Hot Rods The car you never bought...thread

Some of my most memorable...

When I was a teenager my dad took me to look at a 57 Chevy 2dr. that a buddy of his had put him onto. It turned out to be a lil 150 series. Good, solid, car. Solid white, complete, 6cyl, 3spd. that ran but needed brake work. Price $500. My dad passed on it because he liked the Bel-Air trim better lol! I'm pretty sure this one is still around town.

I went to high school with a guy whose younger brother had an 'old Ford' he wanted to sell. Took my old man out to look at it one day after school. It was a 51 2dr sedan. V8 car, complete, green inside and out. Price $500. Dad passed on it because the flathead was seized. A friend of mine bought this one several years later and still owns it. I've had the privilege of wrenching on it. Turned out to be a damn good car.

I drove my 62 Caddy sedan in high school. There was an old guy in town with a 62 coupe sitting in his yard. I would stop and visit with him every now and then and get him to shoot me a price on his coupe. It was always high but every time I stopped by it got cheaper. The car hadn't moved in years but he had actually rebuilt the engine in it and attempted to repaint it right there where it sat. I remember him starting it for me and showing me that everything in it worked. He shot me a $500 price on it one day and I told him that I would get the cash together asap. Couldn't get my ole man interested in floating me the cash because too many of his buddies had told him the car was rotten from sitting in the yard and that the old man who owned it was crazy. A few days later the car was gone. The old guy told me some truck driver from Missouri or Tennessee stopped and bought it. The car was a factory bucket seat/console option. Silver exterior with solid, black, leather interior. The inside looked new but he had attempted to paint the car bright blue and it was a mess.

Back in 97 I worked with a guy that told me he had an old Challenger he wanted to sell. Told me someone had started building a drag car out of it. Supposedly had a 'hot 440' in it but the guy didn't really know any specifics about it, just bought it because the previous owner needed cash. Said he would sell it to me for what he gave for it which was $400. I went and looked at it and it turned out to be a 70 model. Base model car with a Copper exterior and white interior that someone had spray painted black. The hood was off and the engine was not covered. It may have been a 440. I'm not a Mopar guy so I didn't know either way but I do know it had an aluminum intake, big carb, headers, aluminum valve covers, etc...everything was covered in oxidation. It had a rotten pair of slicks on it so I assumed it had a pass or two on it at some point. I passed on it.

 

57 tbird with the two four option, was in the trunk. Had a single four on it , running 312, three speed O/D in 1968, $1100. Had the money in my pocket. 68 Mustang 428 CJ shaker hood, 31000 miles in 1970 $1350, 29 Ford Sedan complete in 1969 $50, and others. Why did you bring this stuff up??? I was having a good day! Bones

 

In 1975 my dad had told me about a fella that he worked with that had an old Ford for sale. I had always loved old cars since I was a young kid and was so excited to see this car. It was a 32 3 window coupe, channeled with no fenders. Had a blue plexiglass roof insert, and the trunklid and cowl had been welded up. Wanted $500 for it and my dad simply said "that's too damn much money".......it's a good memory anyway!

 

There's been a bunch, here's a couple highlights...
73 or 4, a couple of bros I was friends with were into Vettes. Fix light damage, respray etc, flip 'em for a few bucks.
Gave me first dibs on a 63 split, fresh red lacquer, black interior, 327/300, 4spd, and four new Cragars. $1800. I didn't like the split, wanted a 64 or 5....
72, older part time co-worker at the Gulf station with me had a '57 2dr post, X-drag car. Detuned for street duty, now running a stock 283/4spd. Red primer, radiused wheel wells, 4pt rollbar, glass buckets, & an Olds 4.11 rearend. Rough but ready. $400. Being a junior in HS, making $1.50hr, I couldn't swing it. Wanted it bad though...
74ish, 66SS396 Chevelle, 4spd, 4.56s, marina blue, 11K original on the clock, immaculate. I knew both previous owners. Big block was starting to puff smoke pretty good, but still strong. $800. I'd just recently bought a 69....no cash

 

Back in 1956, is San Francisco a schoolmate, Rich Marchetti, bought a 1932 Ford cabriolet for $ 150.00 to get the Cragar overhead conversion as his Cragar equipped engine had just expired. He also kept the tires and wheels, but offered me the body for $ 12.00. We were living in an apartment in North Beach, and my father said that we would have no place to put it. There was no way that I could convince my father to let me buy it.

 

Sounds like most of these regretful good deals happened when we were too young and broke to swing the deal. Now that I am old and retired I seldom hear of any good deals anymore.

 

A little OT, but I had a guy with a handshake deal that was going to buy my 51 Mercury M-1 pickup in 1991. I was set to buy a 1970 Fairlane Cobra 429 SCJ 4 speed car, rough but complete and running, for $2900. The night before we were supposed to finalize the deal, he recanted and offered me 2/3'rds of what our agreement was. I told him to F off and die. I would have gotten close to his offer if it had started that way, but going back on a handshake pissed me off. I still have my M1, but the Cobra Fairlane would be worth about 3X the money, and, if it didn't kill me, I would still have it too.

 

No. 1: 1955 Pontiac 2dr that Dad took me to look at in '66 or '67. Sitting on used car lot for $250. Mom didn't want me to have a car yet. If I ever find a nice one, I'd be tempted to buy it.
No. 2: 1965-66 289 Cobra (not Mustang) $5,000-$7000. This was 1971-73. Cobra had Bondo on it and of course that was a lot of money then.
No. 3: 30-31 coupe w/32 grille shell. $100. 1973, right after American Graffiti came out, was going to build Milner look a like. I did buy it but sold soon after for $100.
No. 4: O/T 1970 Mini. Factory Works Rally car. £1000, didn't think it had enough rally history and passed on it. This was mid 80s.
No. 5: 1962 Mini. Rally car, not factory works, but prepared by works team. A friend had it in 1984 and offered to me for £5000, passed on it and it sold at auction for £17000.
No. 6: '60s Mini once owned by Michael Caine. Mid 80s and it was partially dismantled with parts missing. I passed on that one as well, they were asking £1000.
No. 7: 1967 Mini. Full Race, Magazine car. Built by Clive Trickey (wrote for the magazine). Oh, wait, I bought this one in 1985. Scrapped up the money. He was asking £700 but wasn't sure he wanted to sell it, I offered £1000 and he accepted. I still have it.

There have been many more, but these are the ones I should have acted on. Other than the last one, which I did buy, I probably would have sold the others by now. Someone would have offered more than I paid and I would have accepted. If we only knew.

 

I can only think of two, and one was successful. I answered an ad for a '32 5w for $1500. It was in Whittier, all the way across L.A. so a buddy and I took off. When we got there the guy said it was sold, the buyer had gone to get cash for a deposit, he would pay for the car in two payments over the next month. I waved my fist full of $1500 at him, no way he would go back on the other deal. It was too good to walk away so I sweetened it by $200 and he bit. He said, "get this thing outa here before the other guy comes back" So we took off in a hurry and he did too!
It was a full fendered, no rust, 350 and a 4 spd, '32 5w driver - for $1700! Score
The other was when I was working at Cyclone Headers, around 1969. We were doing some small repairs/detailing on a 427 Cobra that was owned by a friend of my boss. It was for sale for 6K. I had $3500 in my savings, I asked the folks for a loan - no dice. A buddy offered to lend me $500, still short. So I rationalized that I couldn't afford to own three cars at once (my disassembled coupe, an AH Sprite daily driver) and gave up. He sold the car for $5500 and my boss said he would have been glad to let me make payments since he knew where I worked. Ahhh.....

 

1979 when I was 16, passed on a 57 Nomad with a nice 327/4-speed for $3000. If I only knew then how stupid that was.

In 1980, when I passed on a 63 Corvette split window coupe for $3500, because the insurance would have been over twice as much as I was paying. Sucks being a male driver under 18, 21 and 25. I think insurance now evenputs s surcharge on single guys up to 30!

 

I had similar luck in 1987-8. Passed on a '70 442 convertible with a fresh Auto Shack 455 for $550. Mild front end (fender) damage but those cars were cheap in the junkyards then. A few months later I also passed on a '69 Chevelle rust bucket with a blown-head-gasket Corvette 427 (low horse) with 3x2 intake and 12-bolt rear for $400. Have kicked myself ever since on both of those.

 

Late 70's, a guy had 3 34 Ford 5 windows for sale. One was completely stock, original and still had shiny black factory paint, second one an old hot rod, fenderless with a J2 Olds in it, both ran. 3rd on was a roundy round jalopy, looking back not terrible rough but at the time I figured part car. He wanted $1500 for all, would not separate. All I had has a grand, my buddy was looking for a project and had $500 so I tried get get him to go in on it (I was willing to give him the hot rodded one) but he had found a 41 Willys coupe for his 500 so he passed. Of course they were gone by the time I got the money. At the time I thought my buddy was an idiot passing on a 34 Ford for a rough old ex drag car Willys since 34's were in high demand and nobody was into gassers anymore!

 

O.K...I`ll admit it.. In 1979 I Passed on a Plymouth A/FX altered wheelbase Belvedere w/ plastic windows and fiberglass doors/trunk lid/bumpers and hood for $600...Shorty after I passed on a Ferrari 275 GTB/4 at $7 K...And bought a new Corvette instead. google the value on that F-car.

 

In 1975 I was 18 and had made a verbal agreement to buy a 1962 Impala convertible from a guy that was a couple of years older. It was a pretty cool car, 327 w/3 speed on the column, had a great sounding set of pipes on it and chrome reverse wheels. He wanted $400, we agreed I would get the money and buy it the next day. That evening he came to my parents house and we talked on the front porch, someone had offered him $50 more that day and he sold it! I was pretty pissed, went inside and told my dad, he said I should have hit the guy.

The next year a neighbor had a 53 Ford pickup with a flathead, he drove it all over, he priced it to me for $300, I don't remember why I didn't buy that but I've wished many times that I had. Probably didn't have the money to spare at that time. It wasn't anything special, just a solid little truck.

 

In the spring of '68, I struck a deal to buy a roller '37 Ford coupe without a trunk, motor or trans. Mom said no, forced me to take it back. Two months later, while working the summer warehouse job, I saw a '37 Plymouth coupe about a block over from work. Screwed up the courage to knock on the door of the apartment building one afternoon to ask about it. Two old maid sisters had owned it for decades, bought it new. They were as sweet as could be, but not interested in selling. I stopped by again a few weeks later just to check in and keep in their good graces in case they might change their minds. A week before I had to leave that job and go back to college, I noticed the car with a wrecked right front end sitting outside their place. I stopped in again, just to see if they were alright. One was a bit bruised and upset, but okay. They still weren't interested in selling. Never saw it - or them - again after that.

 

Mine was a Sunbeam Tiger , hopped up 289 HiPo in it . My Dad told me “you better like it cause you will spending a lot of time living in it if you bring it home “ . The sum of 1500.00 was the asking price . I worked a Chrysler / Plymouth dealer in the 70s , Horizons were the new in thing , Road Runners , GTX , Cuba’s with Big Block 4 speeds could be had all day long for 12-1500 , just to buy back the trade in costs . I remember one 66 Charger 426 Street Hemi , 2400 . Damn was I Ford nuts and passed on any of them .


Sent from my iPhone using H.A.M.B.

 

Long ago, whilst living in San Diego (around 1975) I had the chance to purchase a 1950 Dodge Coronet woodie from a guy in Pacific Beach. It ran well and was a nice copper color. The guy wanted $500.00 for it. The wood was nice as well as the interior. Trouble was, it was missing a rear/side door. I thought to myself, where the hell would I ever find a door for that thing? and I passed on it. I STILL have a footprint on my ass from kicking myself.

 

When my Dad took me to look at a car for me when I was 17, we went to the local Stark Hickey Ford dealer in Royal Oak, Michigan. We ended up looking at an OT Mercury Cougar with dark green paint, four speed and a black vinyl top. It said, "Dan Gurney SPECIAL" on the side emblems. I passed on it to get an OT Road Runner instead.

 

I've a theory about that Don.

Back in the day, there were just a few ways to advertise something for sale..local paper, pinned up index cards and word of mouth, heck, Hemmings was a luxury item. Now you advertise something for sale across the whole world, as well as price it out high.
Back on topic.
'55 Chevy 2-door, forget which kind, no engine, still had the 4 speed muncie in it..I was 15 (1976) and went to look at it with my Dad. The rear fender lips had been tinkered with some butt ugly flares. Dad said to pass on it. $150 bucks. Few weeks later we saw a similar '55 that the lips had been completely taken out to stuff N-50's in it.
Dad said "we should have bought that '55 and done the same thing to it."

Lot's more, but it still depresses me to think of them.