growing on the upholstery and around the windows! He looked up, where light came through a three-foot hole in the garage roof. A tree had fallen on the garage during the Columbus Day storm in 1962; he marvelled that the car hadn’t been flattened—one of several times it might have been destroyed—but it had been dented in several places, and it had been subjected to 12 years’ abuse by the elements. Oregon rain had poured through that hole, soaking the car, keeping it perpetually damp. But Como was excited now. He continued to call Willy, again offering cash, telling Willy that their goals were the same, to see the X-51 in show condition. Finally, Willy said he’d sell. The price was $1500. Corno said it was a deal. Corno recalls the negotiations: After they had agreed on a price, but before Corno could pick up the X-51, he got a call from Willy. “I can’t sell it for $1500,” he said. Corno said, “Well, Willy, you know I’m all set to come up there to get the car. What’re you telling me?” Willy said, “I’ve got to have more than that.” It’s hard to know whether Willy wanted more money or if he really wanted to keep the X-51; parting with it must have been like parting with a leg. “How much more?” Corno asked. Willy said he had decided the X-51 was worth $2000. That was more than Corno had wanted to pay, but if there was ever any doubt in his mind about how badly he wanted the X-51, there was none now. Corno agreed. When Corno arrived at the garage where the car was stored, Willy was waiting for him. “I’ve thought it over,” Willy said, “and I’ve got to have $2500 for the car.” Corno had $3000 in his pocket. “OK, that’s fine with me,” he said. Willy balked, wavered, uttered a single word, “No—.” “That’s it!” Corno said, and started counting out money, a hundred dollars at a time, until he had a stack totalling $2500. “If you want it,” Corno said, “pick it up; if you don’t, I’m leaving.” Willy hesitated, thinking of a 17- year-old dream he had nursed through good times and bad. Finally he picked up the money. Willy said he wanted to help Corno with the reconstruction of the X-51, he knew where a lot of the missing parts could be found, he wanted to have a say in how the car was rebuilt, he wanted to be a partner} Corno agreed, but the implied partnership didn’t work out. The two men operated at very different speeds, or so it seemed. Willy had let the car sit for 15 years; within two weeks Corno had the car apart and was coordinating the reconstruction. e soon realized how much needed to be done to restore the X-51. He said recently, “I didn’t realize the car was in that bad of shape, and if I would have realized the sonofabitch was that bad I wouldn’t have taken on the project.” Willy, attached to the car but in need of money, had sold not only the McCullough supercharger and intake manifold but the exhaust manifolds, the generator, the water pump, the tires and wheels; he’d even sold the 1955 Chevrolet radio and the rear view mirror. Other parts had been lost or damaged: the chrome mouldings had been removed, all the screws were missing; when the water pump had been removed, the radiator had been sculpted with a ballpeen hammer. Corno contacted Courney who came over and took a look at the long-lost X-51. To Como’s surprise, Courtney was only vaguely interested in the car and not at all interested in JI know9" he said, "I never Md like this ear. It represented a very unhappy time in my life.99 working on it. “You know,” he said, “I never did like this car. It represented a very unhappy time in my life.” Courtney had, however, seen the car since he’d sold it. Only a few months after Willy had bought the car he’d had a wreck with it: the X-51 went over a small embankment and landed on its side on a double set of railroad tracks. He had difficulty finding a bodyman who would tackle the repair job, and so he returned the car to Courtney who replaced the right side door, rebuilt the fin, and straightened the bent sheet metal. The X-51 was made right again, but that wreck foreshadowed the inevitable. Willy seemed to have a lovehate relationship with the car. Eventually a large quarter window was knocked out, and an attempt to push the car caved in the trunk lid. The car was driven in this condition, like a duck dragging a broken wing. When Willy recognized that the dream was going sour he put the X-51 in the garage, where it sat for the next fifteen years while Willy planned, plotted and dreamed. What Corno had actually bought, he soon discovered, was the history of the car and some of its remaining metal. Virtually everything besides the sectioned body shell and the front suspension had to be replaced or rebuilt. The water-saturated fiberglass was torn off in chunks, another engine and running gear substituted, the window glass, interior, and wiring completely redone. Resurrecting the X-51 meant rebuilding it from top to bottom. The only thing left untouched was a small dent in the tirewell inside the trunk. Corno hired the area’s best craftsmen to do the job. Stan Jones was eager to do the upholstery work because he’d done the original work 25 years before. Gary Crisp and Harold Walton wanted to do the paint and bodywork because they too remembered the car from the Fifties. David Kane built and installed the engine, Dave Dohenick and Vern White rebuilt the car’s running gear and suspension. New trim and GARDEN GREEN VEGETABLES We’re doing our best to save you dollars. 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