Vehicles that aren't accurately represented

Yes, I fought like a tiger but he made me take it anyway! The hardtop did not look like much on the out side but turned out to be a nice running old Merc. I had my friend Bob (Millers Chop Shop) repair some rust and fill some trim holes then sent it to my friend Cy's for body and paint work. It will be a mild custom, lowered and some trim removed. Very clean looking ride.

 

^^ totally awesome. I didnt even realize it was an HT, i thought it was 2dor post.

 

Went to look at a supposedly cherry moredore 64 fairlane 500. The front undercarriage looked alright however the rear had more rot than the damn titanic.

 

Well now that you mention it I have one of those as well. Another overly optimistic seller and a little disappointment when we arrived after a 4 hour road trip. But I wanted the side trim from the Meteor (looks a little cleaner than the Monterey) and the rear bumper (that the seller bowed out when pulling it out of the barn. Dang it) but when I saw a full set of 61 Mercury poverty caps inside I was sold! So my grandson and I loaded it up and brought it home. I only found three 61 Meteor's across the <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com</st1:country-region>U.S. and this one was the nicest and closest. Now what to do with the rest of the car!

 

Funny, reading this thread title, I was thinking of early thirties Chevies and all of the middle-priced makes from the &#8216;20s to the &#8216;50s, but it turns out I was trying to read &#8220;under-represented&#8221; where it actually says &#8220;misrepresented&#8221;. Duh.

Carry on.

-Dave

 

Drove 2.5 hours each way to look at OT car, 10 years old 63K miles original clean carfax. Got there minor dents that they did not mention But the killer was having to show the sales person and the body shop tech the Rust. This was at a dealership. and they where asking 12k for the car!

 

It goes both ways - seems I look at about 30 or so for every one I actually buy. Answered a craigslist ad for a '34 Ford pickup, the owner said it was 'rough and apart', and asking 9k or best offer. Got there with a trailer after fighting traffic, and the guy goes to the garage and rolls out the most solid rust free and straight old pickup I have ever seen - painted in a titian red (metallic), 16's, Flathead powered, all steel even the fenders. Interior nice and intact etc. The headlight bar and headlights were off, and the engine had a bunch of fuel in it from a carb issue, but it ran. Needless to say I bought it after a bit of a negotiation, which was hard as the phone was ringing off the hook! As we were about to drive off - he yells WAIT - and asks if we want some more 'non original wheels' He is rolling one towards us - yep - 5 minty kelseys!! It ended up being one of the nicest V8 cars I have ever bought.
It's not always like that - but every now and again we make out just fine. It makes up for the horror stories, like the '55 that I saw at night, came back to buy and the pegged to the barn wall side is rough as a washboard, the '47 Merc 500 miles away that sat lopsided, had corrugated cardboard door panels and no rockers at all, plus dozens of others. The fun is in the hunt my friends!!

 

Several years ago, we drove from Kentucky to New Mexico to buy a rust-free, dent-free AD chevy. It was neither. It also had a dozen bullet holes in it and did not have a VIN tag (supposedly had a clean title). We went back to Kentucky with an empty trailer.

Oh yeah, did I mention that I made that trip in a two day weekend?

I was pissed, but didn't make an ass out of myself about it....something about the fear of being burried in a shallow grave in the desert....

 

this one wasn't actually misrepresented, since he said on the phone it had a near perfect body and original paint. what he forgot to mention is that just about the whole car was covered in surface rust. bad surface rust, it was a gold 66 442.

as I drove down the street I saw it in the driveway, then I became one of those assholes who calls and says I'm coming by and never shows up. didn't even stop.

 

...it doesn't matter even if the vehicle is well represented... people just don't listen. I had a mid 40's Dodge 1/2 ton. complete minus the air cleaner. cracked glass, one or 2 fenders needed replacing, and rusted inside and out, top to bottom... it must have been parked in a cold valley that never got sun out in the woods. I told everybody that called that it needed to be completely disassembled and blasted inside and out, as it was covered in heavy surface rust.

bunch of people came to look, and they all said the same thing "I didn't think it would be this bad".... when a guy says it is completely covered in surface rust inside and out, what did they think that meant??

 

If I'm going over 200 miles to look at a car or even parts,I always set myself a route to check other things out on the way. Drove to Dothan ,Alabama to look at a 55 Chevy,guy didn't have pictures but price was to good to let pass. Got there,it was a 54 Chevy,passed on it but picked up a 56 Chevy on the way back not 30 miles out of the way.

 

I have a few.

Drove 400 miles to buy a truck that was on eBay 3 times that didn't sell. The pictures of the auction ad looked decent. After the last time is was listed and didn't sell I made an offer and the seller agreed. In the eBay add it said, "Runs great!". This was no show truck, basically was good parts truck with a couple of hard to find parts. I could tell this from the pictures so I knew what it was. After meeting the person at a gas station in a small MN town we follow him out to the middle of nowhere to an old farm. Looked like the Dukes of Hazard with junk cars with chickens and pigs and a horse tied to the house. I get out of the my truck and ask where the truck is. The guy points to the woods and there's the truck sitting among a bunch of 8-10" thick trees. I go over to the truck, pop the hood and there's no battery so I try to turn the engine over by hand, it was stuck solid. I ask the guy about the "Runs great!". He replies, "It did 8-9 years ago when I parked it back here". I did finally buy the truck but for about half the agreed upon price because I still wanted the parts. We also had to cut down about a half dozen trees to get it out of the woods.

Second time I didn't have to travel far, about an hour away, but this time I bought a parts truck through eBay. There were good pictures on the auction ad and the truck was a rusty hulk so I knew what I was getting. The part that got me was the seller said the truck had new tires and tubes. I needed tires for my truck and they're not cheap. I emailed the seller a few times asking specifically about the tires. First I asked him to verify that the tires were new. "Yes". Then I email again and asked if the tires were ever used on the road. "No, never, 0 miles". I won the auction for about the price of the tires with the added bonus of getting a few parts. My son and I drive over with my trailer, backed up to the truck and get out. I see the tires are totally dry rotted, with very noticeable cracks and full of oversprayed primer. Just then the old coot comes out of the house and I ask if the tires on the truck are the ones I asked about and he say, "Yep". I tell him they're total junk and I don't want them, or the truck. He then starts looking closely at the tires, acting like he's straining his eyes and says, "I don't see any problems. Maybe I need better glasses." At this point even my 13 year old tells the guy they're garbage. The coot says, "Well, if you don't want them I have a few other bidders that will take them." All I said was "Go for it." I went back and canceled my bid.

The third one I didn't buy into. I saw a decent looking parts truck, again on eBay. It was sitting in a scrap yard in town about 75 miles from me. I just happen to have business in the town at the time so I went to checkout the truck. It was a beater, the seller took pictures from some creative angles to hide the fact that it was no better than scrap. The truck sold to a guy in Beloit. The story doesn't end there. A few weeks later it was back on eBay. The time the seller in Beloit stripped some parts off of it and relisted as a good "Father and son project". A guy who lived a few miles from the town where I originally saw the truck won the auction. When he went down to pick it up he saw it was a total POS and called back home and had his wife cancel the credit payment he made for it. I happen to find this out a couple of weeks later when the second buyer found my web site and emailed me. The truck again showed up on eBay, this time a guy from TX posted questions on the Ford Truck Enthusiasts' board asking questions about buying and restoring an old Ford truck. He posted a link to the eBay auction and said he already placed a bid on it. Again, the seller described the truck in glorious detail along with pictures that made the truck look like a very restorable vehicle. When I saw his post I posted an urgent reply telling him to get out of the deal ASAP and told him the information I had. I saved the guy the expense of buying a POS and the cost of driving from TX to WI to buy a typical WI rust bucket.

 

I saw an ad for a torino gt once that said:

"Looks good, at night, in the rain".

Only real honest description I've ever read.

 

Back in the late 60s I saw a ad in Hemmings for a 40 Buick Super 4 Dr. Said it was NOT BAD and had a cracked block. I called him and We talked and everthing was NOT TO BAD. I asked about the interior, NOT BAD. We I forgot about it and next month it was there again. I went to a car show not to far from his place, and saw a 40 Buick, VERY nice car but he backed out at the last minute. But I talked to several guys who saw the ad and they were going to look at the car on the way home and by it for a Club Fixer Upper, and sell it. Well the third month it was in Hemmings again, and I called him and said I'm comming. With a tow bar, my son, we went to a town near Harrisburg, and there she was. SAD, would run but bearly, and the interior was in rags. Im looking under for rot and rust (none) and my son says(Hay Dad) the interior is like new, so I took another look (whats the kid know) Sure enough the entire interior had been covered when new, even the door panels and the covers were falling apart IF YOU LOOKED REAL CLOSE. Well I paid him $350.00 for the old girl and towed her home. A new water pump fixed the (CRACKED BLOCK) intake manifold gaskets fixed the poor running engine with 34000 on the clock, and the electric clock even worked. Cleaned her up and drove her for 15 yrs and sold here to a Buick Dealer and he put her in the Show Room when I delivered her. Poor Me, Iceman

 

On the flip side even an honest seller gets idot buyers, I once sold a 29 model a roadster pickup body and priced it at scrap value on ebay. I stated in the auction that the body was wasted and only good for lawn art or a pattern and had a lot of detailed photo's of it I also told people to get a tetnus shot before coming to pick it up so you would assume people would think it was very rusty, yet when the winner of the auction came to pick it up he bitched about the body being so rusted and said it was probably in too bad of shape to fix up (I clearly stated that in the auction) and he felt that he payed too much.

 

A friend of mine here in central Washington state bought a 53 Ford off ebay- from New York. When it arrived on the back of a semi and got unloaded he took about half a second to realize he'd been screwed. Half the car was paper mache'. They filled in dents and rust with newspaper and painted over it. Talk about crooked. After ebay didnt help, he filed a lawsuit - cost him a fortune.

 

That's why you go and look before you buy or have somebody with a little knowledge!!! Made several plane trips home alone! Still ahead going home empty without a piece of junk! Still bugs me not getting it, but happier later ! And then I don't have to peddle there junk and I don't look like a bad guy selling junk!

 

I went to check out this car. Thankfully it was exactly as he described it, real solid and partially torn down. The trunk and interior were full of what seemed like way to many parts. He said they came with the car, the PO "must've had another parts car"

I offered to trade an OT '63 IH Scout, running and driving with some small issues. He came out the next day to see and drive the truck. Now I haven't driving the thing in almost a year, I had it in storage. Sure enough it started right up as it always had, but going down the road it started to cut out and did not want to go over 3000rpms. Not a good first impression So now im thinking to myself it must just be shit gas, from sitting. We get back to my shop and i pour some more gas in the tank. He opens the hood, and wouldn't you know 2 spark plugs were loose. Problem solved. Then he asks if the lights and all that work. I said they sure do (the only reason i stopped driving this was because of an exhaust leak) So I flicked on the light switch and nothing happens. Great! Now I look like the jackass. The rig has tail lights, but absolutly no headlights AND it has a brakelight out. So something screwy happened with the electrical system when this sat in storage.

He said he was 99% positive he wanted the scout "as long as it is as I described it" When he left he gave me the "i'll get back to you" line we've all used. Just my luck I guess.

 

I bought a '72 IH Travelall out of Washington state and had it shipped here to New York. The PO said that he wouldnt hesitate to drive it cross country, the only reason I didn't fly out to drive it home was I simply didn't have the time. I had about a dozen phone conversations with the guy, as well as a ton of emailing. He seemed like a genuine guy, ex- army ranger, finds missing children for a living. So I took his word about the truck being a rust free driver quality truck.

When it came into the shipping terminal 50miles from me I figured that I wouldnt have any problems just getting in and driving it home. The lady at the counter said "you do know this came in as an inoperable vehicle right?" Now I'm worried, turns out the battery was never fastened down and it fell down onto the starter facing upside down. No big deal, i brought a spare battery just incase. I get in it starts, all the lights work, brakes are good, and it moves unders its own power. I start headed home. I get 40miles and the truck dies, sucking rust and crap up the fuel lines. This guy said I could drive it cross country?????? I never would have made it out of WA. Oh, and that "rust free" part? not even close.

I'll never buy a car site unseen on someones word again. I should've flew out.