purchase day adventures ... what's your story?

just picked up and drove my '48 starlight from across the border for the first time and had a few adventures along route ... over-heating, dead-battery after pulling off to mend the overheating, having to purchase jumper cables a few miles up the road at a gas station, rain ... with no windshield wipers, crazy downtown Mpls/St.Paul traffic .... but all-in-all it was an a good adventure for the books.

after getting the Stude back on the road for the last few miles, it occurred to me that "anything seems possible on purchase day".

so whats your story? what adventures and mishaps have you had on purchase day?

 

when i bought my unibody it took almost 3 hours to get home from 60 miles away. King pins and steering box were shot so it wandered all over the road. I made the mistake of listening to the previous owner (big dummy) and believed the trans didnt shift, and his take on shift pattern... So I drove 45-50ish on the interstate in low gear on the c6. Needless to say it got hot. Stopped several times to cool it down and once to refill the radiator.
THen, just about home and it started raining, had no wipers nor defroster. So I had to steal a t shirt from my girlfriends car (chase vehicle) so i could wipe down the inside of the windshield as it fogged over....

Now that truck has new motor, new trans, new suspension.... drives like a dream!

 

I think I can top that if only by the sheer mass of vintage steel I hauled in a single day.

I showed up with cash and bought this 1958 Chris Craft Roamer for a quarter of the guy's asking price. The 28-foot Roamer is one of 85 built between 1956 and 1959. It is 10,000 lbs of steel hull and mahogany interior, powered by twin 327 cubic inch Nash Fireball V-8s. We hooked up to the home-made, overweight trailer, dragged it out of the water and drove just a couple miles to a storage lot. The odessy home from there took several month and a combination of overland and sea travel, and a couple different failed trailer designs.

But later that same day, we detoured by a friend's house and spontaneously bought a barn find 1935 Pierce Arrow.

It was quite a day considering I didn't really expect to purchase the boat with the pittance of cash I took and I didn't even know that Pierce Arrow existed when I left the house that morning.

 

I bought my 49 Plymouth off a car lot right before I turned 21. I was still quite wet behind the ears and assumed that a vehicle bought from a car lot was a sure fire score. I reasoned that the car lot had a mechanic that knew what he was doing and that I would be one step ahead of the game. Plus the car dealer said that he had driven it nearly 30 miles from the barn they bought it out of and had taken it up to 85 with no problems.
The only initial issue with the vehicle was that it had a flat tire and was a 3 on the tree which I had no idea how to drive, so a driver was needed, and I would drive the chase vehicle.
My first sign of the horror to come should have been that they didn't have a compressor at the car lot so we would have to limp the car about 1/4 mile down the road to a service station to get air, and some gas while we were at it. We made that short jaunt unscathed and just as we were about to pull out what looks like smoke suddenly starts to pour out from under the hood. We stop in a panic in order to find the source of the problem (yeah, like we'd have even KNOWN what we were looking for). I get that big ol' hood cracked just in time to send a hot jet of water from the radiator shooting about 60', nailing my buddy in the process. Luckily the jet was slightly bigger than a squirt gun spray and the damage was minimal to both the radiator and my buddy.
That Plymouth was a learning curve for me. Once I got the radiator patched later that week I learned just how much stuff it screws up when a 12V battery is installed in a 6v positive ground car. I also learned that I will never buy a car from a lot again!
About 2 years later I picked up the 65 in my avatar from a shop in Lewisville. I got it for a decent deal, and this time I knew to check a few more things. A good price was negotiated by the motivated seller and I drove off feeling great. The truck ran like a dream, and that big ol 429 would really eat up the pavement.
I made the 60+ mile trek home with no issues.
It just so happened however that I was currently in the process of moving into my house and so the last item to be moved that night was my new 65 F100. I loaded it up and had my good buddy (from the first story) along for the ride with me. We made the short jaunt across town and as we turned on to the street where my new place was I noticed the brake pedal drop to the floor. Awesome. After having a brake line blow on my Plymouth I knew to check them in advance and had when I bought the truck. The culprit this time was a wheel cylinder I would later find out. One that hadn't been leaking before but was apparently dry rotted, Impossibly to know this without removing the drums when I bought it. There was no signs of fluid leaks (believe me, I checked!) but it didn't matter. Here I come in my big block, high idling truck with no way to stop. As soon as I pulled into my back yard I slammed it into park, but not before crunching a pile of fence panels.
From both these experiences I have learned a valuable lesson; I never drive them home anymore. The owner can either bring them to me or I will have them towed. I no longer trust prior owners, and I no longer trust that every problem can be found in some parking lot or driveway without a complete teardown. It's not worth the risk to me, the vehicle, or anyone else on the road. My F100 mishap is funny in retrospect, but what if that cylinder would have went out while I was blasting down the highway? I shudder to think of what it would have taken to stop that big green beast....

 

I've had a few adventures, getting purchases back to my house, so when I bought my '56 Olds, I had the guy bring it to me. I drove out of town 2 or 3 times to go look at it, but the guy was never home. Spoke with his girlfriend who knew nothing about the car.
I got the guy on the phone and told him if he drove it to my house (45 min trip) under it's own power I'd have cash waiting.

Well, the guy arrives and I sign papers and count out hundred dollar bills on the fender of the Olds. Deal done.
He hops in the girlfriend's car and leaves. I give the car a once over when I noticed some trash blowing around the driveway....hundred dollar bills! He forgot the money on the fender!!
I can't say the thought didn't cross my mind to do nothing...but I eventually called the guy and let him know.

 

Bought a 64 El Camino years ago. The seller told me that it had issues and would stall at times. I had my Father with me and figured I'd make it the 30 miles home somehow. So we took off down the freeway and the car was running great. We were running about 70 mph when everything just quit. Coasted over to the side of the road and checked everything out. We couldn't find anything wrong at all. Decided to try and start it again and it fired right up. We took off only to have the same thing happen 3 more times. We would wait a few minutes and it would fire right up like nothing had happened. We made it home. It took me about a month to find that someone had crossed the leads to the coil. I uncrossed them and the car ended up being one of the best running cars that I had ever owned.

 

When I bought my first car, a '29 A coupe, in 1968, I had to drive it 12 miles from seller to my home. It had no glass, no lights, no wiring, no upholstery, only enough wiring to run the engine and everything piled in the trunk that should have been attached (headlights, taillight, spare tire, handles, etc.) I didn't check the brake rods before I started the journey, and two broke on the way, a third one lost it's pin, so all I had to stop me was the e-brake and the right rear. I bought it in late afternoon and drove it home in city rush-hour traffic, bumper to bumper with all the commuters. I had to make a hard stop at a stop sign, and locked up the right rear tire, sending a plume of smoke off the only tire that was stopping the car. Nice loud screeching, too. My Dad, who was following a few cars behind, said later that he was sick to his stomach thinking I was going to rear-end someone in all that traffic. When we finally made it home, the emergency brake failed, too (dropped its pin), and I stopped the car by running into my basketball goal at the bottom of the drive. Kingpins and steering joints were also so loose that at about 26 mph, the thing shook like it was trying to come apart. Wow, was I shaken after that trip!
That was August. By March, I had rebuilt the engine, brakes, transmission, rewired it, put safety glass in it, did the roof and the seat, put in new kingpins and joints to steady the steering and had the lights working and a new horn. Thanks, J.C. Whitney!

 

Sometimes it takes months to get a purchase home. This purchase day adventure has its own thread at http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=807257&showall=1

 

As a much younger man back in 1972 I bought a 1941 Chevy Pickup "as is" for something like $200. I had to rebuild the master cylinder there in the seller's side yard before I could drive it home. That took a couple of hours even though it was only about 25 miles because it ran like crap. My GF had to chain tow me half the way with her Rambler American. Turned out to have 2 plug wires wrong.
After I sorted that out it ran great. I later found out it was a `56 full oiler 235. These were my early learning curve days.

 

Back in 1963, I was living in Santa Monica. I found a 1929 A roadster pickup for sale in San Bernardino, and my buddy and I went out there to have a look. The owner claimed to have gotten it from some old timer who lived up in the hills. It was brush painted red white and green and had never been altered. Aside from a little surface rust, the bodywork was in great shape and straight, even the tailgate! He wanted $150 for it and all the spares that he had, which consisted of a set of 16" wire wheels, a spare engine, a couple of well fenders, radiator shell, and a set of original top bows. I bought it and loaded everything up, went to a gas station and bought two sealed beams (had seal beam adapters in it), installed them, and filled it up.

We set off for Santa Monica and hit LA at the start of the afternoon rush hour. Things were going well until my friend took me down onto the Santa Monica Freeway. Bad decision with a loaded underpowered antique with mechanical brakes. Had some bad moments, but finally made it home.

Financial problems forced me to sell it before I could do anything with it. Wish I had it today.

 

Not much of an adventure, but I drove through torrential downpours for 5 hours in each direction last week to go pry this beauty out of the hands of a fellow HAMB'er. Due to my stupidity, paint on the driver's door got rubbed off down to bare metal due to a poorly placed car cover hold-down. But it needed a small repair anyway, so all is well.

 

1975 bought a '64 Impala SS out of a junkyard.327 w/glide and no seats,wipers,rear glass plus it was rusty.35+ mile trip home so we pirated a bucket seat out of another car and dropped it in taking a couple nuts off another car to fasten the back of the seat in place.Figured that would work because my hands would be holding onto the steering wheel.
Poured in some gas we brought along in the chase truck and off I went.No plates,no title and never even thought of a bill of sale.Soon discovered there were no rear shocks in the car.None.Must have been air shocks that the previous owner took off before junking it.So the car is a bucking bronco and my only grip is the steering wheel.Didnt take long to find out the only way to sit on the seat was at the front lip as anywhere else would cause the seat to flip backwards.Only 35+ miles,right?
If the brakes were touched the car veered sharply to the right and none of the gauges including the speedometer worked.Still happy as the car was $35.00 and at age 16 little things dont bother a guy.Bullet proof and whats the worst that can happen? Taking back roads and driving reasonably it might take a hour but I am still cruisin' in a 327 SS
This whole adventure was taking place in a very rural area of southern Minnesota and the only thing we were really concerned about was a hay wagon or some other farm implements we might meet.
What are those flashing light behind me?
Ahhhhhh.County mountie.Busted.
Turns out Officer Friendly was a neighbor that lived at a hobby farm 5 miles from the folk's place.I had been buying junkers at age 14 and he had already seen me driving(farm permit.Remember those?) or towing junk.Once he stopped laughing and gave me a lecture about unsafe vehicles he led the last 7 miles home with lights flashing.
Not a chance in Hell these days that you could get away with that stuff but times were a bit more laid back especially in the rural areas.

 

Good thread - I love Purchase day adventures. Just now having to miss a good one for a friend bought a 57 Olds in Florida and needs it here in Cali . Work schedule wont allow that right now. Being car has no AC and weather kinda yucky I will pass. He is going to have it shipped.
Last March I bought my 55 Camper off a HAMBer in Chico Cal. Friend and I rode the train from Bakersfied up to Chico. made the deal and road trip on down Hwy 99 all the way no problems. Bought a 60 Mercury and road tripped home from Reno down thru Yosemite was good one. Been on lot of those trips, been lucky on all of them. Road tripped a 67 Camaro from Vegas one time. No Heater couldnt see the bypass valve shut in the dark desert night. WIfe was driving it. ( Her new car )

 

OK in 1992 I bought my first old Chevy truck, '54 1/2 ton about 20 miles from home. The guy told me flat out I need to tow it on a trailer. In all my arrogance I said if it will run, I can drive it home. This thing had a hole in the transmission you could stick your fist in,no 1st or reverse gears, very week brakes, no working headlights, tail lights and rotted tires. After closing the deal I left with a box of tools, a can of WD-40 a dead cell phone and a bill of sale. About 3 stops later the remaining brakes disappeared. I learned you can stop a slow moving truck in 2nd gear by shutting off the engine with enough planning. All was going well until I had to hop on the interstate to cross the GA SC line. Right as I got to the SC side I started to feel a bad vibration, pulled over to check it out but could find nothing. No problem, back on country roads, just slow down. I should mention I'm stopping about every 4 miles to spray more WD in the tranny. 3 miles from home the right front tire explodes (the vibration was chunks of tread coming off). Drove the last 3 miles on basically on the rim. Decided right there; it made it home, it was a keeper. Kept and rebuilt that truck for 13 years.
Fasttoys