OK, you have to look at all pages of post's on this thread because I have posted many new pic's and info as I get it.... so Just don't look at the first page of pic's and think that's it.
it's a 50 drag car out of new york. found in the Arizona. desert after being parked for 48 years. orig. owner just died. he was a member of the rod snappers car club n.y. rust looks bad but it's only surface.

OK, so I will relay to you guys what I can put together after speaking to his x wife and daughter.....
John Breen from freeport long island and built this car at the age of 16- 18 and was a member of the rod snappers club in freeport . the club would hold there meetings at the local police station in an effort to keep kids from drag racing on the street. the car was featured on the Steve Allen show in may of 1959 for it's design, size and that it's appearance is representative of the hot rod cars of the day and because of it's photographic qualities. john raced the car from 58-60 at westhampton and one other raceway in New York where the car turned in it's best time on 93.2 miles an hour.
car was also shown in Many car shows from New York, new Jersey and Connecticut
in 1961 john bought a trailer park in Ehrenberg Arizona after doing 2 years in the service, then packed up his belongings and trailered the car to Arizona. the x wife said that he ran the car at lions 3-4 times then the car was parked where it has been ever since.
his daughter Linda said her dad suffered from o.c.d. which she also has but unlike her father she realizes that she has it where john would not except he had a problem. she said it's hard for her to throw anything away, if she opens a cabinet all the labels on cans have to face the same direction, clothes are arranged from light to dark and so on... for her it's a nightmare. but her father was x 10 with the o.c.d.
well it's a good thing as far as the car is concerned because he kept everything in a folder that he had on the car and I mean everything!
I have the recipes for every nut, bolt and washer that he bought for the car.
john had 30 trailers on his property that he rented but after his wife had enough took the two daughters and left.
john started buying the trailer from his renters and leaving them vacant would walk around his place naked then had the water and gas shut off. kinda going the same way that Howard Hughes went. Linda said she had thrown away all the notes that people had left for the last 48 years of people wanting to buy the car.
john had moved big boulders in front of his place with signs the read " stay off my property or I will f#@king kill you'' towards the end if you would even be by the highway he would come out with a gun!
Linda said her dad woke up one day did not feel well so she took him to the va hospital where they found out he was full of cancer even in his bones, he lasted about 4 weeks after that.
back to the car, his x wife said he had painted it with the same paint they used on cigarette machines, black with white specs in it zolatone?
she also said that john would mention some guy named don garlits that had something to do with the car. she thought he was a nascar guy... I told her no he was a retired drag racer. she said that his name is in the paper work that came with the car but I have not found anything. I'm hoping some of the guy's that where members of the freeport rod snappers can help me fill in more of the gaps.
as I learn more I will update you guys.

drag car out of new york. found in the Arizona. desert after being parked for 48 years. orig. owner just died. he was a member of the rod snappers car club n.y. rust looks bad but it's only surface.

OK, so I will relay to you guys what I can put together after speaking to his x wife and daughter.....
John Breen from freeport long island and built this car at the age of 16- 18 and was a member of the rod snappers club in freeport . the club would hold there meetings at the local police station in an effort to keep kids from drag racing on the street. the car was featured on the Steve Allen show in may of 1959 for it's design, size and that it's appearance is representative of the hot rod cars of the day and because of it's photographic qualities. john raced the car from 58-60 at westhampton and one other raceway in New York where the car turned in it's best time on 93.2 miles an hour.
car was also shown in Many car shows from New York, new Jersey and Connecticut
in 1961 john bought a trailer park in Ehrenberg Arizona after doing 2 years in the service, then packed up his belongings and trailered the car to Arizona. the x wife said that he ran the car at lions 3-4 times then the car was parked where it has been ever since.
his daughter Linda said her dad suffered from o.c.d. which she also has but unlike her father she realizes that she has it where john would not except he had a problem. she said it's hard for her to throw anything away, if she opens a cabinet all the labels on cans have to face the same direction, clothes are arranged from light to dark and so on... for her it's a nightmare. but her father was x 10 with the o.c.d.
well it's a good thing as far as the car is concerned because he kept everything in a folder that he had on the car and I mean everything!
I have the recipes for every nut, bolt and washer that he bought for the car.
john had 30 trailers on his property that he rented but after his wife had enough took the two daughters and left.
john started buying the trailer from his renters and leaving them vacant would walk around his place naked then had the water and gas shut off. kinda going the same way that Howard Hughes went. Linda said she had thrown away all the notes that people had left for the last 48 years of people wanting to buy the car.
john had moved big boulders in front of his place with signs the read " stay off my property or I will f#@king kill you'' towards the end if you would even be by the highway he would come out with a gun!
Linda said her dad woke up one day did not feel well so she took him to the va hospital where they found out he was full of cancer even in his bones, he lasted about 4 weeks after that.
back to the car, his x wife said he had painted it with the same paint they used on cigarette machines, black with white specs in it zolatone?
she also said that john would mention some guy named don garlits that had something to do with the car. she thought he was a nascar guy... I told her no he was a retired drag racer. she said that his name is in the paper work that came with the car but I have not found anything. I'm hoping some of the guy's that where members of the freeport rod snappers can help me fill in more of the gaps.
as I learn more I will update you guys.

My 89 Jaguar XJ6

Underbonnet shots of an Aygo Sport. This model DIDNT have the aircon, so theres a lot less pipework to be seen

The guys from Paramount Pictures were freaked when we drove the replica of the Camaro Concept that's starring as Bumblebee in this summer's megamovie Transformers. Scratching it, they assured us, was as good as a death sentence.

Letting us drive this 1976 Camaro, which shares the role in the film, was a little less stressful for them. "Go ahead," one member of the Transformers Transportation Department told us. "It's just an old Camaro."

It's one thing for the makers of Transformers to expect audiences to suspend their disbelief for a few hours and accept that there are robots from outer space that can transform themselves from ordinary vehicles into giant killing machines. It's something altogether different to expect those same audiences to believe that a teenager can afford a new '09 Camaro. So when Bumblebee, the "Autobot" hero of the film first appears, he is this clapped-out rolling turd — a '76 Camaro featuring every mistake a hot-rodder could possibly make. Later on, he becomes the '09.

But don't mistake this beater Bumblebee for a P.O.S. It may look like a trailer park reject, but it actually drives pretty well, plus it has a charisma all its own.

Looking for Lousy
Back when Transformers was a cheaply produced cartoon instead of a big-budget, live-action summer blockbuster, Bumblebee was a cute yellow VW Beetle that changed into a robot nearly as cute and far less intimidating. For the film, the trick was to find a car that was affordable enough so that human hero Spike Witwicky (Shia LaBeouf) could acquire it, and yet could transform into a robust defender of humanity's continued existence. That car also had to exude the humble, likable personality of the original Bumblebee.

And it wouldn't hurt if Bumblebee were a General Motors product.

"Originally, before GM was into it, I was pushing for Bumblebee to be a Super Bee," said Production Designer Jeff Mann, referencing the classic Dodge Coronet-based muscle car of the late-'60s and early-'70s. "It was the obvious choice. Then GM came to town, so I picked the crappiest-era Camaro. But I didn't want body-color bumpers. It needed to have chrome bumpers.

"GM originally suggested a '69 for the trashy Camaro. But that was too on the nose. It would have been going from cool to cool. Plus, any schmuck knows that there are no more trashy '69 Camaros. I wanted this to be the crummiest Camaro possible from the worst year possible that still had chrome bumpers. After all, theoretically the kid buys it for $4,000 and his friends give him crap about it."

Go back over the history of the Camaro and the 1976 model stands out as just about the worst. There was no Z28 offered that year and the most powerful engine offered, a four-barrel-equipped 350, could only manage 165 horsepower. But it's still a second-generation Camaro, and that's still kind of cool.

Isn't it?

Building a Better Beater Bee
While Saleen built the two 2009 Camaro Bumblebees from donor Pontiac GTOs, the three Beater Bee Camaros came out of the Transformers picture car department working under Picture Vehicle Coordinator Steve Mann (no relation to Production Designer Jeff Mann). "We found all the old Camaros online," recalled Steve Mann. "One was in Palmdale, California; one from Whittier, California and the third in Oklahoma. They all cost less than $6,000 and one of them was less than $2,000."

All three cars were rebuilt and equipped with 330-hp GM Performance Parts 350-cubic-inch (5.7-liter) small-block V8 engines, topped by Edelbrock Pro-Flo electronic fuel-injection systems feeding Jegs 3/4-length tubular headers. Each also got a rebuilt Turbo-hydramatic 350 three-speed automatic transmission from CRC Transmissions feeding their stock rear ends. The suspension was rebuilt with an eye toward achieving that particular rake that practically begs cops to stop a car and search it for methamphetamines.

The point of the mechanical refurbishment was to ensure the old cars would withstand the rigors of filming without breakdowns and with adequate performance. It's the decoration of the Camaros that would help tell the movie's story.

The Right Kind of Disaster
Like everything else in a movie, nothing was left to chance in how the Bumblebee would look. Director Michael Bay and Production Designer Jeff Mann knew that the car would be yellow and likely have black stripes going in, but details like the mismatched Eric Vaughn Real Wheels in back and Cragar SS wheels in front were hashed out during the production design process.

"I think Michael wanted it to look like it had been attacked by an angry girlfriend," explains Jeff Mann. "We wanted it to be fun, but not totally garish."

The big challenge wasn't really the exterior — the pop-riveted cowl induction hood and fake rust were no-brainers — but the interior. "It really was an 11th-hour decision on the interior," said Jeff Mann. "Originally the cars had restored stock interiors. But Michael hated that. He said 'Make it more friendly and not a black hole.' So I just went for it. We had five days to turn that interior all around. We used Glide '65 Chevelle seats because Glide had them in stock and we had to do this instantly. We used AutoMeter Cobalt gauges in a Covan's Classic instrument panel from the Summit Racing Web site. A Grant steering wheel and a B&M ratchet shifter. Then we put together the color combinations and Michael blessed it."

Suitably aged, the '76 Camaro's interior is a riot of goofball and archaic car-building right down to its eight-track player. In short, it's wicked cool.

Better Than It Ought To Be
There's nothing surprising about how the Beater Bee works or drives. Of course the doors droop on their hinges — because the massive doors on all second-generation Camaros droop. Naturally the rear end sort of bounces around if you hit a road divot — after all, that's a solid axle back there on leaf springs and air shocks. And if the car goes in the direction the driver intends for it to go, that has little to do with feel-free steering. But come on. Old Camaros aren't new Camrys.

Turn the key and the engine starts instantly; there's no need to pump the accelerator pedal or pray for the starter to catch. The fuel-injected small-block idles like a Cadillac and the throttle is nicely progressive. It's loud, but it's the right kind of loud, with an obvious V8 growl.

Give it enough gas and there's more than enough power to fillet the 275/60R15 BFGoodrich radials off their wheels one ply of rubber at a time. But this isn't a street-racing engine; it's an easygoing drive-it-every-day motor. And the car is likely quick enough to run, say, low 15s or high 14s in the quarter-mile. Sure, the vinyl covering much of the interior is marine grade and it takes two hands to work the heavily sprung shifter, but so what?

Going by conventional hot-rodding wisdom, this is exactly the sort of car we're not even supposed to like. And that makes it that much more lovable.

The rust is fake, the wheels don't match, the hood scoop is riveted on haphazardly and the front spoiler is broken. So it's perfect.

Stored alongside other Transformers vehicles at a race shop in Valencia, California, are the two beater Bumblebees that survived the production in running condition. The third was fitted with a prop engine for a scene.

All the '76 Camaros portraying Bumblebee were fitted with GM Performance Parts "350 H.O." 330-horsepower small-block V8s. With a modest 9.1:1 compression ratio, this iron-block/iron-head engine supplied adequate power for the production.

Line locks are a stunt driver's best friend, making burnouts and powerslides that much easier.

Fake rust so good that up close, it looks like real rust. That's movie magic!

While the reupholstered door panels and seats are a bit of an indulgence, most of the other changes inside the Bumblebee's artificially aged interior are typical modifications, from the new dash panel and Grant steering wheel to the B&M shifter.

The seats are from Glide and intended for a '64 or '65 Chevelle. They're flat and covered in vinyl, but they're surprisingly comfortable.

Much of the interior is trimmed with a gray, marine-grade glitter vinyl that looks like it's right out of the 1976 Los Angeles Boat Show. It's trashy, heats up like a blowtorch in the sun and looks about perfect.

as good as a death sentence.

Letting us drive this 1976 Camaro, which shares the role in the film, was a little less stressful for them. "Go ahead," one member of the Transformers Transportation Department told us. "It's just an old Camaro."

It's one thing for the makers of Transformers to expect audiences to suspend their disbelief for a few hours and accept that there are robots from outer space that can transform themselves from ordinary vehicles into giant killing machines. It's something altogether different to expect those same audiences to believe that a teenager can afford a new '09 Camaro. So when Bumblebee, the "Autobot" hero of the film first appears, he is this clapped-out rolling turd — a '76 Camaro featuring every mistake a hot-rodder could possibly make. Later on, he becomes the '09.

But don't mistake this beater Bumblebee for a P.O.S. It may look like a trailer park reject, but it actually drives pretty well, plus it has a charisma all its own.

Looking for Lousy
Back when Transformers was a cheaply produced cartoon instead of a big-budget, live-action summer blockbuster, Bumblebee was a cute yellow VW Beetle that changed into a robot nearly as cute and far less intimidating. For the film, the trick was to find a car that was affordable enough so that human hero Spike Witwicky (Shia LaBeouf) could acquire it, and yet could transform into a robust defender of humanity's continued existence. That car also had to exude the humble, likable personality of the original Bumblebee.

And it wouldn't hurt if Bumblebee were a General Motors product.

"Originally, before GM was into it, I was pushing for Bumblebee to be a Super Bee," said Production Designer Jeff Mann, referencing the classic Dodge Coronet-based muscle car of the late-'60s and early-'70s. "It was the obvious choice. Then GM came to town, so I picked the crappiest-era Camaro. But I didn't want body-color bumpers. It needed to have chrome bumpers.

"GM originally suggested a '69 for the trashy Camaro. But that was too on the nose. It would have been going from cool to cool. Plus, any schmuck knows that there are no more trashy '69 Camaros. I wanted this to be the crummiest Camaro possible from the worst year possible that still had chrome bumpers. After all, theoretically the kid buys it for $4,000 and his friends give him crap about it."

Go back over the history of the Camaro and the 1976 model stands out as just about the worst. There was no Z28 offered that year and the most powerful engine offered, a four-barrel-equipped 350, could only manage 165 horsepower. But it's still a second-generation Camaro, and that's still kind of cool.

Isn't it?

Building a Better Beater Bee
While Saleen built the two 2009 Camaro Bumblebees from donor Pontiac GTOs, the three Beater Bee Camaros came out of the Transformers picture car department working under Picture Vehicle Coordinator Steve Mann (no relation to Production Designer Jeff Mann). "We found all the old Camaros online," recalled Steve Mann. "One was in Palmdale, California; one from Whittier, California and the third in Oklahoma. They all cost less than $6,000 and one of them was less than $2,000."

All three cars were rebuilt and equipped with 330-hp GM Performance Parts 350-cubic-inch (5.7-liter) small-block V8 engines, topped by Edelbrock Pro-Flo electronic fuel-injection systems feeding Jegs 3/4-length tubular headers. Each also got a rebuilt Turbo-hydramatic 350 three-speed automatic transmission from CRC Transmissions feeding their stock rear ends. The suspension was rebuilt with an eye toward achieving that particular rake that practically begs cops to stop a car and search it for methamphetamines.

The point of the mechanical refurbishment was to ensure the old cars would withstand the rigors of filming without breakdowns and with adequate performance. It's the decoration of the Camaros that would help tell the movie's story.

The Right Kind of Disaster
Like everything else in a movie, nothing was left to chance in how the Bumblebee would look. Director Michael Bay and Production Designer Jeff Mann knew that the car would be yellow and likely have black stripes going in, but details like the mismatched Eric Vaughn Real Wheels in back and Cragar SS wheels in front were hashed out during the production design process.

"I think Michael wanted it to look like it had been attacked by an angry girlfriend," explains Jeff Mann. "We wanted it to be fun, but not totally garish."

The big challenge wasn't really the exterior — the pop-riveted cowl induction hood and fake rust were no-brainers — but the interior. "It really was an 11th-hour decision on the interior," said Jeff Mann. "Originally the cars had restored stock interiors. But Michael hated that. He said 'Make it more friendly and not a black hole.' So I just went for it. We had five days to turn that interior all around. We used Glide '65 Chevelle seats because Glide had them in stock and we had to do this instantly. We used AutoMeter Cobalt gauges in a Covan's Classic instrument panel from the Summit Racing Web site. A Grant steering wheel and a B&M ratchet shifter. Then we put together the color combinations and Michael blessed it."

Suitably aged, the '76 Camaro's interior is a riot of goofball and archaic car-building right down to its eight-track player. In short, it's wicked cool.

Better Than It Ought To Be
There's nothing surprising about how the Beater Bee works or drives. Of course the doors droop on their hinges — because the massive doors on all second-generation Camaros droop. Naturally the rear end sort of bounces around if you hit a road divot — after all, that's a solid axle back there on leaf springs and air shocks. And if the car goes in the direction the driver intends for it to go, that has little to do with feel-free steering. But come on. Old Camaros aren't new Camrys.

Turn the key and the engine starts instantly; there's no need to pump the accelerator pedal or pray for the starter to catch. The fuel-injected small-block idles like a Cadillac and the throttle is nicely progressive. It's loud, but it's the right kind of loud, with an obvious V8 growl.

Give it enough gas and there's more than enough power to fillet the 275/60R15 BFGoodrich radials off their wheels one ply of rubber at a time. But this isn't a street-racing engine; it's an easygoing drive-it-every-day motor. And the car is likely quick enough to run, say, low 15s or high 14s in the quarter-mile. Sure, the vinyl covering much of the interior is marine grade and it takes two hands to work the heavily sprung shifter, but so what?

Going by conventional hot-rodding wisdom, this is exactly the sort of car we're not even supposed to like. And that makes it that much more lovable.

The rust is fake, the wheels don't match, the hood scoop is riveted on haphazardly and the front spoiler is broken. So it's perfect.

Stored alongside other Transformers vehicles at a race shop in Valencia, California, are the two beater Bumblebees that survived the production in running condition. The third was fitted with a prop engine for a scene.

All the '76 Camaros portraying Bumblebee were fitted with GM Performance Parts "350 H.O." 330-horsepower small-block V8s. With a modest 9.1:1 compression ratio, this iron-block/iron-head engine supplied adequate power for the production.

Line locks are a stunt driver's best friend, making burnouts and powerslides that much easier.

Fake rust so good that up close, it looks like real rust. That's movie magic!

While the reupholstered door panels and seats are a bit of an indulgence, most of the other changes inside the Bumblebee's artificially aged interior are typical modifications, from the new dash panel and Grant steering wheel to the B&M shifter.

The seats are from Glide and intended for a '64 or '65 Chevelle. They're flat and covered in vinyl, but they're surprisingly comfortable.

Much of the interior is trimmed with a gray, marine-grade glitter vinyl that looks like it's right out of the 1976 Los Angeles Boat Show. It's trashy, heats up like a blowtorch in the sun and looks about perfect.

CONCORD, N.C. (March 24, 2000) -- One of the most radical and recognizable show cars of the 1970s, the Coca-Cola soft drink-inspired Vending Machine, is coming out of retirement to be displayed at Lowe's Motor Speedway's Food Lion AutoFair, April 6-9.

The golden age of wild custom cars was documented in and boosted by Tom Wolfe's now-famous magazine article "The Kandy-Kolored Tangerine-Flake Streamline Baby." The article, which took an intellectual approach to its lowbrow subject, first turned on mainstream America to the custom car craze in the early '60s. Wolfe praised and immortalized the customizers he met as being true artists outside the stifling confines of high culture. Wolfe's article was like a red carpet into the hall of popular culture for the West Coast Kar Kustomizers and their wacky creations.

Cars shaped like giant guitars, sunglasses, pianos and the like were soon spotted on the pages of Life magazine, on television programs and in countless sets of bubble gum trading cards. Everyone in show business had cars specially built to reflect -- maybe "magnify" is a better word -- the celebrity's most valuable assets or talent. In the late '60s it was no longer necessary to visit Southern California for a glimpse of the custom car world; every small burg in America had a guy with a welding torch and a dream.

In 1967, Indiana natives Glen Yeary and Steve Tansy were touring a Coca-Cola bottling plant in Kokomo with intentions to purchase a couple of old bottle dispenser machines. Seeing the plant operating at full speed must have been inspiring, for the young men hit upon the idea of combining Coke, the world's most popular soft drink, with the automobile, America's favorite object of obsession. When Yeary and Tansy explained their vision of a rolling Coca-Cola icon, they were given a couple of the old machines free of charge.

Yeary went right to work on the project; building the entire chassis by hand in his garage. The two young men installed a potent drivetrain consisting of a 327-cid Chevrolet V-8, automatic transmission and Corvette rear axle. The V-8 sports not one, not two, but four four-barrel carburetors -- each with its own ram-air intake. Eight straight header pipes exit into two collectors that do little to muffle the engine's thunder.

The huge rear tires are drag racer-style, typical of the period when acceleration was everything and performance cars only went in a straight line for a quarter-mile at a time. They measure 16 inches across and wrap around Cragar mag wheels.

Tansy, who operated a body shop at the time, used his talents to build the machine's vintage "cab-over" Model T body. Using actual parts from the Coke machines they'd acquired during their tour, Tansy carefully blended the dispenser doors into the sides of the cab. Once the basic body outline was complete, the interior was upholstered with Coke red plush material and twist-off caps for buttons. Two 24-bottle wooden Coke cartons make up the seats on which cushions were placed. The transmission shifter grip is the old vending machine's handle.

Carrying the Coca-Cola theme to the extreme, the two Hoosiers dyed two bottles red on the inside and mounted them to the rear of the car for brake lights (accompanied by bottle openers). The stoplight bottles flank a beautiful Coke cooler that hides the gas tank. Perhaps the most eye-catching and humorous application of Coke-related hardware is the radiator-mounted fountain spigot.

"The Coca-Cola people wanted us to put a spigot on the radiator that would actually dispense their product," Yeary remembers. "We thought better of it because people might spill some on the car."

When they were done, Yeary and Tansy had spent three years and $10,000 to build a Coke machine on wheels. What followed was a decade at the top of the custom car show world.

Yeary, who brought the retired Vending Machine with him when he relocated to the Charlotte area this year, says he only has one regret about the whole experience. It involves the 1/25-scale plastic model kit of his car produced in 1970 by the Model Products Corporation.

"MPC gave us boxes of the model when it came out," Yeary says. "We used to give them out for free to kids at shows. I only kept one of the unopened model kits for my son; now they are worth around $300 to $400. Oh well, I still have the real car."

Lowe's Motor Speedway's Food Lion AutoFair, April 6-9.

The golden age of wild custom cars was documented in and boosted by Tom Wolfe's now-famous magazine article "The Kandy-Kolored Tangerine-Flake Streamline Baby." The article, which took an intellectual approach to its lowbrow subject, first turned on mainstream America to the custom car craze in the early '60s. Wolfe praised and immortalized the customizers he met as being true artists outside the stifling confines of high culture. Wolfe's article was like a red carpet into the hall of popular culture for the West Coast Kar Kustomizers and their wacky creations.

Cars shaped like giant guitars, sunglasses, pianos and the like were soon spotted on the pages of Life magazine, on television programs and in countless sets of bubble gum trading cards. Everyone in show business had cars specially built to reflect -- maybe "magnify" is a better word -- the celebrity's most valuable assets or talent. In the late '60s it was no longer necessary to visit Southern California for a glimpse of the custom car world; every small burg in America had a guy with a welding torch and a dream.

In 1967, Indiana natives Glen Yeary and Steve Tansy were touring a Coca-Cola bottling plant in Kokomo with intentions to purchase a couple of old bottle dispenser machines. Seeing the plant operating at full speed must have been inspiring, for the young men hit upon the idea of combining Coke, the world's most popular soft drink, with the automobile, America's favorite object of obsession. When Yeary and Tansy explained their vision of a rolling Coca-Cola icon, they were given a couple of the old machines free of charge.

Yeary went right to work on the project; building the entire chassis by hand in his garage. The two young men installed a potent drivetrain consisting of a 327-cid Chevrolet V-8, automatic transmission and Corvette rear axle. The V-8 sports not one, not two, but four four-barrel carburetors -- each with its own ram-air intake. Eight straight header pipes exit into two collectors that do little to muffle the engine's thunder.

The huge rear tires are drag racer-style, typical of the period when acceleration was everything and performance cars only went in a straight line for a quarter-mile at a time. They measure 16 inches across and wrap around Cragar mag wheels.

Tansy, who operated a body shop at the time, used his talents to build the machine's vintage "cab-over" Model T body. Using actual parts from the Coke machines they'd acquired during their tour, Tansy carefully blended the dispenser doors into the sides of the cab. Once the basic body outline was complete, the interior was upholstered with Coke red plush material and twist-off caps for buttons. Two 24-bottle wooden Coke cartons make up the seats on which cushions were placed. The transmission shifter grip is the old vending machine's handle.

Carrying the Coca-Cola theme to the extreme, the two Hoosiers dyed two bottles red on the inside and mounted them to the rear of the car for brake lights (accompanied by bottle openers). The stoplight bottles flank a beautiful Coke cooler that hides the gas tank. Perhaps the most eye-catching and humorous application of Coke-related hardware is the radiator-mounted fountain spigot.

"The Coca-Cola people wanted us to put a spigot on the radiator that would actually dispense their product," Yeary remembers. "We thought better of it because people might spill some on the car."

When they were done, Yeary and Tansy had spent three years and $10,000 to build a Coke machine on wheels. What followed was a decade at the top of the custom car show world.

Yeary, who brought the retired Vending Machine with him when he relocated to the Charlotte area this year, says he only has one regret about the whole experience. It involves the 1/25-scale plastic model kit of his car produced in 1970 by the Model Products Corporation.

"MPC gave us boxes of the model when it came out," Yeary says. "We used to give them out for free to kids at shows. I only kept one of the unopened model kits for my son; now they are worth around $300 to $400. Oh well, I still have the real car."