Hot Rods Ever wonder what happened to your old car, then are sorry you found out?

Had a Buick Gran Sport Stage I, 455 that ate automatic transmissions for lunch. Sold to buy a 70 Road Runner with a hemi. Buyer wadded it up, totaled in less than 2 weeks. He should have never survived.

 

See what you inspired @flynbrian48...You know when someone here says I'm going to steal your idea...yeah as others have said looks like an inspired...Copying while many times hurtful is a form of flattery...mind you it's as said quite different at the same time but the roots are evident...and I've certainly seen worse street rods...this reaches back in history a wee bit more than average...thanks for sharing...

 

I built my first car in the 70's. I was a kid and wanted a 56 Chevy P/U.
Don't ask me why. I eventually found one and built it.
It took years but came out nice. It taught me volumes about cars, engines, welding, etc. It had a hot 327, M-21, 12 bolt, and Chevelle clip.
I sold it in my early 20's. Fast forward to my late 20's and I buy my 1st house. I remodel the house and only have one photo in the whole place on my fireplace mantle. One night my date looks at the photo and asks who's truck it is. I tell her it was mine and I built it. She says he knows where it is.
A few weeks later she asks if I want to go see the truck.
We go look at it on the way to the coast and sure enough it is my old truck.
The pass side door is hanging off of it, the glass is shot out of it, huge oil stains under it, and trashed paint.
Some kid bought it ( 3 owners later) and did a hole shot in reverse by accident and blew the transmission and rear end up. The 327 as worn out.
I bought it back from the kids Mom for 300 bucks.
I gutted what was left and rebuilt it again.
Another frame, this time with Jag rear, anther chevelle clip, chrome moly crossmembers, etc. a 350 and a Turbo 400.
Two years later it's done and I hate the truck. It rides like a station wagon.
No more fun with the 4 speed.
A buddy with a computer (they were really new then) sells it for me to some guy down south for a whole lot more than I ever thought it was worth.
The transport guy picked it up and I never heard another word about it again.
Moral of the story, you can't go home again. It was fun the first time but not the same the second time.

An aside to the story: when I went to register the truck the girl at DMV told me to go wait in the side area when I went to the window to do the transfer.
5 minutes late another DMV girl comes up and asks me about the truck. I am thinking it must have been reported stolen.
I asked her what's up. She says she owned the truck and lost it in a divorce, would I sell it back to her.
I told her I built the truck and did not want to sell it.She offered 5 times what I just bought it for but I still said no.
Then she asked me to buld her another one just like it, I said no again.
The whole thing made me feel like the Twilight Zone.
After doing 25-30 1934-1940 Ford's over the years I still think about doing a '57 Cameo though.

 

sold my '64 super sport to a spoiled little whip who wasted no time blowing up the engine. a customer where i worked drove up in it a year later, and it looked like the punk had used it for target practice with a bb gun!

 

Back in 1963, I decided to finish my engineering degree, and sold my beautiful Buick powered 47 Chev coupe to a friend from my home town. He died two years later, and his parents sold the car to another guy I knew, that had a chopped 47 torpedo back.
He removed all the good stuff from the body of my old car, including things like the rear fenders with the 57 Corvette lights, removed the body from the frame, and and put his body on my old frame.
The real crime was, that he put the body on the ground, and left it to rot. When we had our Camjammers 50 year reunion, he found out I had been looking for the car, approached me and actually apologized to me for butchering it. It wouldn't have been so bad if my car was a POS, but it looked and handled like jack the bear. I was disappointed, but it wasn't my car any more, so what could I say.
PS: Before I sold it, I had installed chrome reversed Buick rims on all four corners.
That is only one of the many heartaches.
Bob

 

Nope.

 

I sold my 51 Merc coupe that was the car I would never sell back when money was tight and a guy made an offer that was way more than I thought it was worth.
I can't gripe too much as he spent buckets of money and a lot of hours on it and it is completely finished just not as a traditional mild custom. He took the steelies and 57 Cad hubcaps off it and stuck them on a 56 Chevy sedan and put some sort of mag wheel with white letter tires and painted the bumpers on it. Car got clear away from what a nice traditional mild custom 51 Merc should be but it has spent the past 20 something years tucked way in a climate controlled garage and could have it's look changed with a wheel and tire change and a trip to the chrome shop Nothing he did that most guys won't like can be undone real quick.

 

Bought a beautiful 65 coronet back when I was in my late twenties.
I belonged to a volunteer fire and rescue during those years.
I sold it to a younger kid mid week. That weekend on a Saturday night we get a car accident call. Arrive in the ambulance to my 65 dodge upside down in the middle of a farmers field.
With two legs sticking out from under the roof!
He was drinking and
Luckily we were able to pull him out because the field was freshly plowed pushing him into the soft dirt.
I was about ready to choke the kid after finding out he was fine and as drunk as a skunk.

 

I don't mind the "new" version, but seems like a lot of work to start with yours. What engine does it have now?

 

I don't think he means he wishes the guy hadn't survived...just that the wreck was so bad that he really beat the odds.

 

I was just saying it was that bad of a wreck. Not saying I wanted him hurt!!!!

 

All the hot chicks are growing them.

 

Nope, I've never sold anything.

 

I agree it's probably a different car. Way too many major differences between the two.
There's mention that he copied you. He may not have been inspired by your car. It's possible his car's build predates yours or was built around the same time w/o seeing yours.
Where was the photo taken? Someone has to know the car/owner, or perhaps a photo of the car's display sign.

 

That`s more than likely what my cars previous owner thought too. But that was 33 years ago.

 

I don’t sell, I’m the last owner


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

bah...Count the $$$ and move on.

 

A friend sold this cool 55 a couple of years ago to an overseas European buyer. I wish I knew where it ended up.

 

Had a nice '55 Chev 2 dr HT with 348 & 4 speed . Guy totalled it soon after buying it.
Had a nice '65 Plymouth sport Fury, guy bought it, put a straight axle under it, then totalled it.
Had a '70 Torino Cobra that I bought new. Sold it to a guy who flipped it, next owner totalled it.
Don't want to know what happened to the others.

 

I had a 57 Chevrolet in the late 60's, rolled and pleated interior, new paint, torque thrusts and a good running 283. Decided I wanted a 64 SS on a car lot so sold it to another college kid and bought the SS. Shortly after he bought it he blew up the engine and parked it in a back yard near the college and someone sold the wheels and left it sitting on the ground. Sat there the rest of the school year, they abandoned it when the year ended and after a month or so it disappeared. Always regretted not trying to buy it back when it was sitting there.
Sold my Avatar years ago and saw it for sale several years later on the internet with wide whites, no hood and some crappy flames on the cowl, had a V8 60 in it and they were claiming 150 HP, not bad out of a 136 CI flathead with two 94's on it.

 

No one should ever mess with a white '64 Impala!

 

My mostly 'original' 1936 Five window coupe: Original working radio (!) '40 Ford 59A, '36 box, Mor Drop axle, flattened springs, reversed eyes front and rear, '40 Ford juice brakes.
Reversed steel wheels all around, ('50 Mercs w/'ash can caps') car sat perfectly on 8.20 X 15 U.S. Royal Masters in back, 6.40 X 15 Masters in front...remember the ones with the slightly 'concave' whitewalls, bulging sidewalls and narrow Bias tread?
I put in a newly built 5/16 X 1/4 'L' block, 276 cubes...'39 Ford box, Auburn clutch.
Some stupid reason I sold it, (cheap...$650, in '65: to finish my channeled roadster.)
A month later, the guy I sold it to had it re-wheeled with cheap chrome 'Appliance' wheels and narrow "pinner" whites, grille was gone, bumpers too. Water pouring out, engine smoked like the dickens, every window was cracked or broken.
Anger and disgust. Oh, WHY???
Wait...I know...Nick's younger bro, 'makin' it his'...

 

I liked your version so much better, I remember seeing the car in Charlotte,N.C. at the Goodguys show and learned quickly you had sold the car, you did a great job.

BTW, what was the color? HRP

 

Brenda and I were in Pigeon Forge , Tennessee for a big show about 15 years ago and we were casually discussing my original Model A pickup I had sold more than 35 years ago and the next day we saw a truck in a parking lot that looked similar so Brenda said lets stop and look at it.

After seeing it I noticed a few things that looked familiar and realized it was my old pickup but the new owner had made a abortion out of it, gone was the ribbed bed cover and a piece of plywood paintedblack replaced it and it had a stupid 4 foot tall wing on the back, high back bucket seats and the list goes on & on, it looked like a circus wagon and I darn near threw up then I noticed the for sale sign.

The owner was asking stupid money for the truck, It was a old simple styled hot rod when I sold it now it was a billet laden ugly POS, I talked to the owner and would have never admitted I ever owned the truck. HRP

 

What's not to like about a black car, even a four door can bring back memories, especially if it was your first car. Here is what my first car looked like within months of selling it.
For many years I never thought much about it until the SS four door subject came up, it had a 348/3 speed, I put a Hurst Syncro-Loc in it the first month I owned it.
It was a pretty nice car as it was only eight years old when I got it at 15 years old. It would have been a good candidate for a 409/4 speed swap.
I think it went to the scrapper as the drivetrain was used in a friends' T-bucket project.

 

I bought my car, a one-owner '68 from it's original owner. I found out from her grandson that she wanted the car restored back to original, so I kept my intentions of modifying it to myself at purchase time. A few years later, a family friend recognized the car from pictures at a local show and took some pictures to show the family, the original owner passed a few months after I bought the car. My brother was teasing me, saying, "don't you feel bad about letting her think the car was going to be original forever?"
My reply was, "I didn't tell her how to spend the money, did I?"
I've owned the car 18 years now and according to the pink slip, it's mine. Keeping the car with the sole intention of preserving it is like not having sex with your hot wife/girlfriend, I'm sure the next guy will appreciate it...

 

saw my beautiful 62 Caddy in an ad for sale not running. the photo it looked like it was on the side of a house in the weeds.
saw my high school GTO at a swap meet several years ago... looked just like it did when I sold it but no longer running. I sold it for $900.00 in '81 and it was now $12,000. glad to see it made it passed the old used car and not worth anything stage to survive into the time where GTO's no longer get junked.

that's it. all my other cars disappeared

 

I sold an O/T Nova, big block 4speed posi etc. to a young friend of mine. He broke the rear end, put it on blocks, then sold it to a local guy. It is still on blocks 25 years later! I left a note at the guys house saying I built the car and am interested in buying it back. . . No response- maybe for the best.

 

One I sold got turned into a demo-derby car... a lot of others were fixed up nicely from where I left off.

 

'55?