a003  2126  20 Jun 86
PM-Rent A Convertible, Bjt,0432
Summer A Two Decades Old Tradition At Convertible Rental Agency
LaserPhoto NY6
By LAWRENCE NEUMEISTER
Associated Press Writer
    SOUTHAMPTON, N.Y. (AP) - As summer 1986 begins today, it's actually
summer circa 1964 at Dreamboats Rent-A-Car, where $100 can buy a
breezy, nostalgic day in a vintage convertible with the radio
blaring. The customer supplies the memories.
    Dreamboats, which rents only convertibles, has been in business
since last summer in Southampton, a posh beach resort on Long Island,
and opened a Los Angeles outlet last week.
    The company has 36 ragtops, dating from 1959 to 1969. None will be
accepted from later years, said Edwin Biebuyck, 30, the company's
Belgian co-owner, who lives half the year in Paris.
    ''People look at them and have great memories,'' he said of the
Oldmobile Dynamic, the Ford Galaxy Sunliner and other topless models.
    ''The country was racing toward the space age,'' Biebuyck said of
the period the cars evoke. ''People were building cars that were
outrageous. We had ticker-tape parades and America was still carefree
as it came out of the '50s. There were drive-ins and drive-up
hamburger stands. The whole culture was booming around the cars.''
    The rates range from $75 to $95 a day, plus the cost of gasoline and
insurance, and 25 cents a mile after 75 miles a day. That's 25
percent to 50 percent higher than the cost of renting a standard car,
but Biebuyck said it costs more purchase and refurbish a 1960s car
than to buy a new one.
    The partners went up and down the East Coast to find convertible
Buick Wildcats, Pontiac Tempests and Ford Thunderbirds, paying
between $300 and $12,000 for each car, Biebuyck said.
    ''We had a heyday getting the cars,'' he said. ''This is our second
year of running around, going from car lots in Lancaster, Pa., to
Delaware to Virginia just to look for a car. Sometimes we come back
lucky. I bought eight cars from one man.''
    ''We'd been out here a lot so we knew what was missing,'' he said.
''We were just trying to fill the gap.''
    Some of the convertibles have even been rented by rock 'n' roll
groups to use them in their music videos.
    The company once bought a car from a woman who was ill and needed
the money, he said.
    ''It was her honeymoon car,'' he said. ''She even cried when we
bought the car from her, but she was glad to see two young men love
the car. Later on, we showed her the (restored) car and she loved it.
Her dream lives on.''
    
AP-NY-06-21-86 0026EDT
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