08/21/2025
Our latest Met Feature (and star of the new catalog cover!) comes from Carl Fry in Park City, Kansas. He says, "My wife, Bonnie, drove a 1956 T-Bird for many years. It was a show car with all the available options: power steering, power brakes, 312-V8 with the factory dress up kit, automatic transmission, FM radio and a removable hard top. She took it to National T-Bird shows, and the car showed well and won many awards.
Why am I telling you this? She sold her T-Bird and bought the car she dearly loved; a 1959 Pink Metropolitan. She saw a picture of âPinkyâ and wire-transferred the money, having never seen the car! I told her it was her money, and she could do what she wanted. We both only saw the car for the first time when the transporter dropped it off in our driveway. It was the cutest thing! Hot pink and pink, custom interior with extraordinary pin striping inside and out and equipped with every accessory available.
Bonnie loved this car and drove it to many, many shows. Pinky seemed to win a trophy every time along with two âBest of Showâ awards. Sadly, Bonnie had to quit driving a standard shift about seven years ago. I drove Bonnie to a few shows after her left leg operations, but she said it was not the same, and we stopped showing Pinky. Pinky sat covered up on one of our lifts for about six years. Bonnie succumbed to breast cancer and passed away November 2, 2022.
I happen to be the president of Cars For Charity Co. doing business as Cars For Charity Rod & Custom Car Show. 2025 marks our 20th anniversary. We bought the long-running Wichita Darryl Starbird show in 2011 and changed it into a charity event giving 100% of all proceeds to AbilityPoint and Starkey.
This past summer my son and daughter said I must get Pinky down and put her in our 20th anniversary show (January 18-19, 2025) in honor of their mom.
Well, that is where you guys, Metropolitan Parts come in. I did not even know exactly what year Pinky was built. Chris Reeder confirmed the car was built in 1959 based on the cowl tag. Pinky suffered from setting. I started by removing and cleaning the gas tank, replacing the fuel lines and cleaning the carburetor. You guys had everything I needed! Brake master cylinder, wheel cylinders, clutch master cylinder, clutch slave cylinder, all the flexible clutch and brake hoses, brake shoes and pre-formed stainless steel brake lines. One unusual thing: something in the ageing ignition/headlight switch required the headlights be on to start! Yep! Turn off the headlights and the car stopped running! No problem, you guys had a new switch⌠except the new switch had a different number of terminals⌠Here again you guys emailed me a diagram.
The amount of attention given to Pinky never fails to amaze me. At this yearâs 2025 C4C show, literally hundreds of little girls and women stopped and took a picture with Pinky. âMommy, mommy.. Itâs the Barbie car!!â What fun! Plus Pinky took home two sponsor choice awards. Pinky has also been a good local ambassador for breast cancer research.
Iâm pretttty excited about having Bonnieâs Pinky on your cover! Iâm sure she would have loved it. Thanks to you guys, Pinky is back on the road with new ring-gear, flywheel, clutch, pressure plate, 100% all new wiring, under-the-dash junction box with 12 relays & 12 fuses, LED lights all-round, Bluetooth sound system, and I even had the driveshaft balanced. My family is having fun driving Pinky because everyone that sees Pinky, loves Pinky."
Thank you so much, Carl, for sharing your story and these fantastic photos with us. If you'd like for us to feature your car, send an email to [email protected] with the subject "Met Feature", up to five photos of your car, a description of what the car means to you, and a bit about the project (write as much as you'd like up to three paragraphs).
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