I'll get around to that quote in a bit. The inspiration for this thread is Anne Goodman's fault. You see, I went to visit Anne yesterday to retrieve a better gas tank for the Super Hawk project I'm trying to breathe life back into. The tank from the 58 Packard Hawk Annie bought is gonna do dooty under the GT - I hope.
Anyway - as is usually the case when two Stude nuts have a pow-wow, we spent WAY longer than if I'd just picked up the tank and left. Actually, my spirits were lifted in her giving me a tour of the Goodman's back yard and garage. Now I don't feel so bad about all the cra..... er, stuff I've got jammed into my garage and other places.
But while I'd fully expected to come away from my visit with nothing more than the gas tank, it was not to be. No - Anne preyed upon me. While she didn't offer me a killer deal on stainless gravel guards for '51 Starlight coupes - didn't tempt me with NOS side grilles for '55 C-K cars - nor tease me with a '58 Packard Hawk horn button, she DID take advantage of my weakness for shiny stuff.
And how SMOOOOOOOTHLY she hooked me! 
She's pretending to be extolling Mabel's finer points - curbside - out front - when she acts like she just HAPPENS to notice a little, plastic bag on Mabel's front seat. "Oh!" she says with an aire of innocence.... "Look what I picked up at a garage sale the other day." Shaking the clink-clank contents of the bag into my hands - what's revealed is a set of chrome letters from the hood of a 1958 Oldsmobile Super 88. DANG! Knowing of my weakness (I mean, she must've known and planned this kill!) - she deftly suckered me into paying her DOUBLE what she had in these gleaming pot metal orphan artifacts. GAH!
But - but - OK..... I'm gonna make the best of this. I really am. If it hadn't been a '58 Olds Super, I could've resisted. But the truth is, I actually have fond memories of such a car, since I often rode in one during the latter part of 1963. I really admired that car and it made a lasting impression on me for sure. So here I was with a handful of '58 Olds that's about as close to having my OWN '58 Olds as time and money'll ever allow.
So, I get home and start cleaning these ten letters up a bit. A"bit" was all that was required as they look pretty darned nice just as Anne poured them into my hands. And it DOES take both hands to hold them adequately! They're big letters! So big that I was moved to weigh them on our digital kitchen scale. Which showed they came in right at one pound even. One POUND of glitz! Wonder how much extra gas it cost me to bring them from Anne's house to ours???
Anyways - that observation prompted me to consider what '58 Studebaker letters might weigh - me just happening to have a little drawer of extra letters from various Studes. Hah! The Stude letters (ten in number - just like Oldsmobile) weighed in at a feathery 2point6 ounces. My mind went right to Loewy's famed utterance: "Weight is the Enemy!". Hmmmmmm.... I wonder if Oldsmobile even bothered to enter the '58 Mobilgas Economy Runs????
Anyway - as is usually the case when two Stude nuts have a pow-wow, we spent WAY longer than if I'd just picked up the tank and left. Actually, my spirits were lifted in her giving me a tour of the Goodman's back yard and garage. Now I don't feel so bad about all the cra..... er, stuff I've got jammed into my garage and other places.
But while I'd fully expected to come away from my visit with nothing more than the gas tank, it was not to be. No - Anne preyed upon me. While she didn't offer me a killer deal on stainless gravel guards for '51 Starlight coupes - didn't tempt me with NOS side grilles for '55 C-K cars - nor tease me with a '58 Packard Hawk horn button, she DID take advantage of my weakness for shiny stuff. And how SMOOOOOOOTHLY she hooked me! She's pretending to be extolling Mabel's finer points - curbside - out front - when she acts like she just HAPPENS to notice a little, plastic bag on Mabel's front seat. "Oh!" she says with an aire of innocence.... "Look what I picked up at a garage sale the other day." Shaking the clink-clank contents of the bag into my hands - what's revealed is a set of chrome letters from the hood of a 1958 Oldsmobile Super 88. DANG! Knowing of my weakness (I mean, she must've known and planned this kill!) - she deftly suckered me into paying her DOUBLE what she had in these gleaming pot metal orphan artifacts. GAH!
But - but - OK..... I'm gonna make the best of this. I really am. If it hadn't been a '58 Olds Super, I could've resisted. But the truth is, I actually have fond memories of such a car, since I often rode in one during the latter part of 1963. I really admired that car and it made a lasting impression on me for sure. So here I was with a handful of '58 Olds that's about as close to having my OWN '58 Olds as time and money'll ever allow.
So, I get home and start cleaning these ten letters up a bit. A"bit" was all that was required as they look pretty darned nice just as Anne poured them into my hands. And it DOES take both hands to hold them adequately! They're big letters! So big that I was moved to weigh them on our digital kitchen scale. Which showed they came in right at one pound even. One POUND of glitz! Wonder how much extra gas it cost me to bring them from Anne's house to ours???
Anyways - that observation prompted me to consider what '58 Studebaker letters might weigh - me just happening to have a little drawer of extra letters from various Studes. Hah! The Stude letters (ten in number - just like Oldsmobile) weighed in at a feathery 2point6 ounces. My mind went right to Loewy's famed utterance: "Weight is the Enemy!". Hmmmmmm.... I wonder if Oldsmobile even bothered to enter the '58 Mobilgas Economy Runs????
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