Isn’t the car finished yet? Is the bank account strained and 2015 already here? Is there about to be another summer without a classic car where you just visit car meets? – Forget about it! Complete it now! Do it in just one weekend with the help of friends and ride all summer long. By Lars Krantz. Translation Ellen Kay Krantz.
Mission 47 with unique material never before published.
The project car Mission 47 was created in 2008 in the now bankruptcy magazine Classic Börsen. The story of Mission 47 has repeatedly been in high-demand ever since. We are going to start with unique material never before published but first the original starting point in 2008. This is how it looked like, wonderful layout by Åsa Hjelm.
Does the makeover of a car have to take three years, ruin relationships and end with a paintjob for 4600$? Is that happiness?
Maybe I’m starting to get old, but I remember a time when disengaged hubcaps and chromed plastic screw-nuts was hot before midsummer weekend of -77. I remember when a couple of friends painted a car for less than 120$ and kept its shine the whole summer through.
Is your car standing on flat tires, kind of rusty with a tired looking paint in the garage? Are you feeling pressured by the ones dividing the trunk cover to see if there is possibly any rust between the sheets? Forget about it.
We are going to quick-fix the car, we’re gonna’ have a good time doing it and we will above everything RIDE this summer! It is high time for a Mission 47. Five heroes gather to transform a worn down car to a smooth roller in 47 hours. And all of this to the cost of 1300$. Ride along.
This far we have been going through the old start of this series. This builds the background to the car never before published.
New, unique material.
It all started long before we ever even knew the Buick existed. In 2003 Krantz went to Manhattan to partake in a production for SVT (Swedish Public Broadcast) and assist with a couple of small things for Swedish Radio.
It was a coverage that didn’t have anything to do with cars but this car enthusiast had of course looked up a car as well. A Ford Galaxie convertible from 1963. At the end of our stay we had some free time on our hands and the TV-cameraman followed to New Jersey where another car enthusiast rented out cars and props to movie productions.
Black listed.
Edmond Gassali shakes hand with Krantz in front of the TV-camera. Total bogus.
– At the top of my black list of unserious players in this hobby is the owner to this company, Edmond Gassali, Krantz says.
The Galaxie was taken for a test drive and went through an inspection on site in font of the TV-camera, it then was paid for in cash and everybody went home. One dent on the front fender would be repaired before shipping that would take place within 14 days.
Fooled.
The Galaxie convertible never came. The case went back and forth by e-mail, gradually got more and more infected and after one year Krantz asked for his money back, without the car. 
He was issued a fee for “one year of parking” which pretty much corresponded with how much he paid for the car. Krantz wasn’t getting nothing.
American Hero
– Within the hobby I have made some really fantastic friends. The car man and friend Rich Zypher living Upstate New York got wind of the total breakdown and made the case his own.
Warrior.
Without even being asked or expecting any pay he spent one year battling for Krantz with Mr. Gassali. Rich managed to take the case to American Consumer Council thanks to the fact that the purchase had been made with a business company.
County of Bergen
-I’m on a mission here, Rich wrote in one of his e-mails who made hundreds of calls and lead the case forwards, month by month.
One day Krantz received an e-mail. It was from Rich, the American Cowboy that was of the opinion that foolish Swedes shouldn’t be used by Americans because of their confiding nature. It read: “Which account would you like the money wired to.”
CHEERING!
– First and foremost we will share it all. Split down the middle. Without you, nothing so let’s split the money fair and square, Krantz replied but Richie refused any kind of compensation.
– Keep it all until my return in a couple of years then, Krantz replied and added: “Or by the way, buy a car for me instead. That’s much more fun than money.”
Three months later he had a proposal:
– Would you like a Buick 1950 Coupe.
I gasped. A Buick 1950 Coupe is an awesome thing with a straight eight with a grill that is the reason for the Swedish expression “dollar grin”. The Buick had gone through an overhaul renovation in 1995 and had been on expo for a while afterwards but during the last years it had been worn down parked outside summer as well as winter. At this time it was just standing around, melting at a biker’s house.
Nervous pedant.
Rich bought the car, brought it back to his house, thought it went uneven, pulled the eight cylinder head off, took down the tank, adjusting and fixing.
Richie is a crazy pedant with a dream white 1959 Cadillac Biarittz amongst others. He’s nervous as well. He worried about all kinds of things.
No spare tire, ten year old diagonals. A 6 volt electric system with fabric cables, torn radiator cable and brake on only one front wheel. He talked on and on about container shipping costs and transport insurance and..
Krantz plan is to have no plan
During this time Krantz celebrated his 50 years old back in Sweden and had a huge party with 300 guests where they all collected over 1500$ with one fun mission in mind: to bring home the Buick.
When Krantz showed up in Rich’s yard in USA 2007 in a newly purchased Cadillac 1970 convertible, shook hands, took a seat in the Buick and planned heading down to Manhattan without insurance with false plates and squared tires he shook his head.
-Crazy Swede. Lars plan is to have no plan, he said, smiled indulgent and ordered a car transport.
The Caddy was brought to Port Elisabeth for shipping and the Buick was brought on transport. After leaving both cars me and my son Gottfrid, 12 years old stood in our lonesome at the dock with no wheels. We spotted a hot dog stand.
– Would you like a ‘dog, I asked.
Gottfrid did.
Standing in the sun we ate in silence when a big truck stopped for lunch and we ended up talking with the driver.
The Buick is a fairytale.
– I’ll give you a ride down to Penn Station. You can get anywhere you want from there, he said and then we got to ride in a MACK truck on the bridges over New York in rush hour in 70 mph.
Therefore the Buick is a sunshine story from beginning to end and will never be for sale. It is a 4500 pound rolling monument of all the friends this hobby generates day after day, year after year.
In next issue the Buick is home, in Sweden.
