Hot Rods What was the craziest car deal you made?

Bought a 1936 Ford 1 1/2 ton truck, for $25, but had to take the “ old car” sitting next to it, also. So I had to make two trips to get the ‘50 Merc Club coupe.










Bones

 

How about the craziest deal I failed to make? Had an XK140 Jaguar Roadster that I bought with a burnt piston, which i repaired and ran for a couple of years. A gentleman in the nearby city had a Ferrari 375MM (one of 22, sister car won Le Mans in 1954), which was not at all user-friendly as a road car. So he offered me to trade for my Jag plus $2000; being a student, I "wisely" made the decision to pass.

I sold the Jaguar off as a "parts car" a several years later, and ran across its stripped remains in a local junk yard a couple of years thereafter.

I noted recently that a Ferrari of the same model was auctioned off for $19,000,000.

 

A year after selling the XK140 Jaguar (see above Post 272), I spotted an ad for an XK120 Roadster, "as is", running poorly and without brakes, for $250. The owner had a mechanic/friend look at the engine, followed by the local garage, and then a Jaguar dealership. To no avail, the problem escaped analysis, and the owner wanted to get rid of this head-ache. I couldn't resist; limped home 25 miles using the emergency brake.

For those not familiar with dual SU carbs, as on many British sports cars - they are horizontal, with a flange on the inlet end, with one bolt hole on each side to attach the air cleaner. Well, one of the bolts had fallen out, and the filter rotated down, completed covering its carburetor's inlet. Replaced the bolt, and it ran like charm. The brakes? - a loose fitting on the brake line at the master cylinder.

Still have the car, which I guess is a mini-consolation prize for not buying the previously discussed Ferrari.

 

In 1968, I missed on two opportunities. The first was a small block Cobra for $4,000. I passed because of the side curtains and the fact that I was living in the prairies at the time, and those were long, cold winters.
The second one, was a 1958 Mercedes 300SL. It was also listed for $4,000, and was in excellent condition but was partially in primer because of rust repairs. I regret turning this one down to this very day. The problem for me with this car, was the gull wing doors and no roll down windows.
I was driving a 64 Corvette at the time, and was very happy with the car.
My best buy, was on a Saturday. I bought a 53 Mercury pickup and a bunch of stuff for my wife with my poker winnings from the previous evening.
Bob

 

My brother was selling a '50 Chevy truck, he got it real cheap, around $100. He has another truck he's working on, decides to sell the '50 to fund his '48. He puts a sign on it for $300 and some kid comes by, looks at it and they agree on $250. Off goes the truck... not so fast. Later that evening the father comes back with the truck, no kid. The $300 sign is still with the truck. The father peels off $300 and mentions his son is a minor.. blah, blah. That was a real fast $50 for my brother.

 

A day late on an ad near my house while I was still in High School working a 40 hr week and going to school too - I was on my own at the time - saw the Studebaker truck still in the driveway so I walked up and knocked - he had it sold for $40 but had not seen any money yet....I said $45 and handed him the money.....we hooked it up to my Stude truck with a rope and a buddy steered it to my place. Have a tow bar picture I'll post over on the tow bar thread later...

 

Worked for Kwik Way the boring bar valve refacer guys that were out of Marion ,Iowa in Dallas about 1980 and a delivery guy had a hard on for a 62 Chevy hardtop.....just happen to know of a super nice original paint that a lady was needing to sell and was able to buy that driver for $300 and I think I made or sold it for $450.....drove it up on that big float trailer and tied er' down....guess that would be an early flip......it was a light green with green interior 283/auto....sweet car....

 

WHAT WAS THE CRAZIEST CAR DEAL YOU (almost) MADE?

Hello,

In 1964, I was ready to go to Northern California for college. I wanted to get away for the last two years of school. So, in order to do that, I had to sell my 58 Impala and my 1940 Ford Sedan Delivery. The reason is that my parents wanted me to have a reliable car to get to and from college, 500+ miles away. There are always vacations and semester breaks to travel home, so the car had to be super reliable. Those two sales of my old cars bought a new 65 El Camino that was just built in Fremont, CA, a few miles north of my college acceptance place in San Jose. (part of Silicon Valley, now)

I had just sold the Impala to a good friend and he was extremely happy with owning the fastest car in Bixby Knolls for the past 4 years. The reign stopped as the racing stopped and the new 409s started arriving on the scene. It was a sad day as we drove away from that Seal Beach gas station with the 58 Impala in the rear view mirror.

So, now it was down to selling my 1940 Ford Sedan Delivery. I had put up signs on the doors and drove it down to our favorite surf spots for several weeks. I got several offers, but held out for my price, that was fair. Then one day a guy I once sold a used, 9’6” surfboard several years ago, approached me to sell my sedan delivery. The offer was two brand new surfboards from his shop, custom made by his shaper and glass guy. That was almost a $400 offer. I was tempted, but I needed the cash over two new surfboards.

Beside, his shaper and glasser were not to my liking and were just so-so in quality. I did not tell the guy making the offer, except for, no thanks and that I would not be surfing in San Jose. The closest surf spot to my college was approximately 32 miles away. That is twice the distance of going to Huntington Beach from Long Beach.

But, that distance is/was shorter than going from Long Beach to San Clemente, Trestles. (The waves at Santa Cruz were just as good as the So Cal locations…) So, I was able to, but politely declined to take the two new custom surfboards in trade for the 1940 Ford Sedan Delivery. After some haggling, he paid cash for my sedan delivery.

About a year later, I saw my old 40 sedan delivery parked in front of his downtown HB surf shop. It was nostalgic, but selling was a necessary thing I had to do in 1964.

Jnaki

So, had I stayed in So Cal, I might have taken the deal, just to have two new custom made surfboards. The shapers were good, but untested and the glass jobs could have been finished to my specs. It could have worked out. The plus side was that I could always sell those two new surfboards for more than my 40 sedan delivery was advertised. But, college called and the “crazy deal” was not made. "Cash in the hand is worth two in the bush..."

The selling of those two cars, that were part of my teenage development, was disheartening, But... "Life goes on..."

 

A 1951 Ford Victoria That Was A Father And Son Project They Lost Interest In And Had Paid $85.00 Storage For 9 Years Then Called Me The Clean Up Guy And Said "Bring $200.00 And A Trailer Now"...Saved Two Marriages...Sold In Hemmings...

 

I never made any real crazy deals. But all my old cars do have a story. { My 29 A } I found sitting in a woods, that I spotted from a rual road. I ask the farmer if he would sell it. The answer was NO! But I stayed in touch with him. I would help him feed he cows etc. I asked one day, why he wouldn't sell me the 29 ? He said it was just too incomplete. I said it was good enough for what I needed. So he finally sold it to me for $100. Here's a picture I took of him feeding his cows. Also a picture of my 29 coupe before and after. I've been driving it for over 40 years now. Ron...

 

So I saw a 33 Plymouth on the sitting and rotting thread. Messaged the guy who posted I. Said the guy wanted $650. Gotta be a piece of shit. The guy, Daniel Boone said it was a good car. ? 3 1/2 hour drive. A long drive for $650, gotta be a piece of work. The guy mentioned he liked Redline hot wheels. So a couple years later, my buddy is heading in that direction. I said lets take a trailer. So after some dealing and him giving me 180 off for 8 hot wheels, I got the car. A dam good body. My wife and daughter were estatic I got 180 for 8 Hot Wheels. My buddy was also.

 

Been very fortunate to make some good deals...maybe the best was trading my very stock and clean '66 Caprice 396 car foe my buddies '65 Vette. '68 427-390, m21, scattershield, 4.56 gear. Had a crazy panel paint job. It need rear tires and a hood. The hood was broken by the fan belt exiting! I had 530$ in the Caprice....

 

A buddy wanted to get his shorty school bus out of his backyard, but there was a 1965 Dodge pickup in the way. He called and asked if I wanted to buy it since I was a Dodge guy. I went over to his house and checked out the truck. The instrument panel was splayed across the steering column and the carb was missing. I told him I didn't need another project, so I told him to forget me buying it. He calls me the next day and says that he put the instrument panel back in and a carb was found to replace the missing item. He said, "Come and get it." I went over there, started it up and realized there were no brakes so I got under it to do a brake adjustment and bleed. After that, I got in and drove it home for free. I used it for about two years and sold it for $400.00....I called it the TUG truck because of the TUG on the license plate....

 

Way back in about 1983 or so, my buddies Peter and Bruno were building a 1933 Chrysler 3 window coupe that I doing the wiring on. '33 Chryslers have a very distinctive split windshield and I remembered seeing one in a reader's letter in an old November 1980 issue of Rod Action. Since we are just an hour's drive from the Montana border, I showed the magazine to the guys. There wasn't an address given but they managed to locate the owner through directory assistance. Well,Montana is a big state and this was a long way to go but the boys went and brought it home. It was much nicer than the car they started from so they swapped bodies. When Peter and Bruno were done, it was just gorgeous. Unfortunately, the car only lasted one summer when Peter and a friend were involved in a deadly head on collision which killed his friend and the driver of the other car.

 

My crazy deal this summer was some 33 Ford 5W body parts and a set of four 1940's 16x4 wheels with tires. All for 10 bucks.

Went to a garage sale my next door neighbor told me about (he knows nothing about cars) to look at a "$16,500 old car with no roof and a big engine" . It turned out to be this hacked up phaeton with a Chevy 305/ Powerglide. My neighbor also said it was the daughter of the owner which passed away, selling off his old junk.




You can see the 1933 body section sitting behind it.



Next to that, the cowl section with a $10 price tag. I asked about the cowl. The seller says if I buy it, I have to take the body section and also a set of wheels that have tires on them because she doesn't want to dispose of the tires and they belong to the car. (the matching pair of U.S. Royal pie crust tires still had good tread and holding air)








Sold it all to a friend because I'd never get around to building.
He paid 100 times what I paid with his first offer.

.

 

Crazy deal not completed ? Went to look at a frame ad with cowl.....think the frame had 99- something.....later would figure it was maybe a Mercury 1939 but it looked like a woody remains but maybe was a convert? from what I could see - the guy said he had already sold the rear fenders.....a few years later he came and looked at a 1953 Chevy business coupe I had for sale...yep - mine was a real deal....he wanted to low ball me - yes this was the early 90's....so I said yes - AND THAT OLD FRAME you have out back of your property....he said okay and took the Chevy promising to call me when he pulled the 99 frame up to where I could get it.....some how it disappeared......he's still flipping junk to this day.........

 

Running and nice 70 Monte Carlo for a roller supermodified. Everybody but me thought it was a crazy deal.

 

Couple months ago I bought part of a Redline truck at the flea market for a whopping 50 cents. Turns out it's part of one that if all there is a pretty easy $150. So I put it on the big auction site. Now all I have is a trailer for a semi truck that's missing half the top of it, but it was otherwise clean and in decent shape.

Still went off for just shy of $80. Not going to retire on it but 155 times my investment is pretty good.

 

As a kid I watched my dad buy a beautiful ‘59 Rambler American from the original owner, a neighbor just up the street. Black 2dr with a orange 2 tone top, flatty 6cyl with a 3 speed BW o/d. Arrow strait, not a dent, perfect hounds tooth interior, maintenance records; it shined like a diamond. $75. Guy couldn’t get it to “tune up”. Dad listened to it missing while idling, then made him the offer.

Dad worked as the finish machinist in a production shop. He came home from work the next night with some seat cutting knives and a couple of valves in his lunch box, and a head gasket. 2 hours later, valve job on the offending cylinder complete it was purring like a kitten.

Neighbor was pissed, lol.

 

35 years ago I bought a truckload of antique Harley parts for $450, assembled a 1942 UL, sold most of the parts for $2000 and had 6 boxes of small parts left. Traded them for a 57 chevy, drove it 25 miles home and have been driving it ever since

 

I traded a car I paid $75 for for this. It's a 56 Pontiac. I also bought a 55 Kombi for $35. Still have the van....