THE RACER Chapter 34

Lucas' Used Car Lot
courtesy photobucket.com

Lucas sat down and told Leslie about what happened today regarding Marley’s shop, and said they had to make some plans for the future.

Getting the property from Marley was going to change everything,

As they talked he said, “I’m going to make some contacts in Washington and try to find out what is really going on.  I will be back in a few days. It is important that I talk face to face with these people for they won’t tell me anything over the phone.”

While in Washington he made the rounds and found that everyone was tight lipped and it took a lot of coercion on his part to get any information.

After he began to piece together what each had told him, he began to see the bigger picture for the future.

When he returned he said, “It would be better if I don’t go into what I have learned, but I think I know which direction to go.  

Some of the stuff I learned I shouldn’t have been told to me but I managed to weasel it out of them after they had one too many cocktails and most of it I won’t repeat or tell anyone, not even you.”

That didn’t set to well with Leslie and as her lip began to curl.

 

He said, “I can tell you this; it looks like we will be drawn into the War conflict and that means there will be some things in short supply.  What we do will be risky but will be based on what I discovered.”

The next day Leslie had settled down, and she wanted to know what Lucas had in mind, because much of their future would depend on what they did in the next few months.

Lucas told her, “We are going into the auto business.”

She said, “What do you mean the auto business?”

He said, “Come on go with me and I will show you.”  

 
They pulled up in front of the Ford dealership and an hour later they had purchased the cars, parts and everything else.

The same thing happened with the Chevy dealership. The agreement was with both, that the prior owners would stay on and run them for a year.

After that they went over to Abel’s and while the two sisters talked about babies Lucas and Abel went outside and discussed plans that involved Abel.

Lucas said, “I want to buy every car in the area whether running or not.  We want them for as little as we can get them.”

Abel said, “Where is the money going to come from to buy all the cars?”

Lucas said, “I have the money, and if we need more I can get it from the bank.”

Then he told Able that he had bought the Ford and Chevy dealerships and they both had wrecker trucks and Abel could use them for picking up anything that didn’t run.  

“We will strip them down at your place and rebuild them at the old Marley buildings. “

Leslie said to Lucas, “I hope you know what you are doing because if not we are going to own more cars than anyone has ever owned.”

Lucas said, “It is possible that I may be on the wrong track but if not we are going to be rich.”

A couple of months later Abel said, “My place if full and the only way to buy any more is for me to buy the land next to me.”

Lucas said, ‘Go ahead and buy the five acres next to you and I have bought a large tent to work under when the weather changes.”

Abel said; “that will be nice” with no emotion displayed at all.

          
Lucas said, “Maybe it is time to start to fix some of these cars and move them to my dealerships and offer them for sale.”

Abel said, “I think that might be a good idea although I don’t know who will buy them for money is very scarce.”

Lucas bought many barrels of black paint and told Abel, “We will paint these cars before we try to sell them and once we are through they will look almost like new.”

Abel said, “Who is going to do all this work for it will drive the price up if we hire professional workers.”

Lucas said, “We will hire the high school kids to work after school and that way we will get it done for very little.  There are many kids that have no way to earn any money and they will be glad to have a job even though it is low paying.”

Lucas hired a couple of the mechanics that were out of work since Marley closed his shop; and one of the painters that was looking for something to do.

Some of the cars would run and some wouldn’t.  There were times it took three cars to make one good one.  Before long a small army was working on Lucas’s project and the cars were piling up with very few being bought even though Lucas would finance them.

Lucas was thrilled with the system for it was working really well.  The high school kids soon learned the whole restoration system, and there were a lot of girls as well as boys working.  

There were some jobs the girls could do better than the boys.  They could get the cars ready to be sprayed, and detail the insides better than the guys could.  Boys did not seem to be as detailed minded as were the girls.  

Abel’s car lots were full of the cars and he was still buying more and then it happened. 

 

To be Continued