Projects If it was raining soup I would be standing in the yard with a fork in my hand

I had a deal to buy a '55 Olds Stafire convertible in a junkyard in Osoyoos BC. Told the fellow I'd get the cash in ten minutes. He insisted that I pay when I picked it up. I agreed to come back the Thanksgiving weekend. When I called that I would be there the next day he said know because of snow. I said I'd try at Christmas but same story. He said no problem so Easter was agreed upon. I called a couple of days beforehand to remind him I'd be there on the Saturday. Gave me a load of BS that I had cancelled twice and that he sold the car. Turns out he "traded it for some plumbing work". A couple of years later I was back in Osoyoos and found the real story that he had just recently sold it to a guy in Williams Lake. I would like to find out what has happened to the car.

 

Hey HRP.
All the sad stories!!!!!
Here, go look at this one.
CL Fayettville NC.
How far away can it be?
Practically next door.
Here is a picture and the link.
post id: 6479554902
The guy is 83. Had it for years.
Price looks like it's a relative turn-key bargan.
It can easily be bad to the bone cool!
There are cars everywhere!
No I don't know him!
If I had some cash laying around it would be mine!
Good luck!
Tony

 

Good intro post there HRP - maybe yer best this year....ok...how 'bout this....at an auction that you've been waiting on to bid...only one joker bidding it up against you.....you/me stop about $200 dollars short of what you have brung in your pocket to let the guy have it - clincher - he didn't have anything in his pocket - they still gave him a half hour to get someone to bring him the money...which turned into an hour....

 

well that was this years dilly....the past one's my psychiatrist has got me to forget....

 

There was this guy I have done business with before that had a 57 Dodge Sweptside pickup. This thing was beat to death, it was in really bad shape. One day I took my son with me when I went to his house for something, and my son saw that truck and was in love. He was about 14 or 15 at the time, and had been buying and selling things he wanted for a couple of years by that time.

He wheeled and dealed and they came up to an agreement on a decent price for that beat up truck. Since he has no money, the guy gave him a week to come up with the cash or the deal was off. I could have funded it, but my son was determined to get the truck on his own. He sold off his go cart, and a bunch of other stuff and had the cash in 4 days! When we got there with the trailer to buy and take home the truck, the guy himed and hawed and decided he didn't want to sell the truck! My son was furious, and I wasn't too happy either. The guy wouldn't bend, regardless of me telling him how underhanded and dirty that deal was.
A couple months later, the guy had an auction at his place, and surprise, the truck was on the auction block. When the bidding ended, even with the help of his buddy shimming the bidding, the truck failed to sell, the final bid price was less then what my son had agreed to buy it for a couple months earlier. After the sale, my son caught up with the guy and told him he should have sold him the truck when they had made the deal instead of expecting to make big bucks on it at the auction. He told my son he would sell him the truck that day. My son responded with a big "Screw you, I'll never buy anything from you." I laughed as we walked away. I don't know what ever happened to the old Dodge, maybe he scrapped it. I haven't bought anything from him since either. Gene

 

Two of 'em I can think of now.....
1....found a cherry pie 58 Cameo on the back row of the local small town chevy dealer and asked the sales dude about it.
"Oh, that's an old chevy pickup we just took in trade....not much to look at but it has a fresh rebuilt 283 in it...we need $225 for it".
Oh shit! My check was coming in the mail the next day. My brother in law was in town so I drove him down to the dealership to show what I'd be driving the next day...I was soo pumped!
Went down there the next morning with money in hand to find it was gone! My brother in law had bought it and went home in it. He put a 327/4 speed in it and let a buddy borrow it. His buddy took out a telephone pole with it. Totaled it.
Next one was a ratty 57 Pontiac super chief 2 door hardtop trade-in at the same dealer. They wanted 50 bucks for it..same deal, my check was coming the next day. I was out drinking with my brother and one of his buddies and I got loose tonged...spilled the beans about the Pontiac I was gonna buy. Wasn't there the next morning.........again!
I hunted the bastard down and he was really apologetic...said he and his new wife [pregnant] needed cheap transportation just until he could afford a used 4x4 pickup and he'd make it right for me. I called him every name in the book but in 3 months he hunted me down....said the Pontiac was mine for $10 if I still wanted it...I bought it, put new dual exhaust on it, new chrome wheels and tires and spent 2 months cleaning and polishing the ol girl. I think I still have a photo of it. I trashed the bent front bumper and straightened the bent right fender [after the photo] and put a new timing chain it it. Sold it to my little brother and he never paid me for it and he lost the title!

 

I'd have given you $3000 for that pretty black Pontiac...

 

I feel better now...

I have been digging myself out of hobby debt for a year and this weekend blew my budget and bought some stuff I didn't need but stuff that is made of unobtainium when I would need it. I have been feeling guilty digging a hole next to the hole that I just filled in.

I'll have some soup too please...

 

Some time in the 1980's I called on a '49 Mercury "Mild Custom", licensed and ready to drive home for $750.00. Call the guy, he was about an hour north of me, sounded like a nice car and way under what it was worth. "First guy with the $750.00 gets it", fair enough, I'll be there before noon the next day, had the cash, all I needed was gas to get there. Called to tell him I was on my way, BUT, he told me a guy in Los Angles WIRED him the $750.00, 45 mile drive got beat by someone 3,000+ miles away. Bob

 

Classic " you snooze you loose" I just lost a Hemi because I wanted to know numbers and if it was free not stuck. Another guy showed up in person with cash in hand and didn't question anything

 

I saw a craigslist ad 2 weeks ago advertising model T parts and a model A grille shell for $75 but...in the pic it actually looked like a really rough Deuce grille shell so I contact the seller...sorry sold I brooded over it for a week then I decided to put up an ad offering to trade some T parts for the grille if the buyer was actually a T guy not a rodder...well strange as it seems the guy is a rodder but saw the ad contacted me and tacked only a small finders fee on the original asking price! I know it's pretty haggard but it's original '32 steel and it was filled and peaked with lead so it was done in the '40's - '50's for a hot rod!.....but I have so many "one that got away stories" I was beginning to think it was a curse...hmm let's see lately there's been a $50 LaSalle trans. , a $100. T tudor shell, a '38 Ford banjo steering wheel, a narrowed '40 ford dash out of a old model A roadster and that's just off the top of my head....oh shit I forgot the $500. '32 frame rails (couldn't commit because they were over the border and no pics) damn that one smarted!

 

When that gem does come up, you have to strike with the speed of a cobra. I keep an eye out for fire sales all the time and let it be known what I'm looking for. I need a home for a 396/427 Chevy that I'm in the planning stages of.

 

Over and over again, will I never learn???????

 

Back in the late 60's and early 70's I was going to school at CSU in Fort Collins. One Friday I was in the student union drinking coffee and reading the paper. There was a large used car lot in town called Roush Motors. At least I think that was the name. The guy had quite a collection of exotic personal cars. One was a very nice 275GTB Ferrari. There was a Lamborghini, two Aston Martins, a Maserati, etc etc. All of the cars were floored by GMAC. I guess they caught on to them financing his personal collection so they had a foreclosure sale. All the cars were listed in the Daily Collegian, the school paper. It was a long list and the 275 GTB was in the middle with nothing to call attention to it. The price listed was 5500.00. Thats not a misprint. So, I swallow my coffee, ditch class and head for the car lot. I look at the car and can't believe it. Its getting late in the afternoon and the bank was closed. I told them I would take it and give them a deposit and pick it up on Monday. I was told there was no need to do that and I was too dumb to close the deal at once. I trusted it would be there on Monday. I sold my Vette to a friend for a huge discount and went back to the lot on Saturday and Sunday to admire my new car. It was probably the happiest I have ever been car wise in my life. I was there first thing Monday morning and to my dismay every exotic was gone. Late Sunday afternoon, Kjell Qvale sent a transporter and made a package deal. I was devastated, not only had I lost the deal on the Ferrari, I had sold the Vette. No amount of outrage made any difference and the worst part was my friend totaled the Vette the first night he owned it. I ended up buying a new Chrysler Town and Country wagon to make my wife happy. Biggest POS I ever owned. So a few years later I graduated, got rid of the Chrysler and the wife. I went to the bank and told my friend the banker I was going to go to California and buy a Ferrari. He asked how much I needed and I said it didn't matter, I was going to buy one and might need 25 or 30K. Off I went searching for the car of my dreams. Cheapest one I found was over a 100K and it was beat. Now I resign myself to my old Fords. I couldn't afford the insurance on at 275 anyway, let alone the price.
Now I'll be in a bad mood for the rest of the day just recalling this story.

 

I'm not a Ford person but I'd drive the Ford after walking straight past the Ferrari.