For the past 4 weeks in a row, Rags had wrecked, always damaging the left rear side of the car. This was also where the battery was, and 4 of those had also been smashed. You would have thought Sonny would have relocated it, but, I guess he kept thinking lightning never strikes twice...3 times...4 times...Etc., in the same place, so never moved it. By now, the left rear was just a mass of torn and crinkled sheet metal, and no longer straightenable, (like that word? I just made it up)..

Sonny and Edie had popped out of the kitchen door a while back and called us in to have coffee with them, as they always did. After coffee, Sonny, Bob, and I went out to get some work done.

As my one man crew and I resumed the lovely job of removing those %#*#* king pins, Sonny went over to his truck and loaded the acetylene tank and torches into it. When finished, he came over and said, "c’mon, guys, take a ride with me". We said, OK, and we all jumped into Sonny’s Lincoln powered pick up, and headed out. When we inquired as to where we were going, Sonny just gave us a mischievous smile, and said, "you’ll see".

About ten minutes later, we were tooling down a narrow country road, and passing "Terror", Eddie Pratt’s house. Eddie was the one man crew for Pete Ambrosia. Pete usually had a few 026s, and a few # 1 cars, at any given period of time. He would build or buy a new car, when the old one was still okay, and "mothball" the old one for a while, sometimes re-commissioning it eventually. . Since Pete lived in a development, he had limited space to store race cars. "Terror", on the other hand, lived on several acres of parched land, centrally located, directly in the middle of nowhere, and so, was usually elected to keep a portion of the mothballed fleet at his place. I knew, of course, where Eddie lived, and so, when we had turned onto his road a couple of minutes ago, I had thought we might be going there. Instead, however, we flew past the Pratt house, and the #1 coach sitting next to it, doing about 80.

A few hundred feet past the house, Sonny slammed on the brakes, and abruptly swerved off the road, and into a large field. In the best Off Roading style, we headed across the empty field toward an 026 coupe, that had been sitting about 150' off the road, in the field, for a few months. As the truck slid to a stop next to the 026, Sonny said, "c’mon guys, give me a hand". He jumped out of the truck, hurried around to the passenger side which was right next to the left side of the 026 coupe. He, then, slipped a pair of goggles on, grabbed a torch, and lit it.

About 5 minutes later, 430 cu in of Lincoln engine were haulin’ ass out of that field, with no horses being spared. The additional weight of the entire left side of the 026, from the door, back, which now rested in the back of the potent Ford pick up seemed to have little effect on it’s ability to make a fast get-a-way.

A VERY few minutes later, a giggling Race car builder, named Sonny, was working the controls of a flying Ford, as we began final approach for Dornberger International airport. We went to full flaps, in a valiant attempt to slow the loaded black Ford missile for landing. We came in "Hot".

About 4 hours, and 40 coat hangers, (Sonny’s favorite welding rod), later, the #16 looked like it had never had a scratch on it, except for the gray primer that covered the now pristine left side of the car. At Sonny's request, I called a friend of mine, who had a body shop in his back yard, in Swedesboro, and made arrangements to bring the 16 over for a fast, cheap paint job.

Monday morning I took my trailer to work with me. After work I went directly to Sonny’s, loaded the maroon and primer 16 on my trailer, and hauled it to Swedesboro. Wednesday night, I went back to Swedesboro, loaded up a beautiful Cream colored modified, and hauled it back to Sonny’s place. Thursday, Sonny painted the number, and the word, "Rags" on the doors, and Friday, the new, and Improved #16 car headed back to Reading, good as new.

A few days later, a rather bemused looking Pete Ambrosia pulled up to the Dornberger shop. Pete walked in, stopped, carefully examined the left side of the 16 car, and commented to Sonny on how good the car looked, after all those wrecks. "You know, it’s a funny thing", Pete told Sonny, "Somebody stole the whole damn left side off that 026 I had over at "Terror’s place, the other day". "No kidding?". Sonny said, with a fake looking surprised expression. Pete didn’t say anything, he just stared at Sonny with those piercing, Paul Newman eyes of his, for about 15 seconds, then changed the subject. We all talked for about ten minutes, then Pete left. He never mentioned the missing 026 sheet metal again.