A Couple of Cutlass's

 This is part of the "MY CARS" series.  

Of the 35 or 40 cars and motorcycles I've owned over the years, only once (ok, twice) have I bought the almost exact same car again.  When I first moved to Texas back around 1977, my Datsun 510 wagon gave out on me across from one of the car dealers between Dallas and Fort Worth.  I hiked up the hill from the freeway and told the salesman to give me the cheapest car they had on the used car lot.

He showed me a 1969 Olds Cutlass 'S' that they had just taken in trade.  Back to the garage area we went, and here was a gold colored Cutlass 2dr hardtop that was filthy.  Dirt all over it, old tires in the trunk and back seat.  He said I could have it for $1,200, but they wanted to clean it up first.

I got a call a couple of days later and he told me the car was ready to be picked up.  He also said "you know, you're stealing this car from us".

It was beautiful.  Aztec Gold in color, shiny, 350-V8 with a 4bbl.  Automatic on the floor, buckets.  It drove nice, and looked nice.

Flash forward to the early 80's.  I was sitting at the local Burger King with my then-wife.  It was a beautiful day, and I mentioned that I would really love to have a convertible for days like this.  To my surprise, she agreed (she wasn't a car person).  We started talking about what kind of ragtop would be good.  I always loved my Cutlass hardtop and said "I wish I could find a Cutlass convertible, just like my old one".  I no sooner said that, and while looking out of the window, we saw a gold colored '69 Cutlass convertible drive by.

Click through the jump to read the rest of the story...

I picked up a paper while still at the burger joint and looked in the used car section.  There, in town, was a '69 Cutlass convertible for sale.  I thought, nah...couldn't be, so I called.  This is what I walked away with 1 hour and $2,000 later.

The same year, 1969.  The same color as my old one, Aztec Gold.  Same buckets, same console, same automatic on the floor, almost the same engine (350-V8, 2bbl).  Everything I wanted.  It was one of my favorite cars that I've owned.  I owned it until the late 80's when I sold it for another vintage Oldsmobile 4dr ht because by then I had kids.  I'm kicking myself in the butt still.

The mayor and his wife on the back, top county commissioner in front during a parade.

Ragtop with my other car...a then-new 1982 Pontiac 6000 2dr.

The popup we would tow with the Cutlass.

My son, wanting to inherit the convertible.

Sorry for the crappy picture quality, but those were scanned back when scanners were rare, computers were slow, and the operators (yours truly) didn't know about pixels and scanned them in absurdly small sizes.