Ever sold a car only to watch it die?

Only my old 71 Monte so far ,I sold it to a guy I know ,Him and his brother had a fight ,And he kicked in the fender ,After that he installed buckets ,out of some Suv ,and by then the quarters popped ,I cheesed them ,They were straight ,But had rust issues ,Im wondering what junkyard its in now,They beat that car to death .I only painted the car and put a whole interior in it ,But never got attached ,Also new vinyl top was installed .It was oarnge with rally wheels and black interior and top .Paid 1000 for it ,Then it was blue white top and a blue interior ,It was ugly .

 

Years ago I used to flip cars quite often. Me and a friend went to the local junkyard about 10 years ago and I counted 27 cars that I used to own in there. Most I couldn't tell why they were there. They were deterioted from neglect but no major accident damage except a couple.

Was supposed to be a pleasant junkyard day for me that turned sad. Since then I turned into the hoarder you all complain about. But at least their stored inside and someday my wife will have a nice auction for the future gearheads.

 

Here's a 1971 Charger R/T....my story:
http://www.dodgecharger.com/forum/index.php/topic,66876.0.html

 

I had an OT AMC Spirit/AMX that my dad had bought me for my first car. We spent many summer afternoons in the local pick and pull junkyard looking for parts. Anyway though out the years the engine got more tired and finally the transmission started going. I parked it this last year thinking someday I'd get to fixing it.

Well this guy asked me if I wanted to sell it. I though about it and said," sure, as long as your going to fix it up." I explained to the guy it had some sentimental value and was hoping someone else appreciated the car the same way my Dad and I did. He gave me this big long story how he always like those cars and he was going to fix it up and turn it into a hot rod. I thought cool, bartered some trailer rentals from the guy and 100 bucks cash.

It took a while for him to pick it up, he didn't seem real intent on giving up any cash for it and wanted to barter for the whole purchase price. I was sort of suspicious and almost called it off. At the last minute (one more day and I was going to put it up for sale on a AMC forum or start fixing it) he stopped by with a car trailer to get it. He wanted a couple extra rims for it since there was a couple of donuts on the front. I mentioned I had a lot of extra parts for it and said I'd drop them off too but the guy seemed disinterested. A few days later I dropped them off and noticed that the car was sporting a few small dents and scratches plus a busted rear tail light lense. I felt bad about it and decided to call the guy up and ask if he was going to demo it. Sure enough that was his intentions and he was a smart ass about it too. I was mad that someone would make up a bunch of BS just to get a cheap demo car. So I offered to buy it back plus a little extra for his "trouble". He said he'd think about it.

The next day I stopped by his shop with some cash and had a talk with him. Plopped down the dough and happily he took the cash. I was sorta upset about seeing something ruined that held so many good memories for me. It'll probably be up for sale again once I am done re-doing but I won't make the same mistake of selling it to someone locally. At least that way if it gets ruined I won't see it or hear about it.

 

Happens all the time, but what happens more often is someone will buy a car that I don't have the time or money to deal with so it stays parked in my garage until I decide to sell, then it will stay parked in their garage because they don't have the time or money, either!
But, I can think of one particularly heartbreaking one. I sold a '50 Chevy pickup I built several years ago. It was pretty nasty looking, very chopped, 455 Olds with tunnel ram and marine headers (good for the ears!) I sold it way too cheap to someone that was going to finish it right. He had it a mere 4 days before his 17 year old delinquent kid decided to steal the keys and take his friends out in it while shitfaced. They spent the night beating the shit out of it and hitting parked cars, then left it on the railroad tracks after they rolled it. Cops towed it away and I never saw it again.

 

Straight out of high school, 17 years old, I bought, and paid cash for, a brand new 70 Dart Swinger 340; automatic, 3.91 suregrip rear end, Vitamin C Orange (also called GoMango). Lifted it up, Cragar S/S, headers, aluminum intake, Holley, had the trans beefed up, 16" Cherry Bombs, Sun Super Tach, and of course, an 8 track tape player. The car was so clean you could literally eat off the undercarriage. When I turned 19, I drew a very low draft lottery number, something like 12. My father retired from the USAF, and got me enlisted through a friend of his. While I'm in Tech School in Texas, I told the folks to trade it in on a new car for them. When I came home on leave, on my way to Fairbanks, Ak., I saw my car. The fella that bought it just trashed it. It was scratched and dented, dirty and unkept, and sounded terrible. AND, he wanted to sell it back to me! I was sick and heartbroken to see what had happened to it. At least we have our memories. Butch/56sedandelivery.

 

All the cars I have sold have gone far from here so I have never seen any of them again. Maybe a good thing.

 

In the early 80's I had a 64 Chevelle, the body was in mint shape. It had a 3 speed Hurst Indy floor shifter, chrome reverse wheels, thin whitewalls. Sold it to a young guy, he told me he was going to put a sbc in it so I kept the chrome valve cover from the 250 6 it had. About a week later he totaled the car. I wish I had the Chevelle now, but I at least still got the chrome valve cover to put on my Acadian's 194 6.

 

I sold one to a guy in the NFL and he not only destroyed it he claimed he built it! Here is the story on it
http://www.thepittsburghchannel.com/sports/19507134/detail.html
And here is the car at my house were I built it

 

The story I have is a little different but my dad's first car was a '65 GTO with every performance option, tri-power, 4 speed and the 4.11 that he got when he was 19. Had it for two years before he went to Vietnam and when he came back the car had been sold by his mother. The car was replaced with her friends '56 Thunderbird in baby blue or some color along those lines as its been explained to me. My dream was always to find him that GTO again but with no information about it beyond a few pictures not sure that will ever happen.

 

I've witnessed instant action on one deal. O/T daily driver, buddy sold it to the guy and when the new owner hot dogged it trying to pull a U-turn, he tried taking the brick sub-division entrance pillar with him.

 

I traded a 67 camaro 327,m-22 3.77 posi for a cheery 71 chevy pick-up that i needed to tow my figure-8 car with ,the camaro needed a clutch,so in the deal i helped put the clutch in with my buddy from work who had the truck ,after we got it all back together we had a little party!! next day he shows up for work with his girlfriends car and a blackeye ,he rolled the camaro over on the way back his lane about 200 yds. from his house not good !! parts car!!

 

my big block 70 dodge charger, was perfect and beautiful inside and out!! sold in 79 and was wrapped around a telephone pole 1 day later, they never took it out of my name and the dps called me about my wreck.

 

This is what the guy I sold my 55 did to it a few years after I sold it to him, I went to see the car and it was like looking at an open casket of a dear old friend. Sucked to see it like that.

 

My old man had a 1968 Chevy Biscayne...red/blk 2 dr. COPO 427/425hp 4 spd. 22k original miles...mint original taxi cab interior...even had a hole in the floor where the driveshaft came through during a race...car came out of Dana Chevrolet..he bought it around 1979 and it sat in the garage for years..he finally repainted it and got it running again..He sold the car because my mother wanted new flooring in the house..the car ended up on the east coast where the new owner had done the following:
Ripped out the mint original black cheap interior and redid it in velour..
Yanked the 4 speed trans out and installed an automatic
took of the americans and threw some boyd type rims on it..
My old man about threw up when he heard of all this..he even tried to buy the car back but the new owner wasnt selling...

My mother sold a nice 37 Ford woodie to a guy that ripped all the original nice wood off and put bleached out 40 ford wood on it..changed the black rubber roof cover and installed a boydish tan one..repainted the car and painted over the Jan and Dean autograph that had been on the glove box door forever....again the old man about threw up.....

 

OT I know, but I bought a Chevy Cavalier for $200 16 years ago...drove it a little while and turned it for $800. I still see that car around on the road...it must have been a good one.

As far as old stuff goes, most of my stuff was sold out of state so I never saw it again....but a guy pulls up where I work in my old high school car one day. When I had it I kept it original, but he had done the typical 80s-90s customizing complete with goofy colors & graphics, aluminum wheels and (yuck) tweed interior. As he talked about it he asked me if I wanted to buy it back.....no thanks.

 

Let's see....a 1964 Malibu SS hardtop that had a pukey green interior when I bought it, so I found another wrecked '64 SS in a junkyard (in 1980, when such things still laid in junkyards) with a black interior, and so bought the entire gut and changed mine over to black. I found a '55 BelAir I wanted, and sold the Malibu to a guy known as "Weed"---guess what his favorite pasttime was----and when I saw the car a few weeks later, it had a huge pot leaf decal on the quarter panel and white fur glued to the front and rear seats. Nice!

1963 Imperial 2 dr. hardtop from Nevada that was 100 percent rustfree. Sold it to a guy that was going to "restore it and take it to shows". He promptly drove it home and parked it in his field; that was nearly twenty years ago, and it still sits in the same spot, slowly sinking.

 

I usually buy dead cars and bring 'm back on the road...

 

Yes my 77 corvette ,I sold to a friend burned to to ground in a garage fire 4 wks later.

 

I gave my chevy pickup that i put a 100,000 miles on to my brother and he drove it into a block wall in less than a year. Poor truck

 

here's a good one,
in the early 70's i noticed a 56 ford glasstop vickey on rte 272 on the way to hershey.went in and asked if it was for sale.the guy said he was gonna redo it[it was rust free].years went by and many stops later the car was still under the tree.same thing,gonna do it.anyhow it got rusty as hell sitting there for 35 years and then it was gone.i asked a guy who lived near there what happened to the 56.he told me it was hauled off for scrap,it was so rusted ,even the roof was bad.the idiot,wasted a good car.what a jerk-off.

 

I sold a 76 Monza 2+2 in 77 with 20k miles on it. Car was better than new for real, repainted with a clear coat hand sanded and polished. Tricked the suspension out a bit, added the spoilers front and rear, made it a nice econobox and it went cheap. About a thousand dollars less than sticker price not including the add ons. A thousand was a big chunk of change back then.

I bought it at a point in my life that I would like to forget, let's say a relationship that went bad, she had the nicer car, I needed a transportation car only.

Well, ordered what I really wanted, I worked in a Chevy dealership at that time. Sold the Monza. Saw the Monza a year later, well, exhaust hanging with wire, big dents, looked like it had not been washed since I sold it. I checked the VIN, yep it was my old car. Good thing it was a hatchback, the back was FILLED with trash.

 

In Jan 1967 I bought a 55 Ford Victoria, 2d ht, 292, 3-speed, with 26,000 original miles on it. Drove and babied it for a year and 5000 miles. Sold it to a high school kid that had been bugging me. He promised me he would take great care of it. So much for those words. A month later he plowed into one of those big steel electrical towers. The car was a complete loss.

 

I'm usually more remorseful about what I do with the money I get for the car.

 

Did a retro mod on a 64 nova. 406 sbc, good heads, decent cam etc... restored the body and interior back to factory specs. Added sub frame connectors and widened steel wheels. Car was a legit low 12 second car that you could drive all day. Since I got more satisfaction building the cars then I do driving them, I put it up for sale. This older guy bought it for his grandson.

The kid immediately put shackles on it and swapped the steelies for centerlines, cut a huge hole in the hood and put one of those hideously ugly bug catcher scoops on it. For the next few months he proceeded to pound the crap out of it on the street. Saw him many times on the Sunday night cruises. By the time he was done with it he had repainted the car from factory blue to candy red and added the worst flames I have ever seen. I think they were 4 or 5 of those gross Canadian Tire decals. In the end he slammed the front of the car into the curb and bent the front shock towers. The last I saw it it was for sale for a fraction of the price.

 

sold an off-topic car that was reasonably rare, and very fast...
two weeks later the dude stuffed it into a barrier at 160+ MPH. car was a complete loss, but he got some cool titanium parts in his leg and arm.

sold a '55 plymouth that looked like it was making great progress... heard it was parted/scrapped a couple years ago.

sold a '28 dodge brothers roadster pickup... guy decided to make a proper "hot rod" out of it, with his own interpretation of the look... never mind that it was a nice 60s period pickup. told him i'd buy it back just to turn it in as scrap because it hurt my eyes seeing it in its then current state.

the the opposite:
got a clean/solid non-running '54 chevy for $500. drop a mild SBC in it that was sitting in my shop, sell it for $4000.
new owner gets it painted, and it looks NICE. few months later, the guy "blows the motor" doing a burnout. decides he's in over his head with the rebuild...
i buy it back sight unseen for $2k (what the guy had into the paint job). get it home, take a look: damn distributor spun a bit. timed it, back to running perfect in under 15 minutes.
sold it again, for $5k.
two years later i buy it back for $1k; it's been sitting and hasn't been started in ages, busted window and non-current tags... but the interior was done in a nice TJ tuck-n-roll. bring it home, tune it up, sell it AGAIN for a bit over $6k.
in the end, i made over $9k profit on that thing. spent very little time doing anything other that buying it, driving it, selling it.

 

back in '69 traded out work for a 65 GTO w/a blown up 389 in it for a extended wiring/cable job on his new honda 350. car had a rag top, factory performance dash, muncie 4 spd. bought a $60.00 389 from the junk yard a week later and had it running. crused all summer in that car. come winter the heater core was bypassed and i sold it to a high school friend for $200.00 with the aggreement i would buy it back next summer foe same plus whatever he invested in it along the way. he wrapped it around a oak come first snowfall. maybe that's why i just can't seem to let anything go anymore. ya know this only get's worse with time

 

The first old car I ever purchased was a shell of a 55 Chevy Bel Air 2 Door Sedan. I was so stupid when I bought it that I thought that it was a hardtop for the first six months that I owned it. I was young, much younger than I am now. I didn't know what I had bought. Every panel on this car needed work. The floor pans were completely rusted out with tin from a shed covering the large holes. It was wrecked long before I owned it and parted out shortly after that. I didn't even know that the frame was bent until I put it on jack stands, and it only rested on three of the four stands. I didn't even have a title.

Some time went by, and I had collected a shit load of parts to put it back together when I finally decided that it was just too big of challenge for me to complete with my inexperience. So I sold it. Actually, my dad sold it for me when I was in Houston one weekend pursuing a unicorn of the feminine kind. I told him before I left that the parts stayed at the house. That stuff was not meant to leave with the car. I get a phone call from my dad that weekend just letting me know that the car was sold. I asked him where the parts were that were in the trunk of the car. He told me that they were right were I left them. In the trunk of the car. I had this rare set of 14 inch mag racing rims in the trunk with a tilt steering column from an el camino that I planned on using for my el camino that had an original grant 15 inch steering wheel on it from the sixties and a pair of perfect bucket seats from a 64 impala with the original green vinyl in flawless condition. Over $1000 in parts. All gone. Just like that.

Years went by, and my obsession with old cars only grew. I purchased two more, this time with titles, and all seemed well. Then one day while driving past a car lot where I had just purchased an old shoebox Ford, I saw it. My 55 Chevy sitting pretty right outside for all to see. I stopped to take a look and was disgusted with what I saw. Not a damn thing had been done, and ALL of those parts were gone. The sonovabitch sold everything and now the car was even more of a shell. It made me sick...

Sometime went by, and I decided that if it still sat there at that lot I would buy it back. I didn't even have the money for it. Sure enough, it was there and so was the dealer with a thirty pack by his side. I made a deal for a hundred less than what I sold it for, the money just magically turned up, and I took it home. Got the title for it this time; the original title. Story in itself.

I started to get nervous. The truth was I was sitting on three old projects and no direction for any of the three. So I thought about selling two of them and keeping the one I wanted. But which one? I tried to sell the 55 Chevy and my Buick with the plans of only keeping the shoebox Ford. Every deal fell through. I was so pissed off with the last guy who tried to buy the Chevy that I have decided to keep all of them. Consider it my punk nature telling the rest of the world to fuck off.

I never lied to anyone about the condition of the 55. I even took it to a couple of my friends that I knew would fix it up right. This last "friend" bothered me for months just trying to buy it, and when I gave him the chance, the bastard just wanted me to give it to him. So then I got to thinking; I'm not that same stupid kid that I once was. In the years since I first sold it, I have learned how to weld and almost every panel that is messed up is now being reproduced. Plus, I've got a friend that straightens frames. So I'm going to fix it because I can. Good enough reason, right?

 

back in the early 80's I bought a 69 Monaro coupe rolling chassis that was a previous drag car, did the body up and fitted a V8 to it . Never even drove it! A friend of the family wrote his car off and needed a ride. This idiot, (yours truly), took pity and sold it too him. Soon after, he left home and we never saw the car again until one sunny afternoon about 5 years later I was with a mate at the local pick-a-part wreckers and her she was!!! the body was about 3 feet shorter than when I saw it last!!
Thankfully Ive never caught up with him since.

Note...today, they are bringing $50K at the least!!!!.......... YOU IDIOT!!!

 

I had a 53 Bel Air 2 Door Hardtop, Super clean and was a strong daily driver...The guy i sold it too completely butchered the poor car, he and his friends tried chopping it and literally just cut the roof off and tried weldin it back on, last i heard the dumbass crashed and ended up selling what was left of the car for $100...I hate even thinking about it!