Coincidences good bad or ?

All growing up my dad promised me his 32 Roadster ,He sold it .I bought back the cam and steering wheel and the parachute .I used the cam in a 455 pontiac I sold .The parachute is on the roadster im building .The steering wheel is sitting in the 32 truck for now . I bought all these parts 19 years ago .But is it a coincidence Im building a roadster ,Mines a 29 on 32 rails and grille .Rails were given to me also by my dad .They got left behind after the divorce.

 

War story; Back in 1957 at Davis Monthan AFB, Tucson AZ, when I was on an Engine Conditioning crew on KC-97s, my tool box turned up missing, I assumed that it had been stolen. I complied with a suggestion from my boss, Master Seargent Nile Vail (RIP), and went to a pawn shop on east 29th Street and bought another set of tools. A couple of months later I saw my old tool box in the possession of another mechanic. I recognized it as my old tool box from the physical appearance because I had broken into it one time when I had forgot my key. I had then repaired it by welding on a doubler(took it out to my weekend part time job at Young's to weld it), along with re-attached the hasp using AN-3 bolts. There was no question, I was pretty sure, that I had found my tools. When I informed the guy of my suspicions he retaliated by threatening to report me for falsely accusing him. What I actually said to him, I don't remember, but I remember considering that, even with all of the coincidence, maybe I was mistaken. I didn't really have a plan, still to this day don't know if I would have reported him to OSI or not. As it turned out, I didn't have to do anything. The next morning as I was lacing on my boots, there at the foot of my bunk was my old toolbox. Consequently I had two sets of tools, one G.I., plus the set that I had bought at the pawn shop. The extra set went in the trunk of my '51 Chivvy and from there around the world and back with me. I still have many of those tools.

 

Your tool box story reminded me of a similar story similar meaning concerns a tool box. Time frame was the mid 1970s-1980s. At the time I operated my own towing business. Three trucks on the road mostly doing work for car dealers.....

I had an old school mechanic. Had a single one bay garage with a pit in the floor no lift etc....this guy would put clutches in my trucks on my driveway....

Every summer I would attend several major car events GTO and POCI. usually 2 weeks apart so we would stay on the road and hit junk yards down south. He always had this red tool box.
As years went by he had triple bypass operation and retired to Homossasa Springs Florida.

His wife refused to move to Florida so they divorced...as so often the case, he died before his wife did. She basically sold his house down there and all the contents. I was alittle upset as I wanted a few things for memories....such as his red metal tool box. Afterall I lugged it around many a junk yard with him as he had the skill and I knew the parts I wanted.

A few years went by and by chance one of my road trips took me down passed Homossasa Springs, Florida. I had been to his house only once before when he was alive but I was still able to find it. I approached the house knocked on the door. When doing so I noticed the garage door was opened and I could clearly see the beat up red tool box. A woman answered the door.

I explained the situation and said I would gladly pay several hundred dollars for the tool box even if she wanted to keep whatever tools were in it. She said no. I then said I would buy a brand new tool box to replace it. Again the answer was no! I got nowhere with her.

Although disappointed, I left. At the time I was publishing a monthly GTO newsletter that went all over the USA. I printed a story about it, and one of my customers who resides in New Jersey ran a trucking company up and down the coast. He told me give him the address and he would get me the tool box.

I thought he was joking....later that summer at one of the events we did he presented me as a gift the tool box. That was probably a dozen years ago. That tool box still occupies a special spot in my pole building and I left all the decals on it that my mechanic had.

To this day I have no idea what he did to convince the owner to part with it but I am grateful.
Afterall, life is a series of memories.......

Great stories......I enjoy reading the posts...


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When my friend died I contacted the local donut shop he would go to and sent them money to treat the 3-4 guys he would always meet at the donut shop in the mornings....Although he was a grumpy old man we seemed to it it off. I miss the old guy.......

 

One time I was at a guy's house looking at some OT car parts FS. I spied some wheels/tires off in the corner.

Long story short, the wheels and tires were stolen from a friend, and I easily proved it. How? I had owned the stuff before I sold it to the friend who had it stolen while at the track.

 

Here is a short story and I am sure some of you in your youth durign the 1950s-60s time frame have similar stories.

My early driving years was in the mid 1960s....buying $100 to $500 cars and trading them out with the goal to improve with each newer purchase among my friends.

Like many of you most of my parts for keeping them on the road came from junk yards....
(I always though the owner of junk yards were the riches guys)....a cash business!

I can recall at least once walking over hulks in this one yard...and seeing one of my old cars.
Sad really, but it happens.

Secretly you hope someone who has owned one of your early treasures has refurbished it or restored it.....one in question was a 1953 Ford coupe.

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whats your PIN?

 

I can definately relate to that.Back when cell phones first came out,you know the ones.To heavy for a pack mule to carry and cost $8000.00 a minute to use.Any way on a sunday i bought 2 brand new steer tires and 4 re-capps for the drives for my semi.Early monday morning i go to my truck and have no tires at all.Gone.I called the dispatcher for the company i was working for that week to tell her what happened and id be back on the road asap.I knew one of their employees was going to a large midwestern tire center that day to pick up tires for their trucks.The tire place i bought my tires from did a service call for me to replace my tires and rims but only had 8 aluminum wheels and 2 steel which i would put on the front for the time being.I asked her via my shiny new cell phone if they had some nice used aluminum bud wheels for sale.Turns out they did and wanted $175.00 a pair.Good deal,ill take them.She called me later,said they were at the shop.Great i will be by at the end of the day to swap them out.A girl i knew was a pinstriper and she always lettered my trucks.She also painted the insides of the holes in my bud wheels the same color as the door lettering.When i got to the shop to get the wheels swapped out what do i see on the floor.Two of the wheels that were stolen the night before.I knew they were mine and so did the police because of the paint.Several weeks later the tire center was busted by the state police.I was told i would have to take them to small claims court to get my money back.Belive it or not my insurance company reimbursed me and went after their money.

 

Bought a rearend from a friend of mine but didn't have a truck handy to pick it up right away. Called a few weeks later to tell him I was coming out to pick it up and he says "I thought you already got it?" I told him I hadn't been near his place. he figured some of the guys his brother worked with may have snagged it as they were out there gettin' some other parts. Fast forward a couple years, I'm visiting one of my customers and he asks me of I want a posi rear end for free, I asked what it was out of. He says "What difference does that make? It's free!" A friend of his kid had put it in his garage and never came back for it and he wanted it gone. I agree to meet him later that day. Pull up in the alley behind his house, he rolls up the door and............ you guessed it..... there sat my f#@&*^g rear end!

 

Great stories.........

Will roll out another one.....

Its the mid 1990s. I am real heavy into buying and selling turbo regals. I flew out to Michigan to bring back another turbo regal. I stay over in a small town north of Detroit area.

The next day is Saturday. Its summer time. While searching for a place to grab breakfast I pass a huge house that is having a large garage sale.

What catches my eye is the fact on the lawn is a kitchen sink. (Reminded me of the saying everything for sale including the kitchen sink. I stop....

The lady has a box of books she is selling. Luck of luck I recognize one of the books my father wrote in the 1970s called 666 in the box. (The book sold over a half million copies). The price is a mere 25 cents.

I pick up the book and take it up to the lady. I tell her I know the author quite well. I then tell her I am related to the author. She don't believe me so I show her my PA drivers license (My middle name is the same as my Dads. I said I'll call him up and let you talk to him. She is dumbfounded....

I get hold of my Dad and tell him I am at this garage sale in Michigan and can buy one of his books for 25 cents....I put the lady on the phone...she can't believe it....My Dad gets her address and tell her he will send her an autographed copy. After my Dad hangs up I tell her when he does you can put that copy out and get 50 cents!

True story......

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Not sure if this counts but:
Since I've been 14 I've owned about 16 cars. I was talking with a friend about the fact that my motorcycle helmet has a huge 13 on the side of it. He said -theres no way I would ride with that number on my helmet. I told him its my lucky number, all throughout school we were assigned numbers, from kindergarten to 12th grade, 10 times I was number thirteen. He thought I was bsing him-said "and I bet you only buy cars on the 13th?" Well I decided to check it out, and as a matter of fact (and pure coincidence) every car I've bought was on the 13 or the 31. Thought that was kinda cool

 

Heres one that just happened at the Houston Autoama last November.

The setting first:
Back in 1960 we were at the old Houston drag strip on I-45S. We were running an A Gas dragster with a blown 430 MEL in it. While at the starting line waiting for the flag man to send us our way, I stomped on the throttle, got her reved up good, maybe 6K. I was running against a blown Pony dragster. Just about then the clutch blew and shit went everywhere. Pieces hit the other car, the timing tower and several crew members form the other car. One piece hit the flagman and sent him to the hospital. He was OK in the end. Now remember, this was like 1960.

Well, last Novemeber at the Autorama with the Gizzlehopper a guy walks up and ask me. Hey do you know Fred Perrenot, he used to run a Lincoln dragster named the Red Witch. I told him that red was my dad and that drove that car he was talking about. He went crazy and said "man you remember,,,and he went on about the clutch explosion. I told him hell yeah I remember, nearly scared the shit outta me and hurt my foot besides,,,why? He then announced that was driving that pony car. Damn man can you eblieve that? Later he came back with two or three people. One of his crew guys and poud to show me the scars he carried away from that day and damn if the flag man wasn't with him too. We laughed and carried on for hours about it. We had never seen each other since that day in 1960. Now get this, the car owner still has that dragster and had it at the autorama and drug me over to look at it. He pointed to the bent fins on his valve covers and said "you owe me some damages".

Ain't that a bitch

 

I was stuck in bumper to bumper traffic one day going across the Vallejo bridge in Northern California. I grew up in So Cal but moved up North about 23 years ago. Anyways as I sat in traffic I looked over at the car next me. Son of Bitch! I'm looking at a dude looking me and we both had the same response.
Wuzzz Up! I'm looking at a Dude I knew in Jr High back in So Cal. Out of a hundred cars on the road we ended up at the same place at the same time. Thats Krazy.

 

Oh yeah I got one more. As a kid my folks always told me if I played with myself I'd go blind. Here I am 41 yrs old and I can't see for shit. Go figure.

 

Years back I bought a 62 Fairlane with a 351C shoehorned into it. Had great fun in it but it needed too much work. The bottom half of the doors were made up of newspaper and bondo. So I sold it as a project, several years later I joined a local car club and we were discussing previous cars we had and what was our favorite. Another member was describing a 62 Fairlane, ends up it was the exact same car and he had sold it 4 years previously. The next show we go to we see the 62 Fairlane, It was funny as we both looked over it and could pick up all the different work we had done to it. Neither of us had seen the car since we sold it.

 

I will roll out another story......

Its 1965 graduated from High School....(nowhere near the top of my class)....had a 1956 Crown Victoria...black and white in color. Nice car. Like most guys my age that were into cars at that time I always wanted a Corvette.

Every Sunday on the way to Church we would pass this used car dealership on Board street just north of Olney Ave in Philadelphia think it was called Purcell Motors. The front line of cars always had several clean used Corvettes out front.

Fresh out of High School and a low paying job....The Corvette I wanted was a 1961 two tone beige and white with a red gut 3 speed stick. Think it was $1700. I sold my Crown Vic to a friend for $500 and convinced dear Dad to lend me the difference.

It was a great time....out of school for good....a job...girlfriend and a Corvette. The only cloud on the horizon was the Vietnam conflict was looming larger and I had no college plans....I made it to September that year before getting my draft notice instead enlisted. I figured it was best to sell the Corvette as no way could let it sit around as I had 2 other $100 cars besides.

I sold it outrite to a local little car dealership in a nearby town. Life goes on.....I now live about 30 miles from that area. About a year ago I am eating at a small restaurant near our house. An older gentleman happens to hear my name and thinks he recognizes me.

He introduces himself and turns out he owned that small little car dealership for like 30 years and remembers me selling him the 1961 Corvette. He remembers how sad a day it was etc.
He then told me a funny story. Like most small used car dealerships every week he ran a display ad in the local newspaper listing some of the cars he had for sale (way way before internet).

Over that 30 plus year time frame he actually made a copy of one of his car ads and framed it.
The one he did, listed my 1961 Corvette as one of the cars! He told me he would mail me a copy which he did.

Currently I can't put my hands on it but, if only I could have turned back the clock. What are the chances of being in business 30 plus years (now he is retired) and framing one of is weekly ads and its the ad that contained my Corvette on it.

true story

On a side note I own a Corvette today a 2000 frc hardtop....

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great stories.....I enjoy reading them.....

 

Back in October I went to a local farm auction hoping to score a Model T. I was talking with the old guy who was selling off his late brother's stuff and mentioned my name. He stopped dead and asked "are you Johnny's kid"? I replied that I was, and he told me to follow him. We walked down a row of old farm trucks till we came to a '48 Chevy grain truck. He told me that back in 1960 he lent that truck to my dad to move all his and my mom's furniture to another town when they moved. Kinda cool!
If I'd had a place to store it I would have bought the truck. It only brought $150 at the auction.

 

Not to change the subject slightly...but my first tow truck was one of those Chevy trucks....expensive changing out king pins....had a Manley hand winch set up.

good stories...

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Good thing you got that braile keyboard!!!!!

 

Coincidences good or bad? Heres a bad one I just remembered...

As I've mentioned before, I tend to have a number of strange happenings in my life,

I had a neighborfriend who I don't think belived many of my claims, possibly he was annoyed by them as I don't think he chose to belive in anything spiritual. In a way I couldnt blame him. You see, back about 35 years ago His first wife and 2 out of three kids were killed in a car accident. As he told it he had some sort of ford galaxie or torino or something like that. I think it was a pale yellow. He had just had it tuned up then a few days later his wife with kids drove into a lake where they drowned.

About 5 years ago we went out to the route 66 dragway in Joliet, Illinois. While we were watching the races a ford pulled up to the line that was an exact match for the car that his family was killed in all those years ago, right down to the same exact color.Just the sight of that car trigger'd the memories and visibly bothered my friend
Right before these cars took off One of the two broke down, (I forget which) and it seemed as if they both sat there in front of us for at least a half an hour.
I couldn't begin to imagine how tortureous this was on my friend.
If anyone knows the details on this car, please contact me. Thanks.

 

Alright, here's a really crazy story that I just rememberd from 6 or 7 years ago.
One day I was sitting in my suburban house thinking about this and that pondering good and evil as I gazed up at my wall at a Robert Williams Painting that I had recently hung up there. This was his old Tri chevy drag racing print that showed a 55, 56, and 57 Chevy Haulin ass out of the flames of hell with a picture of Satan breaking some chains/shackles behind them. I remembed sitting in my livingroom chair pondering If there was anything wrong with having a picure of the Devil up on the wall, while there was a picture of Jesus hanging on another wall on the other side of the room. I blew off these thoughts as foolishness.
The next morning I was awaking slowly to the usual neighborhood sounds. the people, the train, and the guy down the street with the "Super stock Dodge" that he would load up on his trailer and take up to the track on the weekends. Then I heard something quite strange. Instead of his motor reving up and "barking" as it normally would, I heard it running Balls out, Wide open!!! This ran on for what seemed like a minute. I got up and went outside to find everyone else in the neighborhood running around in confusion. Bad shit had Happened!!!!
As the dodge guy was loading his car he bumped the throttle. At this time the throttle return springs broke and the car took off. He avoided the trailor but drove through the garage across the street. He didnt manage to shut the car down but you could see the tread marks of his frontrunners leading 30' strait through the garage as he must of been on the brakes the whole time.
He went in one side of the garage and out the other side. Unfortuneatly the guy who owned the garage was out there working with his brother. The brother got dragged under the car clear outside to where he died.
Later that evening as I pondered what had happened I gazed up at the "Satans Tri chevy print". I remembered wondering about if it was bad to have this "Illustration of evil" hanging on the wall or if the lust of racing could be something evil...
At that moment I realized that if I looked a mere 6 inches to the right of this picture I was looking out the window at the garage where the victom had died. If I could see through the wall where the picture hung, i'd be looking at the trailor where the dodge had origionally launched from.
Now if I look in the other direction at the picture of Jesus, 6" to the right through the window, I find myself looking at a house of God. It's a very strange situation to ponder, let me tell you.
Here I found a picture of "Dale" that his family had hung on the fence.

 

Boy, I'm sorry I'm the only one posting on this cool thread, but heres 2 more that I just experienced....

Last (superbowl) Sunday, I took my dad out with me to the Bare bones car club "Polar Cruise" A nice run in the middle of winter in Chicagoland.
As we were arriving back at my house I noticed my 59 chevy was getting close to rolling over the odometer. When we parked it it read 49,993 (149,993). I said "Wow", seven miles short of 50,000 (150,000). Next time I take it out it should roll over. I got ready to head out to a superbowl party, and as my father and I got in my beater toyota, I noticed the mileage was 149,993!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I knew I was getting close to 150K in this car, but both cars with the same identical mileage sitting next to each other at the same time?????
What are the chances of that???
But for some reason lottery tickets don't work for me.....

And heres another one...
Earlier in this thread I posted a story about my "Aunt Dorothy's 55 Pontiac. (Less than a month ago) A car that i've always admired and hoped to own one of. "Zach" on the CZAR board reposted a craigslist ad for one in Milwalkee. I jumped and brought it home yesterday. While I didn't think it was in all that great of shape up there, Looking at it last night and this morning, I find myself in shock of how origional and solid this car really is. I find myself wondering if it were meant to be......

 

Here's one detail I forgot....
While I was loading and unloading this green and yellow Pontiac I looked at my hands and realized what I was wearing;
My Green heavy duty Marshall fields work coat
And......
A yellow pair of (Harbor freight) gloves with the little rubber nubs on em.
Coincidence? I don't know... strange, yes, I rarely wear the coat and just broke out the gloves.

 

I was at an astros game, I get a "Page" (yeah, back in the pager days) from my buddy I havent heard from in months, I go up the stairs of the astrodome to a pay phone to return the call and there at the payphone my buddy was standing waiting for me to call him back!

 

Reminded me of this one. Meant something to me anyway.

My mom has been kind enough to store my high school truck out back since I left home. It's a 1971 GMC Camper Special. Love that truck but can't afford to bring it across country. Sure, it needs some work, some small dents tapped out and some rust spots taken care of and all that, but it's my high school truck, ya know? So many memories.

Well I eventually got engaged and despite my best efforts, I couldn't give my bride-to-be the princess wedding she had always wanted. I started looking around for stuff to sell and reluctantly agreed with my mother that the truck was the only thing to bring in the much needed money. I was out for a visit to see my mother and while I was there I got the truck running good and cleaned up, waxed and polished, and took some photos. I helped her place the ad on Craigslist and signed the title over and everything. I left for home and my fiance with a heavy heart.

The truck wasn't selling right away. A few nibbles, but mostly tire kickers and people who wanted something for nothing. I mean, I needed the cash asap and had already offered up the truck at rock bottom prices. Anyone who knew anything would realize it was a screaming deal.

One night a couple weeks after I left my mother's, I had a horrible dream about the truck being sold and wrecked and not mine anymore and it was just horrible. I sucked it up and just bit my tongue and kept looking for ways to make some extra money. Every time I thought about my truck being gone I felt sick to my stomach. Another week goes by and my fiance asks me if my truck has sold. I said that I hadn't heard from my mother and didn't think so.

My fiance surprised the shit out of me when she said she had done the math and equated the proceeds of my truck paying for one finger sandwich for the family and friends at my wedding. That's it. One. And was my truck worth more to me than making sure everyone at our wedding had a finger sandwich. When she put it in those terms, of COURSE I didn't want to sell my truck! She told me we'd find the money some other way and didn't want me to sell my truck.

With a lump in my throat I called my mother, terrified that she had already sold the truck. I tell her that I can't bear to sell it and we'll find the money some other way.

My mother is real quiet on the other end of the line, then tells me she had had a dream a week prior and decided she didn't want me to sell the truck either and removed the Craigslist ad. The same night I had MY dream. She also somehow scraped together the same amount of money to send us as an early wedding present.

Needless to say, the truck has since found a cozy spot in her garage out of the elements and patiently waits for my return. She's a good truck. I got a great mom. I got a great wife.

 

Yet another....I've been working on my new 55' pontiac and this car is 99% complete and very origional.
Two items that are missing though... The letter "A" from the trunk, and the "C" from the hood.
The letters A.C. My Initials.... Its a stretch, I know, but its true.
Does this mean that what the car needs is me?

 

Back when I did body/paint work I worked on this hottie's little mazda miata. Brand new car, her mom backed a 1998 GMC truck into the drivers side quarter, and I worked on it (not her ) all weekend in a hurry so she could drive it somewhere important Monday. I got it finished Sunday night and the next morning I delivered it to her parents house. The paint was just starting to dry when she picked it up after school and on the way to where ever it was she was going another 98 GMC truck (different color, but still..) was backing out of a parking lot and smashed the same spot.

 

A few years ago I bought my '48 Ford panel truck on eBay from a guy in PA. I've had at last count 16 '48-52 Ford trucks, mostly parts trucks, so my family thinks I'm a little obsessed with them. I won the truck and bought a new 20 foot long car trailer to go retrieve it. The seller gave me directions to his house in a town just east of Harrisburg called Palmyra. We got to Palmyra in the early afternoon and I asked my wife to read the directions to the guy's house. They started off by telling us to take I-81 to some exit and go east or south, whatever. I remembered seeing I-81 before coming into town about 10 miles back and this meant we had to turn around and find I-81. The streets in this town are very narrow and I had never driven with this tailer before so I needed to find a big enough area to turn the rig around. I drove on for a mile or so until I came to an intersection and turned north hoping to find a large parking lot to turn around in. We drove for about 2-3 miles until we came to another intersection in a rural area. This one was pretty large so I decided to make a U turn there. As I was checking traffic my youngest son said, "Hey dad, there's a truck with same front end as your pickup." Sure enough, under a tree sat the panel truck I came for. The chance of finding this truck as we did probably saved us at least an hour or more of driving time.

Quite a few year ago I helped my brother move from Milwaukee to Iowa City to attend college. We filled his car and my pickup with his worldly possessions and headed for Iowa. I didn't think of asking him for his new address in the event we got separated, we just thought I'd follow him. We got to the Hwy 51/I-88 interchange and we lost track of each other. This was quite a few years ago and no one had a cell phone. This was going to be a mess. Just as I was going down an exit to find a pay phone to call our mom to get my brother's address I saw my brother coming up the opposite direction on the same clover leaf. When we met there was only a ten foot wide piece of grass separating us and no traffic behind either one of us. We were able to stop long enough for me to tell him to get off at the next exit and I'd meet him there so we could get his new address. Everything worked out. The chances of something like this happening has to be a million to one.