Sammy’s Story
We have been fans of SUPERNATURAL from the very beginning, and we knew that someday, we were going to own a ’67 Impala just like Sam and Dean’s. In June of 2008, we found a ’67 Caprice on ebay and plunked down $2500. We rented a U-haul trailer, borrowed the in-laws’ Ford F-350, and trailered Sammy home to NE Ohio from Rochester, New York.
Sammy needed the usual repairs to make him road-worthy, and fortunately, there was a local garage that helped us get that job done. We had a blast tooling around town in him!
Once we decoded Sammy’s cowl tag and Protect-O-Plate, we were thrilled to find that he’d been built at the GM plant in Janesville, Wisconsin, the very same plant that built Sam and Dean’s Baby!
We also had a few service records and insurance cards, helping us figure out that Sammy spent his first 15 years in a small town in southwest Minnesota. He was apparently put into ‘storage’ for another 14 years or so, making his way to Brookings, North Dakota for a short time, finally ending up in Rochester in 2008.
Our grand plans for Sammy were put on hold in early 2009, when, as for millions of working folk, everything fell apart. We lost pretty much everything we’d spent the last decade working for. One thing we held onto, though, was Sammy.
We landed in Florida in late 2011, with not a single penny to spare on Sammy. He languished in our garage for nearly 3 years. But things got better, and little by little, we managed to sock away funds for Sammy’s conversion into a Metallicar. In July, 2015, Sammy’s drivetrain was completely rebuilt.
And in March, 2017, things really got crazy!
For years, we’d been watching YouTube videos of some guy in Kansas who rebuilt ’67 4-door hardtops into replicas of Baby on SUPERNATURAL. We watched those videos religiously, always imagining our Sammy receiving the same treatment. “No way,” we said. “It’s too far away.” “They’re too busy.” “We’d never get Sammy out there.” “It’d be too expensive.” But we still watched those videos, and one Sunday afternoon, after a little ‘liquid’ courage, we messaged them about our Sammy.
We didn’t think we’d get an answer, but a few minutes later, they were on the phone!
And by July, 2017, we were able to ship Sammy to Kansas for his final transformation. After an extensive and thorough frame-off restoration, the transformation was finally complete and we were able to journey to Kansas in April, 2019 to pick up Sammy and bring him home!
Sure, it takes time, and money, but dreams are priceless.
And we must always keep fighting!
Sammy The Metallicar 