Thread: Car buying war stories.....

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....almost everyone should have at least one good one.

I was reminded of this one when Richard (ford2custom) mentioned a '40 Chev with rack and pinion on another thread. Irony, that's the hook of my story too.

This must have been 20 or so years ago. I was looking for something interesting to play with and found a small, poorly written ad for a '40 Chev coupe with a big block and 4 speed. Sounded promising, but then they almost always do don't they? This was before the internet had caught on and I liked looking for cars in seldom seen venues as it cut down on the price competition.

Called the guy and he wanted to tell me all sorts of stuff, but all I wanted was his address. I don't find seller descriptions all that meaningful after the basics, they never see the car the same way I do. So, I get to this fellows house. It's a fairly new, very modest neighborhood of starter homes. They were all around 1000 sq. ft. or so, with single car garage. The young man came out just after I parked, as did his wife with one little one on her hip, and another in the oven. Sure sign they were VERY anxious to sell the car. I must be a little different in my car buying routine from the "normal" buyer as this has happened to me more than once.....he holds out the keys right away and says "you want to drive it?" I was in the process of putting on coveralls at that moment so said "no, not yet". I prefer to inspect a modified car like this first, starting underneath. Okay, Ford 9" rear on parallel leaf springs, crude ladder bars, beam axle on parallel springs in front with rack and pinion mounted to the frame, floor looks solid, rails straight, etc. After a few minutes of mental note taking I crawl out, and the first thing I see is a look of anticipation on both their faces. Then the game is on..... I said, "I'll bet that thing is a real handful when it hits a bump isn't it?" Without missing a beat the wife says "YEAH, how'd you know?" Husband shoots a dart like look at her!! OOOPPSSS!!! We had a brief discussion of what happens with the frame mounted r&p vs the axle setup (like the youtube vid on the other post). There were other issues with the car, worst of which the roof had been used as a trampoline at one time, and after having fixed one of those on one of my Hudson's I swore I'd never buy another. Anyway, I could tell they were in a bad way for money, so after telling them it wasn't the right car for me I wrote a new ad for them that better promoted what was good about the car, and then told him a couple better places to put the ad so it would hit more eyes. Also, delicately as I'm able, I suggested that the wife not "hang around" during the process. About a week later he sold the car, for a price I wouldn't have paid, after gettin more calls than he could imagine and thanked me for helping him get some much needed money. Poor guy had lost all their savings on a get rich quick franchise scheme and needed to get out of the dog house.

Well after reading your story Uncle Bob,I will have to start up a new club."The Uncle Bob is a really Good Bloke Club"
I will have T shirts printed and as the membership grows I will organise meetings.
Seriously though,thankyou for helping out that young couple Unlce Bob,that is what this world needs,people that aren't driven by creed and prepared to help one another, thankyou again.

whiplash i want to be the first to join the club. that was really a great things that you did bob.

Originally Posted by Whiplash23T

.......,I will have to start up a new club."The Uncle Bob is a really Good Bloke Club"
......

That wouldn't be too good for my image Whip............but it might be funny if you had just one made for Miss Rosie.....

Wellllllllll.....at one time I was chasing a '57 Bel Air that had fuel injection emblems around a small town north of Dallas....never could catch the guy and the car at the same time. Anyway, I would pickup the local freebie Shopper and scan it....there was a one line ad for a '34 Chevy truck for $500. I dialed the number (BC, before cell phones) and a guy gave me directions to his farm...five miles on this dirt road, three on another, etc. Got to a farmhouse that looked like a Great Depression pictures (the earlier Great Depression, not this one). The guy came out and pointed to the truck....then his goofy brother started following me and talking...the farmer told me not to pay attention to him...."he aint right but he wont hurt you." That made me feel slightly better.

The truck was sunk in the dirt at least 8 inches and hadnt run since 1957....but it was 100% complete. This was in the early 1970's when I was buying '70 Z/28 short blocks from Chevy for $410 so the farmer's asking price of $500 was steep for what it was. I asked the guy what his bottom price was....he said he had it for sale for five years and I was the first guy to come to look at it....he said he'd take $30 for it......I paid him cash and got the original title.

Driving home, it hit me.....a truck parked for 15 years or so, rotted tires, mechanical brakes, and sunk in the dirt...and I had no access to a trailer. OK, what did I do? Then, I did what Uncle Bob did, I wrote a better ad and put it in the Dallas paper that weekend.....sold to the first caller, "as is, where is" for $200.

Darned lucky, I was.

Mike in Tucson

Here's one I suspect some could relate to.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_wmhOFvMiOM

In 1973 I was working for a company that had it's own credit union. I guy told me a lunch one day that he had won in a silent auction a 1970, 340, 4 speed, Swinger. It had been road hard had wiring burned in the dash and shifter fork broken in the transmission with a lot of rash on the body. The thing was he did not want to go thru with the purchase from the C/U. His winning bid was $272.28. I did not have any money so I applied for a loan with the C/U and they loaned me the money and I bought the car. I already had a 1972 swinger but it was a 318 plain nice car. I could not pass this car up. I fixed the wiring and transmission fork. Would that car run!!!! Had a lot of fun with it. That said I sold it for $400.00 just enough to move into my first apartment.

In 1986 I needed a winter beater and saw a '74 Torino with a 302 for sale for $175. Went, looked at it - and it for sure was a well used beater, but it ran smoothly and the auto transmission shifted just fine. Bought it and drove it home. I finally decided to really see what the engine looked like under all those early emission controls so dug down. It looked wider then a 302 and the intake water outlet wasn't 'quite right' for a 302. Well that 302 turned out to be a 351W - a '73 engine by casting date (or else it was a real early build for '74). It had all of the good for that period, parts. I drove it through the winter until it was time to pull my '86 Mustang GT out of storage. Then came the fun - I yanked the engine, mixed and matched parts with another 351W I bought off a pile of engines at my local salvage yard for $10, rebuilt everything worn, bored it .030, nice Lunati cam, SVT Dura Spark, Performer RPM, etc, etc, etc then put it in a T-bucket. The carcass went on a roll back and off to my favorite junk yard. The transmission was an FMX which I gave away. My only regret - I didn't pull the 9" differential.

I'll have another story later on if this thread holds

that was a great find dave. you really lucked out with that one.

Hey Yall enjoying the stories.Thanks
Don

Another. The Dallas Times Herald (long since closed) had the best car and car part ads. The trick was to be standing in your front yard and catch the paper before it hit the ground and call the ad quickly before the car or car part sold. One day, I did exactly that and the ad said "1932 Ford Sedan body and frame $200" I dialed the guy up and he said that nobody had looked at it...yet. He was in Waco and I was on the north side of Dallas. I quickly called a buddy with a trailer and we did a land speed record run down the road to Waco. When we pulled up at his house, the drive was empty.....he had either sold it or we got there first. Well, the body was still in the garage, two cars were coming around the corner of his street on two tires each....I had to do it....I handed him $200 quickly and shook his hand without inspecting my new purchase.

Turned out it was a very sound body and included the window mouldings. I kept it for a year or so and sold it for $600.....$600 then is probably $3600 now.

mike in tucson

My first Mustang rings of Bob's story.In 1979, I saw an add in the Sacramento Bee stating "1968 Mustang for sale, needs engine rebuild." I went to look at it, and the father of the kid who owned it comes out and shows the car to me. It's pretty beat up inside, with mismatched torn seats, and a chain steering wheel. So like Bob, I put on the coveralls and crawl under it. The ball joints were shot and the rear end was sagging. The radiator had rust stains running down it, the hood had water/rust stains from where the radiator had blown, the dash was missing it's pad. But closer inspection showed a air fitting under the license plate(for the rear air shocks), a nice set of Crager 5 spoke mags, and a perfect body with decent paint under a layer of grime. They wanted 700 for it, and I offered 400 and the dad said, "sold, the title is in my name, he knocked up his girlfriend and this will help pay for the wedding and baby!"
Upon cleaning out the truck I came across various assortments of ladies lingerie, so I guess the car might of been involved in the boy's "situation".
Loved that car and should have kept it! If we could only go back in time!

i supose you could call this a war story or just one of many dunderhead moves i made 35 years ago .. my first car was a 64 ford galixie 500 .. 428 ( non stock ) 4 speed .. drove it to high school part of my senior year in 1974 .. got to be a bit expensive .. traded it straight up for a 64 mustang .. 3 speed 6 banger .. the guy i traded with promply broke something in the 64 .. he abondoned it on the hiwaay .. he never changed it out of my name .. the law called me and said if i wanted my car back to give the storage company 35 bucks .. i said no ,, kick me all you want .... i dont have pictures of anything ive ever owned but i may google up some lookalikes and put in my thread ..

Back in the early 80's a friend told me he saw an old hot rod in an old storage building. It turned out to be a 34 Ford steel 3 window coupe! The manager of the storage facility said he'd been trying to buy it for 15 yrs but the owner wouldnt part with it. I asked for the owners address and he gave it to me but was laughing at me at the same time. Long story short, that manager was sooooo pissed as he had to fork lift the car out of the building to load it on my trailer...... Right place, right time.......

Here she is after a little work....

It was a l-o-o-o-n-g time ago when I was 17. There was a '32 Ford on Hungry Hill for sale - cheap. I went to see it---and it was a 3W coupe with a 59A-B flathead. I drove it - ran nicely. The price- almost out of my reach. $35 US Dollars That's right, thirty five dollars. Got it home. Someone then offered me a profit of over 100% for it - $75. Being young and even dumber then I am today, sold it. The guy ended up trying to chop the top - I graduated from HS, went to college, got drafted and that's when I lost track of the car. Did it get melted down for new Volkswagen's or Honda's or is it still around - not a clue.

Next - needed a car for my daughter for college, so found a 3-4 year old Granada coupe, 6cyl, 250 w/standard top loader. A retired local cop had bought it new so really didn't have a lot of miles on it, ~50K, but it looked like crap - all four corners had dings to pretty good size dents - evidently he had used the fenders and the rear bumper to help guide him into the garage after his regular afternoon "social hour(s)" at a local pub. I bought the car cheap, did the brakes, ball joints, added some new tires, straightened and painted it, drove it for a while JIC something blew - all, including the purchase price, for about $1000. My daughter drove it for 2 years, then she bought a Toyota p/u. This meant I now had a work car. This Granada was used for a weekly 800 mile work related round trip for almost 2 years, plus whatever other running around I did. I then sold it with 235K miles on it for $295, the engine was never apart, it didn't burn oil, the throw out bearing that squealed at 50K was still squealing. The guy that bought the car was still driving it 2 years later and loved it - even with that throwout bearing noise.