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Steve Beckett’s 1965 Coupe
I have really enjoyed reading the members stories about how they acquired their cars and since Jim Lent is nagging me to death to do mine, this is my story. I always loved engines and cars. I started out with a Doodlebug mini bike, graduated to a chopped up Cushman motor scooter rigged with a Crosley 3 speed trans (with reverse) and bought a ‘55 Chevy 210 in my junior year of high school. It was pretty well
"wupped", but $500 fit my budget and I eventually put together a pretty nice 283 with an Edelbrock 3-2 setup, headers, 4-speed and a 4:11 rear end gear street rod.
From there I bought a "ready rod". A new 1966 SS 396, 4-speed Chevelle (couldn’t afford the
GTO) and drove that until I needed a presentable car for my real estate business and bought a ‘71 Impala off the dealers lot. Presentable, but plain, quiet and slow.
Many years past and I kind of put cars out of my mind until a few years ago when I started going to a few Good Guys show. I could finally take a few Saturdays or Sundays off from real estate by then and went where my heart lead me - Cars! And I was thinking of the tri-five Chevies because of my old ‘55. But the more I looked I found that it was difficult to locate one in decent condition, plus I began to notice the GTO’s more and more.
Then, my wife happened to mention that a guy in her office had a nice ‘56 Chevy and that he was going to be at a BBQ their office was having soon and that I should go and meet him. Well, I did go and that’s where I met club member Steve Barnett. And, over a few drinks, we decided that it would be a fine idea if we both bought GTO’s. He liked the ‘67 and I preferred the ‘65 style. So we weren’t stepping on each other’s toes looking for cars. We set out going to all the car shows in the bay area and the valley searching for our cars. We had a lot of fun looking and as it turned out I found mine on the Internet in Pittsburg and, having already joined the Golden Gate Goats, I put Steve onto a member that had offered his ‘67 to club members via an email I received from the club and he bought that car.
Getting the car and working on it has been a great diversion from work and I have enjoyed the many new friends I have made since I got back in the car hobby and joined the club.
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