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I got a call from a man in Virginia,. He was looking for a good home for his fathers’s 1967 Ford station wagon. Most people say the same phrase-” I don’t want this car to go to a painter or a drunk” I am not sure how these two things ever got intertwined in people’s minds, or became such a commonly used phrase, but I swear I hear it twice a month from some caller wanting to list a wagon in the classifieds. I told him I might be interested in the car, and I was at least not a painter.This wagon was somewhat unusual because it was a full size yet was built with the “big six”, the 240 cubic inch in line six. Also the car was not a base model Ranch wagon, but the middle model Country Sedan. The man told me his Father chose the car because it only had one exhaust manifold and he felt this would cause less problems than his previous vehicle which had leaky manifolds. He said they had named the wagon Tuffy the bus and had used it as a daily driver for twenty five years and even towed a small boat with it. It had been repainted twice but had seen better days.We arranged to meet in Richmond, Virginia and I took the 69 Squire up with a tow dolly. As soon as the big car was loaded, the fun began. My son and I had gone less than 5 miles when a torrential rain fall began pelting the two wagons. Also a wheel bearing began to stick on the tow dolly which would make the big wagon rock back and forth-not a good feeling. After a few hours we had made some progress and my son dozed off. I suddenly heard a very loud snap-bang sound and the windshield wipers quit working. The arm on the wiper motor had come off and the linkage lay down in the bowels of the cowl, not doing a darn thing. Tuffy did not seem to want to leave his home of forty years.

I was about ready to get a hotel as we drove a few miles with my son moving the wiper arm on his side with his arm out in the rain which moved the wiper on my side so I could see. My son wanted to get home and talked about the wonders of rainX. We stopped and got a bottle and put it on the windshield and the rain tapered off. We headed on, but time was getting short as darkness was falling. We made it well into North Carolina and were about two hour from home when I stopped for a coffee. We were low on gas and this exit had no gas stations, and each persons directions got more confusing on where the mystery station was. Finally, we got so low on gas, I had to drop Tuffy off in a florist’s parking lot and head on with out my big new friend. Later, still looking for gas we passed Tuffy in the lot and my son said “it sure seems strange to see our car in that parking lot. It was a weird night.

The next morning I headed back to the scene of the unloading and there sat Tuffy wondering what the heck was going on, muttering out his radiator that I was a painter or worse. When we got back to Charlotte I had four new whitewalls put on, got a complete brake job, and checked things out. I found some nice full size 67 galaxie wheelcovers on E Bay and found a new brake pad and horn ring at Green sales in Cincinnati. I put on a very nice leather wrap on the cracked steering wheel and old Tuffy went off to college with my son for some adventures.

When he was having parking space shortages at his apartment I brought Tuffy back home and use it for weekend runs to the salvage yards with the fellas and to carry used motor oil in the back so it does not get all over the back of the nicer wagons. The most stares at Tuffy came when I towed my 68 Montego convertible to the transmission repair shop with old blue 67. For some reason this scene cased many pedestrians to stop what they were doing and just stare at the unusual scene. I must say that the big six is a tough animal and tows up hills with no problem. I am not sure how the in line six ever fell out of favor on the American road. Every one I have ever had has been super. From what I have heard it was emissions laws that made these mighty sixes become obsolete. Again, thank you EPA.

I found a “Nixons the one” bumper sticker on E Bay I put on the tailgate and people seem to enjoy seeing Tuffy the bus do what their car will not do-last forty years and just a keep on working. You don’t need to spend top dollar to have fun, in fact, on a recent junk yard run, when we got our feet muddy at the salvage yard we did not have to worry about the carpet getting a little dirty and all our junk yard bounty fit right in the cavernous rear compartment. Go Tuffy go!