I shot a man in Reno just to watch him die

I was close, I found a 56 f100 on craigs place. Located in Reno (I'm in the Orange Curtain) I asked the guy to send more pictures of the truck and he said a friend did it for him and he sucked on the computer. So I asked him about the truck. You know the usual eng. trans. rear. susp. body, brakes, and so on. He siad " no bondo, two dime size rust spots on the roof, great brakes, mustang front end, starts right up, solid truck. you could drive it from Reno to OC no problem" I call him back and said listen I'm driving 1100 miles round trip to look at this truck you need to be straight with me about this truck, please dont waste my time and money. He says "this is a solid truck and a great deal you wont find a better truck for this price". I get there bondo everywhere,rust everywhere, stock front end, no brakes, absolute death trap. So $600 wasted on some jack a$$. Has this happened to any of you or am I the only Jack A$$?

 

Sorry to hear that. It sucks how people really don't know how to determine "solid" and "clean". I have a dozen of similar horror stories, and truly I don't know what's the point with these sellers. You'll see the scam anyhow when you land.

Last Jan. I bought a car from a company in Illinois without seeing it. No rust the seller told. When it arrived three months later, I noticed he was kind of right. No rust, but no floors either...

 

Snake oil salesmen...they suck.

Sorry you wasted so much time, energy and money. The worst part is driving all that way thinking about how great the vehicle is going to be...then realizing it is a sham.

 

I'm extremely curious--what'd he say when you said "what the fuck?!? Where's the Mustang front end?" One man's crappy brakes are another's dime-stoppers, and coming from the rust belt, I've learned "no bondo" means a lot of things to a lot of different people. I'm certainly not excusing the dumb ass, just saying it doesn't surprise me when someone says "No bondo, little rust, great mechanicals" and then when they're questioned they say "well yeah, but it's in great shape for a 50 year old vehicle!"
But how the hell can anyone justify saying it's got a Mustang front end when there's a stock I-beam and a pair of leaf springs hanging there below the front bumper?! What'd he say?

-Brad

 

I did ask that " I thought you said this had a Mustang front end" he replied "It is a Mustang front end " Thats when I walked straight to my truck without saying a word and drove away. If I would have heard one more dumb ass word out of his mouth it was going to get ugly, I just spent 9 hrs driving up there to see and hear that.

 

you should have asked someone from here to check it out first..
sorry man, that sucks.

 

I agree , WE are EVERYWHERE ! Hamb brothers an ( sisters ) have gone to check out cars for each other tons o' times. g'Luck on your search. swaZZie

 

I did the same thing once about seven years ago, I found a guy that said he had a Maserati Shamal for sale in California. I called the guy and he sounded like he knew Maserati's and what he was talking about. Even talked about the Bora's, Tipo, and Birdcage race cars. I asked if he had grey marketed it into the country and he said he bought it from the "doctor" that did. I was on a plane in under 45 minutes out of Seattle going to LAX. When I got off the plane a couple hours later I walked out and he actually had a damn Bi-turbo. The guy said he thought it was a Shamal because it had a Shamal book in the glove box. I laughed, asked if I could have the book for the flight home and just got back on the plane. I'm Still looking for a Shamal, send pictures if you have one. Here's the book I got for the $780.00 it cost for the plane tickets:

 

Can always have them shoot it with a disposable and send it to you. Send 'em a diagram of what to shoot. Course, they could mess up the pictures, but then you don't go buy it -

 

was looking through the paper one day to find a 63 gmc 3/4 ton pickup for sale, 650 bucks other than that no information supplied, so i call the guy up a cuple days later and ask him to send me some pictures via e-mail (he lived on the other side of town and didnt want to waste my gas) so he sends me pictures of what he says is the truck one year prior but nothing had changed, the pictures made the truck look extravagant, so i say hell, sounds like a great deal i call him once again and let him know i'll be stopping by, i get over there and pull into the driveway and my buddy who is riding with me starts laughing his ass off and i cant figure out why... until i look up and see the truck parked in the garage... from what i can see just from the street it has more holes in it than a block of swiss cheese. so we get outta the car and up to the truck, sure enuf the wooden bed he said was mint had rotted out completely and fallen to the garage floor, all four tires were flat and weather cracked there's a whole in the drivers door that i can see the passenger door through, but that wasnt the bad part... i go to push open the hood and the damn thing almost kills my friend when it falls off of the hinges, well we get that set on the ground and the engine (which he said was a BBC) is a 350 poncho from maybe a GTO or something similiar, the engine mounts were 90 degree steel brackets that were connected to the firewall by means of an assload of bolts.. this thing was a buety wish i would have taken pictures but i was too busy laughing at this shit to think of it... the guy comes out and says aint she a bute? and it's then that he informs me that the pictures he showed me were from 1993 and the truck had been sitting since then.. ic ouldnt belive it what a bastard!!!

 

Happens all the time. Couple of weeks ago i had planned a 120 mile round trip to pick up an antique farm trailer ( big wooden wheeled thing ) I call the guy just before i leave that i,m off to hire a big trailer and that in a little more than an hour i will be at his place. No worries he says. I get there and he won,t open the door. Just sold it is the answer i get when i call him on my mobile.

 

Should have had the guy send some detailed pic's...

 

my da and i drove 5 hours one way to look at a 63 chevyii convert. said it was saveable had top that worked not to bad of rust so on so on. we get there the top was laying in front of the car you couldn't even install it there was no part of the car left to attatch it to. no glass that was any good no floors. was of a day and $500 in gas in a flatbed truck. sucks

 

Been there. Around here "no rust" usually means "I spread a whole tube of lacquer putty over it , then hit it with a spray bomb". I still have a hard time resisting a long drive to the middle of nowhere to go check out some relic that seems to cheap to be true, most of the time its garbage, but every once in a while you score. To me its all part of the thrill of the hunt, look at it this way, at the very least it will be a nice drive in the country

 

I had a similar craigslist experience. I was looking to trade my 51 Chevy for a 59 Ford 2dr waggon that was a running, driving car, all complete all it would need is a some interior work and paint. I saw pics of it and saw that it had what looket to be a T-bird 312 y block in it and it was an original stick car. So I went to see it. Drove my Chevy down to make the trade if all went well. When I got there the car was in his yard blocked by 4 other vehicles that didn't run, so this thing wasn't moving any time soon. I asked if I could take a look at it and hear it run. When I made my way to the car I saw the front bumper and grill was off of the car and the hood was only resting on the car. The rear tires and wheels were removed and there was shit stored all over the car. I asked if it ran and he told me it did but it needed a battery. I helped him find a battery to put in it that he had laying arround. What was cool about it is that a fellow HAMBer (oddrod46) was with me. When he finally got that thing running it was knocking like Police knocking on a drug raid door, and it was smoking so bad that you thought the entire city block might had caught fire. Oddrod and I we just laughd and started walking away, as we got to my car he said, that if I had $200.00 dollars he would take that and my car in trade for his. We laughed even harder at him and left.

It kills me to hear of things like this happening. You just have to take the good with the bad though. Sorry to hear you went through all of that bull shit. Good luck on your search

 

I bought my 54 Chevy outside of Indy. Around 6 hours from here. I can't claim the car was misrepresented in any way. I did get alot of very good pictures though beforehand.

I've certainly looked at alot of piles of junk close to home though. Not so bad that way.

 

I kinda hate to say it, but these are great stories.... After the initial pain and anger go away you'll be telling these stories for years! That my friend is what this rodding hobby is all about. Keep posting- I'm reading and laughing.That Maserati story is priceless!

 

All right - for all of those who want to have some old timer taking pics and sending them back and forth, COME ON! I can't be the only one who has had the "deal of the century" yanked out from under me because I would rather dick around and play phone tag and get pictures when someone smarter than me just went up there, saw the vehicle in person, handed the guy cash and walked away with a car or truck I'd have given a testical to own!
Come on fellas - you snooze you loose. Sure, there are bound to be a few wild goose chases, but wouldn't you feel stupid if you didn't drive all the way out there and were lucky enough to be the first dude with cash to get THE car!?!?

I'm not bitter - I just had a sweet Hudson p/u snatched out from under me last week cuz' someone was faster and wasn't as concerned with questions and ho-humming.

 

A friend of mine here in OKC bought a really nice looking "rust free" '53 Ford Tudor from a "reputable" hotrod shop outside of Memphis, Tennessee. When the car finally made it here he decided to make a cruise night run to a Sonic near my house and noticed a loud clunking noise that sounded like suspension. When he got back home he crawled under the car and found that the shop had repaired the front crossmember where the lower A frame attached with aluminum tape, bondo and undercoating. When the arm moved the attachment are flexed and broke cracking the bondo out. He called the shop and they would not talk to him. Almost $9K for a car you couldn't safely drive. My buddy ended up having a local shop install a new crossmember and rebuild the entire worn out front end. He also had to replace the rusted out "rust free" front fenders.

I think the town name where the shop is located is Cordova.

You have to be careful even when dealing with businesses on line or located in another part of the country. The car was bought through E(vil)bay.

 

I had just the reverse happen, but got caught in the middle of a weird situation. I listed an old Brit bike, and after the winning bidder contacted me, by bro claimed he wanted to do it as a restoration project. Then, he said to let it go. Just as the shipper was ready to come by, I get yet another call saying not to let it go! Talk about swearing, cussing and expletives!

Fortunately, the buyer understood, but I had to reimburse the buyer for the bike, and the deposit he paid the shipper ($300). I know if I was on the other end, I'd have been steamed.

As it sits, I'm not completely sure my bro will be getting to the bike, so who needs an old resto Brit bike?

 

Pictures help, but keep in mind they make the car look better than it is.

A chrome bumper that has light rust on it will look perfect in a photo that's taken from 10' or more away.

Paint always looks better than it is as well.


The again, sometimes the pics tell the truth....

 

I always seem to find EXACTLY what I'm looking for either
A-precisely when I can't afford it.
or
B-after I bought a peice of crap version of it, and now, what am I gonna do with the crappy one?

Case and point.

10 years ago, I wanted to find and build a 67 cutlass. I hunted for around 6 months and settled on a supreme model that was rusty, sort of ran, and had pretty wicked front end damage.
1700.00
6 months after that, The car got broken into and I needed glass for it. I asked a friend if he might know where to find some glass, and he refferred me to a buddy of his.
I ended up buying a straight, not rusty 67 cutlass with a bad motor for 800 bucks. Hell, it was still shiny.

 

Lot of us been there, done that. Went and looked at a "rust free" 57 Ford panel the other day, guess he meant the roof, fenders and doors had rusted free of the body! On the other hand drove out to look at a rusty, beat up and non running 54 F100 (so the owner said) but it was cheap. Found a solid (minor surface rust), minor dinged up truck with a rebuilt 239 y-block. Came home with me, a new fuel pump and it runs great. When you are dealing with non car people who somehow ends up with a collector car you never know what they have, just gotta except the good with the bad.

 

I bought a '48 Chevy 4D sedan on e-bay and when I got there, I drove from Dayton, OH to Philly, about 600 miles, the car looked like it had been backed into with a rollback truck. It had a very nice straight crease across the right rear quarter and was pushed in about 8 inches. This ruined the car for me. I was looking for a straight roof and this cause quite a buckle.

This place I had to pick it up at was looking very much like a 'Sopranos' set. And guys who worked there looked like stand-ins too! The guy I bought it from even looked like Tony!

Anyway, when I pointed it out to the owner, he got kind cocky about me questioning the condition. That soon stopped when I pulled out the pix that HE had on e-bay. We talked it overand I explained why I was buying it and now I has basiclly wasted a 600 mile trip and a trailer rental and on and on. In the end, I pulled out otf there with the car on the trailer for $120! This was great because I won the auction for $450. He figured he give me back the cost of the trailer and fuel.

I then got to witness him ripping into his rollback driver. He was yelling at the guy and even went so far as to slap him across the face a couple times. It was pretty funny from our stand point. Back to the 'Sopranos' angle; me and the guy who went with me and I call my official 'hot rod retrieval team member' still joke about that guy wearing cement shoes over that.

I got lucky, big time. I really didn't want togo home with an empty trailer.

Sorry to hear about your bait and switch. Did you leave him thinking twice about doing that agian to the next guy? Verbally assaulting the guy would do wonders.

Vance

 

Drove from Kentucky to New Mexico for a "solid dent free 1948 chevrolet truck".

Get there and find a dented, rusty, ex-navy truck. The floors were solid all right....they had been patched with 3/8 plate!!!! every other panel had rot and dents

I drove back 1300 miles with an empty trailer.

 

I bought a 62 Ford Ragtop from an ad in Hemmings that turned out bad...
The guy e-mailed me a couple pictures and then I asked the typical questions about rust, missing parts, body damage, is it bondoed up(looked to be partially primered) etc.
I was told: Only missing parts are the top latches and the engine.
Only rust is a small spot in the floorpan behind the seat. Only body damage is an easily popped out dent behind the drivers door.
I take a day off work, borrow a truck and trailer, rent a hotel room and drive 12 hours to find: All the convert parts missing(including HTF emblems) no front steering parts, much more rust, and both sides of the body coated with at least 1/4" of cracking bondo! When I try to deal on the car becuase I don't feel it's what I was told it was, he says I should have done that before I got there!
I ended up buying it, as I wasn't going home with an empty trailer.(it was still an OK price). To add insult to injury, we ended up renting another room on the way home, as I ended up with the flu for most of the trip home, and had to stop about every 75 miles to releve the pressure of the flu!
I spent the next 2 years collecting parts, but after that deal, I just couldn't get excited to work on it. I sold it and broke even on the deal.
This has DEFINATELY soured me on buying something sight unseen!

 

Everyone's idea of condition is different. "It's in great shape for it's age" or something like that is a killer. Pictures are always taken from the best side and can lie. With people shopping natinwide now, there isn't the pressure to be accurate in a description, because a buyer that lives across the country won't be coming back to "explain" the value of truth to you. Lose a buyer, move to the next. I've bought several cars over the phone, and they have been close to the description, but never better. Get on the phone to anyone you know, or get a HAMBer to go look for you. Nothing like a local presence to change a bad story. Not all sellers are liars, and many are very sincere, but just don't know what bad and good are when it comes to 50-75 year old vehicles.

 

Chaz, you nailed it. My Philly adventure happened over five years ago and I still talk about it, Hell I don't even own the car or the roof, Danimal has it. Sure I didn't get 'taken', but it makes for a great story. Kinda like when you tell a story about a self-inflicted injury. It get's funnier each time you tell it.

Vance

 

WAY DIFFERENT ...

I had a fellow call me wanting to sell a Model A 5W ...
I told him I do not buy Model A's
I was in the middle of building my 32 Roadster ... so space and $$$ was tight.

He persists ... says it has a original 32 shell.
Old hot rod ... yada yada the story goes on ...

Still not interested ...

A few weeks later he calls ... reduced the price by half ... still not interested.

Another few weeks go by, he calls begs me to come look at the Model A 5W ... and reduces the price again. Now the price is so cheap ... I have to go look

When I get to his house,
He tells me he is going thru a Divorce and the 5W has to be gone from the house ( wife gets the house ) ... I look at the Model A ... and cannot believe my eyes ... it is a 32 5W Ford coupe ... with a Model A title ...

I buy it ... for less the value of the grille shell ...

Sort of makes up for all the wild goose chases and misrepresented cars I have looked at over the years.

 

Hello Slicks,
A freind of mine went out to Utah to check out a old roadster, Took three days of driving and got to the place were the car was to be looked at, to find it was really a fulls days trip again, then when he got there they beet him and through him into a well and left him there for dead. A week went by and lucky he told some freind that he was going to look at this car and if he did not return in a normal time to call the police. Today these two guys are still in jail and my freind is all freeked out about it. Now when he goes out to look at a car he brings his SAM COLT >waiting to smoke some asshole. Remeber never mess with a guy from Chicago who loves cars and has good intentions. Things could go wrong fast.