Ever sold a car only to watch it die?

I had parted out a RUSTY 1971 Duster 340 car and put it all into a Volare Road Runner (ok, stop laughing, it was a long time ago!) but the car was a blast to drive and would kick the crap out of the "fast" IROC Camaros and Monte Carlo SS's that everyone else was driving at the time. I reluctantly sold the car because we had found another daily driver for my wife, and about 6 months after I sold the "340 powered Volare" a friend tells me "I saw your old car the other night!". I began thinking that he was going to tell me that the guy who bought it was taking really good care of it and was showing it somewhere, but instead he tells me that he saw it on the 11 o'clock news!!! Turns out that the stupid punk that bought it was racing it through a residential part of town and lost control and drove it into a house! And not just "into the house", he said that it was INSIDE of the house. I actually found the house a few years later, and you can still clearly see where the brick was replaced and the mortar doesn't quite match... D!psh!t!!!

 

My brother had one in high school and we put flame throwers on it. He bought it from a guy that dug it out of the ground (yes, supposedly buried up to the windows). He went through a few transmissions and decided to sell it. The car was rumored to have come from the Wichita Falls area and a few years later while browsing the interweb we came across a local auction post for folks in the Wichita Falls area again. Apparently the car made it back up there around the AFB area.

We knew it had to be ours because the auction stated, "...looks to have had some sort of flame throwers hooked to the tail-pipes but are non-operational!"

I remember our mom being upset we didn't buy new decals for the side so she hand-painted them back on. This is one of two pictures we have left.


B.M.

 

Once I sell a car I never look back.However...down a street from me near Rochester NY is a 40 Buick Roadmaster more door for sale,it's pretty original ,3 speed column shift,not rusty looking.Been stting there through the tough winter,the hood blew off,carb sitting out in the open.
Some one needs to save this car! Phone number in the window 585-576-1804.

 

The only one I had was a 69 chevy short bed step side. I had 3 vehicles while teenager so at least 1 had to go.
Saw it several years later in a back yard. Still in primer, with a wooden bumper and 3 holes in the fender where they tried to install an antenna. Sat there several years.

I had friends who left their projects to rot away for years, then scrap them. They were their own horror story.

 

Well, this is an odd answer. You see in my story the car changed hands from one good mate to another. Not from me to another, although I do have one of those story's with my 38'.
Anyway both of these guys were serious rev heads and both with quite a history associated with this car.

The car in question started life as an XD Ford Falcon NSW police pursuit special (back when they still did them) it had the brackets for the radio and associated police paraphernalia, even the sun roof was there because when they went to auction it was cheaper to just cut a bigger hole and pop in the sun roof than fix the holes for the lights and siren.

Somewhere after its service it was built into a pretty well all out balls to the wall Group C spec (Aussy V8 Super class from the early 80s)street registered fun machine, but a bit of a sleeper. Still in the police plane white, no flairs like group C had, but 500+hp 351 4V Clevo, top loader 4 speed, 9inch rear etc, etc.......

This thing was such a joy to drive, a barge like that had no right to handle the way it did. That sound going down through the gears and into a corner........heaven.
Then the way this got up and boogied out of the corners, in any gear, it dug deep and pulled like a demon and screamed like a banshee. With some practice keeping it spinning through the first 3 gears was achievable. Yup a plane white handling rocket ship that put quite a few un suspecting competitors to bed.

Well, you probably guessed by now that I was the car killer and my mate was the original keeper of the beast.
When I bought the car from him it was a solemn and sad day, strangely for both of us. My mate was a very tough and proven soldier yet he had tears in his eyes letting his baby go.
I came close too seeing someone I served alongside for many years through the worst of the worst, It was so very, very sad.................... yeah, ok call me a pussy.
His last words were a very earnest,
"Look after her mate".

I did, did some work on the motor to eek out some more Hp, some suspension work and a new clutch/flywheel/cogbox. I cared for that car so very well even know it was now my daily driver.

Then the world turned to shit.

I got seriously fucked up and made unfit for service and kicked out of my beloved Army. I lost my home and ended up sharing with some mates, one still Army and the other recently discharged. I had a home but had to park my baby outside.
A few months after getting the golden boot my finances drove me home from NSW to Victoria to Mummy and Daddy. Vets Affairs then supported me enough to rent another place (with a garage) so I could put my baby in bed.
This all took a little over twelve months of my car being homeless, living in the rain on the salty south coast of NSW then to cold rainy Melbourne.
With my new found garage I took the time to put it up on jack stands so I could give it a good once over. I honestly didn't spend long under there, scurrying out in a hurry.
The ol' XD was the first of the body style and bore the common issues that many pilot model types did, this one,...........Rust.
It had obviously started a long time ago but that twelve months just bought the rust to the fore front. I seriously thought that it was liable to fold up in half at the firewall!
Then.........
I started to do what I could to save it but it was no use, my baby was beyond redemption. Once again (Because of VA) I had to move, though this time in a hurry!
I stripped all that I could but had to leave it on its rolling stock to move it around. I had to send the remains off to the wrecking yard as there was simply no time to do anything else, I had no means to deliver it to them (And that way get paid a few $$ for the suspension at least). So they came and got her, deal was I didn't pay for towing, they took ownership of the car.
I moved again, this time to Queensland to, ironically share a house with my mate I bought the car from. Man was there some tension in the air for a while. We both had great memory's of her, of using the car in his wedding and homey moon. Me of courting a special lady in her, the list is very long.......
We eventually built a bridge over it all, though a sizable pot hole remained whenever the subject came up.

Well, thats my story and if you read this far I am impressed!!! Yeah O/T car, long winded story that could have been told in a paragraph but you see I am bored and this filled in some time.

Hope you at last enjoyed a little of it?

Doc.

 

I was driving a VERY worn out & VERY rusty '67 Falcon Wagon.
I sold it for $150 to a mate, but it's one of the better 'deaths' to report here.
The car was bought so that it could be given to his grandpa who needed a 'sunroom'. And so that became the afterlife for my old Falcon- A place for an old guy to park his arse and read the newspaper.

 

..HE he! That's good..

 

I just sold a 58 Ford survivor drag car to a guy that had more money than he knew what to do with only for him to take the wheels off and put some 14" wire wheels on it and gut the perfect vintage interior.Then he started sanding on it and has left it outside.This is what he did in the first few weeks and I have not seen the car in a couple of months.It scares me to think of what kind of shape it is in now thanks to meth!!I had owned the car for about seven years and it took me about that long for me to talk the original owner out of it.I miss that car and almost cry when I think of the destruction it is going through.

 

I picked up a 60K mile '74 Plymouth Gold Duster with a slant 6 that needed rear quarter windows and a transmission for $100. I picked up a $50 trans out of an Aspen and rear windows for $25, then added some rally wheels I had kicking around. Sold it to a kid and his father for $1000 to get it out of my yard. About a month later, I get a call from Dad, wondering if I knew where they could get body parts for it. Seems sonny (who didn't have a license yet) decided to take the Duster for a spin in the yard and managed to stuff it into a tree, taking out most of the nose. It sat mangled in their yard for about 6 months, then disappeared.

 

Back in the 70's, I had a original California '67 Chevelle SS 396, black on black w/ticktocktac and the full console gauges. The black paint was faded, so I had it painted a medium metallic blue. That color made it look unique and I could identify the car in a line up.
I ended up selling the car to some guy who looked like he would take care of it.
Well, obviously he sold it to someone else as I saw some hippies driving through a park, like reminiscent of a Cheech and Chong "Up in Smoke" movie with all the pot smoke bellowing out the Chevelle's windows and a crappy selection of oversized Mickey Thompsons sticking out of hogged out wheelwell openings...I saw the last, which I wished I didn't, of what was a beautiful car.

 

Just last week a fellow Hamber resaponder to me in my quest for one of my old cars. It was on Craigslist. It was it . A 1936 olds sedan. In 85 when I built it ,it was nice. Called the guy, talked to him, e-mailed him a picture---he pulled the add-then never heard from him again. Wife says I really didn't need it back.It wasn't the way it was---just the basics were left.I did get a recent pic of it---good enough I guess.

 

I bought this one with my $3.25/hour burger king money nearly dead wore out and rolled over badly for 500, dropped in a 350 rocket and fixed it up to this and then I "drunken drivered" it into a bridge at 55 when I was 18

p.s. like my neighbors old nova with the 350 and rock crusher in the background???
He took $1500 for it




this one wasn't my fault...


When I'm selling them I either know what I want out of it or when they ask I say make me an offer and if you want it more than I do it's yours.
If they start chewing the car down or start with the help a buddy out I'll treat her right story I say "I'm thirsty. I'm going in for a pop would you like one? just hollar at me if you have any questions" and I walk inside.
If they still chew at it when I come back out...
I say "Hey I know this car inside and out. Either you want it more than I do or you don't. What you think of it and what you want to do with it is none of my business. Make me an offer if you want and if you cant afford it... it might still be here later or I can buy some of the goodies back out of it to get the price down for ya".
Every no has a positive kickback teaser. Always offer an alternative "No" is a deal ender... a dead end street.

When it goes away nice, they got what they paid for
When I see it trashed I know they have what they deserve

 

I sold a car in Reno..JUST to watch it die.

 

Thats why I don't sell to anyone local or someone I know that won't take care of it.

 

When in the service I was at a station in SE AL on the Chatahootchee River. I bought a 52 Henry J and a 57 Cadillac Sedan de Ville with intentions of making a gasser style car of the HJ with the Caddy driveline. Did a lot of work on the HJ, had the Cad engine block gone through, hydro cleaned and ready. Got orders...put ad in the paper to sell the project for the $275 I had in it, no takers. Reran ad offered it for free, no takers. The HJ was sent to the bottom of the lake, the Caddy stuff went to my Dad's house for several years then he scrapped it all.
I did haul my 35 Std. Chevy 3W coupe to my next duty station and sold it about a year later for $450, paid $25 for it. Maybe some guy in Mobile did actually build it and still has it, I can't say.

 

Found this post by accident, but I'll chime in on it. I had two that got away, only to find out they got screwed up royally!

The first was a 1971 Chevy 3/4 ton PU that I restored and used as a daily for a few years. When I got it, it was a 'drivable', 402 TH400 straight truck that was amazingly rust free. The 402/400 was tired, at best. A previous owner had spent big dollars with paint and bodywork, and it was a gorgeous bright red. I upholstered it, dropped in a new 454 w/a new TH400, went through the suspension and brakes, spray-in bed liner, new grill and bumpers, glass, the works! I set it up to tow a 25' fifth wheel and my car trailer that I had at the time. It was a fantastic truck! When I sold it (ex-wives...there's a reason they are ex's), I got cash and a '72 short Fleetside for a trade. The new owner was, let's say, 'automotively challenged', and 2 weeks later burned the cab of the thing to the ground trying to install some stupid-assed stereo sytem in it! I had the opportunity to buy it back for the scrap price, but just couldn't do it...very sad.

The other one was a '62 Pontiac Parrisiene (sp?) wagon that I got in trade for a '54 Chevy Wagon that I really didn't want. It was a very cool car that I should've NEVER got rid of. When I was done with it, it was a bitchin' little grocery getter that was fun to drive. The next owner took it and COMPLETELY F'ED it up, and then decided to get rid of it. He asked me if I wanted it back, but the amount of money/time/work that it NEEDED to get it back to where I had it just didn't justify me buying it back...in hindsight, I now wish I would have. The car surfaced a few times on craigslist, each time looking more screwed up than the last. The last time I saw it, someone had ruined the interior (dark red stock interior, why would anyone put a black and white tuck and roll front seat in that?!), hung dummy spots halfway up the VIRGIN windsheild posts, and all but killed the 283/powerglide that was in it. At least this one didn't burn down!

I think that if and when my '63 Chev Short Fleetside sells, I want it to go way away...I really don't want to see it again, it would be too hard after owning it for 12 or so years!

 

Mine was a very nice 67 Galaxie 500 convertible. Had a built 390 with a 3 speed out of a truck in it. I needed money so that I could go to school (technical school), so I sat it in the front yard with a for sale sign on it. This guy who was probably 10 years older than me stopped and inquired about it. He said his plans were to restore it, as he was a body man by trade. I thought it was going to be in good hands. Wrong. This dumbass got all blitzed out of his gourd drunk, in the middle of winter, and decided to take it out for a spin. He ended up wrapping it around a telephone pole. I heard from a friend who talked to the guy and he had the balls to say that he was only doing 25 mph! How in the hell do you wrap a 4400 pound steel car around a telephone pole doing only 25 mph? Oh well, I got the money to go to school and now I have better rides in my stable and they AIN'T leavin any time soon.

 

I saw an original '65 Biscayne with a drag pack option so I build one. After I was finished, my neighbor bought it. Mind you, it was a finished car. He blew it apart because he wanted a Lexus color. Welded up the 3 piece bumpers which I just had rechromed. Tossed the brand new factory interior because he wanted a console and Mercedes leather. Trashed the steelies and caps for a custom designed 20" billet wheels. Removed the manual trans for an auto replaced the 500 hp bbc for a crate fuel injected motor. Now the car looks like it was overhauled by Chip Foose. Its a gorgeous car but not my style. Funny thing is, everyone meets for coffee on Saturday mornings. He brought the car out and everyone told him he ruined the car. I heard he has $130K tied up in it now.

 

Yep. My first hotrod 33 Chevy (sometimes my avatar) was totalled 2 weeks after I sold it. No one hurt was the only good thing. Damn non-hydralic brakes! ~Sololobo~

 

My first daily driver (OT car): '85 Camaro Berlinetta. Drove it for three years to and from HS and first year of college. Sold it to a HS girl and she destroyed the transmission in 3 mo. Then she sold it to somebody who cut it up and made a ratty race car out of it. I'm sure it's either in a scrap yard or crushed by now.

...I hated that fuckin' car anyway. LOL

 

UGGG! Yes more times than I wanted to remember before I saw this post.

 

I sold a 60 Ranchero back in the early 80s to a guy. He was hit broad-side pulling into his drive way. It was completley totaled. Hit so hard the center of the dash was bent upwards. Even one of the new mags I put on it was broken. He had owened it for less than a hour. I put a lot of work fixing the car up. It was sad to see how it car ended up...

 

Not me everything I sell leaves as a carcass I keep it all!!

 

yes my 59 Apache. i sold it around 8 years ago, it has a 454 which killed me in gas as i had no job at the time. i also needed cash to paint my 67 ss camaro that i had for 15 or so years. my buddy drove it for one summer and wanted to customize it to his taste. well he pulled the motor and could not get it to run again, unhooked the power windows but could not get that right again, undid the electric fans since the old school metal shrouded one was not good enough, unhooked the door poppers and scrapped the alarm that controled the doors. took off the bed and removed the wood, but never put it back together, and took off the grille and lost the indicators. i always asked about it and hed say its just sitting...you want it back? but i never had the cash. i recently sold a 65 vw bus for decent money and went back to buy it after all this time....for a grand less than i sold it to him. supposedly the electrical shop rewired everything...just my stuff with black tape everywhere and it was a nightmare to trace. and he flat blaked the baby blue and gloss black dash. but i got it and its well on its way. im never selling her again.

 

Similar experiences all around I see.



I had a '64 Chevy Bel Air sedan that I sold in college. She was a plain jane 283 / Powerglide car that I put so much work into & was proud of. I went through the motor, suspension, exhaust, transmission, and had that old girl singing. I didn't want to take it to school and let it sit in a parking lot for 4 years. I decided it had to go to someone who would drive it and love it, plus I needed the cash.

Everyone around knew it as my car, and after I sold it people would comment on how they saw it running at the speed of sound on the interstate, or flying around a corner here or there. It saddened me a great deal. While dating my wife I brought her home to meet the folks one weekend, and we passed a used car lot where out in front sat my old '64 Chevy. The interior was shot, the original rims were bent, the dash & package shelf were cut up for a stereo, and the underhood looked like a grease pit. The asking price? $1500 less than it sold for. I didn't want it back

 

Happens to me all the time. After I sell one I really don't care what the owner does but two bother me to this day. I had a chopped & sectioned '52 Chevy, took me 3 years of build time just to get it drivable. He got drunk right after he bought it and rolled it into a ditch. My other was a '70 Cyclone Spoiler, one of 1631. I owned it over 20 years & just redid the houndstooth interior & got it roadworthy & had to sell it. The new owner tore it completely apart & it had been that way for four years, he said he lost interest.

 

Everything goes away in the end... "You cant take it with you."

a bit of gloom for a dreary wintery Monday!

 

I never watched any of them die but ran into a few at the local junkyards when they were killed.

 

One of the best cars I ever owned, sold it to my best friend because he had just got of law school and needed some wheels. I was the second owner, 1968 Torino GT notchback with a 289 and 3 speed. He always left the keys in it and some punk stole it. A couple days later the cops jumped the kid and he made a run for it, lost control and wrapped the Torino around a telephone pole.

 

Sold a '42 Chrysler, and it was re-sold to a guy who didn't even want the original engine which was to be included with the car. Numbers matching...not sure if that matters on that car but it just seemed wrong...