Link to mercury exposure and eye color changes. http://www.harpocratesspeaks.com/2010/12/eyes-have-it.html In school, we had teachers bring out bottles of it and we played with it on top of the lab desks. Nice to know what that shit really does to you!
I don't know where that amount of mercury comes from, but I've never seen more than a few ounces at a time, used in mercury switches and in carb synchronizers. Was the previous owner a thermometer salesman?
Back in the 1960's stock car builders used large amounts of mercury as ballast. Since it was so dense, it could be sneaked in anywhere. I recall seeing rule books saying no mercury permitted as ballast.
Ok,here`s mine.Gale Olds in Vero Beach,Fl.Appx mid`60`s.Was getting cars in on floor plan,consignment or whatever it was called.Sold the cars,and never paid GM for them.He got an invite to make license plates from the state of Fl.Hehehe.One of his salesmen was a fellow named Gene Littler,a family friend.Had a son named Craig Littler.He of the Grey Pupon mustard commercials.Went to school with him. Good luck.Have fun.Be safe. Leo
This local dealer made the big time in 1992. http://www.nytimes.com/1995/01/20/nyregion/dealer-s-plea-in-gm-fraud-may-be-bargain-of-his-life.html I later ran into him, maybe in 2001 when I was looking for a used car. He had this small lot that he ran by himself, I knew him right away from the stories I had read in the paper. The cars on the lot must have come from upstate NY, my kids still tell the story of how I put my foot through a rocker panel on a Ford Explorer with very little effort.
I think he meant well.. but the deal escalated out of any possible containment. He was nice enough to talk to at his lot, which didn't last that long.
Worked at the local Ford dealer when I was an apprentice and used to see warranty items just thrown into the scrap metal bin, disc brakes and suspension items, transmissions, 9" rears and parts, V8 engine blocks.
Same here. Junior High School in the early 70's. Teacher kept some in a bottle and we played with it in our desks during study hall. Yikes.
I've been reading this topic here and there over the last week and have enjoyed it thoroughly! Was sad to come to the last page, actually. I worked at a GM/VW dealer myself for a little over a decade and for the most part enjoyed it. Had some great people, aside from the owner who was a dink. They sales guys he trusted were shafting him and he distrusted the rest of us. We had a tech I just called 'Frig'. He was from the Boston area and it was hard to understand most of what he said, but when he got pissed he'd be over there yelling 'AHH FRIG'. He claimed that he worked on Ferraris at Sears. One Saturday morning he went to do an alignment and saw a G van had been parked there over night on the rack. So he gets in, ignores the big note on the steering wheel that says NO MASTER CYLINDER. Naturally he launches the van off the rack, into the Alignment computer/stand, sends that and the van into the wall, crushed the computer like a beer can. This was a cinder block wall with an alcove and doorway with stairs that led to the second floor and offices. The wall was cracked up quite a ways and the remains of the computer has been compacted into the alcove. He had many fun adventures but that was probably the most destructive one. We had a great younger guy named Frank for a while, schooled as an AUDI tech but wasn't too into it. He'd do all kinds of crazy things. He looked like Barton Fink. He was passing the service desk one time and saw a pool of greenish liquid on it, so he stuck his face in it and slurped it up. It was PAG oil from an AC condenser a tech had there for a second, he thought it was Mountain Dew. It was an interesting place!
While attending the auction yesterday I asked a group of dealers at lunch time what was the oddest, most off the wall thing they either took in trade from a customer or what a customer used as a down payment in lieu of cash or another car being traded. Most of my trades have been very mainstream. Other cars, many motorcycles, an occasional boat, and one fellow offered me his labor to paint our building which he never completed. Fairly routine stuff as I tend to work on the conservative side. What off the wall thing changed hands in your most unusual dealer trade transaction?
The dealership I work at tried selling a few Class A motorhomes for a while quite a few years ago. The market for them was getting soft at the time and the last unit they had in stock was there a lot longer than it should have been. When it finally sold they took a '30 or '31 Model A in trade. Looked like an older restoration and was a good driver. I always enjoyed seeing it parked on the front row of the used car lot next to a late '70s Corvette trade-in.
1971 My friend got a job a the local Ford dealer working in the service dept. They started him doing oil changes. The service manager would tell him he was to slow and if they were going to make any money he would have to speed up. A guy brought in his 428 Torino for an oil change. My friend had drained the oil and had the new filter on lowered the car ready to put the oil in. The service manager called him over telling him that he had been timing him and again he was taking to long. He told him to get back over and get the torino out of there and get on the next car. So my friend went over started up the torino and backed it out of the service bay. It was my friends last day at the Ford dealer.
Place in my area advertises, "We'll take anything in trade, boats, goats, trains, planes..." I'd like to take them up on the goat part, just to see if they would.
I believe it was in 1976, I traded a '69 Ford LTD 4 dr hardtop on a '72 F 100. This was at a Chrysler/Plymouth dealership. I knew the salesman quite well, he told me later that the guy who owned the place traded the LTD for a team of ponies for his grandkids.
If a place advertises something in print or on TV they have to do what they say, although there might not be much trade-in value on a goat. Back in the 70's a dealership advertised a car for 1,399 bananas (meaning dollars). Somebody with a bunch of bananas bought the car.
I think the story above is what I'm talking about. I can't remember if it was still Seleman Brothers or had been taken over by Crowley when this really happened in Forestville CT. The dealership I was working at had a funny add in the local paper something about going bananas and about getting a car for bananas (can't remember the exact words). Well some smart guy took them up on the offer and brought in a bunch of bananas and said now where's my car? The sales manager laughed at him and told him to go away. Until he came back with a lawsuit. The boss was pissed to say the least but ended up coming out OK when they made a big deal about giving a car away for a bunch of bananas and got it on TV and in the local papers then it took off and made the national news. They ended up giving him a new Plymouth on TV. You may be able to find the story if someone is good at searching old 1970's news stories.
This incident occurred in the very early 60's and I was working summers at my dad's Lincoln-Mercury agency in Waltham, Twinbrook Motors. Months earlier a young couple had bought a new Monterey sedan from the dealership and promptly got into a major collision with it. My dad feeling badly for them offered to have it sent to the best body shop in town, that he knew of, and have it repaired to as new condition for them. This repair took months and months.. At the end of August it was ready and they came in to pick it up. They stepped out of an all black, perfect, '56 Crown Victoria ( That was enough to get my full attention) and strolled towards the showroom. Here I am, 15 years old with my hormones raging over the "Crown" and then I see the guys wife. This lady is waay beyond good looking. Astonishing comes to mind. She's probably late 20's extremely well built, 38-24-36 I'm guessing, and she's wearing tall blonde bouffant hair, and a super tight pencil skirt that showed every curve she had. Now my 15 year old teenage hormones are seriously raging, I'm walking around the showroom with a tent for pants. Back outside she's bending over and squirming about looking at the repair and the chick is plainly not happy with the work done. Overspray on the chrome, tape left on a window, small stuff, but correctable. Guys are running all around the Mercury to make her happy and get a good look at her. Did I mention she's very good looking? As a final gesture my dad tells them he will offer up a free oil and filter change right now to appease them. I'm the night time oil & lube guy so dad orders me to take the Merc into the one stall Lubritorium and get the job done for all involved. I'm pulling the Merc onto the drive on single piston old time lift and I'm too busy now watching her in the outside mirror who's busy now watching me, to see how carefully I maneuver her car inside. All I'm seeing is enormous boobs, killer hips and a gorgeous ass when...BAM! I run the Mercury's front bumper into the tall, upright, waste oil drain container resting against the front of the lift. The waste container splits in half and emptys huge quantities of dirty oil all over the single bay's floor. I step out to see the damage, lump in my pants now disappearing, see the damage plus about 2" inches of oil covering the floor and step back into her Mercury to back it up. Yup oil is on her carpet now from my shoes. This didn't end pretty but it was fun watching her shake and do those angry gyrations.
We could probably fill volumes about attractive women in dealerships. They are a nice distraction from automobiles and trucks and doing the daily grind.
I was working in a Vauxhall dealer (general motors over here)a customer had a head gasket on back order for quite a while.we phoned to say its in.he sends his wife in to pick it up,she was delighted it finally turned up,proceeds to fold it in two and put in her hand bag.never heard a thing from customer.
A man phoned one of our service writers a while back. His complaint was about an obnoxious smell in his new Prius. The writer asked him to drop the car off as early as possible Thursday morning. The Prius owner said that's not possible, he's very busy for the next two weeks, can't tie the car up. He asked if he could "TEXT THE SMELL TO US" Really, not a lie. WTF?
Another customer who owned a late model Highlander complained of a possible water leak and an accompanying smell. We made attempted repairs to it many times. The guy alleged that if he left his lunch in his car all morning that by noon time it smelled so bad his fellow workers wouldn't let him bring it into their lunch room because it would drive them out from the rotten smell. His claim was the foul smell of the car's interior would permeate his lunch box. Last time I saw him he came into the show room carrying with him the terrible smell he claimed was coming from his car and attaching itself to him. Car eventually tested out as cured, no water leaks anymore, and no more smell. The strange aroma was coming from his lunch pail left in the car to toast daily in the hot sun. He liked tuna fish, knockwurst, boiled cabbage, stuff of that nature.
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