Orig owner would be in his 90's now, so unlikely I'll ever know rationale. He worked at Hill AFB when he bought it, so maybe he was just trying to cut costs enough to help offset the cost of A/C. Last time I talked to him was 1980 and I was showing him all the things I was doing to fix up the Bee. He then stated to me "I can't see why anyone would put money into a car like that", then he hopped into his shiny Datsun 610 wagon and motored away. A real visionary!