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1600 Mile Round Trip Results in Nothing...

Discussion in 'The Hokey Ass Message Board' started by damnfingers, Apr 27, 2008.

  1. damnfingers
    Joined: Sep 22, 2006
    Posts: 1,287

    damnfingers
    Member

    I just got back from a trip I took to buy a Model A.

    I was (and now, still am) looking for a good driver Model A Fordor in reasonable condition...paint not all that important but didn't want rust through and the interior had to be good. Thought I'd found one...looked good in photos and a walk-around by the owner describing problem areas over the phone only resulted in a comment about paint bubbling up at the bottom of the cowl.

    After driving 800 miles to find that "paint bubbling' actually meant the bottoms of the cowl on either side were rusted through I said screw it and left. While it might sound like no big deal, I didn't want a new project, I wanted something I could have fun with while I worked on another project that I have.

    What's so hard about describing something honestly? I wouldn't have wasted his time or mine (or my money) if he'd been honest. Pissed me off but what can you do? :mad:
     
  2. UnIOnViLLEHauNT
    Joined: Jun 22, 2004
    Posts: 4,827

    UnIOnViLLEHauNT
    Member

    I dont know who is more foolish...the person who drives 800 miles each way at $3.50 or so a gallon to return empty trailered or the seller who cant accurately describe an item

    I only say this as Ive had someone drive from out west for a Buick to just be a prick and look at it and then leave without calling me, and after I worried about the no show out of state prick and called to make sure he was OK (waiting hours) got a nasty email a few days later cuz I THAT DAY stole the carb off the motor for another project. It was a 57 Buick Super 2 dr ht for $1500...c'mon now. Said it would never run etc. Funny cuz it ran for me just fine 2 yrs later when I got to it.

    So now I specifically say in any of my ads if you are a super picky person, I dont need your money or whining.
     
  3. damnfingers
    Joined: Sep 22, 2006
    Posts: 1,287

    damnfingers
    Member

    Oh, I agree I was foolish to drive there but how else could I find out the car wasn't as verbally described? Pictures don't always tell the truth...and these surely didn't.

    And I wasn't a prick...I talked to the guy and his wife...my wife and I actually took a test drive in the car trying to convince ourselves we wanted it...but I couldn't get past the fact it wasn't as described. I figured $500 in gas and motel bills beat the hell out of $10K+ for something I wasn't going to be happy with.
     
  4. F&J
    Joined: Apr 5, 2007
    Posts: 13,222

    F&J
    Member

    If youv'e been around old cars, you should have known what paint bubbling means on lower edges.

    People seem to try to ignore warning signs and hope the car is way better than their subconcious is telling them.

    No rust problems in a lower cowl on a less than mint car? Come on
     

  5. hotrodladycrusr
    Joined: Sep 20, 2002
    Posts: 20,765

    hotrodladycrusr
    Member

    Could have asked a HAMB member or another person that is close to the car to visual inspect it for you. Has worked many times for me, including just a couple of weeks ago. The HAMB member that I asked wasn't the greatest with a digital camera or sending photos so he took his girlfriend along who snaped more detailed photos then the car owner did and sent them to me.
     
  6. phat rat
    Joined: Mar 18, 2001
    Posts: 4,920

    phat rat
    Member

    Shit happens. Did you try to find something else while you were in a new area? I agree it's better to lose the gas money and time rather than buy something you're not happy with. On the flip side how many people describe a car the same way?
     
  7. bingo!!
     
  8. Homemade44
    Joined: Feb 7, 2007
    Posts: 555

    Homemade44
    Member

    Sorry your trip didn't turn out as expected, know you were looking forward to getting the model A.
     
  9. This story is as old as the old car hobby. Been there and done that, both bad and good many times. Don't beat yourself up (or let others do it to you either). I always find it funny that other people know EXACTLY what YOU should do. It's nice to know there are so many perfect people in the world. You could have done what a lot of other people have done, buy the car and have it shipped to you like many others do. You're right, $500 sure beats a 10K mistake! Having someone else look at a car for you can bring up other problems too. Do they know what your standards are, and what you are looking for? The best pictures don't always tell the truth either. If its your money, its your decision. Sometimes if a car is a good deal, you don't have the luxury of much time to get things set up. I've done it the stupid way once and that was enough. My wife and I always have headed into buying trips with the attitude that we are taking a road trip-adventure-vacation and have fun on the trip. See the sights and don't have too big expectations and hope for a pleasant surprise. People misrepesent stuff out of greed, it happens all the time but there are many more great honest people, too. We've had both and that's part of the game.

    I've driven to Kansas and walked away from a Deuce 5W with poorly done sheetmetal repairs. My wife told me at the time to be patient because a better deal would come along. Sure enough, a gennie 5W popped up in Missouri six months later. She kept calling until she got in touch with people, so I could ask the questions and we left the next day without seeing one picture of it. When I got within 20 feet of it I knew it was going home with us. I've learned the hard way before not to dick around when buying a Deuce.

    One time we hauled our enclosed trailer from South Dakota to Atlanta, Georgia to look at a (supposedly amateur restored estate find) Deuce roadster that I had received many good pics of. Luckily I was able to haul a bunch of dental chairs down there for $800 to help pay for the trip. The car was a scalper's (he was a good liar!) overpriced, misrepresented dog that I had to walk away from. I had brought my last issue of Hemmings with me so I could catch any car events while on the trip. I found a EFV8 swap meet in Peoria, Illinois which turned out to have some nice deuce parts. I ran out of money before I ran out of stuff to buy. I asked who were the deuce guys in the area and met two of the best, Everett Gray and Gary McCormick, plus others. They told us of a freshly (over) restored Model B roadster that was very nice for not much more than the other one. We looked at it that day, and stayed an extra day to look at it again. I was going to pass on it because it was too nice (and expensive) to hot rod and throw away half the restoration. We were driving away the next day and wife said we should stop and look at it a third time, so we did. My wife said she wanted it!!! She said she would like at least one car that's DONE and not a project! Who was I to disagree? I never did touch it and its doubled in value since then. I now have a hiboy Brookville project to build instead of tearing the B apart.

    So what all this means is......., half the fun is in the chase, keep trying, have a good attitude, use your head and you'll get what you want. It's like baseball, you can't have a home run every time you're up at bat!!!
     
  10. ^i totally agree^ but it does help to have a third party check something out for you if possible , at the least you will have some kind of idea before wasting your time and money on trips , of course you can use the time as a mini vacation with the wife , it just makes more sence to me that a third party with no involvement could check things out take a few pics and give the buyer some input as to what the seller has ...
     
  11. 51 pickem up
    Joined: Apr 7, 2005
    Posts: 204

    51 pickem up
    Member
    from mosheim,tn

    you should always go with low expectations and then you will never be disappointed.:rolleyes:
     
  12. classicfins
    Joined: Dec 16, 2006
    Posts: 592

    classicfins
    Member

    Yeah, that's the way I date women and it works for me. LOL
     
  13. Insane 1
    Joined: Feb 13, 2005
    Posts: 974

    Insane 1
    Member
    from Ennis TX

    EXACTLY !!!!! This is how I look at everything in life since I was about 10.

    My wife says I'm a negative person, I say I'm a realist. :D
     
  14. Squablow
    Joined: Apr 26, 2005
    Posts: 17,390

    Squablow
    Member

    There it is. If there is ever a HAMBer that is interested in a car in my area and wants me to go look at it for them I'd be more than happy to. And if I ever plan to spend a decent amount of cash on an old car that I can't see in person I'll be asking for that service from someone else.

    10K+ seems like a lot for a 4 door Model A. There is a very nice '30 coupe restored that is for sale locally for $10.5K, unless it's really something special, 10 grand seems like a lot to pay for a Model A Fordor with bubbling paint (even if it was solid underneath).
     
  15. Maybe this doesn't apply to a Model A Fordor, but I might not want to tell someone I don't know very well (even though a Hamber) to look at a car I think might be a "good deal". Even if they are totally honest and don't want the car themselves, they might tell a friend and it could be bought out from under you. How would you know what happened, other than it was sold to someone else?

    The other thing is their level of knowledge of that particular year/model. I would hate to recommend something, have the guy drive 800 miles and be pissed off at me instead of the owner.
     
  16. stude_trucks
    Joined: Sep 13, 2007
    Posts: 4,755

    stude_trucks
    Member

    Same thing kind of happened to me about 7 years ago when I going to buy an old Aston Martin DBS. It was a car that definitely needed a full restoration and the price at that time was $10K which was about half of what you could have gotten a pretty nice one for (not anymore!). It was supposed to be tired, but running decently and not too bad. I sent the guy a couple hundred dollars deposit to hold it and got money orders for the rest. My wife (then girlfriend) flew from San Francisco to Washington State to see it and were planning to buy it and drive it back. The guy said it should make it back without any real problems. Within 2 minute of seeing the car, I could tell it was close to a basket case and likely wouldn't make it out of Wash., let alone back to San Francisco. I test drove it anyway and that clearly confirmed my suspicions. It ran, but it would have been a miracle if it would have made it and we were still alive - all kinds of strange noises and bad road manners. The car was down right scary. I thought the guy was a little odd and when I finally decided not to do it, he kind of got a little pissy. I let he keep the deposit and we left. I felt a little burned, but that is the car world. I wanted that car, it was James Bond cool, but it just wasn't a good move and not what I was lead to believe it was suppose to be. Fixing Aston Martins is not for the faint of heart and I at least knew enough about them to know not to get that far over my head with that car as much serious work as it needed. My wife and I decided to go to Seattle and spend the rest of the time there and then fly back. We had a good time in Seattle actually and never have thought twice that I made the wrong decision on that one. Keeping looking, you'll find what you want in time. Now a days, I would definitely see if I could get a h.a.m.b person to help or at least demand a lot of good and detailed photos. If someone can't come up with good photos with the way digital cameras are now and the ease of the internet, that should be a warning right there. If it is a $2000 car that is one thing, but $10K is another.
     
  17. Brad54
    Joined: Apr 15, 2004
    Posts: 6,021

    Brad54
    Member
    from Atl Ga

    I'm probably a lot out-of-touch when it comes to the prices of fendered cars (okay, anything for that matter--I'm a cheap bastard), but for $10 large, I expect the body to not have visible rust-through. At that point, I'm thinking "What do the rear wheel wells look like?" and so on.
    For that money, the guy wasn't honest, or perhaps more importantly, didn't know what he was looking at. Hey, if totally redone cars are going for a hundred K on Barrett Jackson, than this nice-ish one with a little rust should be a screaming deal at 10K.

    Blame the TV.
    -Brad
     
  18. damnfingers
    Joined: Sep 22, 2006
    Posts: 1,287

    damnfingers
    Member

    Thanks for all the input...and you're right, I probably *should* have let a fellow HAMBer look at it for me.

    A little more to the story. The person I was dealing with is a Model A collector. Not basket cases, but beautiful cars. I got to see 15 that he had in his climate controlled car barn...those included two perfect A400's and two Vickies. I had contacted this guy last year about another car he was selling and it turned out it was a bit more than I wanted to pay and then he mentioned this one. He gave me a price and I called him up and asked more questions about it. He did a telephone walk-around describing the car and it almost sounded like he was surprised to find the paint bubbling up at the bottom of the cowl...that was why I thought it was just the paint. I sent him $1K to hold the car until the weather warmed up and I wouldn't have to tow it home in the winter. He sent me an email a couple of months ago and said he'd sold the original car I was asking about for $1500 more than he'd offered it to me for so I really thought I was going to be getting a good deal on this one.

    When we drove up the car was outside and from a distance it looked great...then I got close, looked at the car and discovered that I could have pulled chunks of rust off the cowl. I wanted to like the car but I've already got one I have to finish now...I just wanted one I could drive and enjoy until I finished what I'm working on now.

    Anyway, again, thanks for the input...especially *vintagehotrods* and *stude_trucks*...nice to know I'm not the only one.

    And by the way...since threads without pictures aren't worth a poop, this was what I went to buy (these were the photos I was sent).
     

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  19. phat rat
    Joined: Mar 18, 2001
    Posts: 4,920

    phat rat
    Member

    Earlier I asked if you took the opportunity to look for something else while in a new area. This is the way I came across my 41. In 92 I found a 37 Chev cpe 750 mi away in S.D. a no rust ever Vette powered car advertised in one of the mags. This was before the Internet. They sent pics and car looked great so I hitched up my trailer and headed out with the cash. Well when I got there the paint was flaking off in spots, had rust holes and ran like shit. When the women realized I wasn't going to buy she got pissed and stormed off for the house. The guy tried to get me to make an offer and I just didn't want the car so I told him I wouldn't because I was afraid he might take it. Now I'd really low-ball it and buy it to turn. But on the way home I bought all the local buy/sell papers, car trader mags and came across the 41. I knew as soon as I saw it I was going to buy it. I almost didn't go to see it because of the honest way the seller described it. Funny thing is the seller is now on here.
     
  20. rainh8r
    Joined: Dec 30, 2005
    Posts: 792

    rainh8r
    Member

    A friend flew from Seattle to Philly to look at a Road Runner convert a couple of years ago that was a low-mile original, always inside according to the owner. He asked very pointed questions and knows what to expect, and since he got the right answers, he flew out to look. The car really was a mess-the "no rust" car had holes in the quarters and fenders you could put your hand through. The "nice, original, top" was in shreds in the "nice interior" that was springs and rust. The owner then admitted he was hoping to sell the car and ship it out without anyone coming to see it because he needed the money. With gas prices as they are today, we should all be ready to go and look at a car for someone that can't make the trip and give an honest evaluation. Everyone has a different definition of "good" when it comes to cars, so it is still better to spend the time and money to come and see if you're unsure and can't get anyone on site to help.
     
  21. Dreddybear
    Joined: Mar 31, 2007
    Posts: 6,084

    Dreddybear
    Member

    I can see how you were fooled. In pics that car looks great. Definitely worth more than 10k if there was no rust. The dude should know enough to warn you if you could've pulled rust chunks off.
     
  22. damnfingers
    Joined: Sep 22, 2006
    Posts: 1,287

    damnfingers
    Member


    No, but I probably should have. When I got home I had an email from a friend with a Craigslist listing of another Model A within driving distance of where I had been that really looked good.

    I'll use this as a lesson learned for *next time*.
     
  23. man at least you had the fortitude not to buy something you really didnt want , ive done that once or twice ..
     
  24. ALindustrial
    Joined: Aug 7, 2007
    Posts: 852

    ALindustrial
    Member

    yeah... the "goodenough syndomn"? i think that hits alot of people.. a handful know when to walk away. :)
     
  25. I would have made the same trip too based on the credentials of the seller and those pictures. I'd bet he probably bought the car without seeing it and got screwed, so he was trying to pass it on to get out of it. It will probably end up on Ebay next.
     
  26. RacerRick
    Joined: May 16, 2005
    Posts: 2,756

    RacerRick
    Member

    I am having trouble selling my little S10 daily because I am being honest about it.

    I have had two people tell me that there are better ones for less money on the same site. Too bad I went and looked at the other ones to use as parts for mine and the owners just are flat out lying about them. Oh well.

    I just want to sell the truck, and not screw anyone.
     
  27. Muttley
    Joined: Nov 30, 2003
    Posts: 18,500

    Muttley
    Member

    Adopt my attitude that 99.9% of everything has/does/will forever suck and you wont be disappointed next time.
     

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