I had to pass on a 67 Shelby GT 350 in 1983 it was 16 years old I was 25 and no money was around I made $17,000 that year I could have purchased the Shelby for $5,000 my take home pay was around $250 a week hard times and 4 mouths to feed made me pass. I wish I had gone into debt on it then..... I could have retired a few years ago.
August 1974, I was 17 and working my butt off to save money for college. I had $1000 in the bank, which would cover my tuition. I'm out with my Dad, just checking out the used car lots, and I find a 1970 Mercury Cyclone Spoiler GT. 429SCJ, 4 speed, red, just a beautiful car. Priced at $1100, but I figured I could get it for a bit less. We look at the car for a while and I asked my Dad what he thought. He says, Well, you can buy the car, skip college and keep working in the tire shop, or you can keep the car you've got (63 Mercury Montclair with the power rear window) and go to college. You can't do both. I passed on the car, and it's the only one I've ever really regretted. To this day, I still think about it from time to time.
A 40 Ford Deluxe Coupe for $500!!! In the early 70's when I was about 13 or 14 I was already saving my $$$ for my first car. I was hellbent on an old car to Hot Rod. First choice was a 55-57 Chevy. On my paper route, there suddenly was a 40 Coupe sitting in a driveway. It wasn't one of my customers, but I'd stop and drool over it. It had been shot in a quick coat of old primer black, which looked to have been shot over the original burgundy paint. On rainy days it glossed up=you could see how frickin straight the car was! All stock wheels, trim, grille bumpers, etc. Interior and dash were all stock, though the upholstery was torn up. I finally knocked on the door one day asking if it was for sale. An older guy (to me at the time-he was probably 40) came out and said he was thinking of selling it and had recently rolled it out of the garage into the driveway. He popped the hood and said "someone put a 283 in it years ago, everything else is stock". He said it hadn't been started in years, but could be running with a bit of work. He said he'd take $500 for it. Probably could have bought it for $400. I raced home and had a meeting with my parents. They were ok with an old car but were concerned about how much work and money it would take to get it running. I didn't know a lot about car mechanicals yet and High School auto shop was a couple of years away. I had a few hundred saved and they'd loan me the rest....Long story short, I didn't buy it and the car vanished. Don't know what happened to it. It could have easily been restored by adding a Flattie or could have been Hot Rodded. Like the Girl you coulda, shoulda, woulda gotten naked with, this one still irritates me everytime I see a nice black 40 Coupe!!!!!
oh shit! that reminds me. circa 1984 or 83; in collage my girlfriend introduced me to one of her old friends who had a perfect, GOLD 68 SHELBY GT500. i'd see this thing in the parking lot and drool. one day we were over his house and he took us for a ride. the car was perfect. not long afterward he's getting a divorce and must sell the car. he wanted $10,000. at the time that was a lot of money but not for this car. my girl had the money and i tried hard to get her to buy the car but she would have had to cash some bonds so she passed. that was the deal of the decade but i couldn't afford it. i also told my father but he didn't understand. after passing on two 66 GTO's i really wanted this car to go to someone i knew. he sold it to a stranger. oh, and the OTHER 66 GTO (just remembered) was my the family car of my friend from shreveport, LA. it was a rust-free, gold, 3sp. she was going to lend me the $3K to buy it because she didn't want it to be sold to a stranger. i turned that one down too. my friend Nancy was driving that car as a kid but her parents took it away after she got caught going to an outdoor rock concert. daddy took the GTO away. that's a song isn't it? LOL.... so, my missed opportunities are two, perfect 66 GTO's and a 68 Shelby 500. OH, just remembered: my dad sent me to florida to buy my grandmom's 67 white / black vinyl top, 289 Cougar. i drove it back to texas where my dad lost interest in it and SOLD IT without telling me!!! what a SOB.... he should have just given me that damned car! my grandfather bought it NEW in 67 in Orlando florida!
I have no regrets in life, otherwise I wouldn't be where I am today. That goes for cars or women, anything.
40 coupe "show car" in 67 was in the paper, baby blue, white roll and tuck, 327 powerglide. Beautiful car, talked my dad into going to look at it with me, after all it was $800. Made the mistake of letting my dad test drive it, "Ain't buying no damn ford with a chevy engine in it"........
Not a car, but yesterday at a swapmeet I passed up a set 32 ford frame rails for 200 bucks.I could not stop thinking about them so I went back to buy them. Gone! Still sore about it.
In 1974, I passed on a bone stock 289 FIA Cobra for $5,000 even. I was driving a 65 Healey with a SBC 327 at the time and thought what I had was just a good as the Cobra!
1969 - passed on a 61 Jag XKE roadster with a blown head gasket for $1000. Dumbass. 1970 - passed on a 15,000 mile '57 Tbird for $1200. It was pink. 1972 - passed on a 1966 Shelby. $2000 but I was broke. 1973 - passed on a Ferrari 250 GTC because I couldn't come up with $6500. Same guy had a 57 Fuelie Vette for sale. $5000 and I had no extra $$$. 1975 - Sold my ragged little 1932 MG J2 for $2500. Bought a ragged 1937 MG TA to replace it. Sold it a week later for $2500. Dumbass.... 1979 - passed on a 1962 MGA 1600 Twin Cam roadster. $1000 seemed like too much for a clapped out MG. Same year - I passed up a 55 Porsche Speedster. Can't recall the price, but it was little money. I didn't think it would be a good investment. Dumbass... 1990 - sold all my little brit cars when the Army moved us from Ft Stewart. Sold my 1959 XK150, my TR4A IRS, my A-H 3000 MkIII, and my A-H Bugeye. Bought a 1970 ElCamino. Dumbass..... Given my history of astute auto investments, I wonder if I should reconsider the 63 Avanti and the AMX I saw last week?
Selling my '65 GTO collection of cars and N.O.S. parts in 2006 after over 35 years of owning them. It still is like a DEATH IN THE FAMILY. But it's only worth money (big $ or small) if the cash is put in your hand! Side-bar: Took the money to the 2006 Fall Carlisle Events Auction in Carlisle, PA and bought the Nova Wagon you see. I am having fun with a car again and blotted up some of the tears with the rest of the money.
Sold my OT car a 1970 Nova SS L78 4 speed car for $ 1900.00 around 1974. Was going to community college and the gas shrtage hit
In the early 70's my father was racing ford 427fe engines in a dirt modified we went to buy a engine from a guy who said it was in a old race car turned out to be a real ac cobra daytona coupe could have bought the whole car for $1500, I know instead we paid 750 for the complete engine. What is that thing worth today.
Having owned over 200 cars you would think that I would have no regrets. WRONG!!!! I can think of at least 20-30 that if given another chance I would have bought whatever it would have taken. Bottom line....................you can't own them all. But that's no reason not to try. Frank
I purchased a stock running 1940 ford at an auction at a car lot that sold old cars. I was the hightest bid at $1500. I had money left, so I didn't go in to sigh the papers as I thought I might get another car. The police then came in and stopped the bidding and said they owed the bank money, and no other cars would be sold unless the money went to the bank. Said if you had sighed paperwork, you could take your car, but if not, all deals were off. If I had of just walked into the office!!!
See my stupidity in this post http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=261888&highlight=1955+pontiac+starchief
2 years ago, a pink '58 Oldsmobile Super 88 convertable with power everything. Could have got it for a song (actually a cheap trade) but wasn't sure where to store the car and an entire shop full of extra parts including a spare J2 equipped 371 strapped to a pallet... The whole lot had been inside a garage for at least 30 years. Probably still there, East Tulsa if anybody is brave enough to go get it : ). DUMB.
I've told it here once before BUT.....I passed on a 32 Roadster,F.H just because it had a blown head gasket,,,Price $35. bucks...year was 1953.............stlii crying
same story here, passed on a GTO, '69 400, four speed, Ram Air IV. Owned by the guy across the street, rarely driven, never in winter. he was handicapped with a bad leg so rarely drove the stick shift. Very low miles. He passed away and the family put the car out on the corner for $1500. it was about 15 years old at the time. I went and looked at it and it had some rust bubbling around the rear wheel wells and the paint was cracked on the Endura bumpers. They didn't sell it so it went to a brothers of the deceased and still sits in the garage there as far as I know. The same car, same color red (orange really) with the same engine, same stripes four speed, Ram Air IV sold at J-B this year for something like $76,000..... Passed on a '38 Buick two door sedan all original for $2000 and the guy said he'd come way down on the price. We took it for a drive, it was almost dead silent, perfect original interior, ran like a clock. I'd had to leave it all stock t was so nice and i was looking for a car to cut up and hot rod....
1963 Impala Wagon that was baby blue with the white vinyl top. Waited 15 minutes too long to call that guy. $2000 and it was fairly mint. 1960 + 1961 Studebaker Wagons - $500. One was a runner. If my current situation works out, I may go for a drive to talk to the guy again. Passed due to lack of space and money was tight (though i did have the extra 500).
Hell, you can part it out for more than that.....and you still haven't bought it? Can I have the address, please?!?
You've been keeping score for 40 years? Dang man, let it go. There has got to be one good one that you did get.
66 Mustang ragtop, 6 cyl, 3 spd. manual for 400 bucks in 1974. Walked away because it was only a six.
Back in 1966 I had just finished college and was ripe for the draft (ended up enlisting) and was working part time in a small repair shop for the Pelzer Brothers (Double D Repair in Lyman Iowa) and they were always out buying old cars and reselling them. I put a new short block in a 37 Chevrolet 4 door with knee action suspension and could have bought it from them cheap. They even had a 58 Chrysler out front with a brand new 392 that they had rebuilt and the guy never came back to pay for it or pick it up. That was just background, they had a 40 Ford two door painted Poppy Red (65 Mustang color) with a Pontiac 389 (might have been three twos, I can't remember), steering sucked, was hard to keep between the ditches and I could have bought for a couple of hundred dollars. Well, I didn't have any money and ended up going in the Army shortly thereafter. The guy that bought it ended up putting it on the roof and it went to the junk yard. After I got out of the Army and several years later one of the brothers had a 34 Ford coupe, the firewall had been cut out but the body was good and for $500 bucks I could have had the coupe and a 34 two door sedan that had been hit in the rear. Dumb me, I passed on it since I was putting together a 38 Chevrolet coupe that I still have. They had a 39 Lincoln Zephyr coupe that was their dads and $500 would have bought that too. Dumb me, didn't realize how cool that could have been. My cousin tried to sell me a 65 Vette with a 425 horse 396 too, oh well, those mistakes cost nothing, the others I made cost a lot
I was in a foster home way out in the boonies of IL, and on the school bus route every morning we went past a house with a first gen Firebird and a '65 GTO parked behind a row of shrubbery, and they were only visible from the road during winter. Once I left that foster home and turned 17, I drove over to ask about them. The old lady says they belong to her son in Chicago, but she would take my pager number and pass it on to him. The next week I got promoted and moved to be closer to my store. A month and half later I go back there to give her my new pager number and both cars were gone. I ring the doorbell and ask what happened. She said her son had tried to get hold of me, but since my pager number changed he thought I wasn't interested in them anymore and told him mom to just give to anyone that asked about the. I stll have nightmares about those two Ponchos.....
HI,in 1961 i could have bought 3,,1954 corvettes for $700.00,,,but,,i had to take them all,they all ran,but i had no place to put them,2 of them were decent,1 was a dog,but all were complete,,including the 3 sidedraft carbs.all automatics.,please,,,some one come kick my ass with a pair of Corcoran jump boots...
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