When I was about seventeen in 1966 a guy came to town to go to college with a 35 Ford three window coupe, nice paint, chrome dash and window moldings, Chevy V8 adapted to a stock driveline. He traded it to a couple of old men in Girard for a 40 Merc convertible, pulled the motor and trans for the Merc, the car set next to their house for a while, didn't have the money to buy it and it dissappeared. Since then I've always wanted a 35-36 three window, even a five window would work, guess I need to sell something and buy one before I'm too old to enjoy one.
2 stories - My Dad passed away shortly after I turned 16 in 1970, so the task of helping me pick out a car fell to my Mother. We looked at a bunch of cars all jacked up in the rear, tires hanging out of the rear fender wells, loud glass pack mufflers -- you know, just what a 16 year old wanted. No luck getting Mom's approval. Then, there it was, a '69 silver gray Plymouth Roadrunner, skinny tires on steel wheels with "dog dish" hub caps, not jacked up in back, reasonably quiet exhaust, bench seat 4 speed, --- Oh, and did I mention 4-2-6 HEEEMY. The guy was selling it cheap because it had a rod knocking. Beautiful car, looked like new and only $1300.00. I had a friend that owned a Parts store/machine shop and we figured about $250 in repair costs. I had $1400 saved up so surely Mom would spot me the rest. We go back later that day and Mom walks around looking at everything smiling and nodding her head when all of a sudden she says --- Mike, I really like this one, open the hood I want to see if the engine is as clean as the rest of the car. I'm thinkin' uh-oh, the jig's up, so I tell her well the hood is real hard to open, but I've seen it and it's really clean. But no dice, she wants to see under the hood. So I lift the hood and here sits this wall to wall engine with two carbs ( the air cleaner was in the trunk) and she says "Why does this one have two of those thingys on top when all the others just have one?" I'm goin' "ahhh, I'm sure the other is just a spare" but she wouldn't go for it. She said " Mike, that's an awfully big engine there, I think we better pass on this one." So I ended up with a 68 Torino GT fastback 302- 2barrel automatic. Oh well.
My dad got rid of his '68 Dodge 440 R/T when I was 4 year sold. Traded it in for a "more suitable family car" as my mother put it. A Brand New 1979 Ford Granada 4 door. My father still blames me. He taunts me by telling me it was going to be mine one day.
A near mint ocean blue 63 t-bird that just needed a master cylinder for $1400, because the old man was tired of it taking up his one car garage. For some stupid reason I let my dad talk me out of it, now I can buy what I want and only hafta convince the wife, but she likes cars too so we are good.
As I said in my first post there were two stories, here's the second. In 1971 while visiting my girlfriend's parent's sporting goods store, as we pulled into the parking lot I saw the car of my dreams hooked to the back of a pickup with a tow bar. There sat an all steel 1941 Willys coupe ex drag car all jacked up with ladder bars, slicks hanging out from under the rear fenders, and best of all --- a FOR SALE sign in the windshield. I couldn't wait to get my car parked and ran over to the Willys leaving my girlfriend sitting in the car with a puzzled look on her face. The bad news, there was no info on the sign in the winshield, zip --- nada --- nothing. I was determined to find out who owned this car and ran to the grocery store next door and convinced the checkout girl to make an announcement over the intercom. No takers. Next to the sporting goods store where I questioned each of the customers with, again, the same results. On to the Pizza Shop on the corner of the strip center. I go in to find no customers. I walk around to the back room, empty. Ken, the owner, asked who I was looking for and told him I was trying to findout who owned that Willys out front. Ken said " Your lookin' at him. You want to buy it?" I couldn't answer fast enough, "How much?" He said "After I take the engine, transmission and some of the gauges I have to have" ---- what seemed like an eternity ---"a $100.00 for whats left." I nearly fell over when he said that and gave him a twenty dollar bill to hold it 'til he pulled what he wanted. Any way, dragged it home and immediately made plans to drop a 392 in it. Had my then girlfriend (now wife of 38 years) helping me sand the many layers of paint. We spent a lot of time on it as we didn't have much money to spend, then off to school, then marriage, then 3 kids and life interfered as it so often does and the Willys languished at the back of the garage. Finally sold the stroker Hemi to a boat racer and the body at a NSRA meet to a young guy from Iowa. Sure do miss the one that got away.
I've had always wanted a Model A, and before I had my drivers licence, (mid 1960's) a friend of my Dad's tells him that there is a pair of Model A's about 30 miles away for sale. A 28-29 tudor sedan and a 28-29 roadster, $75 each. I wanted the roadster BAD. My Dad had only Sunday off of work, so on Sunday we went to look at them. They were there on the side of the road in a vacant lot, no phone number, or other info. We couldn't find the owner or anyone that knew about the cars, and ended up leaving. My Dad's friend came into my Dad's store the next Tuesday and told us they had been sold on the Monday after we were there.
I started a thread on this subject this past April and I have pasted the story from that post below. I missed this car by literally a couple hours. The first guy that called got the car and drove up from Texas. The worst part?...the owner was a HAMBER in Minnesota. I am pretty confident I will NEVER run across a deal like this for one of these cars again in my lifetime. Hey gang, How often has this happened to you... I've been looking for a '49 Buick Sedanette for a few years now. I've scoured the nation and have found a few but the money or the timing has never been right. Last week while checking out the local Minneapolis/St. Paul Craigslist I came across this beauty. Needless to say after I picked my jaw up off the floor I jumped on it and got in touch with the seller. There was no good news for me however. He was holding it for the first guy that contacted him - I was the second. We chatted back and forth a few times and left it that he would let me know if the first deal fell through. Well he hasn't gotten in touch with me yet...Man, I was bummed! He was asking $1,500 or best offer... Usually, these cars in this condition go for somewhere north of 5 grand or more. Oh well, back to the drawing board. Anyone else have a similar tale of woe? <fieldset class="fieldset"><legend>Attached Thumbnails</legend> </fieldset>
I know it doesn't fit but I could have bought the Al Joniac long nose mustang The famous batman car. cammer powered. It did not have the paint or driveline when I knew about it. 2500 or make me an offer in the mid 80's Leaned on the hood of Dave Hales willys trying to figure out how to buy it with 2 young kids and trying to build my 41.Only if I would have known .....sold the kids ..naaaa. but would have put the 41 on hold.
Several, all from the early 70s. 1940 Chrysler coupe a 1 owner clean new car trade-in, $850, 1955 Olds 98 Holiday 2 dr hardtop an unusual yellow and white twotone with a green interior 1 owner with 41,518 actual miles $950. 1956 Lincoln Continental Mk. II, one owner new car trade-in 59,966 miles $975, 66 Shelby G.T. 350 Mustang complete in great condion but a blown engine $2450, 51 Chevy pickup, lumpy cammed solid lifter 327 with a T-10. A beautiful truck and a strong runner $1150! That Shelby and the truck still hurt. All these were great deals but I was a young, poor, family man and cash was hard to come by. Oh yeah, and the 66 GTO, the 59 Retractable, the 55 Nomad, the 51 Panhead............. ugh..I'm getting depressed......
It was back in the early 80's, I was newly married, working a job for about $175 a week. Found a 35 or 36 humpback sedan in a divorced ladies yard. She didn't want to sell it at the time, her ex had started tearing it down for a restore before he got the hots for an 18 year old, and she was going to save it for her 10 year old son. About 6 months later she called, saying she had sold the house and had to move the car, would I take it for $300? I had just bought 3 Vega's that I was planning on stuffing a 283 in one and parting the other two and didn't have $100 to spend on the sedan, much less the $300 she wanted, so I had to pass. Fast forward about 10 years.......a guy in town has a 36 Chevy coupe for sale. $1500 without the engine. My wife being friends with his wife, finds out about it, and knowing how much I want an old car, talks him into letting her make payments on it. She gives him $100 to seal the deal. Her and the kids gave it to me for Christmas, I have to pay it off in two months. Then, some shit came up, don't remember what now, and I wasn't able to make the payments. I told the guy to just go ahead and sell it and keep the $100. I missed out on both.
1973...San Diego. There was a 1953 MGTD that I found for $300.00. I made the mistake of telling (who I thought was) a friend about it. He bought it later that day. He said to me later, "You never would have done anything with it." We have not spoken to each other since.
1975. 11th grade. I was driving a 66 Charger with a poly 318. I never really liked the car, and had had a couple of 383 Mopars previously. I found a real creampuff 70 Charger on a used lot, and worked out an affordable trade with the dealer. It was a solid, triple dark green car with the 383 Magnum and the column automatic. Really nice 2nd owner type car compared to my over used 66! My Dad was going to cosign for the loan. Back in those days it was probably only $5-700 bucks, I cant remember now. The day before the deal was to be done, report cards came out. My F in one class along with a couple of citations for skipping some classes pissed Dad off, and he stopped the deal! Been regretting it ever since. That Charger was so nice, that I would probably have kept it forever. (Just like my 67 Coronet R/T that I bought in "77 and still own! LOL)
Built by my father in law...somehow, through the years, my uncle ended up with it. My uncle offered it to me in about 1988 for $3500. However, I was in college at the time, and had just started dating my future wife, and didn't have the money. Imagine my surprise when I saw a picture of my uncle's car hanging on my girlfriend's dad's wall.....Turns out it was supposed to be her's when she turned 16...until the divorce happened. I tracked it down after my father in law passed away, but had no luck with getting the current owner to part with it....so I found another 55 hardtop......It's probably better this way, as I have no reservations about making it MY CAR....
This car reminds me of the famous Don Vanhoff coupe every time I see this picture ! Beautiful car. Is it still around ?
Another one I just remembered: Last year, there was a guy in Huntsville, AL who had collected an odd assorment of cars and trucks from the 30's to the 70's. They were in various states of condition, some were complete, some just hulls. After he died, the whole collection was put on ebay. Two that stuck out to me was a Hudson {I think} pickup and a 40 Ford pickup. I wanted that 40 bad! It was missing the engine and the grill, but most of it was there and looked like it had little rust. I bid on it several times until it got out of my reach. I think it sold for $200 more than my last bid. I wasn't at home when it came off so I didn't get a chance to up my bid. I was sick. I would have scraped up $200 more if I had of got it. It would have made a great little truck.
In 1961 at a used car lot a beautiful 56 Olds. convertible black on top and red bottom with red leather rolled and pleated interior, black top. It was like new. 500.00. I couldn't afford it.
I can't stand tri-fives but this one just did it for me! I was $2000 and a airplane ticket too short and trying to sell my 53 Merc pick up when the wagon sold. Oh well on to other projects.
The Jalopy Journal
