ROCKBRIDGE COUNTY, Va. – For as long as J.D. Goad can remember, his life has revolved around cars.
“My dad was a car guy, from the time he was born,” said Goad.
His dad, W.D. Goad, started Goad’s Body Shop in Lexington. As a kid, J.D. was always right beside him.
“I wanted to be just like my dad,” said Goad.
His dad drag-raced cars and built a 1969 Chevrolet Camaro back in 1992 with help from his best friend Johnny Swink.
“It was pretty much a state-of-the-art car for back in the 90s,” said Swink.
Eventually, W.D. decided to sell the car to build another one but regretted it. He spent the next five years searching to no avail.
Until last week, J.D. decided to try again and posted pictures of his dad’s old car on Facebook.
“It was about 7-8 o’clock that night. I started posting it up, tagging as many people as I could. My friends started interacting. I started getting messages. And I went to bed thinking I’d probably never see the car again,” said Goad. “I woke up the next morning at 6 o’clock and I had received a private message from a fella in Kentucky that said, ‘I have your dad’s car.’ He sent it at 11 o’clock that night, less than four hours after I posted.”
A 14-hour drive later to and from Kentucky, the car was back home in Rockbridge County.
“I’ll be honest with you, I cried. It’s OK for grown men to cry. You know, it was a memory of my dad’s. I couldn’t, I couldn’t pass it by,” said Goad.
Over the years, a lot has changed about the car, but the body and frame are the same.
Though W.D. won’t get to drive it again, J.D. said the most important part is that his dad sat right in the driver’s seat.
“He died in 2020 of COVID early on before there were vaccines. He had some underlying health problems. And the only thing fortunate about it: he didn’t suffer. It was seven days. He didn’t suffer for a long time,” said Goad.
The pain is still fresh.
“Sixty-seven years old. He wasn’t ready to go, but he told me he loved me before he passed,” said Goad.
Goad said the car is a bittersweet reminder of better times.
“I know God’s in control, but my dad had a hand in that because there’s no way it could have just happened so perfectly,” said Goad.