Thursday, February 08, 2024

Johnny Davis was a 9-year-old in 1961 Macon, Georgia, and was focused on earning enough money from his daily newspaper route to buy a car by the time he got his driver’s license. He still has the 69 Olds 442 he bought new


Outgrowing the paper route at age 15, he boosted his earnings to about $1 per hour at a grocery store job.

it has a 400 cu in and a 3.42 gear set in the back, and power steering

the 4-4-2’s price tag was nearly four grand. Johnny got a much-needed $567 discount from the dealer, a friend of his father’s. That brought the cash price down to $3553 with Georgia’s sales tax. “I had a little over $3000, so I had to borrow $600,” he remembers.

In 1985, with 140,000 miles on the clock, the 4-4-2 went into Johnny’s one-car garage and under a cover for a 15-year rest.

The restoration was nut and bolt, and took 5 years in the garage, completed in 2005. With the body off and engine sent out for a rebuild, the frame was powder-coated. Johnny added front disc brakes, which necessitated 15-inch wheels to replace the original 14-inchers.

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