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abandoned cars

Discussion in 'The Hokey Ass Message Board' started by bodyman, Oct 29, 2008.

  1. bodyman
    Joined: Aug 16, 2005
    Posts: 152

    bodyman
    Member
    from east tx

    i found a bunch of old cars in the country on an old farm . about 8 to 10 years ago . took awhile but i found out who the property belonged to its a old farm thats still in the same family for over 100 yrs . contacted the people that owned it they said the cars belonged to their older brother that lives over 100 miles away . the brother an sister must be in there 70 80s and they belong to their older brother who wont sell anything he has alot of money none of the cars are for sale . so i asked what he was planning to do with them ? nothing !! i tell them the cars are going to rust past the point of no return! and could i have his # maybe i can talk him into selling one of them ?? they said no. tells me they will ask him next time they see him ? so i give it a year go back they claim they tryed to talk him into sellimg me one . but the answer was there not for sale . this really makes me angry to just watch these cars rot !!! some kids knocked the windows out a few years ago . really just ranting i wish there was something i could do to save them short of stealing them!!! theres some really good ones out there.:mad::(:confused:
     
  2. docauto
    Joined: Dec 1, 2006
    Posts: 789

    docauto
    Member
    from So Cal

    wait for the owner to die.
     
  3. falfas55
    Joined: Apr 21, 2004
    Posts: 288

    falfas55
    Member

    Same kind of thing happened to me. found some abandoned 55-57 chevys,tracked the owner down,also about 60 miles away.asked about the cars,was told not for sale and to leave them alone.next thing i know the electric co.owns the property.they said they didn't want so come get them.before i could get there,somebody else had dragged them away.Stupid old fart.
     
  4. ems customer service
    Joined: Nov 15, 2006
    Posts: 2,634

    ems customer service
    Member

    These guys dont respond to frank and fast questions on there stuff. But if you get to freinds or at least get into a couple of social conversations these guys can open up. Did you tell him you are a collector or a scrapper

    maybe he did not want to sell them to a scrapper

    i know a guy who wanted this 53 cadillac bought it in 1992 from the wife of the orginal owner was not for sale to anyone at any time. Started slowly talking to the old lady. He got the car the deal maker was he promised to drive her every spring to someplace about 75 miles away that she that her dead husband took her every spring. Sometimes it is not about the money , yes the old lady is still alive and my friend still takes her every spring in the old cadillac
     

  5. Michael Pukash
    Joined: Mar 1, 2006
    Posts: 256

    Michael Pukash
    Member

    This story reminds me of a find I had. It was a 58 chevy two door hardtop showing 6000 miles on the odom sitting behind an old house. Talked to the old man living there and the car belonged to his son who didn't come back from the war. He would not sale it for anything. We became sort for friends as I would drop buy every year or so but I watched that car melt into the ground. The old fellow passed and I noticed the car gone but who ever has the car now didn't get a cherry.
     
  6. pasadenahotrod
    Joined: Feb 13, 2007
    Posts: 11,775

    pasadenahotrod
    Member
    from Texas

    Again we return to the reality that those cars are HIS and if he chooses to let them rot it is HIS choice.
     
  7. BobbyFullen
    Joined: Sep 22, 2008
    Posts: 129

    BobbyFullen
    Member
    from Kerrville

    The best trick I have learned from buying old cars where I am (Germin Community) Show up to the place with a trailer and cash in Hand. Sometimes just walking up and showing the greenbacks is all it take to persuade them to sell. It doesnt work every time ,but it works alot!!!!! I have bought cars that people said were not for sale for years just by pulling out the cash and making it be known I am not here to bother you or to scope the place out I just love old cars!!!! Of course there are still a few of get off my property before I shoot your A$$ also.
     
  8. CoolHand
    Joined: Aug 31, 2007
    Posts: 1,929

    CoolHand
    Alliance Vendor

    I guess more than anything, I would like to understand the thinking process involved with a decision like that.

    It's mine, I don't want to sell it, ergo, it would seem I care for it in some way, however, I also let it set and rot into the ground or otherwise be destroyed.

    There is a logical disconnect there that I just cannot wrap my head around.

    I totally understand the 'It's mine and it's never going to be for sale!" part, I've got stuff I feel that way about myself.

    It's the "I'm going to let it rot or be destroyed!" part that I can't figure out.

    Anything that I care for enough to refuse to sell it regardless of the offer, I care for enough to make sure it doesn't go to hell on me.

    If I was OK with it being destroyed, I'd be OK with selling it, 'cause either way, I won't have it anymore.

    Is it spitefulness? "I don't want it anymore, but I'll be God Damned if I'll let anyone else have it!" I've known some old folks who were like that (hell, I know folks my age that are like that).

    I just don't understand the reasoning, and therefore I cannot relate to a guy like that and see his side of it. I just see some bitter old bastard with a cool car who doesn't care for it enough to keep it from rusting into a pile.

    The same goes double for old scrappers who will take a 50% loss to crush a car that someone would have quite happily bought and saved.

    I always suspect those guys might have been buying stolen cars, and now they can't remember which of them were brought in by the owners and which were brought in by thieves, so to be safe they just decide to never let any of them leave as cars.
     
  9. James427
    Joined: Apr 27, 2008
    Posts: 1,740

    James427
    BANNED

    It has taken me over 20 years to get some people to sell me their cars. The 35 Ford I just bought took me ten years. Be patient grasshopper. A note every year or two is all it took letting them know I was interested. Sometimes a little more pressure addded when I saw them starting to waiver.
     
  10. jkperformance
    Joined: Oct 9, 2008
    Posts: 84

    jkperformance
    Member

    For 5 years i watched a 70 chevelle convertible (a no engine or transmission car) set in a back yard. You could only see it in the winter months. It was parked behind 2 abondoned mobile homes. I put several messages in the doors and mailbox of the trailers. Do about all i can but go to courthouse. I did get a neighbor to contact owner with a $5000 offer and they (not the owner) call and tell he said its not for sale. One day i drive by and a for sale sign is nailed on a tree in front of the trailers. I look out back and the chevelle is gone! Now i have a number at least, so i call and find out that someone came in with a rollback the week before and stole it! Within about 15 miles of that location the year before a nice all orig 67 firebird convertible w/400/4sp that had been setting for several years was also loaded up. So it seems if you dont want to sell and dont want to fix em you better hide em because people will help themselves.
     
  11. Pins&Needles
    Joined: Apr 8, 2006
    Posts: 381

    Pins&Needles
    Member
    from Santa Cruz

    You can't ever be too friendly, in sales the moddo goes you can walk into a place trying to sell them something they don't want twice a week, and as long as you are nice with a smile on your face and genuinely care about them they will never mind you being there, in this situation I would become friends with them, you know they have owned the property for a long time, try and talk to them about the history of the place. The more you stay off the topic of the cars and what you actually want the better the chance of you getting them is. What type of cars are we talking about?
     
  12. There was a fellow about my age that had 4 or 5 cars, all in the late 30s early 40s. I'm going back 20 years or so. I'd keep passing his place on a fairly busy road. There was a 37 LeSalle coupe there that I was very interested in. One day I saw him sitting on his stoop just staring at the cars. He lived on a corner and I turned onto his street and got out and walked over to him. I asked him about the cars, saying that I had seen them sitting there for a few years with nothing being done to them.
    He said, Yeah, I know. I said, Would you care to sell one? He says, No. I said, Why not? He says, Because I like to just come out here some days and just stare at them. I just enjoy looking at them the way they are.
    I tried to reason with him about how they will weather away but he didn't care, he would just watch them weather and rot away. Talk about sickening, he wouldn't even consider listening to an offer for any of the cars.
    The cars are long gone so I image he either moved or the county towed them away because they weren't registered.
     
  13. HellRaiser
    Joined: Jun 14, 2006
    Posts: 1,241

    HellRaiser
    Member
    from Podunk, NE

    But, if I have to wait much longer for him to sell, I'm going to be the one that's going to be rusted into the ground and be beyond fixing up.


    HellRaiser
     
  14. zzford
    Joined: May 5, 2005
    Posts: 1,823

    zzford
    Member

    Try telling the owner that you are from the finance company and are there to repo them for back payments.
     
  15. Some people are really just hateful too.There was an old guy near me who had a 55 Nomad sitting in his yard for years.Wouldn't talk to anyone about selling it.He wouldn't even let his son have it.He got so tired of people stopping and asking him that he actually hired a bulldozer to dig a pit and he buried two cars it in.That was several years ago.He died recently and his son put a mobile home over where the cars were.True,its his stuff to do with as he wants,but man, that was just pure spite.
     
  16. dante81_98
    Joined: Sep 26, 2005
    Posts: 504

    dante81_98
    Member
    1. A-D Truckers

    I have a similar story only it is with my own grandpa. He has an old chevy truck that I want to get my hands on that is just sitting in a shed on one of his properties. He will admit that he isn't planning on doing anything with it and yet he will not sell it to me. I pushed pretty hard a couple years ago and he didn't budge, so now I just ask him what he is doing with it and if he ever wants to get rid of it to just call me and I will show up with a trailer. I do that every time I see him in person which is at least once maybe twice a year. Someday I am sure he will break down and hand me the keys.

    Later,
    Chad
     
  17. Larry T
    Joined: Nov 24, 2004
    Posts: 7,875

    Larry T
    Member

    I think that some folks just hate change. To walk outside and not see the car/cars there would not set well with them.
    Best choice might be the wait until they're dead and then buy them. That way they made them happy for all of their life and now can make someone else happy.
    And if they were "willing to sell" the cars wouldn't have been there for all of those years for you to lust after now. They would have been crushed or sold to someone else YEARS ago. I'd be willing to bet you're not the first ones to ask about them.
    Larry T
     
  18. panic
    Joined: Jan 3, 2004
    Posts: 1,450

    panic

    wait for the owner to die.?

    What that will do: instead of asking the owner if you can tow them away (no title, no bill of sale, take your chances, but still legal - assuming he owns them), you can wait for the estate to go through Probate, administrator named, value placed on the cars, the heirs notified, distributive awards proposed, and someone you never heard of now owns the cars.
    Yes, that's much easier.

    Things do not become free when the owner dies.
     
  19. 31whitey
    Joined: Jan 2, 2007
    Posts: 2,214

    31whitey
    Member

    BINGO!....Larry T

    And I go one further.

    Met an older hotrodder, car collector, a few years back...He has some really great cars some are inside(wood floor garage) really preserved nice....some are rotting

    Well we have become friends and usually talk monthly...about all kinds of stuff, cars , guns , history, old fair stuff....etc ,etc

    He has a 32 5w full fender, rocket motored, ford, and a full fendered 34 5w old drag car.
    The 32 was built in the mid 50,s and the 34 in the early 60,s

    These half both been sitting still since 1970...untouched

    These are the ones I dig for obvious reasons.

    He has a son thats not interested and a grandkid who could care less and is into the party phase of life.

    When the question comes up "whats your plan man?"...I ask.

    He says "there yours one day...But they been here so long and so have I, getting rid of them might signal the begining of the end for me"...."and I aint ready to go yet"

    And I fucking respect that man...
     
  20. .

    He says "they are yours one day...But they been here so long and so have I, getting rid of them might signal the beginning of the end for me"...."and I ain't ready to go yet"
    .
    .
    I think this is the answer......
     
  21. "beginning of the end" that is a perspective I haven't considered before.

    s.
     
  22. sometimes there is Sentimental reasons why People Don't Sell them
    Every time I uncover my 50 Mercury some body pulls up in my driveway
    to ask about the Car & I tell them its Not For Sale
    and some times they give me a argument about Selling it
    that's when I get Mad and tell them where to go!
    just my 3 cents
     
  23. Larry T
    Joined: Nov 24, 2004
    Posts: 7,875

    Larry T
    Member

    I didn't say free, just available.
    I also didn't know this stuff was supposed to be easy.
    Larry T
     
  24. CoolHand
    Joined: Aug 31, 2007
    Posts: 1,929

    CoolHand
    Alliance Vendor

    Now THAT is a sentiment I had not considered.

    Wow.

    The things we overlook in our youth . . . .
     
    Last edited: Oct 29, 2008
  25. bodyman
    Joined: Aug 16, 2005
    Posts: 152

    bodyman
    Member
    from east tx

    ok i understand sentimental values . i still have my first car ( 1967 camaro )and wouldnt sell it for a million dollars my dad gave it to me when i was 14yrs old . my dad owns a cherry 1952 chevy business coupe that he has owned for over 40 yrs it to will be mine . but i dont park them in the woods and let them rot they are both inside ! i have not met the man who owns them he lives over 100 miles away some where . his bother and sister who still lives here will not even give me his phone # so no luck with making him a friend either . i know their his cars to do what he wants i just hate to see old cars rot!!! we are not talking 1 or 2 cars more like 20 or more . one very cherry 49 merc 2 door . 1 day i went by there and the cows were rubbing/ scrathing all over it . if he had plans for them i could understand also but givin hes in his 80s 90s and his family says he had no plans for them he just would not sell makes me kinda angry. just ranting :mad::mad::mad:
     
  26. There was an old fellow by the name of Arthur Richmond in the Dawnville community near Dalton GA who had a yard full of vehicles in the '30s, '40s, and '50s. Arthur was a mechanical genius who did mechanic work until he was in his 90s. Most of the cars were too far gone to save, although he did sell off some of the buildable cars including some Lincoln Zephyrs, a '37 Ford flatback, a '39 Ford pickup, and others. There were still a lot of usable parts on the cars that were beyond saving, and lots more parts stored in various buildings around the property. There were many low-mileage cars with minor collision damage that he bought with the intention of fixing up to sell and never got around to them (a '52 Ford with 14,000 miles, an 11,000 mile '64 Chevelle convertible, an 8,000 mile '53 Chevy wrecked in '54, etc.) The Chevelle convertible needed a left quarter panel when he got it, he sold the engine and trans out of it after the body rusted down off the frame, steering box from that car is in my '38 Ford pickup. When it came to parts, if Arthur didn't like you, it didn't matter how much money you brought with you. If he took a liking to you, he might very well tell you to help yourself to whatever you need. Several parts on my '38 Ford pickup are compliments of Arthur. He and his wife lived in a shack without indoor plumbing. He was among the most fascinating people I have ever talked with. He could quote the Bible and Shakespeare at length. He used flawless grammar. I never heard the man make a grammatical error (I'm an English major). He would ask anyone who used a word of profanity to get off his property. He liked me because I would stop by once in a while just to visit when I wasn't there to look for parts. He asked me to have a part in his wife's funeral (I'm a Baptist minister). Maybe more of the cars at Arthur's place could have been saved if more people had cultivated his friendship before the stuff rusted into the ground.
     
  27. cody repp
    Joined: Aug 12, 2008
    Posts: 262

    cody repp
    BANNED

    how cool is that:)

     
  28. Johnny1290
    Joined: Apr 20, 2006
    Posts: 2,834

    Johnny1290
    Member

    quote
    Quote:
    " Originally Posted by ems customer service [​IMG]
    These guys dont respond to frank and fast questions on there stuff. But if you get to freinds or at least get into a couple of social conversations these guys can open up. "



    When I worked in the oilfield in Texas one of the guys called this going to talk to the gentleman country style....he mentioned that he wanted a car and approached the guy with a 'how much' attitude and his pops told him to shut up and started chatting with the old man about the weather...then eventually got around to the car an hour later...worked for them!

    Now, how many times are we gonna see variations of this same thread?!?!? :D:rolleyes::eek:
     
  29. So, if they're worried that they are "near their own end" maybe you can trade them for a newer car -- like maybe a 1980s Mustang or something halfway sporty to make them feel younger. They won't feel so old and you'll have some cool old iron.
     
  30. 62rebel
    Joined: Sep 1, 2008
    Posts: 3,232

    62rebel
    Member

    i "abandon" mine every Monday morning and "recover" them every Friday afternoon. i might as well look at it that way; i don't have time during the week to screw with them. now, if during the week somebody drives by, and sees the '59 in the same place every day.... it's NOT FOR SALE. i'll chat witcha half the day about it but not about SELLING it.
    sometimes the owners just can't part with a piece of their own history.
    my son couldn't care less about the cars i have; all he wants is new stuff, so one day my wife will be selling my old crap or what's left of it by then.
     

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