Anyone turned down a pile of $$$$ for your car

HaHaHaHa!!! OK,OK!
I'll trade ya my Brother!
Some 'family' members aren't worth .02

 

not me ill sale,sail,sayl,sell i had my 51 runnin 8 days and got offered 10,000 cash at a car show i got a ride home. but if the guy is a gooof ball and wants to do something stupid with the car and i have to look at it every day cant do it .

 

Never turned down an offer, but I had a guy bugging me to buy a car I built a couple years back. I finally quoted him a price I figured was way more than he'd spend and more than what I felt the car was worth.

He showed up 2 days later with a trailer and a cashier's check!

 

I was offered a $100.00 for my wagon. I turned it down! KNUX!

 

Is he single and a car guy??
If so, I'll trade ya even up for my sister....PLUS if you act now I'll throw in my nephew at no additional charge...thats right, act now and receive a two for one special!

 

A few years back I got a call from a guy in another state asking if I had a cartain rare part that's unique to a '32 three-window. I explained that there weren't any originals or reproductions to be had. We talked about his coupe and its history as a car that had been started twice and never finished. I told him it was one of my all-time favorite cars, and if he ever decided to sell it, I would give it a good home. He said okay, and I made a point of forgetting about it.

Less than three months later he called back. He was selling it for a very reasonable price, and he was giving me first shot at it. We arranged to meet and he showed me the car, and I bought it. He made a point of telling me that he wanted me to have the first chance at owning it because everybody else that was after the car was just going to sell it.



Today I still have the coupe. Progress on its construction is slow because of other priorities, but I still love the car. To me, it's worth what I paid just to have as a piece of sculpture. There's a page about it on my site that shows it and a lot of its parts, at http://www.roadsters.com/coupe/

A half-dozen people have pushed me to sell it to them. Most of them already have a number of finished cars. Virtually all of them wanted to finish it and then sell it. One guy showed up three times in a week. Another guy who wouldn't take no for an answer (or even offer a specific amount) got told to get out of my shop.

There's a certain kind of individual who thinks that greed is good, that it's okay to lie to close a deal, and that people with less money than them exist to be stepped on.

Fuck 'em.

When that car is done, there's a few front lawns in this town that are going to get some open-exhaust donuts spun in them.

Dave Mann
http://www.roadsters.com/

 

if those are original 25 louver hood sides those are RARE and ive seen em sell for around $2-3k, believe it or not, LOL...

keep em though, run em, cause they are AWESOME, and almost noone has em .. (even though i would sell em while the market is NUTS)..

 

Yes, they're original. The page about the coupe (linked above) explains who I bought them from and what they cost.

Dave
http://www.roadsters.com/

 

Someone stuck a note on the windshield of my Alfa asking me if I was interested in selling. I never called him.


WORST decision I ever made!

Anyone looking for an orange '96 Mustang with a leaky heater core?

 

...naw Dave,the way she got even for the amount of money spent on the coupe was now she wants a '56 Nomad..."as nice as your car"...

 

my old boss offered me 38,000 grand for my car one day, he was ready to sign the check when he said it, i told him to tear it up.

 

Race at Streamline was standing with me at Louisville a few years back when a for real "heavy hitter" offered me $100,000 for my C-dan. I smiled and turned him down. Race was speachless (which is rare)

All my life I have heard EVERY old hot rodder wish he had his first hot rod back. I swore I would never sell my C-dan. So far, I have held up.

Joshua Shaw

 

People ask me all the time if I want to sell my '36. I wouldn't take a million dollars for it.

 

I had a fellow stop and come up to me while I was sitting in my 32 Chevy sedan. Guy says, I'm on my way to Bloomfield to buy a Vette and I have 16.5 on me and I like your car better then a Vette. This was back in 1994 or so.
So I said, So?
He said, Maybe you didn't hear me, then repeats himself.
I tell him, my name is in the phone book. I'm not interested.

The car was really for my wife to drive. She comes out of the supermarket and I tell her the story, she said, Why didn't you sell it? I said because it's your car! She said, so? You could have built or bought another for half the price.

Go figure. Sometimes you just don't know how to please your wife.
We saw the guy the next week at a cruise in driving in a Vette.
I sold the 32 years later but less then 16.5 but with a hell of a lot more miles on it.

 

I put a price on most everything, if someone exceeded the price, nothing I own is so rare or exceptional I can't replace it with some other toy. But not many people around here are rolling in the dough and getting hardons for rusty old crap.

 

nobody has offered to buy my '35, if someone out there wants it though come up with a figure and let me know, PM, email, carrier pigeon just whatever

 

Was offered 17500 for my Model A. My daughter would kill me if I sold that car. She says its hers.

 

i had a few generous offers, less than i would trade my car for but more than its worth, and then when they found out it there were about 500 special tricks to driving the thing they would prbably tow it back broken and want there money back

 

If someone comes with a pile of money and is close to my price I wont turn it down

 

Yep turned down big money three times.Twice, from Japan. Once for my orig owner 55 Bird.(Really nothing special that someone couldn't get somewhere else). I was at a gas station putting in some gas, guy pulls up in a slick BMW GT coupe. Lays a blanket on decklid opens a briefcase and shows me cash, He says it's $40k and I tell him that this car has been in my family before I was=Lol!. Really doesn't want to take no for an answer. He upped his offer slightly, I said nope, and drove off.

2nd time is a kinda wierd. Different car. Pete Eastwood owned a 32 3W coiupe in the 70's around 1982 he decided to take apart. Robt Williams ended up with the chassis under his ex Eights & Aces now Prickly Heat roadster and Lynn (C.W.Moss) Williams ended up with the 3w body after the swap for a 34 wagon and cash that Eastwood gave up in order to be a wagon owner. Eastwood did some valve work and swapped in 3.54:1 gears for the rear end and drove that wagon to San Jose with 12 cases of beer and heaven knows how much coolant/water? Brian Bauer has a pic of Craig Felbinger driving it with a full head of stream rolling off the cap at speed.

I was a kid when I 1st saw this wagon parked @ Pete & Jakes, Eastwood was just getting his own shop. I looked at it and Eastwood asked what I was doing. Told him that I was gonna get a car like that some day, It had to be a 34 Ford like that one though,not just any old woody. He didn't keep it very long and it stayed in TC.(Pete never kps anything), I bought my house and was cruising the neighborhood like I always did and I see this 34 Woody sitting out on the street. Get out and look @ it, Damn, I know this car! Ask the guy if it was for sale, He said nope, A few months later Jake and I were talking and he says that he was thinking about buying a Woody, I thought that he said 37, but it was actually this 34, He backed out and Chris (Owner of the lumber) was going to be assed out as he bought a 1905 Jackson that he'd have to restore.
He asked if I was still interested, I was, The family interviewed me and inquired as to what I would do with it, I stated that "I would keep it in its state of arrested decay=Lol!"
They loved that answer and later on Eastwood tells me "I hear your a station wagon owner" I said "oh yeah? Great!" I have the car about a month and I'm out @ PoMo Swap. I can't tell you how many people asked if it was for sale? Then Nick Alexander walked up and offered my $65k, I'm thinking that's alot of bread,but where will I find another?

I pass. 3rd time=2 yrs later I'm doing a movie but the woody is in the Petersen for the Surfs Up show. I'm taking the car out for the weekend to use it for the film and this Japanese guy hands me his card, I say thanks and get the car to the set,
From either my name or the license plate the guy gets my home #and asks how much for the car. "NOT 4 $ALE!" I told him what I turned down and he said that he'd double it, Now he had my attn: Problem was that I didn't want tp sell it and he wanted to give me 1/2 in foreign stock of a company soon to be introduced here using the woody as a slogan/logo.
I just didn't think that it would be wise, I told him where he could get a replacement and he did. Made it very similar to mine.
Everytime I'm at a mall and see fruit smoothies, I wonder if I'd a been wealthy if I'd said yes=Lol!
Then I think about all of the memories that the car carries and I feel that $'s just can't replace that right now. Believe me though, there are times that I think about it.=lol!

 

You are exactly right! When I was 16 and building my full-house flathead powered 34 Ford, my mentor Joe Reath sat me down at his parts counter in Long Beach and said:

"Kid, you'll soon be driving your hotrod and I just want to give you some advice. NEVER sell your hotrod! Soon you'll be in college, girls will be in your life and there will be all sorts of reasons to sell your car cause you'll need the money - just don't do it. Every one of us sold our first hotrods . . . and we all wish we had them back. Once they're gone . . . they're gone . . ."

Sure as hell, got busy in school, business, girls, life . . . but I was never tempted, not a single time to sell that car (bought, built and sold others) . . . as I have Joe's words in my brain to this day.

Now, 30+ years later, I've dusted off what sat in a garage for 25 years and I'm getting the coupe back on the road . . . happy as hell that I have my old friend to work on and enjoy. The car was given to me by the only hotrodder in my family "Uncle Dick" - as he wanted me to have it. When I'm ready to depart this world, hopefully there will be another in my family to carry the tradition on . . .

 

I have had alot of notes on my 55 sunliner asking if it was for sale but no offers,someone did ask me personally if it was for sale and I told him that since my dad bought it new and me and my susters were brought home in it after being born I would start listening to offers over 250,000 but would get motivated at 500,000 but no takers and its not for sale. Jeff

 

I,ve had stupid,serious offers on my 3-window.But once it is gone can I replace it for the same money,NO.
It took me too long to find all the right parts and everytime I sell something,The new owner does something stupid with it,so no it is not for sale.
The same goes for my roadster and lincoln

 

I'm not sure I would call it a pile of $$$, but I've turned down 25K for my roadster. That car is too special to me and there isn't a big enough pay check to buy that car.

 

couple of years ago was at the local burger joint Roy's drive in (no longer there) with the Deadend guys....some dude drives up and askes who ownes the Buick....offered me 25k on the spot...turned him down...to this day I have a standing offer of 30k on the car....can't see myself selling ....

 

$3000 for a lowrider bike that i had less than $500 in. didn't take it and not sure if i would do it if i had to do it again. it was one of my first full builds and a piece of me is in it, not sure if i could ever get rid of it.

 

Had my plymouth for sale 10 years ago unfinished, a guy came out when i was not at home, went over it with my wife and son and just verbally tore it apart and left his number to call. When i got home and heard what he said, i called him up, he offered a redicules amount, but i told him that he had insulted me by what he had said about my car to my wife and kid and said i would not sell it to him for any price. I hung up on him. He called numerous times after, but i would not change my mind., it pissed me off so much, i kept the car and finished it. Now it will not leave the family for any amount. It goes to my son.

 

My dad has been offered $ several times for his 40 Ford Sedan but he hasn't taken them. I told him he can't because it's mine when he's gone. I kind of helped him build it (when I was real little) and I can't see him ever getting rid of it. It's part of the family now. I would/could never sell it. Some thngs are just too priceless to let go of.
I would never sell my coupe because it's my very first hot rod. Means too much to me to let it go.

 

A lotta people don't get it - there is more to life than money. Had a card left on my Willys by a well known racer at CHHR this past weekend "If you ever want to sell this car, call me....". I later bumped into him and I told him "Thanks but it would have to be surgically removed from me".

It's like the gal who keeps turning you down - the more she turns you down, the more you want her - until she gives in.

I was at the Long Beach swap a few years back parked in my 1936 Hupp 3W coupe in the preferred parking/car corral area next to my buddy Dave in his '39 Ford Sedan. We were shooting the shit when four guys walk up, one of them looks closely at my car and says "You wanna sell that car?" I joking said, "Nah, you probably couldn't afford it - not for sale" - the guy laughs and walks off with his buddies. Dave says to me "Do you know who that was? He certainly could have afforded it" I said - "no and it doesn't matter - it's not for sale". "That was Kurt Russell" says Dave.

 

I have to commend you guys that said "no" when someone actually walked up "cash in hand". I've had offers on my cars, but I knew if I said "yes bring a check tomorrow I'd be waiting for a long time". Talk is cheap. I find the local guys who have a lot of money, have it for a reason and don't pay stupid money for something. They usually swoop in on distress and estate sales, or abandoned projects and clean up. (With the tri-five Chevy and '32 crowd, all bets are off though.)

Personally, I think we all tend to underestimate what it would cost to replace what we have, not what we have in it. I would not want to try and find some of the pieces I've got on or for my '49 Ford coupe again. They took me years to find the first time. Besides, it's my first kustom and my friend has helped me countless hours to get it this far. My life would have to be in complete shambles before I'd think of selling this, no matter what the price.