Ever get bummed out that you missed a chance to buy a car and then find out it was a good thing because it was it ended up to be a pile of crap or a misrepresented money pit? My example is a '55 Chevy 2 dr sedan. At age 17 I was still a bit green about what to look for to make sure it was a good deal. Car looked fantastic and ran good. I looked at took it for a test drive then set about to gather the cash to buy it. Came back and it was gone. A classmate had bought it. Pained me to see it in the school parking lot that Spring. He drove it as a daily and by the next year all the bondo had started to pop off. Top of fenders and the lowers as well. The rear quarters had been formed with Black Jack and were cracked with chunks 1/2" thick were missing. No longer ran as the Motor Honey had hid the bearing failure. Front suspension had a death wobble. I was ok with having missed out on buying that gem.
Actually, yes !!! Just recently I saw a listing on FB marketplace for a 1956 Nash Metropolitan. Recent resto….looked really damn good. I decided I already have 2 many cars so I passed on it. I told my friend about it. He buys crap, gets it running and sells it. He actually makes good money on these.. except this one. We were told the story as to why it didn’t run. The story sounded like beginner mechanics adjusting the valves like a SBC with hydraulic lifters. My friend knew they were solid lifters, figured it was a quick simple fix and bought it really right for what it is. Turns out it needed a new flywheel, starter, battery, valve adjustment and it still has not started 6 months later…….sure dodged a fucking bullet on this one
I "almost" bought one a couple of years ago... '55 Bird that had belonged to a good friend for years. It was his first car in the late 60's. He had agreed to sell it to me when we were working together c. 1975, then came to work the next day and said he just couldn't part with it. Which was probably a good thing as I didn't know how I could pay for it... Fast forward 45 years, Doug passed away and his widow and kids started clearing out his collection. I got first right of refusal for the 'Bird and looked at it twice. It had been raced with an FE in it back in the day, a 9" had been installed and the traction bar mounts were still in place. The interior would have been usable with a good cleaning. It came with a complete Y-block and 3-speed; both tops, 2 extra sets of doors, an extra hood, and NOS trunk lid and LF fender. Also 3 or 4 boxes of NOS small parts, gauges, lights and etc. Only issue was all the rust, which would be fixable with a lot of patch panels. After looking at it twice (the price was right) I finally came to my senses and realized that I was right in the middle of my roadster project and when it's done I doubted that I would have the energy or life span left to finish a Thunderbird project. The hardest "No" I've ever had to say... Two years later, Doug's widow has passed away and now their kids are dealing with all the stuff.
The Jalopy Journal
