We talked about this at lunch today and it has happened to 3 out of 5 of us. You find a car or a project that you fall in love with but you have to sell something to finance the purchase and you start making arrangements to make that dream come true. it has happened to my twice in my adult life with two entirely different outcomes. The first time was when my pal Roger passed away and I wanted my old tudor sedan which his wife had decided to sell, I posted my old black flathead powered sedan for sale here on the Hamb that very same day shortly after I got off the phone and all the stars aligned and the hot rod gods smiled on me and in a mater of days I owned the car that I should have never sold again, I couldn't have ask for a better out come. Then there was the deal of a lifetime and again at the time money was short and the decision to sell my Deuce pickup to finance my holy grail find and again the sale went fast but the holy grail was no longer available, that was a heart breaker. HRP
Yeah, Danny, mine was the deal I made with you. You decided to get rid of the Deuce coupe at just the right time in my financial life. Any earlier and I could not have swung(is there such a word?) the deal and any later and my funds would have been******** elsewhere. I had to sell a couple of vehicles but they sold quickly because I priced them right. It was karma that the old girl wanted to come back home to me...
I've never had good luck selling cars, especially when I need the money for a holy grail. Fortunately I have been able to set aside the money from time to time for new projects, and not had to sell anything to do it so far. I have been able to horse trade for stuff on occasion, and not spend any cash. I do regret some of the trades I have made, but every one of them gave me experience to learn from. I have the car I have been wanting for a long time, and even if it is a rough old cob, it's mine, it runs, and Ford is not making any new ones.
I had a pretty unique electric guitar for the better part of a decade. After a while I really didn't like the way it played anymore, and I started playing my other electric all the time. After I got my 47 Ford I'd been racking my brains about how I'm going to do the floors in this thing. Earlier this year I found an ad on Facebook about a 41 Ford tudor sedan sitting for sale in Detroit. For the price that I could get half the floors I got a mostly rust free body, frame and front axle. Finally I sold that guitar, didn't exactly get what I wanted, but it was enough to get close enough. So I kept in contact with the old man for about two or three months and I finally dragged it home in April.
Then there was the deal of a lifetime and again at the time money was short and the decision to sell my Deuce pickup to finance my holy grail find and again the sale went fast but the holy grail was no longer available, that was a heart breaker. HRP[/QUOTE] Just had that kind of happen this last week,I was trying to buy a Ford 41 front axle****m. for a month. The guy said if I wanted it ,he would hold till I got $ we set for it. I sold off some stuff an let him know I could send most of it an in a short time the last$. To that I got a note,a day ago: "I sold it 2 weeks ago." Maybe my own fault for trusting again,the same guy that messed up and sent me wrong stuff before. I sent back,I didn't ever get what I had ordered that first time,but did get a refund=I kind of understude that,but this time=WTF,no warning!. Still not going to report name,as the're two sides an could be a miss some were I don't understand. But ya,it is a bummer!
That's why I rarely give names when talking about soured deals. I might not have the whole picture, and the other party might be completely justified, so I'll eat my crow and deal with it UNLESS I have a good idea that I have been victimized. Folks these days are willing to drive two states over to pull out a gun on you.
When we bought our coupe in '97 I was not in the market for a car. I had been looking for a long time and knew when I saw the car that was the one I wanted. We bought the car with a credit card and paid it off 30 days later. My wife handled the transaction and this has been my holy graile for the last 22 yrs. Yes, I go to church regularly......and we are still together...……..
About 66 I had a very nice 50 Olds 88 coupe. It was my go to work car. We were very tight for money and I had to sell it and catch a ride to work with others. About a year later we had the funds and I kinda knew where it was. Tried to buy it back but it had been involved in a Federal crime-could not buy it back! Bought a Sportster as my go to work ride instead. Loved that Olds!
Never worked out for me. Find what I want, can’t get the money up or sell what I have. First one was an Anglia, former drag car had a sbc in it at one time. Only $600, but I couldn’t find that much to save my life. Followed that car through three owners before I lost track of it, none of them ever did anything with it. Another was my late Uncles 63 1/2 Galaxie. It went to his brother then to the brothers brother in law, who sold it before I could get ahold of him. Another one lost track of. I’ve done better trading. If I can’t trade for something, I usually just forget it.
I had a very nice '47 Ford coupe but I always wanted a '40 Ford coupe. I was visiting with 3wLarry at the Hot Rod Garage open house about how I had always wanted a '40 and he said, "Then why do you have the '47? Sell it and then you'll have the money when the opportunity presents itself to buy a '40." I took his advice. I traded the '47 straight across for a '29 Ford pickup hot rod which I sold almost immediately and had the cash when a '40 popped up in the local craigslist. Larry's response was
In the late 60's I found a "nice" '33 5-W coupe close by. The guy who had it was a serious Model A and V8 flipper. He would bring them in, slap some bondo on them and move them quickly to buy real estate. I was about 16 or so at the time and would walk by his place when I went fishing during the summer. One day I see a primered '33 5-W coupe being moved into his shop. I asked about it and he said 1500.00 as it sits. That was a lot of money at that time but it set the seed in my brain. About 6 months later I got a job in a gas station while I was in school and later when I was in college I drove tow truck for AAA at the same gas station. I would contact the guy with the 3-W about every 3 months to see if he still had it. He would not budge on the price, he knew I wanted it. When I finally had the $$ saved I went to get the car. When I got there he told me he sold it about 3 weeks before to another local guy. I knew I loved the look of a '33/'34 5-W coupe and found a really nice one about 9 months later. I still have that car 50+ years later, and just finished my 3rd redo on it.It was a much better car for me. That other guy was a well known, high dollar real estate developer here with 30-40 cars. I would talk with him occasionally and about 20 years later in the 90's he contacted me to do a full restoration on it. I declined. By that time I had quite a few builds under my belt and 3 34's already. About a year ago I stopped by another friends place to see his new shop. There were some people there I did not know and I was introduced to them. One of the guys was the son of the guy that bought the '33 5-W coupe back in the 1960's. It turns out all of the cars are still in his Dad's shop and the coupe is exactly as it was in the late 60's, he didn't do anything with it. When I saw the car I told him my story and that I knew his Dad well. His Dad has been dead for years, the guy that sold the car to him has been dead for years, and now, 50 years later it all came full circle. I don't desire the car anymore but the memories it brought back and the effort I put into trying to buy that car stayed with me my whole life. Just the smell of the car made me feel like a teenager again. Thanks for letting me share a bit of my past.
Jesus Christ do we have to live the pain again and again and again in some way of twisting the question.....geez I hope to better my friends outlook on life of being a cancer survivor - like we were doing today - at a buddys shop with his dad that started the shop - than what mistake we made with cars selling/buying.
No need to take the lords name in vain just to make the point that you don’t like the thread. You didn’t need to waste your time with your non contribution. This is not the thread you were looking for. Move along.
Fortunately at lunch this month we didn't have to discuss our fellow club members funeral as we did last month. Why be negative, you should be elated that your friend IS a cancer survivor, instead of getting all pithy about a thread maybe you could better use that time to say a prayer for your friends continued good health. HRP
On this subject, I have many stories, been very lucky/fortunate that most times it all worked out for the better, been joking about it for years, I'm Luckier than smart. I do believe in Karma and life has taught me that there's always another deal/opportunity, not to dwell in past mistakes, learn from them as we don't get do overs. My favorite expression of late is " It Is What It Is " When you see a car you just have to have follow this advice from my Dad, There are No excuses, Make it Happen. The best part of the HAMB besides the Picture posts are sharing our stories about life, car hobby. Thank You ! HOTRODPRIMER for your posts, brings up many memories.
Thank you sir, I have told the tale of my very first car at 12 years old and it was a 1932 Ford 5 window coupe, that was a short lived experience thanks to my not being truthful to my dad. Fast forward many years and just a few days after my mom had past away, I was talking with my dad and the subject of my 1939 Ford convertible came up and I was telling him I had looked at a non running 1932 Ford sedan and I was thinking about trading my running car for the non running car and he told be I have wanted one since I was a kid and why not go ahead and make he deal, he encouraged me to follow my heart and get the car I had always wanted. That very next day I traded cars, and my dad lived long enough that I was able to take him for a ride in that car, it's the very same car in my avatar. HRP
Sometimes you have to do what you have to in order to make something happen. Sold off a very recent, very extensively restored '69 Torino GT so I could get my '35 Pickup on the road. The '35 isn't perfect by any stretch, and boy do I miss that Torino sometimes - it really was a great long-haul car - but I'd do it again in a heartbeat, though maybe I'd try for a little more $$ this time.
There was a elderly gentleman by the name of Harold Walker here in town and he was a retired chemist for Dow Cooperation, he drove a beautiful red 1966 convertible Cadillac, he was in Brenda's grandmothers flower shop when I dropped her of before I went to work. When I went back to pick her up to go home she casually told me he had sad he was going to sell the Cadillac to buy a car he always wanted, a Rills Royce sedan but they offered him penny's on the dollar as a trade in, he offered it to Brenda's grandmother for 800 bucks, that was in 1972 dollars and she ask me did I want it, I said no, that's a old man's car and I didn't have that kind of money having been married just a few weeks. Her uncle bought the car, he passed away 20 years ago and his son still has the car, It's beautiful and now that I am a old man I love it, he offered me the car last year but the price was well above my pay grade.,,, woulda, coulda, shoulda. HRP
In 1967, I could have bought a Mercedes 300SL for $4,000. It was a straight car but needed minor maintenance and paint. The only****ets I had, were my 53 Merc pickup, and a 64 Corvette coupe, which I needed as my daily driver. If you look at what they are selling for today, saying that it was a missed opportunity is somewhat of an understatement. In 1968, I sold my nice but unpainted, 394 Olds powered 53 Mercury pickup to pay for my 55 Cameo. I wish I could have kept them both. Bob
The Jalopy Journal
