How many folks here are haunted by that car they should've bought? And what was the reason they didn't get it. I was offered a 64 coupe deville back in 1988 that my grandfather had bought brand new. At the time I was still living at home and my parents wouldn't let me bring it there and he sold it to a kid down the street for 25 bucks- I shit you not. Another non-HAMB type car was a 50,000 mile 70 mach 1, 428 scj car for 5,000 in 1990 that still haunts me.
64 galaxie light wieght for $150 about 33 years ago. No motor or trans but a real decent car. 2. 68 mustang with a 427 HR. not original but a perfect body with nearly no miles. $2500 about 25 years ago.
I guess the only one I can think of.....in about 1990 or so I was at the swap meet at American River college here in Sacramento and a guy had a 1932 3 window body for sale. No fenders, hood or grill, just the body and it was really beat up looking like it just came out of the field. He wanted $500. I thought he was nuts. Wish I had bought it! Mike
My uncles '46 Ford convertible! It had been rodded and had a McCullogh super charger on it. The city of Norman cited him and made him move all of his stuff. He had about 150 flathead engines in a privacy fenced area in his back yard along with the '46. He moved it all out to his place in the country and it disappeared over a 2 year period.. He still has the title for the car but... no car. I hate cities and busybody neighbors!
I wish I would have bought a 1968 Firebird 400 that was sitting for awhile. This was about 12 years ago. I was in college so used the money to pay for that instead of the car. I saw it a few years later driving around and it brought a little tear to my eye:-(
That 1930 model a coupe body I found last week for a $1000 in Arizona, I could not get to fast enough.
57 Chevy convert for 300 Bux in 1980 Dragmaster short 123 in wheelbase dragster for $600. rolling 1970 Mustang Boss 429 body with title for,,,,,,,,,,, (kill me now! I was 16 then),,,,,,,,$75.00 29 roadster, rolling on 40 ford susp for $250 And so many more! Dave
When I was 15 in 1991, there was a 1959 Chevy that was grey with red scallops. It was $1500 and I had the money, but my dad would not let me get it. 15 years later I move in the house I am at now and the car is at the back of the property wrecked. Turns out that my landlord bought it and did a bunch of work to it and then got hit hard on the pass side. I had never met him til about 4 or 5 years ago and we both laughed at the fact that we both loved the car, he was just old enough to get it.
A non-HAMB car, but I was about 16 (1996), and a guy was selling a pretty mean '69 Dodge Super Bee with a 440/727, with a RUNNING 68 Coronet 383 4-speed parts car for $2500.
A 64 SS nova for 500 bucks about 3 years ago. The guy started to jerk me around on it and i told him to eat shit, I wish i would have waited for it. In stead I bought a 65 440 Rambler american 2 door Hard top to build a pro street car out of. Kind of glade i got it instead dont see many Rambler out there.
1932 Ford V-8 Roadster, parked at the corner of 5th & Quince Streets in Escondido, CA. Had the radio, and it ran, but had a dead hole (for all the seller knew, it coulda been a bad plug wire; he never bothered to see what the deal was) for..... $500.00. My brother (whom I was trying to borrow the money from) said "that damned car didn't cost that much NEW, you're crazy to give more than the car cost new, now that it is (at the time) 35 years old.." Car was complete, and ran, had top and top bows and everything.
IN 96, I was 16, I answered an add in the paper for a 70 Cherger 500 for $800. I went to look at it with my brother and loved it. Told the guy I was going home to get the money and I would be right back. I went home told dad, he gave me the money, drove back just in time to see a guy drive away in it. It was a mint 70 Charger 500, just plain white with a 318, but I loved that car.
Another that I let go and regret was a 69 Bronco, uncut and stock. I have considered pickingup another to drive in the winter but even the trashed rusted out ones are 4 grand
The one my dad always used to tell was a package deal for two '67 GT-500's. Both solid 4-speed cars, both drivers, one slightly restored, the other a little tired. Both for $8,000.00 This was back in the early '80's. Dad didn't have all of the cash on hand, didn't have a friend who could spare some cash, and the bank turned him down for a loan. They told him quote, "They're just old Mustangs, they're worthless."
In 1980 I was offered the incomplete remains of this old Calgary custom for $100. I was 17 at the time and living at home. I didn't have any place to store it so I had to pass it up. As far as I know it went to the crusher.
55 Cadillac 2 door. One owner, sitting in his barn for 20 years unmolested and straight and ultra cheap. I was a broke-ass high schooler who couldn't afford the mechanical resto it needed so the folks wouldn't let it come home. Bummer. Don't even get me started on the awesome ram air judge that also slipped away that year.......
I had a couple i probably should have bought.. One was a 66 Chevelle SS 396 4 speed rag top. Original red car with white top and black gut, and it was number's matching beside's.. Very rough and rusty though. This was owned by one of my dad's friends, and i could have bought it for 300 back in the summer of 88. The other was a 68 Impala SS 427 4 speed. This one was red with black gut too, but not a rag. All original as well, and fairly solid but needing a restoration. Could have had that one for 1500, again, in 88. I passed on both because i really wanted a 57 Chevy and not a muscle car.. I ended up finding my 57 a few month's later and i wouldn't change a thing now ( i still own the 57 too).. But both of these car's would have been a cool to own and worth some real coin restored..But i was 14 at the time and dead set on a 57.. Hell, both would be worth some good coin now NOT restored! Oh well..
A running 1939 Oldsmobile straight 8 business coupe. My uncle drove it in high school and college and offered it to me for free when he bought a new '63 Pontiac convertible. I was 13 at the time and my dad said I did not need a car yet. My uncle ended up giving it to the mechanic that worked on it for him.
1959 desoto firedome sportsman....i was 16, it was huge...250$ plus rake her yard that fall because her husband had passed a year before...still raked the yard, but mom said no to cash and car.....im 30 now and still cant find the car....of course theres been others...but that one was a low milage survivor..and rare to boot....
me and my buddies would ride our bikes all over town and knew where every old car lived.... this activity started around 1973 when I was 13. right around the corner from my friends house there was a 50 Olds coupe in the driveway. shaved and louvered hood, shaved trunk, completely faded away candy red paint, red and white tuck and roll interior. rusty chrome wheels with whitewalls and a California rake. I never saw it move from that spot. this was a very nice car at one time or another, but it must have been outside for a long time. in the garage was a yellow 32 roadster with what was either a Cad or an olds (?). full fendered with no hood. this one was equally faded. I loved that Olds, and would dream about how cool it would be to have. when I was 15 I saw the ad for it in the paper. it was sold and disappeared. a year later I got a job and bought my 49 chevy that I still have... if he had sold that Olds a year later I'm sure I would have bought it and still own it so if you own a 50 olds with a louvered hood that used to be red and came from the Bay Area please return my car. I have no idea what happend to the roadster.
....original red paint with black interior 4-speed 64 GTO for $800.00 in 1977. needed a throwout bearing and I didn't even know what that was so I passed. bought my 69 GTO Judge a week later and quickly learned all about replacing transmissions, rear ends and clutches.
Friend of mine had a solid 1970 GTO Judge Convertible, Ram Air IV, 4 speed and a 4.33 posi. It gets better, it also had 6 way power driver's seat, reclining passenger seat, tilt/telescoping column with the "Formula" steering wheel, tach and gauges, factory AM/FM stereo radio with a seperate factory 8 Track built into the console. The dumbass traded it in on a Datsun 240 Z on a whim!!!! I didn't know he wanted to get rid of it or I would have been all over it. He told me had to go back a couple hours later to sign something and it was gone, the dealer said he was barely out of site when a guy in a hardtop '70 Judge with the identical paint scheme and vinyl top pulled in, we knew the car as it had cruised past my buddy's place before checking out his car. He told him he had to have $1300 bucks for it. He said the guy couldn't get the money out of his wallet fast enough. I saw one just like it in a Wheeler Dealer ad online a couple years ago but it was an old ad and the phone number had been disconnected. It was about 50 miles away so I'm sure it was his old car and I'm also sure $1300 wouldn't have bought it............ Found out years later there were ELEVEN '70 Judge Convertibles with the Ram Air IV and a 4 speed. Now how many of those 11 do you suppose were optioned like this? When I showed him the production numbers on it a few years ago he turned white as a ghost.
Dad bought a '40 Ford coupe with a full-race flathead -- guy sold it because the SBC's had got their act together and he was loseing too often Dad was gonna put the engine in one of our '48 Ford GRAIN TRUCKS! He went with newer Chevys with 327's and the car just sat. About the time I got to where I could do something with it he traded the coupe (less engine) for a paint job on mom's car. Guy ran her off the road first time she drove it and it got totaled Still got the engine, but it was a "mouse house" for too long and "has issues" He also made me leave a '28 Chevy sedan body -- complete except for crumpled front fenders where it lay. didn't want to risk the trailer to go get it At least he later said he should have let me get it. He did get a '30 Coupe that a guy was still driving in the '70's. Fuzz made him quit driving so he sold car. Dad had the outside restored -- it was beautiful -- and need a place to store it. A guy he had helped get started in engine overhaul business let him store it in an unused part of the building he rented. His "partner" was away in the army then and when he returned he decided he wanted the coupe. A couple of years later he had a lawyer send dad a letter demanding payment for the storage and dad let him have it. He got even with him a few years later, but that's another story.
the worst one I have heard is my dad's. ever since he told me about it I usually buy the damn cars and realize I shouldn't have later on.. back in the late 70's he had a chance to buy a '67 ferrari 275 GTB Competizione, on of the rarer types with short-nose and aluminum body... for 10k. having lost that one he's been helpful to make sure we don't miss anymore and when I found a good deal on my matching numbers '70 LT1 vette he made sure it wouldn't get away.
Hmm, I was on leave from the Army one day and dropped into my fathers radiator shop. Sitting in the corner was an A bucket with a hot Y block with 3x2s, QC rear chrome EVERYTHING, black leather tuck'n'roll the car hadn't seen the light of day since the mid 60s. Gold paint still in good condition, just needed a clean up, brakes re-done and Id have a real Aussy survivor all for 8g at the time it would have been like 4g US! Dumb arse me though, why would I want such an old car? Ugh, kill me. Kill me now. Please. No, wait. It gets worse. The 38 in my Avatar, family car and has been for a long time. I bought it from my father a number of years ago and it was my daily driver for a long time. I decided to build another car and wanted to sell the 38, so I offered it to my parents again. Yup they will take it back, I was only asking what I payed for it not including the new gear box, re-built motor and diff etc etc. Included in the deal was a bog stock 302 and c4, a set of disk brake rotors and a set of slave cylinders for an 8inch diff drum set up. plus the reast of the $$ to make up full payment. 5 years now and all I have is the 302. Family........................................ FUCK EM!
My grandparents once passed on silver Mercedes a friend was selling. They didn't think the weird vertical opening doors were practical. So for $2500 they passed on it . My other Grandma (dad's side) had a 68 RS/SS Big block 4spd Camaro, cherry,in her garage forever. She got it for $3000 in the early 90's. It found it's way over to Japan for ALOT more than she paid.
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