Technical Stuff You were happy to sell for a loss..............

Like HRP I have never taken a loss on an old car but have on late model stuff. I have bought quite a few parts I just had to have and ended up losing on those or giving them to someone who needed them for their project-some parts went to HAMB members for postage only-Oh well, they needed them.

 

My Corvairs.

 

tell me about it . I have a bunch of sheetmetal for a car I don't own no more that I cannot get rid of ( OT car) and now I want to sell the 50 chief and all the stuff I collected for it ( about $5 g worth ) and I have a feeling I am going to loose my butt , I already have because its costing me $2500 a year to store it . and its been in storage 3 years . and I have another car o/t that I was going to flip , well its been 2 years and $1950 ago for a car with a $1500 book value , and this is not counting the hard engine parts I have too . I just scrapped #100 of cast pontiac rods #1000 of emission heads and cams and have #50 of cast pistons ( anybody near me want to buy garbage pistons for casting send me a line )

 

I lost somewhere around a grand on it...but I did have an excellent adventure, so it was probably worth it.

 

I have never taken a loss on ANY of my transactions....cross my heart. If you don't believe me, ask my wife. She has all the figures that I gave her on each one.

That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

 

I am good about pointing out all the things that are wrong with something when I try to sell it.

--louis

 

All my Y block parts. After years of trying to save and sell I finally hauled it to the recycle yard. Took a couple days to get over it.

 

Back in the early 70s I bought a 59 Fiat 600, drove it home and tried to make it right. It was impossible, the car leaked oil so bad I was sure it was manufacturing it. Ended up cutting my losses, drained the fluid, removed the battery and gave it to a friend for his kid to play in.

 

A few years back I bought From a guy here on the Hamb a running Hemi and it's attached 700r tranny. Pulled that engine out of his Roadster and headed home. Installed that Hemi and the tranny in my old 49 F1 Ford. Truck ran like a pig and I mean a miserable pig. jerked that 700r out of there that very night and installed a Borg Warner 4 speed behind that Hemi. Truck ran like it was supposed to then, I mean it was a fire breathing monster with that 4 speed. That 700r sat around in the shop for months until I gave that sucker away, never was so glad to see anything go.

 

'59 Impala 6 cyl. convert. The ugliest, trashiest piece of crap vehicle that I've ever owned.
Gave it away and prayed I'd never ever have to see that ugly damn thing again.

 

Old car advertising from magazines such as Life and Look. Over 300 color ads from the 40's and 50's. Bought at a swap meet for $1.00 each.
Visions of selling them for $3-4 each online reached my eyes through rose colored glasses.
After a year I had sold 2....quickly realized that there were 1,000's online already.
The garbage can was the next step.

 

Love the fringe!!!

 

I've seen guys selling cut out ad pages with cardboard backing at swap meets for $$$ per page (Don't remember the exact price, but my wife bought one for me with an ad for my truck)

 

My first wife. Lost my ass and my left nut, best view of her is in the rear view mirror. My loss is your...future loss.

 

A few years ago, I assembled a complete kit to install the later style Chevrolet six (194-215-230-250-292) up against a stock 40-54 Chevrolet 3 speed transmission. I sold it here on the HAMB for $300.00; actually made a little money. Then I came across another of the Offenhauser 4013 adapters the setup is based on, so I assembled another complete kit (V-8 Powerglide starter ring, flywheel, clutch pressure plate and disc, throwout bearing and fork, the already mentioned offenhauser adapter, all the fasteners, and even a starter motor-everything NEW or rebuilt); I can't sell it, and I've got it down to $120.00 (???). It would also work with a V-8, but the firewall and parking brake would need modifying, and the transmission would have to be babied. I offered it to a guy over on ChevyTalk.Org for even less, and he lives in my state; figured he'd jump at it, and come pick it up. Nope! No matter what I sell it for now, I'm losing money, and I just want to get it over with; I'm tired of the room it all takes up. I don't get it!!!!! I can't sell the thing!!! Probably just as well; I give all my "sales money" to my wife. I am Butch/56sedandelivery.

 

My life's lesson, if I own it, it's worthless and I will have to give it away. If anyone else I know has the same thing, it sells! I can't figure it out....

I just tried to sell a Hemi at the swap meet. No one was interested in it. But the guy a few rows up sold all of his at higher prices. What gives? LOL

From now on, I will only buy it if I love it.

Sent from my XT1585 using The H.A.M.B. mobile app

 

Not too long ago I bought 5 complete 327s along with TH 400s attached to them from our local airport. Their aircraft winch was powered by a 327 / Th400 and they kept parting out 70s Opel Diplomat 5.4s to have replacement engines in case the one in the winch failed.Of course the winch never missed a beat and a few years back they repaced he old winch with an electric one. The engines had come out of running and driving cars so my guess was they "can´t be too bad". But being stored in a humid hanger doesn´t help, so two of them had a stuck piston and badly rusted intake runners. My shop was so crammed with all these 327s ,so I sold to bad ones for a loss, at least at no profit,to an engine rebuilder who couldn´t say no at a price this cheap.I was glad to see them go .The other 3 ran at the first try and had great oil pressure. So I spent 1000 Euros for 3 running 327 /TH400s...

 

I'm younger then most here so the vehicle range is different exponentially....


Pretty much everything I've ever owned. Most were not H.A.M.B. Friendly (1996 s-10 and a 2004 f350 with a manual). My recent buy (51 DeSoto) would probably end up as a loss but I don't think I'll ever sell it. I've owned my fair share of vehicles over the last decade however most of them were modern sh**boxes in their own regard. Best vehicle I've ever owned I currently have (2006 F350).


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Because of the repairs? That's a shame. I still think it's an awesome ride!


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Had a 35 Pontiac I sold for just barely over what I'd paid for it. Id call it a loss, and was happy to see it go. First buyer backed out the day he was supposed to pick it up. Id transported the car half the distance already. Sat on it several months, had everyone and their dog call about it, but nobody wanted to buy. Finally it sold, I still get occasional calls from people who looked at it asking if I still have it, asking for the name of the buyer etc. It was about 4 years ago it sold. I had a guy call me on it yesterday, he got my # from the local Pontiac club.
Other stuff that I get tired of and cant sell usually ends up as scrap metal or donated somewhere.

I remember back in the day when Craigslist and Ebay sales were easy.... The good ole days

 

About 15 years ago I was in the process of having an engine built for my old '67 Chevelle and I had just bought a new Edelbrock intake for it. My Dad's buddy told me about this new 'chrome like' powder coat finish that 'looks great and makes it really easy to maintain the finish'. I dropped it off at the powder coating place without even bothering to see a sample (really stupid idea). When I picked it up the next day it looked like someone had snorted silver dust and blew a snot rocket all over it...............it was horrifyingly bad. It looked like something that Peter Cushing would use to repel the Brides of Dracula. I sold it that same day for the price of the intake minus the coating with a big smile on my face.

 

I read about your trip in Roadkill magazine. I would easily pay $1000 to have that much fun so I wouldn't call that a loss.
Brian

 

Though it's not H.A.M.B. Friendly, I bought an old boat that I intended to restore. Wood was bad, but the '56 Caddy mill was nice! Rebuilt the motor and transmission, put more $ into the boat which turned out to be way worse than I thought. Scrapped the boat and sold the Cad. Lost some $ and learned a lesson.


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When it gets to the point that it starts costing me more in mileage to haul it to and from the swap meet than it did to buy it, I have no problem dropping the price...

 

The one for me would not be a car, but our first Engine Dyno, made by Stuska was fully manual control and you could get a sku of 50+ HP and TQ between runs based on human error. Were happy to sell it for a 10K loss just to get rid of the thing. Usually you want stuff you hate to at least go out of state, this thing went out of country and the new owners were ecstatic about it. Got a good Superflow and now all is right with the world. The engine dyno is only an expensive leak tester anyway. If you want to know anything about how your car will actually perform we strap her to the Drums the Dynojet dont lie.

 

YES! I had a Ford Pinto........... for about 3 weeks. Loosing money on the sale was much better than the pain of pinto ownership.

 

My electric guitars...I'm a no-talent hack on them.

 

^^^^ Related, but still OT. Freaking Vega, that POS self destructed inside of 4 yrs. Took great care of it is what really pissed me off. Told the neighbor kid get it outa here, freebee.

Hoo-boy! Have I got a guit-tail for you. '89 LP Standard (new)that was as big a POS as the previous decades's Vega. Gibson couldn't even fix it.

 

I spent the saturday between two 12" snowstorms dragging home this rotten to death 46 ford 1.5hrs away from me in downtown providence rhode island... not a good neighborhood... tiny street with the 28ft enclosed trailer I borrowed from my buddy that he just had wrapped with the sponsors for his race setup. between my truck and the trailer my rig blocked three houses when I parked on the side of the road! luckily no one had to leave. $100 in gas, $50 for a new hitch to fit the trailer and $400 for the rotten toad. played 1925 indy 500 pit stop rebuilding the entire wheel and brake system to make it roll on the trailer. only thing I want out of it is the running gear... so until I have the time to pull it I have to stare at it in my back yard everyday.... and listen to the wife ask me when I'm gonna have time to get rid of it lol

 

Two 56 and 57 Chevy 4 doors. Not particularly desirable in most persons eyes and down right miserable to sell. The greatest loss I took was on an off topic '84 Corvette.
I owned several 60's and 50's Corvettes. Never lost a dime with any of them, always made good money.
I am soooo done with 4 door cars and hate the newer Corvettes.