CarCapsule Helps Keep Jerry Carlson's Dream Alive
27th Jan 2016
It's May of 1970 and the first weekend of the month. I spotted a black chevelle ss driving down the streets of New Ulm Mn. I got to try and the catch up with the car to see who was driving this black beauty. I had dreamed of owning a car like this while in service at Fort Leanardwood Missouri. I had just returned the day before from finishing my basic and ait training, and was happy to see a car, not alone the girl driving this one. After finally stopping her, I discovered the car was a 1970 Chevelle SS with black interior, bucket seats, 4-speed transmission, and the 396 ci motor. I told her she was driving my dream car, and how lucky she was. She said she ordered it and picked it up from a local dealer a couple weeks ago, and it had 500 miles on it. I told her if she ever would want to sell it to please give me a call. Well who said dreams don't come true, I got a phone call a couple weeks later from her, asking if i was serious in buying the car. She said it was just to much of a car for her and she was looking into buying something different. She asked what i would pay her for it, she had put about 1200 miles on the last month. I told her i would be willing to give her what she payed new for it. She said she wanted a little more then that, and if i really liked it to give her a higher price. Of course she said she had another buyer that was interested in it, and i would have to out bid him. I finally offered her $300. over what she payed and we agreed on 4100. dollars. Don't sound like much now, but back then that was a lot of money. Now to talk my folks and the bank into a loan was my next problem. After a lot of wheeling and dealing and begging, I finally became the proud owner of the car the first week in June.
Time went on, and with a rough few years with several different jobs, and several accidents, one while I was driving a motorcycle and hitting and killing a 1000 lb cow that ran onto the road. That accident left me in a coma two weeks, a semi accident getting my knees smashed up and having several operations on them. Getting into a farm accident on a skid steer loader, and breaking my leg about my knee. The only good thing that happened was getting married in Sept. 1973, and having the Chevelle in the wedding of course. We had pictures taken in front of the church, and the chevelle had such a shine on it that you could see two flies sitting on the hood, in the pictures.
The Chevelle wasn't driven much overtime, in fact it never was driven in our Mn. Winters, it was always put into storage before the first snow flake fell. Today it's the second week of Jan. 2016 and the Chevelle was awarded a Gold Certification scoring over 950 points out of 1000. This award was won the third week of November 2015 at the Muscle car and Corvette show at Chicago.ILL. I finished a frame off restoration on it about a year ago, and am now in the process of correcting the few points i got deducted to make it a perfect 1000 point car. You see it's a complete number matching car, with 19000 original miles on it. I've spent hundreds of hours on it, and thousands of dollars in the restoration, and wanted it in a safe secure place. I decided to store it in my garage so i could keep a eye on it and maybe do some work over our cold, snowy Mn. Winter. I love being able to walk out in the garage and hear the bubble fan running, and see the big bubble around the car knowing that it's being protected. The fact that the air gets exchanged several times a hour, and the protection from rodents, and the dents and dings that can happen in a storage area really gives me a secure feeling.
The car bubble really works great, and was very easy to put up, and the see threw protective bubble is a neat way to see my dream car of 46 years. It was a dream that came true for me, and it's now a dream that came true for my son, who helped me restore the car. He also helps me show the car at car shows. With the help of the Car Capsule protecting it, my son will one day be the proud owner of My Black 1970 Chevelle SS, my dream car that came true.
Thank you for the great product and thanks to Phil Potocki for showing and talking me into purchasing it.
Jerry Carlson