Follow every lead! thats how I got many ol cars and many ol motorcycles. Sometimes you get idiots. I was riding my 1954 Harley Servicar which is the three wheel Harley It has 16" tires A guy told me about a motorcycle like the one I was riding He told me how to find it way out in the country, on a pipeline, said it had been burned I found it It was a VESPA!! Thats about as different from a trike as you can get
yeah, you gotta watch out for the Nimrods - I like the Harley Servicar/Vespa POS story. I've owned all kinds of stuff, and the comments people make about knowing where one is 'exactly like' whatever you're in is laughable at times. I think I related this in here in another thread but I had a guy look at my 65 Excalibur SS (cycle fenders, big*** S.S. flexpipes for exhaust) and tell me he had an MG once, too. I started it up and asked him if his MG sounded like that....he walked away. Most of the searches I've gone on working from sketchy information usually don't pan out, but as someone has already mentioned, you get a good road trip out of it, and you never know what you're going to run across in your quest. I hardly ever go back the same way I came - that way if there's a neglected 41 Ford ½ton sitting behind that old Enco station just outside Spiderbite, NM....it'll give you something to take pictures of, investigate....then...when the dude at the seedy motel across the street tells you that the truck "ain't fer sale, but I know where there's one o' them thar DOOOOZenbergers" - you're on to a new search. dj
I just got a tip today-Guy at work asked if I wanted another Triumph "just like the one you've got" ('75 Trident) . It's not a real common bike so I said'You're sure it's a triple?" He said yes so now it's wait and see-probably a clapped out moped, but you never know if you don't look.
Hmm, I've been here a while, and nobody ever mentioned this Marvin dude. But, there's a few gearheads around, and a good club, I'll ask them.
people on these forums have to lighten up. i wanted to tell this story to get a few laughs at people, not get ripped apart for bs. so relax and read on. -ryan
One barn find I went to look at was a "30 Model A 2dr that a restoration was started on a few years ago". It was a few miles from home so I took a look. Walking towards the garage I knew it would be bad. The roof had been rubbed off by the tree next to the garage. The tree was at least 20 years old. In the garage was a 30 2dr. It had been taken off the frame years before and set back down on the frame offset to the rear by a couple of feet. It could have easily been converted to a tub because the body was rusted thru at the belt line around the entire car! The body, frame and running gear was all the same color: rusty brown. There was no evidence of paint on anything. The price was a low $500. I p***ed.
Your Marvin was named Joe P. in Houston back in the 60s-70s. He lived in a ragged old house with a large ragged old shop right near downtown on Washington Ave. He was blind for the most part but knew his territory as most blind folks do. When he got lonely he would call various car-oriented businesses and offer to sell some old cars he had, the prime one being a early 50s Hudson convertible, but he had others. Well, if you went there you were in for a tour of the house, the shop and the yard where all the cars were slowly rotting away. He did have a lot of neat and interesting stuff but was not interested at all in selling anything, just having some company to talk to and dream with for an hour or two. It was so funny, everyone knew him at these businesses and if they got the call they would p*** it on to a newbie who would invariably keep mum on what was said and then zoom over there after work or the next day off. They always came back disappointed and always got quizzed by everyone else there, and razzed too! Yes, I was a "victim" too, along with no doubt hundreds of Houstonians and p***ersby over the years. Old Joe died, I guess, and the Hudson COnvertible tuned up for several years at swap meets, overpriced and under-preserved, until it found a buyer. There's probably a gas station liqour store on the site of Joe's home and shop now but for a time he was a legend around town a****st old car people.
i found marvins house on google earth!!! and im pestering my dad to find the pics we took that day!!! soon to come.
81 and in full military turn out?. A veteran ? . what rank was he showing? You might have got the cars for free if you had shown a little bit of respect for one of the nations brave sons, alzhiemers or not.
Wow I haven't gone off on a wild goose chase like this in a long, long time. Sounds like fun! If you don't try, you don't find.
Great story.To all the Marvins out there,Thank You for your service.Ol Marvin sounds like He's happy and that's all that matters.Marvin needs someone to pick him up and take him out to dinner.Take him for a ride in an old car.I imagine crazy Marvins family doesn't stop by much anymore.Damn,I hope when I'm 80+ years old I can still care for myself.Marvin (and all like him) is my hero.Except for the uniform I want to live in the woods and be happy when I'm old.I hope someone close to this area will go talk to Marvin and check to see if that he is OK.
Thats why I bring a friend with me who is fatter than I am, if theres any squealing going on it will be from him, I can run faster.
We had one of those in KC - here's the link (pics on page 2): http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=198883 Dude had eminent domain declared and had to vacate, and all his cars had to go. He wanted way too much for these "treasures", and most of 'em ended up getting crushed because he wasn't willing to deal. ~Jason
Years ago I was looking for a trailer for the race car. There was an ad in the Pennysaver for a car trailer. I called the guy and asked about it. He said yeah he still had it. I asked if it was single axle or dual. He said he wasn't sure, so I asked if it had two wheels or four. He said four. So before heading over I asked again, it has four wheels right? He said yes. So I drive down to his place and I don't see a trailer. I knock on the door and he says, Well it's on the side yard. I now realize this isn't going to go well, since the side gate is only about 3 feet wide. I thought well maybe he's made a cart or something to put it on its side. He opens the gate and it's one of those tow dolly's. I said thats not a trailer and it certainly doesn't have four wheels. He says sure it is and look theres two small wheels for standing it up and moving it around. i leave. pissed. Takes all kinds
Went to go look at a 1965 Chevy pickup one day, that a friend had told me about. Drove out to the guy's house and it turned out to be a 1955 Chevy pickup, short stepside, 235 Six with Hydromatic. Guy was asking $1200 for it, but the truck was easily worth $5K in the condition it was in. He couldn't get it started. It turned over and had good compression, plus everything was in its proper place. I offered him a grand for it and he took it. Winched it up on the trailer and headed home with the "new" truck. Put a couple of gallons in the tank and it started right up! Drove it to the car wash up the street and got it all cleaned up. Parked it in front of my shop, since I was going to see if the paint would buff out at all (it did!). Later on, a guy comes up the drive and wants to look at the truck. Sure, cool, why not? He's crawling around underneath it and looking, then asks if it is for sale. I told him I just got it and didn't really want to sell it at that particular moment. He said "OK" and went on his way. The following Saturday, he comes by and asks again if I want to sell. By this time, I'd checked the truck out completely, and all I needed to replace was all four tires, which I did the day prior. I said "OK, how's five grand sound?", figuring that would run him off and I wouldn't have to bother with him again. As I'm under the hood, the guy peels out a wad of hundreds and NOW I'm thinking "****, I opened my mouth up!". Guy's son drove it home and I never saw the truck again. And, it's always the ones you WANT to keep that something like this happens with!
I bought this from a guy that was crazier than **** house rat. He had so much garbage and junk collected in his house that there were nothing more than path ways through the entire house with junk stacked to the ceiling on either side. There were several rooms in his house he could not get in anymore because the junk had caved in behind the closed door. He would come to the door having just pissed his pants and looked like he hardly ever showered or did laundry. He would engage you in these terribly long conversations about all kinds oc conspiracies and government plots of people out to get him. But he did have a cool old car I was able to buy from him. I always go wild goose chasing. I have found so many good cars and great deals on the way to or from the wild goose location it always makes it worth my while to go look.
There was a farm on a backroad near me that had a 33 willys cp. an old g***er was painted a white pearl with chromed staight axle with spoked mag wheels an the wide mag wheels out back. No engine or trans.or frt. fenders or hood. I think it was lettered Sanchez Drag Team. This sat in the barn yard with cattle all around it. I stopped to ask about if it was for sale, a woman about 80 years old said was not for sale it belonged to her son that was killed overseas in the Army. So I just keep driving by, and one day it was gone. I stopped to inquire who bought it. The woman died farm was sold quickly and the car was s****ped ! Still wonder if someone saved it. The farm was near Earlville PA.
hell you should've just stayed around to hear stories from him. i have great respect for our vets out there; his generation are dying off pretty quick as well as there stories. forget the cars, maybe see if there's anything he needs? sounds like he's not in good shape mentally? see what the man has or needs. maybe just listen to him.
there is no wild goose chase to me - i tracked down a 58 corvette a little over a year ago sitting in a back yard in town. been sitting complete from air cleaners to hubcaps since 1968. i spent 4 days with the older man untill he decided to sell to me. i also accidentally found a 1960 polara d500 convertable a while back and got that one for free. my willys pu was in a barn less than 5 miles from my house. i know where a little old lady less than 1 mi from my house has a 1932 5 window ford that was raced locally in the 60s and 70s in a garage yellow small block 4spd, saving it for her 6 yr old grand son. i can go on -- but i chase wild geese all the time.
Years ago, my dad taught me to work with the old crazy guys. He would get great deals on stuff just because he was willing to empthise with them, whatever thier fear or anger was. Some great deals from guys that were considered impossible or even violent have come my way due to those lessons. Some of those guys have even taken time to teach me about old techniques, set me up with tools to work with the very stuff they were selling me or, as one nearly 100 year old Italian immigrant did, share some of their home brewed brandy. It was damn good stuff, too. He ended up renting me shop space for a couple years after that. Folks told me he would take my money and not deliver the goods. He merely made me, hell, LET me talk to him for a whole afternoon once a month to get the rent paid. I learned a bunch as he had been a home builder for 50 years and owner of a couple clubs and hot rods. I learned there was soup job activity in Rockford during the depression. Racers were on fairground tracks but the casual guy was racin' from one town to the next. Loser would buy sodas or beers. Damn, now I'm missing old smokin' Joe.
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