the chance too.

I lost both parents to cancer within a year of each other a few years ago, both very young.  This had the same effect as you forcing the question "if not now, when"?   I went out and bought a '71 Challenger and fully restored it only to sell it for a '70 Cuda.  Then my '68 Charger fell into my lap a earlier this year.  While not trailer queens, I am able to tinker with both cars, teach my 3 boys the basics and enjoy many cruises with them.  

There is only 1 who knows when our time is up, so enjoy your life now and live it to the fullest!  

[68pplcharger]

Sorry to hear about your Cancer. I visit relatives every year in Jacksonville for nine days. I could help a few hours each day while I'm there if your interested. I won't be back until June of next year...

[Mike DC]

           
Really sorry to hear this.  You've mentioned your health battle before but laying it out like this really makes it hit home.  You've been one of the long-timers here and I can't picture the place without you.  Hope you're staying with us.  It sucks to get hit so young.




I had a string of unexpected deaths in my family in the 2000s.  It gets to the point where you feel downright fatalistic for a while.  But then things settle down for a bit and you go right back to your old live-forever routines.  It's a hard thing to balance.   

I hope you'll be with us for a while, with or without wrenching on your car.  Keep your chin up.

[Lord Warlock]

I don't post sad info to get sympathy or pity, but I do so to warn others not to put off something like my project (or theirs) thinking that there will always be time later to finish.  Anyone who wants to visit Florida is welcome to come by and say hello, as long as I'm still alive and kicking, i'll be thinking about how to finish my project and once again ride in the car that started my fascination with cars and started a lifelong obsession with speed and the auto hobby.  Everyone needs a kick in the ass sometimes.  My only regret has been that I put it off so long thinking I had 30 or more years left.  My dad survived his colon cancer at 55 and is still alive at 86, and still into his motorcycles and his cars.  My younger brother died of leukemia 7 years ago, got through his bone marrow transplant only to die of pneumonia during his recovery.  I've got one brother left, and I hope he doesn't have to go through what his two younger siblings have. 

I don't plan on dwelling on my illness, I live each day as best I can, and enjoy every smile and every mile.  The charger has inspired me over the years to enjoy my automobiles, and I get to spend a little time out in my garage sitting next to my charger watching tv in my "man cave".  Not many would spend 30k just to protect their first car.  I guess the next owner will appreciate the care I put into making the charger last 40 years in safe and dry conditions.

[Mike DC]

           

Not many would spend 30k just to protect their first car.

Quite a few guys around here would spend big money to protect their '69-Charger-first-car.  You've got company on that.  


BTW, a while back my uncle was told he had about 2-5 years with his prostate cancer.  He made it 15 years.  You never know.

[cdr]

prayers to you & family, kidney cancer & MS was my diagnosis in 2011 and i too am disabled, having my Charger project has been my best medicine, even if all i can do when i am having a really bad MS day,is go out in the garage & stare & dream about things i want to do to my car, I wish i was closer to where you live, to help with your Charger. REMEMBER not everyone has the holy grail car in the garage!!! WE are truly blessed!!!

[myk]

           

Not many would spend 30k just to protect their first car.

Quite a few guys around here would spend big money to protect their '69-Charger-first-car.  You've got company on that.  

Amen to that.  For the FIRST TIME in my life I'm considering home ownership, usually a 30 year contract that's the biggest expenditure in one's life, JUST  so I can have a garage for the Charger; otherwise I couldn't care less about having property.  Honestly, if I could just live in a garage I'd have no problem with that as long as it had a pot to piss in, water and electricity.  Most of us love our cars here...

[XH29N0G]

I hear your message loud and clear, but I am still saddened by your news. 

My thoughts and well wishes go out to you. 

[Stevearino]

My wife was diagnosed with stage three ovarian cancer 2 years ago and while she made it through the chemo and has more energy than me on most days her numbers tell us that it is still lurking. I know everyone who has to deal with this does it in their own way but we both got to the point of being exhausted by the worry. Now between check ups we just pretend it's not a problem. I know that may sound stupid but the worrying is a pointless drain and a waste of time. It doesn't change anything.  I am sorry to hear you are going through this but new treatments are coming around every year. Hopefully they will find what will work for you.

[comet_666]

F@#$ cancer. It took my Father, my grandmother and my uncle.

Always tell yourself you can beat it because you can.

Good luck to you 

[ITSA426]

Thoughts and prayers, just do the best you can.

[charge69]

Really sorry to hear this! Stay positive and do as much as you can. If you are too weak, it is certainly no shame in asking for help from anyone you trust to do it.

Your message about procrastination is preaching to the choir here as I am very bad about this.  Although I have recovered most of my abilities from my stroke in 2010, it is still a challenge to do most anything physical to my Charger. Just getting down on the ground to change oil is very daunting but, doggone it, I still try.

Again, stay positive about this and beat that SOB, Cancer!

[rt green]

i pray that you will beat this and be alright.

[green69rt]

I've had a taste of what you're going thru...wife with early ovarian cancer.  She's looking OK but it makes you take a hard look at things and the direction of life.   Don't give up, and if I could suggest, try to get a referral to MD Anderson cancer center in Houston.  I think it's the best in the country.  Saved my wife, my sister in law (multiple myloma) and others.  Seems that new treatments are arriving daily.

[Dino]

Doctors are always very careful in delivering a positive outlook, because you just can't be sure how things will turn out.  But let me tell you that I have seen time and time again that an expiration date means absolutely squat.  People who 'should' have left this world decades ago are still with us.  Keep fighting, they will tweak the chemo when possible so your immune system doesn't go all haywire.  I sincerely hope you will be with us for a very long time to come, and I wouldnt be surprised if you outlive a bunch of us either.

Your attitude is admirable, you're not a quiter that's obvious.  Get your local car club involved, get this beast back on the road, and go take your long awaited drive.  I think you've earned it.

[Baldwinvette77]

F**K im late to this, and i've always been terrible with words, but i hope for the best for you.

[Lord Warlock]

My chemo center IS an MD Anderson clinic, they just moved/opened a new center here in town, and it was the unit I was assigned to by my medical plan.  I'm hoping they can either figure out the right treatment or keep me available for a suitable trial that opens in the future. I intend to fight it and not give up, but you do get depressed from time to time when a major treatment fails and you move on to the next stage. The start of chemo is the same treatment as a majority of others get, sucks to watch your gonads shrivel and your hair fall out, but its better than being dead, so will deal with it.   I was shocked when I got the results of the last PET Scan, which showed it had moved from the prostate to the liver, backbone and lymph system, all in 3 months when previous scans were negative.

Overall, I can't complain, for 50 years I had a pretty good run at it.  Reached a decent level of income for over 10 years, more than average but never enough to go out and buy luxuries, I think the decision to have kids impacted that more than anything else. Had two kids, and raised them well enough to get into college, even paid for their college.  Always managed to keep us fed, housed and schooled, and managed to have something interesting to drive without overdoing it. And got to ride the internet from inception to wide acceptance.  I came to DC early on, but only because I was looking for charger parts before getting into forums elsewhere.  I just didn't post much as I wasn't doing much to the car at the time.  When I worked on the car you'd see me get more active.  I do remember finding the registry a long time ago, not sure when though. 

Life is a learning experience, stop learning and you'll stagnate, I'm not ready to stagnate yet, but I can feel myself slowing to a point where i'm afraid of growing roots out my ass and into the living room recliner, where I can watch tv or surf the internet, (at same time often).  Waiting for good days, which are sure to come, last year or two has been a challenge though.