There was a little car lot on 143rd and Aurora in Seattle; my high school English teacher's brother owned it. My buddy worked there. Anyway, this purple '70 C-body comes in, has some kind of factory looking stripe on it. This guy who owns the lot tells me it's a 6 pack car, but it's got a factory option intake; I look and it's just got a Torker on a 440. I wouldn't part with the $1500 to get some whale-body car with a run-of-the-mill big block. Years later, I see the car in a garage when I go to buy some big mopar stuff... find out it really was a numbers matching 6-pack car. But that one doesn't make me lose sleep. The '60-ish DKW with the 389 pontiac and 4 speed at the Portland swap meet about twenty-five years ago... I lose a little sleep over that. Dad didn't want to kill his fifteen year old kid, so he didn't let him have that car. The Model A sedan up the street that turned into rust in someone's yard in the neighborhood where I grew up... never could obtain that. It got away. About 1991, there was a really nice, straight, solid '55 chev 2 door post just south of Seattle. Grey primer, tilt nose (not attached), Pontiac drop-out rear with 5.14's and posi. Spare chunk with 5.38's and a posi. Can you say two lane blacktop? Car had no glass - couldn't lock it. It was only a twelve or fifteen hundred. Shit, WHY did I have to read this thread? I've got to go take a couple handful of sleeping pills now, and I'm not sure even that's going to work. -bill Oh, and if you know where any of these cars are, ferchrissakes, DON'T tell me!
I have a lot of regrets so here is another. 1963 1/2 Galxie XL500 that sat at a house next to the elementary school I went to for years. When I was 17 (1987), I knocked on the door and asked if it was for sale. I didn't really know what it was so when they said "sure 800 bucks" I thought they were nuts.
Was lost tripping around the countryside on my motocyle in the boondocks of Manitoba, north of Portage La Prairie in the late 60's. I was out looking for old tin. Pulled into a farmyard to get directions and there in the bush was a 32 ford roadster field car. Complete. No-one was home. I left there and found my way back to the hiway. Tried to find that farm again all summer. As I was lost when I found it in the first place and lost when I left there, I never did find it. Fast forward to 71. I went to look at a 56 Ford Crown Victoria glass top. I was living in Vancouver, BC then. Car had power windows. T-bird 312 and glass roof. Really rare. He wanted $1250. Went to the bank and got the money, showed up to get the car and he now wanted $1500. I was pissed but went back and got the extra $300 as this was a nice car. Got back with the money and he said, I don't know, it has a wonderbar radio, I should get $1650. He pissed me off real bad then so didn't buy it. Still kick myself as the car was worth it. If he had told me at the start it was $1650, I would have paid it. Pat.
1932 ford half ton truck. flatty with a cool old stake bed on it. The year was 1995 and i went to tell a friend about it and get the $1000 the guy wanted for it. 3 days later when I came back it was gone. He told me it was driven out of there.
About 1978... 57 Belair convertible, robins egg blue, white roof, blue and white interior. NIce car less engine and tranny. $1000. About 1980... 1969 Barrcuda Convertible, 340 4 speed. White with red interior, white roof. Beautiful car. $1200. And then the car I know of near me but not for sale. 1967 GTX Hemi 4 speeed convertible. Red, white interior and roof. Has been sitting for 20+ years. Supposedly 1 of 4 built.
My great grandmothers 54 chevy hardtop sedan, garage kept PERFECT in 1999. Passed on it, got the pasture truck instead a 72 swb step chevy, POS what the hell was I thinking? My great uncle sold the car to some mexican guy who lowridered it out and beat it to death . Shoot me in the face
Came home on leave in '71 and a guy I knew wanted $75 for a complete less engine and trans '37 Chevy coupe, set up for small block, with headers and '57 rear end, new glass, metallic blue, but my folks didn't want it sitting in front of their house for a year!
My father worked on a 69 camaro for the next door neighbor. Always tuning it up, changing clutches, and so on. Around 1975, he offers it to my dad for $400. I was 5 yrs old, Dad didnt have the money because of raising the family, and it wasnt practical. Big block 4 speed car, and it was orange. Had funny little white stripes on the hood and funny writing on the headrests, and a neat little chrome dealer insignia from a place in Pennsylvania where the guy bought it. Yeah, its a Yenko. Luckily, the neighbor has kept it all these years....
Only thing worse than the one you didn't buy, is the one you bought.. and sold... like the 1954 Jaguar XK-120 drop-head coupe (VIN F2987-8S) I bought in 1970 from behind the owner's garage for $800. ...drove it for two years, then sold it for $800.... Hey, I didn't lose any money!
Too many to list but the worst was an orignal 67' Shelby GT500 $10,000. I was 17 in the mid 80's and my old man wouldn't help me get a loan. Thing was he was the one selling it for an older lady.
I forgot about it until I read the post about parents not letting you buy something. I was 2 months short of 17, had the cash in hand and dad wouldn't let me buy a '58 Corvette convertible, 283 with 2 x 4s, 4 speed and the removable hard top. $600.00 I almost slipped a '61 Impala SS 409 4 speed by him. Dad couldn't get the hood up so the owner showed us (I knew the trick) how to get the hood up. $1150
When I was 14 (1991) my Dad and I decided to buy a 1946 ford pickup. It had a 351 windsor/tear drop fenders/glossy red paint, just a solid, running, driving, truck for $4000. We had some ideas for the truck at the time. But, I did not know much about cars then and it was supposed to be a project for my Dad and I to work on together. I could not ever keep it running long enough to enjoy it and my Dad never had time to work on it, so we sold it for dirt cheap. The guy we sold it to had it in a parade that very weekend. Turns out it was a simple carburetor problem I suck.
In 1980 I found a 1964 442 white with a perfect black interior. No rust. Smoked a bit so it needed rings was all. My uncle Wes talked me out of buying it. $400. :-(
Here is a story from my Dad. When he was 19 (1974) he had a chance to pick up a running 1934 3w for $800. Felt that it was too much money and was really looking for a 5w. Ended up getting a solid 36 5w for $60 instead (which I still have in the same condition that he brought it home over 30 years ago).
Month before my sixteenth birthday, my brother takes me to my first Jefferson swap meet. I fell in love with a '57 nomad. No engine, no tranny, sitting on a trailer but really solid. Only $75.00 but I had no money. That was 26 years ago and I still remember that car like I saw it yesterday. But the car that haunts me today is a cuda convertible. I stopped three times to ask about it but never found anyone home. It sat right next to the garage. Ran into a friend a month later and tells me about this convertible he brought. Yep the same one. He stops only once and asked about it. The guy said he brought it for his daughter and she ranned off to Califonia with some guy and he would sell it for $100.00. That was the late '80's. Last time I ran into him he still had it.
***non-HAMB-friendly car story*** I found a real 1970 Chevelle SS 396/auto when I was 16...it was real weathered, but it was the rare factory cranberry color with black SS stripes, black interior (buckets & console), and a functional cowl induction hood. Seller was in the military and needed it sold fast. The engine/trans had been gone thru already, but the rest of the car needed basically a frame off resto. Price in 1991 was $4000 I believe. Parents wouldn't hear of it despite my pleadings as to what it "could" be. A few years later, after I proved my mechanical abilities to them, I bought a '71 SS Chevelle BB and restored it over the next several years that I eventually sold for 4+ times what I paid for it. That '70 would have easily brought 4 times what the '71 brought at sale. UGH. Never passed up anything else I ever came across if the price was right. That one Chevelle is still my only regret, but in hindsight, I didn't have a choice living under the parental's roof. Could have made a killing off it. Or I could still own it today if it came out good enough.
An honest to god authentic 1966 Shelby GT350 Mustang. Price was $3200. I didn't buy it because the house I was renting didn't have a garage.
Just out of junir college, my girlfriend's ex-boyfriend had a choice '60 Olds 88 2 door hardtop..absolutely a little old lady car if there ever was one, and bone stock. He had it for sale for $1500 because he couldn't afford the premium gas...you can probably figure out why he wouldn't sell it to me About a month later I found the car in pick-n-pull. He got drunk and plowed a power pole hard enough to buckle both quarter panels behind the rear wheels, broke the block, and wrinkled every other panel beyond use. Broke my heart. all I pulled was the steering wheel center and the "SUPER 88" badges... BRT
I worked with a guy in the early seventies. He had been transferred from California to our main office in Minnesota. He had a real nice dual quiad 1957 Corvette that I could have bought for $1100.00. My wife wouldn't hear of it; we had a couple of huge fights over it. Bottom line, it's not all bad : I didn't get the 'vette, but the wife has been gone for 35 years
My dad told me about a $50 or so engine sitting nearly upside-down in the mud at his friends junk collection in the 1980's... it had a two-four-barrel intake manifold and Chrysler FirePower stamped on the valve covers... Yeah. Why he did not buy it I will never ever understand
I helped a friend pick up a old hemi at a junkyard here in Detroit called Warhoops, couldn't understand what he wanted with it.
We had a family friend who was a fisherman. He had quite a bit of time off in the winter so he would go to California and bring home real dry clean cars. He did not have any space at his home so the cars would end up at our house. In 1984 I was 18, he had purchased a 1965 Chevelle that had been repainted and all of the trim replaced with OEM GM parts, 327 4speed am/fm. The car was perfect. I got to be the care taker for the summer while he was out fishing. I cleaned and tuned and detailed like it was my own. At the end of the summer he offered the car to me for $3500. My dad stepped in and decided it was too much car and I needed to save my money. The car was sold for $4000 and I never saw it again. This same friend in the 70s was bringing back tri five Chevys. We once had a 55, 56, and 57, Nomad in my dad’s garage all at one time. My dad complains today that he should have kept one. All I can do is shake my head. Hind sight is 20/20..
In the very early 80s a friend told me about an old car his neighbor was selling. We went and checked it out. A stone stock 41 Willys coupe. Paint was faded but it had been garage kept with no rust issues. The guy had it forever, it was his high school driver. He was hoping to get 800 to a thousand bucks for it. He gave me a little time to come up with the money for it. I tried like heck to sell my 69 AMX I was driving at the time, but back then that stuff wasn't selling for jack. I missed out on the deal.
return to 1964....a MINT 1929 Lincoln limousene...microphone wires corodded...all else absolutely mint...rollup glass partion behind driver, radiator shutters, black and blue finish like new, mohair interior showed very little wear, all chrome was near perfect, one door glass was cracked. Car was bought new in Beverly Hills (dealer tag was still under the hood) by a wealthy couple living in LA, the chauffer who drove this car for them since 1935 was let go when the man passed away and the lady couldnt keep the chauffer employed, but she hated to part with the car, so she had it put up on blocks and had someone come by once in a while and start the engine and to tend to it. Before the chauffer moved away to Oregon in 1960, he asked the elderly lady to call him if she ever decided to dispose of that car, as he would like to have 1st crack at it. Well ,that time finally came and she told him he could have it if he would come get it and that she would give him the car free...because he was such a loyal and devoted employee and friend all those years. So the chauffer flew to her home in LA, made the car road ready and drove the car to his home in Oregon. Once the car arrived in Oregon, the former chauffer stored it in his barn, and didnt know what he was really going to do with it, but because it was a large farm...and he needed a large powerful tractor..he thought that the Lincoln had a lotta power and if he took off the back part of the body it would make a great tractor...so he started to take off the rear interior...but... he must have listened to that still, small voice that must have said something like " you dumb-shit! What the hell are you doing??? this is way too nice of a car to butcher....knock it off!!" So he stopped the dismanteling. He decided it was just in the way taking up a lotta room in his barn, and so he put a for sale ad in the local newspaper, and a friend of my dads saw the ad in the saturday morning paper (remember this is 1964...) and he called dad and told him he should go look at it with him, as dad liked old cars too. I asked if I could go too, and so off we went to look at this Lincoln. We looked at it, started it, and drove it ( the Lincoln took a LARGE area to turn around in because it was so long...but it rode like a limo should...and it was absolutely smooth and silent. Then the time came for the deal and the money. But before I tell you how much it sold for, I need to say this: my dad would have had to borrow the money to buy it and my mom wouldnt let him get any further in debt because he was just getting a new body shop business off the ground and she saw it as an unaffordable expense to pay back (loan), and so he didn't buy it. It sold later that afternoon to a guy in a town about 10 miles away and he, in turn, sold it to a California car collector. The car would eventually wind up in Harrahs at Reno, where I saw the car some 15 years later...still in its unrestored condition. Prices? The chauffer sold it for $500 (about a months wages for my dad back then)...the guy who bought it sold it to the California collector 6 weeks later for $14,500 after putting an ad in Hemmings magazine. I have no clue what it was sold to Harrahs for. The one that got away could have made things a lot easier financially for dad and mom. OH WELL...Dad still did very well in his business...his reputation for honesty and quality was untouchable. I miss him.
It was 68', 55' Nomad with a 327 and 4 speed. Black with black diamond tuck interior. Car was perfect for $750. I was in High School and couldn't raise the money in time. The next day, someone from northern Calif bought the car.Few weeks later, I got my 55' Nomad for $500. It was a theft recovery and needed a LOT of work.
here goes...yes...its hard to talk about this one guys...so I will try my best...I had always heard stories of my wife's grandma's and grandpa's old car...but never really knew too much about it...or even took the time to go up north to the old farm home to see it...until the day I will never forget came along...Her grandpa had since passed...and grandma was getting ready to auction a bunch of things off and just plain and simple get rid of a lot of old JUNK!...and also tear the old farm house down...so I went up there to check everything out and be supportive of my wife wanting me to come up...so I get up there and there in the driveway in front of the OLD ORIGINAL GARAGE sat...a 1939 Lincoln ZEPHYR!...it was in rough shape from what I can remember BUT STILL!...not too many of those around...being young and having no career, no place to store it, and no knowledge really of cars at that time...I HAD TO PASS...she ended up doing a drive by silent auction to whomever stopped by and placed a bid on a piece of paper on the window...I believe it went for $4000 or less...I kick myself everytime I think about it...
A couple of cars, when I was 16 looking to buy a car I had the opurtunity to buy 2 1969 Dodge Super Bee`s, complete, just missing the motors for $1000.00 Then I had the chance to buy a nice 67 SS Chevelle, my old man wouldnt let me buy it. Also had the chance to buy a completly original running 29 coupe for $800.00, went back to get it and it was gone...
Back in 1971 I bought an old 1963 Ferrari for 4800.00. Kept it for 11 years, put a ton of money in it and sold it for 7000.00. Today in mint condition it would bring about 60,000. At the time I purchased the Ferrari there was another one that I wanted for an additional 2300.00. I thought that was a little steep for a 1957 Tour de France Ferrari .Today that car brings in about 9 million. Big Mistake. Mr. Dick
The Jalopy Journal
