The portfolio highlights the 1971 Matador.  By September the lights were installed, prematurely I might add.  I did a lot of things in this project that I should have waited to do.  Since the car had not been painted, I installed the lights and siren, mainly just so I wouldn't lose them.  The interior was installed and left unfinished.  The move began, and soon we were in El Segundo.  The car sat for several months, in January, I received a call from Oregon, a supposedly near mint 1973 Matador was being offered, and it appeared to look like a worthy candidate.  The 1971 car had to have the dash, speedometer, and quarter panels worked on, and a lot of body work to remove the rust in the rear quarter areas.  The estimates for the body work would come in at $4500.00 plus paint.  I reached a critical point in the project, I was not fully committed, and I decided to go for the 1973 Matador.  The car was fully intact, no rust, and the engine was in good shape - so I was told.  I purchased the '73 Matador for $800.00 and flew up to Oregon in early February.  The car was having some engine work done to ensure the road trip was safe.  After waiting 18 hours for the work to be done, I was on my way to Los Angeles.  By the time I reached the California border, I had the car loaded onto a transport and rented a truck to haul the car, the engine was giving me big trouble, and my problems were just starting to pile up.  When I go back into town, I would have to stop payment on the check for the mechanic's work since the engine failed by the Oregon border.

Overall the car was in good shape body wise.  There were some minor dings, and the car had a vinyl top, but that was no big deal.  I began to strip the car and check the underbody for rust.  The car was clean.  I began the process of trying to sell the 1971 Matador, it was 1/3 completed, and a worthy candidate for a restoration.  I considered pulling the 304 V-8 from the 1971 car and replacing the 360 V-8 from the 1973 car.  The 304 was by far, a much better engine.  I had to accumulate funding for the completion of the project, the estimate for paint & bodywork was $2000.00 - so in my mind, I was ahead by over $2500.00 from the first car.  In June of 1999, I sold the 1971 car and broke even, the car would become a Arizona Highway Patrol reproduction car.  The buyer was a police officer from the Inland Empire.  He drove the car home, and it did just fine.  In July, I was offered a retired 1973 LAPD Rampart Division unit.  I had not begun any work on the car, but the new 1973 car would need a lot of body work.  After my experience in the past year of three cars, I felt invincible.  I decided that doing a reproduction project was fun, but the possibility of actually restoring a former LAPD car was too hard to resist and now was an obsession.  I decided to go for it.  I stripped the 1973 tan Matador of every usable piece, and now armed with a 1973 AMC Service Manual, mapped out a strategy for completing the project.