Tim Churchill's '67 Cutlass Convertible

My name is Tim Churchill, and I live in Framingham, Massachusetts. I purchased my Cutlass in the summer of 1992 from a co-worker, who was complaining one day over lunch that his wife wanted him to get rid of his old convertible, to make room in their garage for her new minivan.

Now, as it happened, I was just starting to look around for a new project car. I had just been married & moved into a new house a couple of months previous, so now that the dust had settled, I was in the market for a new toy. My criteria at the time was that it had to be a GM make, preferably A-body, of the mid-to-late 60's vintage... oh yes, and it *had* to be a convertible. I had already owned a a '69 Chevelle ragtop, so I was leaning more towards one of the B-O-P offerings anyways.
As soon as I heard it was a '67 Cutlass, we agreed that I'd followed my co-worker to his house that evening to check it out. Well, one look, and a jaunt around the block, and I was hooked. The paint was tired, as was the upholstery, but there was almost no rot on the car, and no dents. And despite the fact that it had sat in his garage for afew years, it didn't take too much to get it running again.
It no longer had a 330; he told me he blew up the engine years before, and replaced it and it's 2 speed jet-a-way with a 350/TH350 combination from a '73 Cutlass. And naturally, he didn't keep the 330 or tranny, so the car could never be restored to original. And it had an aftermarktet radio.
But, it had pretty much everything else, including 5 SSI wheels. $1500 later, it was mine.

I didn't do too much with the car that first year, other than fix or replace those things I needed to to get it driveable. In 1993, I had the seats re-upholstered and got the car painted. The shop that did it brought the car down to bare metal. Only rust spots were just in front of the rear wheel openings. It was repainted its original Spanish Red. With that red interior, it's small wonder why I call the car "Big Red".

This picture was taken in August '93, when my wife & I took Big Red down to Cape Cod on vacation. The body of water with all the sailboats in the background is Pleasant Bay in Chatham, MA.

This is another shot of the car parked on Pleasant Bay. What a relaxing trip that was! Especially since it was our last vacation before the twins were born...

Fast forward to August, 1998. The next three pictures were taken one morning when I was dropping the kids off at daycare. The paint is holding up fantastically well... of course, the car is put away in winter storage for 5 months out of year, and is garaged the rest of the time; so the paint doesn't get too much exposure to the elements anyway. The biggest changes from the 1993 pictures are new tires, and freshly re-chromed bumpers. Both twins are in the back seat, though you can see Michael better than Helen. That Caddy behind Big Red is my "winter beater", a.k.a. Old Gold.

And the back end view. You can almost make out the license plate bracket for Ron Jon Surf shop in Cocoa Beach, FL. Just a souvenir from a business trip to Cape Canaveral.

There's still some things left to do on the car. I want to get the air conditioning fully functional again; I have all the pieces, just not the time. I want to replace the top, too. It looks okay from a distance, but it's strecthed and worn looking, plus it leaks like a sieve.

And I have a 455 on a stand, waiting for a rebuild, to have handy whenever the currently well running 350 gets tired. That'll wake the car up!