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, Rochester Ronnie stupidly traded me away in 1971; the nerve! He immediately regretted his mistake and spent the next 31 years searching for me. He had no idea 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, Rochester Ronnie 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. Rochester Ronnie 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. I was still wearing my original thin whitewalls and Lewis County "LBF 785" Washington license plates:
This photo was taken in late 1969 just before we left for San Antonio to join the USAF:
I was under several inches of snow when Rochester Ronnie and I reunited 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 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 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 have definitely earned them!
I was soon beginning to look and feel like my old self again:
Here I am with Rochester Ronnie at the 2006 Greenwood Classic Car & Hot Rod Show in North Seattle. Life is good! (photo courtesy of Olin Darling)
Hub City Car Show - Centralia, Washington - August 23, 2014
The annual Hub City show is an event we try to attend annually. The show draws hundreds of cars and thousands of fans. The show could benefit from better organization, but we keep attending because downtown Centralia offers other diversions such as food and antiques stores. We nabbed a nice spot on a side street that we knew would benefit from afternoon shade. Still looking good with our 50th birthday upcoming 10-26-2014!
My complete life story will finally be told once Rochester Ronnie wraps up his other major writing projects and gets busy on Bringing Betsy Back. For now, my "auto-biography" continues to be on hold. MOPAR or no car!