Barry?

welcome back Barry as with Debbie i to send prayers for You and Yours. i have retired from the fitters and moved to colorado springs with the boys. Michael sold the orange pumpkin and then i bought the ivory 95 from california. we are working on a CORBA STANG now. as awalys impressed by Your work and beinging a good guy as well. CAR NUTS FOREVER. JD
 
Got an e-mail from LvC so I decided to check in. Life is good. Coming up on 4 years since my wife's battle and things pretty much went back to normal.

Last year I had the opportunity of a lifetime when our Mark II convertible was invited to Pebble Beach. They were celebrating Lincoln (yes, I know it's not a Lincoln) and the Lincoln Division asked us to apply and paid for the car's transportation once we were accepted.

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At this moment it's in Lincoln's design studio for inspiration. It's been there all winter. Let's hope it helps.

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PB is on my bucket list, beautiful Berry! Do you have any more pictures of the Mark II? How about that Mark VIII across the street form you?
 
Berry is a fruit. I am not. The Mark across the street still only has 6,000 miles on it. If you want pictures of the Mark II just Google "Mark II convertible". There's a bunch.

OK, one more.

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Here's another of my projects. Most young people aren't aware, but 1942 cars are pretty rare due to production stoppage during WWII. This project was started 10 years ago by the previous owner. I bought it as a restored 1000-piece jigsaw puzzle. It's on it's way to Oklahoma for an interior.

[video]http://vid244.photobucket.com/albums/gg18/barry2952/1941%20Lincoln%20Zephyr/MVI_4113_zps6dwg6kur.mp4[/video]
 
I finished the car in September and showed it at the Concours of America at St. Johns.

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On August 7th 2015 we set out to drive across Michigan to be in a Concours in St. Joseph when the car sputtered and would only do 55 when it had been doing 70 with no problem. I pulled off and could find nothing obvious so we turned around to head home to get a modern vehicle. We're on the BOD so we felt obligated to go, car or not.

We were minding our own business, doing 55 in the right lane, when a semi fast approached. I watched in horror as the Freightliner grill started to fill my rear-view mirror. At the very last second, maybe 10 feet off my rear bumper, the driver swerved and hit us full force in the left rear which sent us spinning after the semi tire rolled up the back of the car and started it tipping over.

We spun violently ay I'd say 70-90mph making my wife pass out. All she remembers is seeing the concrete bridge support and hearing breaking glass. I stayed conscious and hung onto the steering wheel as best I could. As she passed out we were hit by the falling trailer that contained bundles of scrap steel. It hit us like a baseball off a bat and sent us skidding sideways for 100 feet before a rear tire blew and the wheel dug into the dirt.

That caused the car to dig into the dirt and go airborne where it flipped side over side 5 times before we touched the ground. The car landed on the passenger side, flipping the door open and rolling on it's top. When the dust settled I found my wife hanging, unresponsive, from her seatbelt. I dreamed her name and got no response. I started to gather my wits and realized that I heard the familiar sound of burning brush.

I opened the latch on her seat belt and she fell on me. Luckily, she's half my weight. She was still unresponsive and I knew I had to get her out of the burning car, regardless of her injuries. I know you're not supposed to move a person in that condition, but I couldn't let her burn up. I pushed her out of the car and then realized that I couldn't move.

I now know that the rear impact hit me so hard that I was forced back into the seat, hitting the metal edge and ripping 2/3 of my hamstring on my left leg away from the butt bone. I rolled out of the car, over my wife's limp body and was able to pull myself up using the car to stand. My leg just wasn't working. I stood and saw fuel-fed flames 15-feet tall.

I reached down and grabbed my wife's wrist and flung her some distance from the burning wreck and crawled to her and started dragging her away scooting inched on my butt with my good leg. Out of nowhere a good Samaritan came along and snatched up my wife and took her to safety. I rolled over and started crawling and what knocked flat by the exploding gas tank. It's not at all as spectacular as you see on tv, but it packs a wallop.

Another person came along and started dragging me by my shirt to gain some more distance. Then 6 people shoed up and carried off my 6'5" 265lb body. My wife had regained consciousness and was asking the same question, over and over. She took a big hit to the head and was literally knocked silly. A fire crew showed up and put out the fire and they loaded us into an EMS van and took us to the closest hospital where they put us in side-by-side trauma rooms.

They ran every test possible on us, but aside from my ripped hamstring, a fractured orbital bone and severe tennis elbow on my wife we were spared any life-threatening injuries. The wanted to admit us for observation as no one could believe how virtually unscathed we were.

I was interviewed by the State Police while in the hospital and was asked, "Do you know how many times you flipped?", astonished to being able to talk to me. He knew from witnesses. I told him 5 times and his jaw dropped. I explained that even at that speed I counted 5 flashes of light as the windshield faced the sun. I asked if the semi driver survived and she walked away from the wreck with broken arm and other injuries.

I asked what happened and he said she said "I looked up and saw a red car, just before I swerved". Were trying to get the investigation report.

The pictures below are from Dan Kirkpatrick Interior's FB page, showing disturbing before and after pictures.

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I got my annual e-mail from Joey and thought I'd update this post.

The driver that hit us claimed that we passed her in her blind spot, on the shoulder, at 90 mph and cut her off, forcing her to spill her load and send us off into farmland. Her case still had not come to trial, but her insurance company saw through her BS after our depositions where their attorney was overheard on his phone stating, "You don't want these folks on the stand." Depositions took under 4 hours and a negotiated settlement took under two hours.

I did add to the collection. The lady I bought my 13,000 mile '77 Town Car from decided to let go of her 8,000 mile '98 Mark VIII and her nearly perfect 2002 Explorer. The dealer said it smelled like dog and only offered $1,000 for a 104,000 mile vehicle. I offered $1,500 and was happy to pay it. I saved that in rentals costs while waiting for my daily to be repaired.

Happy Holidays to all!

Not a mark on it. The guy was odd. He knew the car needed to be driven so he made his wife put miles on the car on nice days, but she was never allowed to park it anywhere, hence, no door dings or rust, anywhere.

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