A Pontiac in the snow

If you are saying right now that I am crazy and that I shouldn’t be driving my car out in such bad weather conditions, you are probably right. But as I was watching the snow fly outside my windows on January 19, 2024 I got to thinking that nobody ever takes their vintage cars out in this kind of weather.

 

And there is good reason for that. A lot of time, money and effort has been spent on getting our cars to the fine condition they are in. However, I must confess I never considered my car a “show” car. As I went through the process of restoring it my goal was to always have a vehicle that was as close to original as I could. I tried to make it as it was the day after it came out of the showroom, meaning it had been driven. Technically, I call any new car, “not new” the moment it leaves the dealer’s lot. At that point it is a driver and that's what I was going for with my car.

 

As far as driving around in the snow, it brought back a lot of memories of when I drove that car around during the winters of 1969 thru 1972. Luckily, Jan. 19, 2024 was not a bitter cold day. The under-seat heater is only marginally warm at best . But I wasn’t out very long, I only drove around the country block. The 7” long windshield wipers, vacuum operated, tried their best to keep up but I almost had to stop and clear the windshield of the snow buildup. It also looks like I need to replace them as they did a poor job of wiping the glass when they did function.  I did not drive very fast. Stopping distance would have been greatly increased if I needed to come to a quick halt. Fortunately no one else was out driving in this weather so I had the road to myself.

 

Although I don’t make it a practice of driving around in poor weather I just couldn’t miss an opportunity to take advantage of what I think is a great photo op.

 

Oh, and don’t worry about my car. The temperature is supposed to get up to 50 degrees next week and you can be sure I’ll get it cleaned and back to looking good.