I have a problem...and a diner.

I buy stuff. I'm pretty indiscriminate about it too. I see something, I like it, I buy it. Some guys, find their dream car at age 16 and keep it till they die. I find my dream car and find something neater on the way home. It's a sickness.

I come by it honestly. My mother used to go shopping a lot. One day she went into a high end clothing store that was having a going out of business sale. She liked the lighting. She bought the entire store. She went there for a dress. It happens. It's in our blood.

I've had hundreds of cars, and lots of cool parts...probably ten Latham superchargers, six Turbonique superchargers, including a 1000 horse drag axle, about a dozen Saaty meteor injectors, Algons, Hilborns, Scott's, old customs, old hot rods, and sometimes wierder things. Sometimes, I make a few bucks and a lot of times, I completely lose my ***.

During a particularly unregulated drinking episode, I realized a true crime in cyberspace... Ebay does NOT have a breathe alyzer on their software. It's not a safe place for someone like me to be intoxicated at three in the morning. I bought a complete 1950's drive in movie theater... in Kearney Nebraska. It took three semi loads to get it to Indy. There was absolutely ZERO thought that went into that. I bought all of the contents of a vintage bowling alley in Ohio like three months later. Like I said......................

S-I-C-K-N-E-S-S.

I'd care about that if I wasn't on the HAMB and seeing other people suffering from the same thing. I'm a firm believer of safety in numbers.

I love pre-1965 Americana. America was just in a cool place at that time. We believed in the future. Everything had at least as much form as it did function...and usually more. Things were built well. Not a lot was intentionally designed to fail like it is today.

Yesterday, I bought a 40 foot by 24 foot stainless steel diner with fully functional neon. I don't really have a plan here either and that doesn't surprise anyone who knows me. But they are cool. Honestly, who HASN'T wanted one?

It's just a really nice shell. No contents, floor, or roof. Just killer stainless and neon.

So the question now...what do to with it?

It is 24'x40' and the entrances are on both 24' sides. I was thinking to split it down the middle, and make two 24'x20' diners would be much more usable. It would make an awesome pool house by my pool. My wife actually agreed. Amazing. However, inside of one of my garages, I'm building a 1940's soda fountain. It would be pretty cool to use one 20' wall inside there. Then I guess sell the other walls to other sick people to do the same thing in their home, shop, or garage.

Like I said, no plan at all. Anyone got any good ideas? I'm not opening a restaurant.

 

Amazing..I love it...your perspective on why we do what we do,too..

 

hehehehehehehehe your my new hero, I have always thought you were cool, but holy ****, your traditional gawd staus now.
adopt me please

 

You're buying this stuff on a whim???


WOW!...You're on a completely different playing field than me.

But, hey...you must be doing something right to make all this happen.

I dig the neon...have fun with it!

 

if i had the money to support a habit like yours id do it too. but i dont

 

i think thats cool, i wish i had deep pockits like you!

 

You always find the koolest stuff....

 

Wow this is so cool! Im Jealous! From one sick person to another I give it a thumbs up!

 

Hahaha. I love it. I think you are living my dream.

 

Wow, I am not alone ;-)

 

Love it! If I had the means, I know i'd put even Leno to shame. Good luck with the sickness.. I would put it in the yard, and make me an outdoor kitchen!

 

That is SOOOOO cool. It would be awesome as a resturant. Absolutley nothing better than good diner food.....and the ambiance would be fantastic!

 

Ah stainless and neon, the two greatest thing in the world. I know if I had the money, or the space, I'd probably do the same.-dd

 

I would fill in the pool, and build a big *** shop in the back yard. The diner shell would be my new paint booth.

 

Here is a thought. If you have the property space, rebuild the drive-in and the bowling alley and the diner. Then find an old gas station, rebuild it on the property also. Before long you will have your own 50's era town. You could charge admission to it, and get back some of your money. Dude, you are my hero!

 

I like the town idea, but i think i would put it by the pool make it look like a diner on the outside and a *****in cabanna or guest house

 

+1 on the 50's era town.

 

That is an awesome find! I vote pool house.

I too am a compulsive buyer that is three generations deep. Grandpa always carried enough money to buy something on the side of the road. Dad and i are the same, just don't hoard. needless to say my wife and Mom hate Craigslist

 

All sounds like cool stuff. Where do you find it?

 

What did you do with the theater? I have some projector oil maybe a few old speakers that are new laying around if the kids did not trash them. i have a FM transmitter that we have hooked up to broadcast oldies when we cruised around until we got a nasty letter in the mail. I cannot believe you bought a drive inn theater that is wild. i have a old fountain pop coke a cola machine also if you set it up. i thought i was bad at buying weird ****. i only can get little things but you start somewhere. wow you are a cool guy.

 

I'm dazzled, amazed, and befuddled. Also, sure you will figure out something cool to do with it.

 

Yeah, I know what you can do with it.......I have a huge back yard that it would look cool in. Plus it would cover a LOT of space therefore giving my damn dog less places to dig and sling dirt around, therefore saving us mucho time filling in these holes. I think the dog is telling me she wants a pool. I want the Diner !

 

I'm sure you've already considered it, but don't put the pool equipment and chemicals in the diner. That stuff would eat the enamel off of granny's dentures and sure have a hoot with chrome and neon.
That is a hell of a score though. Jealous here.

 

Now that is a sickness I wish I could have too !
I would love to see it all when you get everything up and running one day .
It's people like you that keep what we all had alive and can really see what we had and why we all love that lifestyle so damn much . It's great that you can keep the memories and that time in history alive !

Retro Jim

 

WOW! I thought I bought a lot of stuff, but sir you are my IDOL. I think my husband would commit me if I ever bought a diner, with that being said I think its one of the coolest purchases I have heard about it a long time.

 

You may have a sickness, but atleast you got good taste.

 

great find! My wife would have left me!

 

That's really cool scooby...

 

I think I've probably given the wrong impression here. I don't have deep pockets at all and I don't still have everything I've bought. I have one car that I'm building and a bunch that I just buy and sell to feed my need to have new stuff everyday.

What I do have is apparently called A.D.D. and I gotta be honest...I'm a big fan of it. A.D.D. didn't exist twenty years ago and now half the country "has it". I can't figure out why no one has considered that people didn't suddenly change and get more distracted. The world changed. Too much is going on. Putting everyone on medication might help everyone's test grades but it's just taking all of the adventure out of the future. Roll with it.

The movie theater is long gone and chalked in capital letters under the "LOST MY ***" category. The bowling alley is paired neatly underneath the movie theater on said list. I also have a gift for losing money on boats and motorcycles. I'm pretty sure I've managed to that on every one of those things I've ever owned.

The diner was a great deal. Most of you have more money in your cars than I have in this diner and it was local so I didn't have to ship it, which is a HUGE expense with...well...you know...buildings. It's in small enough pieces to easily transport now. it would make a fine poolhouse, backporch, or shop wall or if I was single, it would be my entire house and I'd have a big *** wooden chris craft yacht for a guest house.