Rescuing A 75-Year-Old Car From An Older Car Enthusiast Reminded Me How Important Every Minute We Get Doing This Truly Is

“Rumors Of The Demise Of SWG Were Greatly Exaggerated”

“Bleep-blurp” was the sound that the badge reader made as the great door on The Great Wall by The Outer Moat of Autopia opened wide before me. It’s similar to Castle Grayskull, but without the drawbridge and skull fascia. I can’t believe that Matt has kept my security badge active for all this time while I was away in the wild (my last post was a hot minute ago), but here I was back within the walls; standing in the Great Halls in Autopian HQ. And it feels good to be back; I missed this place.

Looking around I see that some things have changed and some haven’t. Editor-In-Chief David Tracy has sold his AMC Golden Eagle and has grown a new obsession for a pair of electric BMWs (which I totally didn’t see coming, did you?); talk about an epic curve-ball! I did drive Dave’s i3 in L.A. last Fall when the two of us were on the way to the LA Auto Show and was blown away by it, so there’s that.

Here are some more updates:

• Publisher Matt Hardigree has finally moved on after his abusive relationship with his problematic Subaru, and has a shiny new Honda.  Matt is a great guy; I’m a longtime fan. 
• Aussie engineer Lewin Day continues to impress with his engineering knowledge and background and will hopefully have his BMW diesel sold in short order since he’s now an Urban Cowboy. 
• Our other Aussie Mech (and good buddy) Lawrence Rogers seems to have some exciting wrenching coming from his shed; it’s great to see how consistently awesome his antics, builds and repairs are. 
• Thomas Hundal is still one of the greatest car culture minds I’ve ever met, and his taste in choosing/appreciation of yellow cars puts he and I in a Venn Diagram overlap regardless of his liking of BMWs and Porsches and me liking this. 
• The Bishop has been keeping the imagination running wild, Steven Balistreri finally got his Audi A8 back in fighting shape and newbie Rivers is doing great.
• My homie Peter Vieira is as busy as ever with his move to the Production side of the house and has been churning out the best digital topshots and editing in the business. 
• Mark Tucker seems to have successfully finished up Mark’s Big Adventure (that now has him much closer to my wrenching lair under that volcano in Wilmington NC) and officially settling into life as an East Coaster Autopian. 
• Luckily for all of Autopia, Co-Founding Wizard Jason seems to be in much better health as of late and hopefully he and I will get a chance to fix up his old Beetle or RV sometime soon. We recently had sushi together in Castle Hayne, NC with his son Otto when he became stranded on his way to pick up that Power Wagon he recently reviewed; it was nice.

Ok, so that was a quick glance around to see what everyone has been up to while I was out. Actually, David, Jason & Matt just warmly welcomed me back on their way out the door to their Pebble Beach gig with Beau. Wicked stoked for those dudes! 

So what brought me back to Autopia from my Sabbatical Of Deeper Learning From The Enchanting Wizard Of Rhythm, out in the wild, beyond the far reaches of the Outer Walls of our Great Realm? Why, it was Mercedes Streeter!

Note: I’m purposely leaving Adrian Clarke out of the above staff status rundown to exacerbate/ elevate/escalate his response in the Comments for your reading pleasure.

From The Jalopnik Comments Section To The Cape Fear

You see, Mercedes and I first crossed paths in the Comments Section of Jalopnik when David and Jason were busy making 2015 SWG a Certified Fan. Mercedes caught my eye with her interesting perspective on various articles over there and with her unique taste in cars/fleet choices. As someone who has repeatedly been told (even here at The Autopian) that I have horrible taste in cars, Mercedes and I seemed to be kindred spirits in our approach to doing what we wanted with cars and not following the crowd.

As you may have seen a couple of weeks back in Mercedes’ excellent recollection (click if you missed it), a treasure trove of late-40s Mopars (specifically Plymouths and DeSotos) were uncovered by an ex-colleague of mine during a failed real estate deal. He reached out to me to let me know about these ancient, beautiful cars that were sitting an hour away from my Evil Wrenching Lair in Wilmington NC, and asked for an exorbitant finders fee if I was interested (50% of the purchase price, per car). Yes, I did pay him his fee for the Citroen 2CV purchase that I made. No, I’m not a fan of him.

I immediately shared it in the Autopian Slack channel and the rest is history. Mercedes came down to Wilmington with a Press fleet F-250 all the way from IL. We hit the ocean, went to my girlfriend’s Italian restaurant in Downtown Wilmington that was featured in this classic Autopian tale and spent a little time with The Gossin Fleet, before heading out to Garland, NC to get Mercedes’ Plymouth. Mission: Success.

Score one for The Good Guys.

But Wait, That’s Only One Old Mopar!

That right and good ‘on ya (Laurence Rogers-speak) for recalling that there were multiple old Mopars for sale on that property and Mercedes only picked up one of them. The next-best car there was a ‘48 DeSoto S11 Custom with “Fluid Drive” that the seller was asking $500 for. Just look at this absolute gem:

After reading Mercedes’ article on the cars for sale, intrepid fellow Autopian Colton Paxton, aka user handle “5.7WK2” reached out to me cold on social media with interest in rescuing one of the cars on the property. He had his sights set on that DeSoto, since it was 2 brands “up-level” on the Chrysler brand ladder from the Plymouth that Mercedes bought, and was thus outfitted with a greater level of luxury.

Colton and I became fast friends (as we are also kindred Autopian spirits) and we arranged for a meet-up at the property the following weekend.

Wait, What’s A Fluid Drive?

I thought the same thing when I saw the badge. Apparently it was Chrysler’s offering in the marketplace in those early days of automatic transmissions; it wasn’t an automatic as we know them today, but the proto-version. Here’s what Mopar Bible Site “Allpar” has to say about it:

“Chrysler’s first fluid drive cars were introduced in 1939. They were equipped with a standard 3-speed manual transmission and clutch, but had a fluid coupling in place of the conventional flywheel. This set-up was available on all Chrysler models from 1940 through 1948, and on DeSoto and Dodge models from 1941 through 1946, at a slight extra cost. From 1947 through 1952, the fluid coupling/3-speed manual transmission combination was standard equipment on all Dodge models and optional on DeSotos.”

So, Colton was super pumped about having the optional Fluid Drive on the DeSoto he had his eye upon. If you look closely at the below photo, it comes with a wicked badass jewel at the end of the shifter. That’s baller as all hell, son!

Fun Side Note: DeSoto was named by Walter Chrysler after his favorite Conquistador, Hernando. The keys and trim of the car all have a Conquistador theme. Minus the historical records of terror they brought to The New World hundreds of years ago, that’s some wicked trim.

Did Someone Say “Backyard Auto Rescue”?!

This is the fun part of the story. So that following weekend (after Mercedes left with her Plymouth and I picked up my Citroen 2CV) Colton and I met in the exurbs of Garland NC, which is truly the middle of nowhere (Mercedes said the same thing the prior week). Colton arrives with his Hemi-powered Jeep Grand Cherokee, with a massive trailer that he borrowed from his buddy.

I showed up with fellow Autopian reader, fellow Wilmingtonian and friend Anthony Raynor (user handle “Turbo TicTac”, who is pictured on the cover shot of Mercedes piece helping her get the Plymouth ready to be loaded). Anthony had come out to help Mercedes and me the prior week and had spotted an old motorcycle trailer on the property that caught his eye.

He worked out a deal on it with the seller, Mr. Willie Shaw, and also scored a nearly new engine hoist as a part of the deal. The hoist went on the trailer, the trailer hooked up to his sweet S-10 and he was set! 

We’ve Got a Job to Do.

The DeSoto extraction posed a few potential challenges. The car had been sitting for what looked to be 11 to 12 years, per the date stamp on the license plate. But the tires were still holding air! Those cars had four-wheel drum brakes, so there was a decent possibility that at least one of them was locked up since the car was sitting on grass, and moisture wicks upward in that grassy scenario.

I brought an extra winch, thinking that in the unfortunate possibility that all four wheels were locked up we may need some extra pulling power to get the old heavy steel Mopar onto the trailer.  Speaking of “heavy” I probably should note that these cars were actually about the same weight as modern cars, and certainly lighter than modern EVs! That DeSoto Custom only weighs 3620lbs, the same as a ’25 Camry.

Colton showed up with a couple of his buddies, one of which was a locksmith, so they started their magic on getting the car opened up and in neutral, while Colton pulled the Hemi Grand Cherokee back into position.

Next was The Big Moment Of Truth regarding whether or not this car would be able to be removed from its decade-plus slumber in this backyard cove in the middle of nowhere.

It was go time (similar to “Bo Time”, but without the fried chicken. I live near a Bojangles) 

Luckily for us none of the wheels locked and the Grand Cherokee effortlessly pulled the beautiful, stately DeSoto out of the cove, and into position to be loaded on the trailer. 

Mission: Accomplished. Cheers, Autopians. 

I told Colton that I was going to write my “SWG Comeback Special” piece on his DeSoto rescue and he responded with the below:

“The story is about the car, I’m just its new keeper. Just trying to find a 6v battery local that’s not for golf carts. Speaking of, I’ve messed with it some. Parking brake works phenomenally. Hydraulic brakes, not so much. Have to pull a panel in the floorboard to get to the master cylinder. After all this rain, seals held up amazingly.

Slight leak on the corner vent windows, not enough to do damage but a small seep. I think I can seal it with some silicone. As far as reverse being out, haven’t had a chance to try it much but I’m fairly certain it’s the linkage. Column shift manuals do that shit.

I think I got it to where it’ll go in reverse (but who knows if reverse does work?). Last thing, I did find a leaky freeze plug I’ll have to replace. Luckily there’s gobs of room in there. All the coolant appears to have seeped out of there judging by the corrosion/rust build up around it. I cleaned up around it. Thought about trying to seal it with Indian head shellac, but since the engine is dry I’m probably going to replace all the freeze plugs with brass ones. They seem to hold up better in my experience.”

Now if that doesn’t sound like the exact kind of person that should get this car then I don’t know my Metrics from my SAEs. I’m wicked pumped that it went to a good home.

I was so wicked pumped at how well the extraction portion of the rescue went that I had a celebratory Stanley Tucci Negroni once back at The Evil Wrenching Lair.

So What’s Left Of Willie’s Collection?

Sadly, all that remains with four wheels are parts cars that are beyond saving (unless you’re a true maniac, then you could probably save two with parts from the 5 that are there). They’re all Plymouths and DeSotos from ’46-’48 and all parts are interchangeable; Willie knew what he liked.

He also liked bikes though, and has this (prized-to-him) BMW that was his last bike sitting in a shed with a title for $1500 if anyone is interested.

Time Comes For Us All, And For Our Cars.

When I first heard that there were a bunch of cool old cars for sale sitting in a hidden cove, on a rural property, about an hour Northwest of Wilmington, it seemed like a daunting task. Each of the cars have been there for over 10 years, with the resulting flat tires, dead batteries, bad gas, bugs/spiders (I got a nasty spider bite/swollen arm), ticks (got 2 bites), overgrowth, trailering concerns, purchasing concerns, key concerns, title concerns, logistical concerns and of course, mechanical concerns.

I became fast friends with Mr Willie Shaw, the owner of the cars and property. The man is a true Autopian at heart, and has an incredibly storied past. He ran and completed the Boston Marathon, and was a motorcycle cop in New York City in the ’70s-’80s, with some amazing stories. He once survived flipping his police cruiser on the Verrazano Bridge during a high-speed chase, and ferried numerous VIPs to the UN, and in and out of the city’s airports over the years on his police bike.

As will happen with each of us, life got to a point where Willie’s cars just weren’t needed nor were a priority any longer for him, although they were clearly still near and dear to his heart. 

I saw the look on his face and I saw the heaviness in his eyes when he watched Colton pull away with his DeSoto, as he watched Mercedes pull away with his Plymouth, and as he watched me pull away with his last-remaining Citroën 2CV.

You could sense the feeling that the man was watching years of his time, his toils, wrenching, money, effort, blood, tears and love pull away and drive away into the sunset with somebody else.

But there also was an underlying gratitude and happiness there, as Willie told me multiple times that he was happy that the cars were going to True Car Folks, those who would love them and treat them as he did over the years. He was happy they were going to be in good hands for the foreseeable future. 

Each of us will have a day where we will have to say goodbye to our cars (and to all of our worldly goods). Hopefully, that day is far off on the horizon for each of us. This experience made me realize that the years in between really do matter so much, and that life is too short to drive something that doesn’t truly move your soul. Mr Shaw’s face immediately lights up when speaking of his robust and glorious past with his many cars and bikes.

Willie lived out all of his dreams with his cars with the time he was given for them and with them; he made the most of it and seems to have done it well, and done it right.

A big special thanks to Mr. Willie Shaw for making the future dreams of others come true out of the remnants of his past dreams.

If only we all could be so lucky to be able to look backward with a smile and to also look forward with his kind grace and calming strength of acceptance of the autumn of our driving days.

88MPH into the future.

More S.W.G. below.