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Ever sold a car only to watch it die?

Discussion in 'The Hokey Ass Message Board' started by 59IMPALER, Feb 28, 2010.

  1. 28 chevy
    Joined: Mar 5, 2006
    Posts: 512

    28 chevy
    Member
    from NE Pa

    '76 Camaro, sold it & the guy flipped it. (Literally)
     
  2. KIRK!
    Joined: Feb 20, 2002
    Posts: 12,031

    KIRK!
    Member

    Yep, my '52 Husdon Wasp. I loved that car and it was always good to me. You can see it in David Perry's book Hot Rod (two shots inside and on the back cover).

    I sold it to a guy who said he wanted use it for a service driving people around San Francisco (weddings, prom, etc.). I though that was a neat idea. Well, he took it to a local fab shop to make some "adjustments" like some fucked up idea to make the back seat L-shaped and run all the way up to the dash with the driver in a bucket seat. While at the shop he ran out of money and interest and the car just sat. I'd drive by every so often and see the poor car rotting in the shop's side yard. I never had money to buy it back. And since he'd already gutted it, I guess I really wouldn't have wanted it back anyway. Then one day it was just gone from the fab shop yard. I don't know what happened to it. I probably don't want to since the fab shop is right across the street from a junk yard.
     
  3. Once I have sold them I never look , dont want to know. Painful no matter how you do. No one will care for you wheels like you.
    Don
     
    Legendlives likes this.
  4. GothboY
    Joined: Feb 12, 2007
    Posts: 214

    GothboY
    Member
    from SoCal

    Late 2008 I was selling my 56 ford sedan delivery, the one in my profile. It was my first car, it was my first build, and it was my first love. Ive had that car in my family since i was 16. I just turned 33 recently. My dad and I chopped it, slammed it, frenched it, shaved it, put custom front and rear bumpers on it, and did it up the whole nine yards. It was cool as hell when I went to sell it in 08. I weighed the value of a kickass car versus a new house and not paying rent. The house won so the car went up for sale. I met this guy, Ruben Fuke. He said he'd buy it. So we made a deal, I sent the car on its way with my name on the title still as the owner untill he paid up. Wasnt till he breached the contract that I figured out that he might be a fraud. Turns out I was right. I sued him, and he still owes me half the value of the car. I did some research on this guy, and it turns out hes a scammer. Apparently he's screwed over a bunch of people just like me. I still havent seen the car since he got hold of it. My guess is that he blew it up or parted it out or something. Morale of the story: STAY AWAY FROM RUBEN FUKE. You cant trust someone who wont keep their word like an honest person. Honest people just cant compete with someone who has no regards for other people's property, or worse yet for anybody but himself.
    I will get my money, and KARMA does work. Im done bitching for now.
    The rest of you try to have a good day. -GothY-
     
  5. Flatheadguy
    Joined: Dec 2, 2008
    Posts: 2,037

    Flatheadguy
    Member

    In 1976, I had a shop in Boston specializing in European exotics. I took a 63 Corvette in trade, I drove it a while and a respected Corvete guy looked at the data plate and told me that it was production number 18. There was also something about the floor...flat or whatever. Someone reading this will know. Anyway, I sold it to a neighborhood kid, a druggie type. Three days after he bought it, he hit a utility pole at VERY high speed and literally broke the car, the frame, in half. He was thrown clear and had injuries, but not fatal. Another lost opportunity to thin the gene pool.
    I wish I knew then what I know know. (I say that a lot these days)
     
    Last edited: Mar 10, 2010
  6. mramc1
    Joined: May 26, 2006
    Posts: 423

    mramc1
    Member

    Most of the cars I bought came to me to die as I parted out a lot of rusted out junk to get some parts for my projects or to make some scrap money. A couple come to mind though. I once traded a mint '85 fullsize Buick for an even nicer '85 AMC Eagle (I owned half a dozen AMC cars before selling most to build my Model A). I saw the Buick around for a few years and each time it was dirty and eventually had the front end caved in from a deer or something. Haven't seen it in a while.

    I also fixed up an '82 F100 that I loved and put 20,000 miles on. I put on a new bed, new fenders, door, cab corners, wheels, painted it, duals on the 300 six, etc. I had to sell it when I found a 3/4 ton to pull my trailer. Sold it to a lady for her 16 yr old and when I delivered it he didn't even know which way to turn the key to shut it off. I haven't seen it since, but hope and pray it isn't wrecked and junked. I have been looking for it on and off since just to see.

    I sold my '83 AMC Spirit with AMC 360/T-5 I build to a guy in Mass. He was about 400lbs and took out the T-5 for an auto, took off the custom exhaust and cats I had made for it, took off the AMC sport steering wheel for a tiny 10" one and various other things that I had collected for it. Luckily he never got it on the road and another guy bought it, repainted it, and fixed it up nice. I don't like selling stuff anymore.

    Josh Quick
    Quick Speed Shop
     
  7. MercMan1951
    Joined: Feb 24, 2003
    Posts: 2,654

    MercMan1951
    Member

    I sold an O/T car to someone that was going to restore it. It looked OK, but tired. Was all original, ran great. Was a farily rare model. Blah blah...they guy even came back to buy more stuff I had accumulated for it off me. I found it back up for sale about 8 months later...and then I found it in a local junkyard, stripped, about a year later. When you stumble upon your old car in a wrecking yard, it's like identifying a corpse in a morgue. I literally felt ill.
     
    kbgreen likes this.
  8. mrjynx
    Joined: Nov 24, 2008
    Posts: 971

    mrjynx
    BANNED

    Just think of all those people that sold their beautiful old fords, thinking someone was going to restore it, just to find some kid, cut the crap out of it and made it into a hot rod.
    or even worse, didnt, and made it into a rat rod.
     
  9. CJ Steak
    Joined: Sep 23, 2008
    Posts: 1,377

    CJ Steak
    Member
    from Texas

    I had a really clean F100 with a full build 300 inline six in it running a 292 Isky cam turning 6500rpm.

    I sold the truck like a DUMBASS to an old man that gave it to his grandkid for his "first truck". How cute.

    They took off the headers, and put a 1 barrel carb/intake back on it and wondered why the truck wouldn't make power and wouldn't run worth a crap. HMMM???

    They never heard of ported and polish, or big camshaft before.

    Idiots.

    Truck got sold to a co-worker of mine that actually fixed it back up a little bit with some coaching from me. Supposedly the dude still has it. He took off for Amarillo in it with all his stuff in the bed, never to be seen again.

    I would love to have it back.

    On the flip side, i'm typically the "good owner". I bring all the old stuff back to life that most people walk away from because they're not popular, desirable, or worth a shit ton of money. I don't care. If it's uncool... I want it even more. Never fails though... I get just as many people walking up to me asking questions about my unusual stuff at shows as much as the big dollar guys in the tri fivers. ;)

    Not hatin'... just sayin'. :D
     
  10. CJ Steak
    Joined: Sep 23, 2008
    Posts: 1,377

    CJ Steak
    Member
    from Texas

    haha!

    Yeah some of these guys that take a fully restored, mint, 95 point car and chop, hot rod or worse, rat rod it really trip me out.

    Geez... find another one to do it with. The paint isn't even dry from the last restoration...
     
  11. DocsMachine
    Joined: Feb 8, 2005
    Posts: 289

    DocsMachine
    Member
    from Alaska

    I got one of the good stories. Years ago, I had a '69 Charger- actually two, but only one was a driver. The other was runnable with a pretty good body, but needed a lot of mechanical work and had title issues. I was putting my money, what little I had, into other projects, and since I had two, I decided to sell the one with title issues to a guy that ran a wrecker as a side business.

    Nothing special about the car. It was originally a slant-6 model, but had a 318 2bbl when I had it.

    The wrecker guy then put $24+K into it over the next ten years. Now it has cherry paint, a sweet interior (including the handmade 'radio delete' plate I made to hold an oil pressure gauge) a built 440 and a 4-speed auto. He's one of those guys that puts body-color-matching stuffed animals in the rear window at car shows, but hey, it's his car. :D

    I know for a fact that if I'd kept it, it'd still be a junker today, so that one worked out.

    On the other side of the coin, I've heard countless times, the story of my dad selling his '64 convertible GTO with a 4-speed to a local kid, who promptly wrapped it around a telephone pole.

    Doc.
     
  12. It's a heart breaker, for a while there evry car I sold or built for other people got wrapped around a power pole or wrecked some other way by a drunk. So I just stopped selling or building cars for other people. If it runs I'm keeping it. The guy whos estate contains the most toys wins.:D
     
  13. THE SPEED ADDICT
    Joined: Mar 31, 2007
    Posts: 355

    THE SPEED ADDICT
    Member

    Back around 1983, a friend of mine had a cherry stock '70 Cuda convertible with a 440 six pack, pistal grip, Dana 60 rearend, and blue on blue colors. It was a real chick magnet (that's another story). Needless to say, my friend sold the car cheap to a young kid and about two months later, the kid put her in the ditch and wrapped it around a tree. Story has it, one of 17 made, and now there's 16.
     
  14. flat34pu
    Joined: Jun 9, 2007
    Posts: 453

    flat34pu
    Member

    had a '66 Impala dressed up like a '66 Caprice, bucket seats, floor console, and the tail lights.
    fresh 283 with less than 5000 miles on it.
    sold it to a friend that actualy put a dent in the rear quarter panel one day, before i actualy sold it to him.
    two weeks after the sale, a big tree jumps in front of him and he center punches it.
    after seeing it in the wrecking yard, i was suprised he walked away with only a limp.
     
  15. LIL.TIMMYUser Name
    Joined: Jan 30, 2009
    Posts: 741

    LIL.TIMMYUser Name
    Member

    thats pretty funny right there! i didn't start with a cherry rig, but i imagine thois has happened a lot!
     
  16. Cut55
    Joined: Dec 1, 2007
    Posts: 1,979

    Cut55
    Member
    from WA

    Sold my '67 Camaro in 1985 to the kid brother of a buddy. Brand new 4-bolt 350 with pocket-ported 1.94 heads, Edelbrock Z/28 style intake, Holley 780, headers, '70 LS6 M22, 12-bolt Posi. The kid put nitrous on it and began trying to become king of the street racers. He blew-up the M22 on a banzai 2-3 shift and put in a Th-400. Then he put too much nitrous through it too many times and grenaded the new 350. Then put his brother's 396 in and proceeded to punish the car further. I drove it once with the 396/Th-400 and it was so erratic it scared me. It never had great brakes (stock manual drums) and the BBC was too much for the old SBC springs and it was a real death trap. Then one Saturday evening in 1988 I get a call from another buddy who had just gone for a ride in my old Camaro with the kid. The kid nailed it off the line, hit second and just as the car was roaring past 60 mph an old lady made a sudden left turn right in front of them. The kid slammed on the brakes and the Camaro skidded across the opposite lanes doing a 180 and went over the far curb breaking the passenger side wheels off. The last time I saw it was 1999 and it was in the kid's brother's backyard, no engine/trans and the windows were rolled down and it was pouring rain. Bye-bye Camaro. Had it from 1979-85 and busted my ass making it a fast street racer-cruiser.
     
  17. gimpyshotrods
    Joined: May 20, 2009
    Posts: 23,264

    gimpyshotrods
    ALLIANCE MEMBER

    The only two "cool" cars that I have sold were totaled within 6 days of the sale, both due to loss-of-control / excess speed.
     
  18. rallisracing
    Joined: Nov 3, 2008
    Posts: 199

    rallisracing

    My dad sold his E/Gas 60 Falcon in about 1969-70... Hilborn injected 289 and all to a farmer in Estelene, Tx, only to have that guy drive it up and down a dirt road and lock up the engine...It was sold to a guy in Childress,Tx and a while later wound up back in Vernon two blocks from the house...had to see another guy just abuse it..Finally bought the 289, Hilborn injectors, Vertex mag, bellhousing, clutch, and Toploader w/ the shifter back from the last owner, and it is still in our shop...wish we knew where the car went....
     
  19. Chalupa55
    Joined: Feb 3, 2008
    Posts: 152

    Chalupa55
    Member
    from So-Cal

    Well I don't usually talk about this not because it makes me sad (which it does), but becsause its embarassing. Back in 02' I made the HUGE mistake of trading my 55' wagon to a friend for a Jeep it was lifted big tires you know the deal. Well when he left with the car I knew I made a HUGE mistake I missed it before he left. Well long story short. 3 days after trading it he had it parked on the street and a drunk driver came hauling ass around the corner and wiped out the front end. Luckily it was a lifted Chevy and at the time the car didn't have the front bumper on it, so it only wiper out the sheet metal, didn't hurt the frame or engine. My friend got 10K for the car site unseen by his insurance, he bought the car back and I traded him back the Jeep and he gave me the car and some money for the wagon. I used the money to get all the new sheetmetal. And now its her turn to get redone. I'll never do that again.

    I also sold my 57' F-100, but from what I've heard she has a good home.I miss her, but I know she's being cared for.
     
  20. knotheads
    Joined: Jan 4, 2007
    Posts: 499

    knotheads
    Member

    in 1980 i bought an OT second generation 1970 formula firebird from my neighbor.i had some head work done and installed a hotter cam,i put trans am dual exaust on it. while cleaning up the interior i found the build sheet for the car. this firebird had all the trans am suspension options on it.i ended up with a fast well handling car, and enjoyed driving it for years.my wife was a school teacher and one of her students took a liking to the firebird.i had 7 cars at the time so i decided to sell it to him ,the deal was made and as he was driving away i knew and said aloud to my wife that i had made a mistake.the kid had the firebird repainted at his grandpas shop right away. it really looked good when it was painted. sadly the kid lost control of the car at high speed while passing a truck .he tore the entire right side off the car from front bumper to tail light and laid the windshield post over. so one month from the sale it was scrap.
     
  21. Yep!
    That is why I am no longer giving them away. If they want to destroy it they are going to pay full bore!
     
  22. ironfly28
    Joined: Dec 22, 2003
    Posts: 1,028

    ironfly28
    Member
    from Orange, CA

    Has anybody seen this one?


    [​IMG]
     
  23. roadster rat
    Joined: Mar 4, 2010
    Posts: 9

    roadster rat
    Member

    yes sir, I sold a 72 camaro to a guy that was basicly camped out on my door step every night with more and more cash claiming he would take good care of it. and this car was nice. two weeks later he spun it out and punched the rear quarter panel and ending up blowing up a very nice 350.but the sad part was he came by asking if I wanted to buy it back.
     
  24. metalman
    Joined: Dec 30, 2006
    Posts: 3,297

    metalman
    Member

    Sold a guy a 52 Ford buisness coupe I had, set up kinda gasser style, radiused rear wheel wheels, hot little Olds engine. Even though the guy was a racer he decided to turn it into a sled, replaced both 1/4 panels so he could put skirts on it. I was ok with that but then he had some guy chop the top. By far the worst top chop I'd ever seen. 4" in front, none in the back (didn't know how to deal with the back glass). Didn't want to deal with cutting a windshield either so he fabbed some type of frame and put a split flat glass windshield in. Made me sick to see it.
    Years ago my brother had a 68 Shelby KR500 convertible. Even though I had told him I want first dibs if he ever sold it he sold it to a guy that bought it to give to his spoiled 17 year old son! Next night the kid was out street racing it, I honestly don't know how that 428 was staying together he was beating on it soooo hard. 2 weeks later I saw it wrapped around a light pole. Luckily being a KR someone bought the wreck and rebuilt it, never saw it again but it must of came out ok, I heard it sold at an auction a couple years ago for 80K.
     
  25. nofin
    Joined: Jan 7, 2010
    Posts: 321

    nofin
    Member
    from australia

    You should have kicked him harder!!!

    I've been lucky, sold three o/t cars, all daily drivers, mechanically A-1 but rough bodies, seen them later around town straightened with good paint. Last car I sold though I was happy to see it gone. Funny thing is since I sold it about a year and a half ago I have seen it listed for sale three more times by different owners!
     
  26. Big Nick
    Joined: Sep 7, 2005
    Posts: 846

    Big Nick
    Member

    Not a car but I built a ground up custom bike for an old friend, rebuilt it and had it re-painted 3 years later only to give it to him for 5 hours and it came back destroyed! i dont know how he did it and he claims he doesnt know wither but it had bloth lights blown out, the clutch was out of adjustment and the rear fender had a huge dent in it and was twisted to one side. Since then it has been off and on, running and not. I dont mess with him anymore so I havent seen it but I know he was in the bike shop last night trying to explain to my friend there what is wrong with it again. He lets his friends mess with it, he never had it properly stored, it use to sit out behind his house in the weather, he never did maintanance on it. Just really never took any care of it. I watched him wash the entire bike with windex, he has stopped by to tell me the "stearing is off" twice, once he had a rear flat and didnt know it and the second time his risers and bars were loose. Its amazing how some people just dont care. This is the bike the second time I built it after the new paint.
    [​IMG]
     
    kidcampbell71 likes this.
  27. well now that i read this i am even more hesitant about selling some cars i have. not that they are runners but when you see them everyday you get attached none the less.
     
  28. gmans356
    Joined: Mar 1, 2010
    Posts: 93

    gmans356
    Member
    from MDR

    I sold a 1959 356A Carrera coupe to a guy I knew and this Retard took his dog to work and left it in the car for a half hour and the Mutt shreaded the interior..looked like a goddamn Cotton Gin blew up in the car, we fixed the car and he took it to New York and it was never seen again...same goober..I restored a 1960 Porsche Roadster for..after a 2 years restoration, he had to have it for a date..left with no insurance on the car and was smoking a joint and dropped it and reached down to pick it up and swerved into a oncoming Garbage truck and smashed the left door and cowel....Road time! 1 hour and 20 minutes and another Guy kinda the same type thing took his car just before we had it finished over the weekend....time on the Road 45 minutes...took it to a car wash and came out and was drying it off, only to see a 1970 Caddy 4 door bearing down on him and his daughter with a 90 year old guy behind the wheel...I liked that car...35000 dollars worth of damage! I sold a 55 chevy hardtop to a jackass, who managed to rack up 1500 dollars worth of tickets before the title could transfer..dragged his ass out of bed on a saturday morning and down to the local PD. I had warrants out for my Arrest, winded up getting the a55hole to pay the tickets and got the car back for free...I can go on and on about the idiots I have known in the Car world! hahahahahaha!
     
  29. this is the saddest thread ever...
     
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  30. stlouisgasser
    Joined: Sep 4, 2005
    Posts: 673

    stlouisgasser
    Member

    Hey man.........has it ever occured to anybody that WE are the guys that are destroying these cars? Everybody builds, drives and generally does things differently from one another. One man's "change"......is another man's "destroy"!
     
    kbgreen likes this.

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