Bringing Betsy Back
Hi. My name is Betsy. I am a stock 1965 Plymouth Barracuda. I earned my factory stripes October 20, 1964 in Hamtramck, Michigan. I was shipped to Hahn Chrysler-Plymouth in Vancouver, Washington and adopted when I was barely a month old. After seven years of faithful service, my original owner stupidly traded me away in 1971; the nerve! He immediately regretted letting me go and spent the next 31 years searching for me. Little did he realize I spent two years in Centralia, and the next 29 years in Rainier, Washington. I had given up hope we would ever see each other again when in 2002 I was listed on eBay, my original owner found and rescued me and, unbelievably, we were reunited! At that point I was in terrible shape and it took nine months of intensive restoration work before I again looked as spiffy as I did from 1964-1971. My owner is turning his 250 page journal and 1,300+ photographs detailing my restoration into a book (starring me!) entitled Bringing Betsy Back! It’s great to be home again!
Here I am in the fall of 1966 at the ranch where I first resided. Note I was still wearing my original thin whitewalls and Lewis County LBF785 Washington license plates:
This one was taken in late 1969 just before we left for San Antonio to join the USAF:
I was under several inches of snow when reunited with my owner in 2002. That's my brother Bart parked next to me; we left Rainier together.
Charley the Classic Car Carrier delivered us to the restoration shop. Ten years worth of grime, moss, and blackberry vines camouflaged much of my water and body damage. Note my trailer hitch; oh, the shame of it all!
Total disassembly took quite awhile; I have a lot of parts!
Removal of my original paint left me stark nekkid! Once my heavy metal fabrication repairs were completed, I underwent extensive finishing body work and mechanical repairs:
Just like the original factory paint job, my center section was painted red, the stripes were taped off, and the white paint was sprayed over the red:
It was very exciting when the tape was removed revealing my red racing stripes. After all I have been thru, I definitely earned them!
I was soon beginning to look like my old self again:
Here we are at the 2006 Greenwood Classic Car & Hot Rod Show in North Seattle. Life is good! (Olin Darling photo)
We attended a Roosevelt High School show June 2, 2009. I still have the "MYBETSY" vanity plate up front, but am wearing a new "Collector Car" plate on my back side.
My complete life story will be told once my owner wraps up several other major projects and gets busy on Bringing Betsy Back. For now, my "auto-biography" continues to be on hold while he focuses on building HutchBook.com.