Softpatch, you have indeed rained on my parade.
MY scenario is that my character's grandfather bought it new in 1959, passed it down to his son, who passed it down to my character. What if through the years, some of those issues were addressed/added/replaced?
The following article is where I got the idea to use it:
http://www.hotrod.com/articles/1212c...vrolet-apache/
Thank you for your input.