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Reply to "Where are all the Coupes?"

Did someone say "Coupe"?  I've always been a coupe guy, though I've owned and enjoyed any number of convertibles.  I also live in the pacific northwest and I want a 3-4 season car that my wife might consent to ride in on occasion.  So I decided to have Greg at Vintage Motorcars of CA build one for me because I've not the time or space to do it for myself these days.

The process for building a speedster or spyder is well trodden and worked out so that any of the builders can crank out a basic one in short order.  Most of the likely options have been worked out as well.  Some of those translate to coupes, but not all.  I started the actual process in March...of 2019.  Greg ( @Vintage Motorcars Inc   warned me I was entering into a 10-12 month process and that was before I started adding the extra bits I wanted on my custom car: Subaru engine, heat, defrost, AC, custom upholstery, hidden sound system, etc.  I specified and sourced the transmission, engine, brakes, tires, shifter, and some of the upholstery fabric myself.  When you stop and think about it I've complicated a complicated process, and there may well be days he hates me. That's why I've been patient with the process. Lots of things haven't been done before on this pre-A style coupe, like AC.  Neither Greg or I want to wreck that lovely pre-A dash with ugly outlets and big clunky boxes sticking out from under the dash; so where do you put the controls, ducts and evaporator stuff that you usually see hanging like a lump under the passenger side dash of a typical speedster with AC?  It's all doable stuff, but it ain't easy, and it ain't fast, and it sure as hell ain't cheap.  Plus Greg can't have any car up on the lift for months while he walks around it solving problems like we can with a self build project, so much of the thought and planning has to go into it before it's up on the lift.

Like with @Lane Anderson's coupe, theres a lot of new territory to negotiate and people's reputations are on the line, so they go at a pace that'll guarantee success, or as close to it as they can.  That makes for scarcity because most people don't want to work that hard; at either the task, or the patience to have someone else do the task for you.

When they pat me in the face with a shovel you can buy mine if you like my choices.

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