Sunday, January 1, 2012

Rest In Peace...

Well, as you can see, Duke didn't get very far in blogging about his beloved Buick. The bulk of his internet time was spent searching for parts and techniques, and admiring the progress and completion of other Buicks. Sadly, I lost Duke to an unexpected lurking cancer on November 2, 2011. I know that he was devastated at never being able to finish this car, but as disabled as he was, it was never going to happen. This did not stop him trying, however, and I shudder to remember coming home from work one day to find the frame outside on the driveway and the body in the garage delicately balanced on wobbly stacks of 4x4's. This, in earthquake country! A few weeks later I come home to find a wheeled wooden frame under the body. A couple years later I come home to the car's frame back underneath it again. All this by himself, on a walker, with virtually no feeling in his hands, feet, or legs. The man was amazing. Well, he was a Marine, retired, and I think that had a lot to do with it.

Anyway, the point of this blog now will be to post the pictures I took of his project and to have somewhere to direct people in my quest to find shop or group to take this car, restore it to some semblance of what Duke envisioned, and then have it sold or auctioned with all or a major portion of the proceeds being donated to the Freedom Alliance as part of their scholarship program for college students of fallen or permanently disabled Marines.