I know the feeling here too...Between dad & I, there are 18 cars in his yard. Some are keepers, some are parts cars and others are going. I've had a few non-HAMB friendly cars on CL for a bit. The constant stream of tirekickers is driving me nuts!! Doesn't anyone bring cash and a trailer with them when they look at a car anymore? Oh, and one of them happens to be a Monte SS
Honesty helps but not always. I advertised a car on fleabay a few years ago, I said it had needed a full mechanical rebuild , no interior,had been sandblasted at least 10 years earlier then left in the open without paint..yeah pretty ugly!. I started the bidding below listing cost and it went for $30. Guess what? the cockhead demanded his money back and threatened me with a bad feedback. I said "go ahead Cnut, but just remember it works both ways". Never heard from him since but it turns out he is a big time auto dismantler who thought he had made the score of the century..ha ha
Just 2 hours ago this guy told me come on down, I start driving after leaving work early to get this mini chopper for my fid then i get a text sorry i had to get rid of the bike i needed the money know...
I will never believe another person until I see it myself. I bought my car from ebay, and now the guy had the nerve to join the HAMB calling himself a car guy. I watch for his post, so far he is staying low key. Not one panel worth a dime, a real piece of shit, this one should have been crushed. 1951 Ford, previous owner could jump in if he wants, he knows who he is.
i got some tail lights off craigslist last weekend 'bout an hour drive wondered the whole time but decided thats a part of why i love old cars, it's the hunt so i was gonna enjoy the drive and if he had crap i'd just enjoy the ride back,turned out the guy was honest and had a nice 57 chevy we talked for awhile and i'm glad i met him.
Some of these morons genuinely believe that the broken down crap they have really is in "PERFECT" shape.
Last Summer, I found a '64 Imperial Crown Coupe online last year, advertised in "mint" condition, along with a '68 Imperial Crown Coupe that was listed in "excellent" condition. The guy was interested ih trading for a running '30s or '40s car, and my Terraplane filled the bill. We talked several times - the guy was a retired engineer in his 80s - so, from the way he talked and all, I was ready to do a deal. I told him we had a deal, pending inspection from my Dad, who lived just 90 minutes away. Dad is a car nut from way back, and agreed to check these jewels out for me. The '64 was supposed to be the gem of the two, with the '68 supposedly road-ready, as well, for a cross-country drive back to Oklahoma. Dad told me that the paint was nowhere near what the guy told me on the phone. The '64 drove OK, but was not the "gem" promised. In fact, it had more wear and tear than the pics indicated. The '68 drove for shit. My plan was to trailer my car out to California, trailer the '64 and have my wife drive the '68 home. He and I were to split the fuel and expenses, since I was delivering. Dad looked at both cars for over an hour and a half, and came to the conclusion that they were definitely NOT worth trading for at that level. I emailed the guy and told him that, based on my Dad's assessment of both cars, that I was not going to do the deal. The guy sent me back a shitty email, but I told him up-front that a deal was contingent on the results of the inspection, which proved unsatisfactory. I was very happy my father was available to do the inspection for me. It proved a nice day out in the Sierras for my folks, if nothing else. Get an inspection, if you possibly can! So what if it cost a few hundred bucks to have an unbiased set of eyeballs look at something! You are money ahead.
Just like a lot of the car shows and swaps we go to. People are fishing. They put an out of sight price on a car. waiting for someone to pay it. I laugh and just keep walking. But I dont get mad, I just feel sorry for them. Then on the other hand lets say a guy has a car that is worth 5000.00 to 6000.00. Heck none of us would hesitate if he said make an offer .. to say... well would you consider 3000.00 to see what he would say. you compromise at 4000.00 or 4500.00 and you are both happy. We are all looking for the deal that we always looked for. But then too many speculators and not enough true car guys at the swaps these days. I see too many people who have no Idea of what they have. They do not even know what kind of tranny it has on it. They just BOUGHT IT THAT WAY. Now they are part of a cool hobby........ All kinds are out there.
This has happened to me on both ends of the spectrum in the last few months. I was talking with a local guy at a swap meet just lately and he tells me where he just bought a bunch of cars and passed up a 66 Olds Cutlass that was a pretty nice car cheap. I make the trip out to look and it is just what he says and the owner wants less than what my friend thought. I bought it right and it was a worthwhile trip. Later, another guy I know is trying to help his son sell a 70 Nova 2dr and describes it as a rust free car that doesnt need much work. I make the trek to go see it and at about 100 yards away I can see that the bottom of the quarters are completely gone. We check the car out further and it has very little floor pan left. To top all of this off someone had swapped a later model disc brake front subframe under it and it didnt go with the car! Needless to say I walked. It is deals like the first one that keep me going to look since you get a deal now and then.
The deals do swing both ways. I sold a car on Ebay, lots of pictures and started it at a low opening price- no reserve. I described the car warts and all. The bidding stalled and was sold to a man over 500 miles away. After receiving payment, the 40 something man and his Dad showed up with a trailer. The only problem they had was they needed help to push the car onto the trailer...Ah, the car runs and drives, I started the car and loaded it. THE disappointment, the car was a graduation present for the son/grandson and as a father/son project and they wanted to rebuild the drive train together- not needed. I should have these problems
worst is the ones who say " oh its more work than I thought,I wanted to get it on the road kinda quick " and this is in reply to a running driving car that needs fenders ,,lol Not like there were no fenders on the car in the picture and the add says it needs a front end,,and they even stand there and ask you,,"so ,you don't have the fenders for it?"...like you were hiding them somewhere or something
Ok newb here with one for you all by the numbers, this car ended up having bad Karma. (1) supposed friend ( I was the best man at his wedding) calls and say's he found a 70 Nova that has been in a barn in Spokane for 20 years said it looked great, interior great, no rust,supposedly just needs a head gasket. Wants to know if he brings it to me if I would trade him a Cr125 I had for it I said sure. Nova shows up and it is clean no rust, nice interior motor is siezed but (2) it is a 73 oh well I trade him, he tells me he will get me a core 350 to make up for the siezed motor. I had just had the Cr125 engine rebuilt at a dealer and he was the only person to ride it after the rebuild. Three months no core motor, but I get a call from him saying the bike blew up and expects me to pay for the rebuild, (3)ok like I said supposedly a friend. I go get the bike take it back to where I had it rebuilt, they won't warranty it because they say it siezed due to lack of premix oil in the gas, so I pay for it to get redone. (4) I never did get the core 350...and haven't heard from Rick since I chewed his ass about premix... Had a 58 chev apache in the car corral at SIR for sale, threw a pic of the nova in the window of the truck to see if I got any bites on it, totally honest about condition.. (5)get a phone call a week later by this guy that say's it is just what he' and his kid are looking for, explain to him that it is straight,needs a motor, no rust and could use a paint job now mind you I was only asking $750 for a solid body Nova, I take a day off work He comes and looks at it, show's up in a new BMW, tells me he wants to find out what it's going to cost him to have a Dealer install a new crate motor and goes home. Calls me the next day all fired up saying misrepresented it, I guess he expected a new Nova for $750. I end up putting the thing together mild 350 t400 with shift kit and 2500 stall, 3.31 gears, gov loc posi, buffed the paint and detailed the interior, turns out as a really nice driver. My brother inlaw see's it offer's me $5k for it so I sell it to him, with the reservation if he ever wants to get rid of it I get first dibs. He drives it for a couple years and calls me to tell me he bought a Firebird so he is going to sell the Nova, I ask him how much, he say's $3k, I said sold. I was on the east coast at the time told him I would give him a call in a week when I got home. So I get back into town call him to say we were headed up to get it and (6) he tell's me Oh shit I sold it to a guy at work, for $2800 on payment's,,,,,,$200 down and he give's the guy the title, signed, totally trusting the guy because they worked together. He never got paid and has never seen the guy again.....
I've had a couple of dealings where "racingjunk.com" really lived up to its name. Took a day off work a while back to go get a Chevelle drag car that had a rollcage where the tubing wasn't even notched to fit up against the other tube! A flat cut butted up againt another tube and an attempt to fill the giant gap with stick-welding. AND....he claimed the car was NHRA-certified. Right. Please don't think I'm knocking racingjunk.com though, I've had some good experience on there too, buying & selling.
I only have honest bones in my body. I have to look at myself in the mirror everyday. Scarry enough proposition. However that being said, when I sell something, the price is what it is, the description is what it is. No bs. Could we start a thread "look at all the honest people I dealt with" Like the guy they were after here on the hamb. They are out there. On the positive side, I wanted to look at a 64 Falcon Convert that was a 6 hour drive for me. I pm'd the guy via Craigslist. He said that there was a sale pending, but if it didnt he would send more pics due to the fact I had to drive 6 hours to see it. Good man. Car sold, but I appreciated the effort. I am doing the same with a guy in Wisconsin wanting to buy a couple of my project cars. Honest people are out there
I found a 55 Chev wagon in the local classifieds. Call the guy, car sounds solid, priced right, apparently has some dents in the roof, easily fixable he says, pics look good. Get my buddy with his dually and trailer and we head out there with cash - 3 hour drive. Car is brush painted black to hide everything and take a good pic, pretty solid underneath though, start paying attention to the roof, what's up with these dents? Take all the crap and parts off it to see whats up. Oh, dents apparently = a barn collapse and fallen beam that had half crushed the car and was beaten back out, badly. Glass will never fit it again, door gaps completely off. Basically needs a roof and a few door tops. Not a happy camper that day, out about $100 in gas, could have been worse I guess.
Trouble is that there are honest people out there that have different opinions about rust/rot. One of my friends owns a rod shop and does body/paint personally. Now his version of "good" is much worse than mine. See he can fix "bad" "good" a lot cheaper than I can. Kinda like the '54 panel he got for me sight unseen. In his words it'll make a good beater/driver. Turns out that you can drop a bowling ball through both rockers, all four fenders rotted away, Both rear barn doors were completly void of bottom sheetmetal and I scrapped the whole doghouse. See it is always in the eye of the beholder. Granted there are a bunch of just plain ole crooks out there too.
My father-in-law drove all the way to South Dakota (800 miles each way) to buy "really good" '65 Galaxie from his brother for me to buy from him. Great shape, no rust, great interior, yada, yada. Get it home, the frame is gone, not just rusty, totally unrepairable. The interior, mouse infested, in fact I played a dance with death from hantavirus cleaning it up. The paint is a $99 MAACO special that was flaking off, the vinyl top was almost burned off by the sun but had a really nasty scaly substance to remove too. The right rear quarter had been replaced at some time with a used one pop-riveted on. My son and I replaced the frame with a rust free one, stripped the car, put it all back together right and painted it. Still no interior, and the 352 is worn out enough to leave a cloud of blowby, but here it is, a work in progress, only now I can't see and am too sick to work on it much anymore. My son never wants to see another restoration project. I think the old man dragged it home just to be an asshole because I don't think anyone is that stupid, he's real hung up on his ability to be the master craftsman. I told him to shove it up his ass, but he gave me the car. To keep harmony in the family I took it and almost died getting it where it is now. Never again. BTW, that is a straight clean top, no vinyl. That was an awful job fixing that. What has been done has been done right, but man the cost. I really would just like to take a portable crusher to his house and crush it on his front lawn and leave it there like a dog turd.
Close friend drove from VA to upper Michigan with a F1 on a trailer pulled with a dually flatbed doing about 8 miles to the gallon when gas was way over $3 a gallon. Same as you he just couldnt believe what he was looking at and turned and left. He wont even talk about it now. He said he was so sick over it. I mean he actually was beat down over it. He didnt have the money to do the trip and he suffered for a month or better after it.
Very true and well said! I know half of what is posted on here as being bad or even too far gone looks pretty damn good to me. I think its a location thing, over here in Oz cars and trucks were driven into the ground, repaired and driven into the ground time and time again untill they just couldnt be fixed anymore. This is our prime project material, they did it because there just wasnt the money to buy new cars.
Ive done couple deals on the HAMB and couple off of racingjunk. Ive had 1 bad deal off each site. You just have to trust people and hope they tell the truth. I just came back from trading my 62 Willys wagon to Bob from Pa. for his 38 Plymouth and the car was as good if not better than stated. I have learned that if they won't meet you half way then you better beware.
I would like to know why my name is typed at the bottom of this blog??? I owned a shop in jersey for 10 years,Yes, I did move to AZ in oct of 2008,yes, but I never, not once in my life worked on a "T" bucket, worked on a car for Alice Cooper, have pics of one of Alice's cars or even had a car sell at Barrtet Jackson auctions.? When I left my shop there were 2 unfinished cars,1 was mine and 1 was a customers. Both of those cars came with me to be finished in Az.
I got a 84 Seville of fleabay from a guy in Lake Havasu who swore on a stack of bibles it was a original one owner car, his neighbor bought it new, kept it under a car cover in the garage , only 27k miles, on and on. Pics weren't all that great but only 2900 so I took it, looking at it from the house on the hauler 50' away saw it was not 27k miles, big surprise, it's a diesel which I collect hence the low price BUT this fucker was totally insistent it was his next door neighbors car and he bought it new etc. etc. Got into the glove box, found paper work showed 3 owners , bought new in Kellog ID, been in Cali, some mid-eastern dude had a trans put in @ 84 k miles in Bakersfield, sellers neighbor bought it in SanDiego. I didn't really get rolled as the car proved to clean and rust free, but the interior had to be overhauled (leather) and pulled some big favors for the sweet white paint it has now has but lesson is ALWAYS inspect personally, if ya can't don't buy it. Trust NO ONE, obviously because too many people have totally fucked up notions of what 'rust free' means and don't really give a shit. Sorriest deal I seen lately is customer brings in a beautiful red 69 SS 396 Chevelle, used car lot in MI, another flea bay deal, buyer had one as a kid, wife let him buy this one, only 30 grand, I start inspecting it after hours, was a freeking 307 or maybe a 230 6 car, standard brakes, drums all around tiny radiator, standard steering, 10 bolt 308, T-350, didn't have the correct dash or door panels, was nice black interior but Malibu. Never told the guy WTF, just sold him disc, added power steering, found a big rad. Had to do some shit to the rat they stuffed in there but not bad, only a couple grand worth, them guys in MI need to burn in Hell. Now that I think of it, the guy who sold me the Caddy was retired from MI living in AZ. Hmmmmmmmmm.
This is a three year old thread. You would have been better off to PM the poster of your name rather than expose this to a whole new audience!
Yes I did PM the poster but as far as being better off I disagree. Building custom cars for the last 20 years you wind up knowing a lot of people and it seams a lot of people like to "SAY" they know you. In turn you need to pay attention to what's being said about you and if misinformation is posted it is your sole responsibility to correct it. PMing the person only fixes the issue with them, posting it online is the only way to let everyone else know the truth. When Delorean was accused of drug trafficking it was front page news, when he was acquitted it was on page 14. Is that fair? As far as my "intro" I was not aware I needed to PM everyone and introduce my self? I don't believe I was rude or vulgar I just stated the facts. My business relys on my reputation and I will correct any misinformation that is posted about me.
Who's Delorin? And....this IS 3 years old. Really. You joined and went through a thread looking for yourself? Sounds weird.
What if you call some one you think you can trust? They look at the car tell you its a peace of crap on the floor. Then they buy it??????
The Jalopy Journal
