Whats the stupidest thing you let pass through your hands

For me it would probably be the little 5 window in my avatar. I tried to track it down recently and found out it was taken out to the desert, shot up and smashed.

 

1970 Superbird

 

Then, there's the 400 Chrysler Cordoba "Lean Burn." The local BP "PRO"Care charge me a bunch of diagnostic dough, just so they could say: "Engine Worn."

What the f---???

I BELIEVED them ("PRO"Care, you see?).

So, I put the Cordoba away for a couple of years & got another daily driver. Meantime, my dad decided to junk his 440 Chry. w. a '78 KY Highway Patrol engine in it. THIS time, he let me pull the engine (not so years earlier when I wanted to KEEP the 330 DeSoto Hemi!).

Anywho, pulled the "worn" 400 to make way for the 440, okay? (The lo- to hi-deck, well, THAT is another tortuous story, believe me!).

So, what the fuck would YOU do if somebody said "Enigne Worn," HUH ????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????

I tore the son of a bitch down after pulling it out of the Cordoba, of course. YO NEVER SAW A CLEANER MOTOR. NO ridged at the cylinder tops, NO damn sludge plugging oild passages, NO burnt vavles .... . SO, "PRO-Care," where was this WORN stuff I just trashed a good motor for?

God, I was mad. But neither I nor my dad had room for the 400. So it went out by the stree, in pieces, & some POOR guy picked up all the parts for scrap.

I bought the f-ing ocnversio kit to get away from the "Lean Burn." So, the 440 ran great in the Cordoba (it got stolen years later -- long, sad story), but I never forgot how CLEAN that 400 was, inside -- like a virgin. To make matters worse, a professional mechanic and MOPAR freak later told me that if I'd kept the crank and con rods, i could have turned the 440 into a 500-plus-CID monster.

Hind sight is 20-20. But you live life only in yer FORWARD gears, eh?

 

My second wife, she taught me that the dumbest woman is smarter then the smartest man

 

'59 Impala Convertible. Bought it with my dad at age 15 as a father/son project, but he didn't help me at all. I joined the Navy and left home and kinda forgot about it. It stayed in his garage for 18 years until he decided to get rid of all the crap in his house. JUST after I discovered the HAMB and got interested again! He sold it for 5 times what we paid for it and I had to bust his balls to give me my half of the money.

 

for me it was a 29 coupe for 700 or a 26/7 t coupe for 600. i was fifteen and i was like arnie w/ a controlling mother. wish i got that model t.

 

This isn't the most stupid car deal I passed on, but its right up there with the best of them. In the fall of 1960, I was walking home from school and this was in the driveway of a house I passed everyday. It seems the old [84] guy who lived there was moving away and was going to sell his deceased wife's car. This '32 had 19K miles on it and the old guy wanted $50 [yes fifty]. I ran home and tried to convince my Dad that I needed this really bad, to no avail. Two days later, when I finally talked Dad into it, the 3w had been sold the night before. All I have are these lousy pictures!

 

54 lincoln y-block...rebuilt and had a adapter for most any trans

 

Thank goodness THIS wasn't actually ME!

When I worked in a factory in the erly '70s, one mechanic I worked with mentioned he'd drive a Model A all through high school. Ran great, blah, blah, blah.

Well after HS, he, naturally, got the itch for osmething more "contemporary" & sold the A for $300. This was '61 or '62, so I guess that was a fortune for a HS grad back then!

Any-who, by 1973 when I met him, he'd been kicking himself for YEARS!!!

 

Pantera not hamb friendly but I miss that car.

 

777, I am posting on this thread in hopes you are subscribed to it and will see my post.
You have a PM from me and a response would be greatly appreciated!
Dave

 

sold this real `32 roadster in 1985, at a swap meet for $5,000.
didn't think it could ever be worth any more.

 

I had a chance to buy a '40 Ford convertible back in the nineties. I procrastinated for two weeks thinking no one in a small town would care... Boy was I wrong!

 

Ten years ago I let a steel 33 Ford coupe get away. But a friend was not as dumb as me. He bought it and still has it. I see it often......

 

I was shopping for my first car in 1975. I wanted a '57 Chevy, and on any given weekend there were at least 10 in the paper for $500 or under. I friend of mine told me about one for sale at a gas station for $495. When I drove up, I noticed it was a convertible. At the time convertibles were parts cars, you had to have a hardtop or sedan to be boss. The convertible was a 283 4 brl converted to a 3 speed stick with some of the Chevelle "hot wheels" style hub caps on it. I walked around the back of it, and it had a continental kit on it. No one would be caught dead with such a thing on their car. I didn't buy it. I ended up buying a sedan with a 283 and stick for $225.

 

A clean '68 Plymouth Sport Satellite station wagon with a 383 for $600 in about '96 or so, and worse, a '30 A coupe early 70's rod, full-fendered, button tuck interior, chrome everything, 327/4 gear, even a mural on the decklid for $4000, this would have been '97 or '98. I think about that one every time I see an A coupe.
Aaaaaaaaagh!

 

I guess the worse for me was back in '70 I had a Genie without a bottle, she was a school teacher-Dr. daughter. My birthday present for the upcomming Nov was going to be a 70 or 71 (depending on when we ordered it) HEMI 4spd Chalanger Conv. Back then $3000 for the car $1000 option for Hemi and $1000 to make it a conv. About $5000 total. Well I DUMPER her during the summer. Both the car and I would be dead by now so what to hell.
Then there was 2 Golden Hawks, one 55 Stude Pres Speedster
Stage 3 426 Wedge engine with 2 4 speeds.
1970 GTO Ram-Air 4spd conv.(Some IDIOT traded that to me for a 3/4 ton 2 wheel drive I-H Travelall).
Bright yellow Superbird for the cost of the paint job (few hundred $$) it was abandon and the owner gave the owner of the paint shop the title.
And I could go on. Back in the 70's you could buy a Hemi car for a few hundred that needed a clutch or rear.
GEORGE!! Getten sick as I type.

 

Gee-whizz, George, we all feel your pain.

 

Granatelli-built 62 Plymouth Fury, 480". twin supercharged, complete, low mileage, $1500, 68 Shelby GT500, $1850,(didn't like the automatic), 70 Hemi Cuda, $850,(already owned the original engine/trans) friend wanted me to give him the engine, I thought he should sell the car to me, sold it to a racer instead.

Numerous 426 Hemi cars, Factory leight-weight Fords, LS6 Chevelle, 20,000 mile with bad auto trans,, $800, the list is long.........

 

The girl I was engaged too in College...

 

I already have a few and I ain't that old... (I try to convince myself)
1965 ss nova bought for 450 and made a fortune off it (I thought at the time)- sold for 700!
67 camaro with 427/4 speed. not original of course but a nice car.

the big one for me was a 1952 porsche 356 coupe that an old man had in a shed. had a vw engine and needed to be gone over- he was asking 10,000 but I think it was a shot in the dark for him, probably could've had it for less. It was too cool. Don't regret the '56 porsche that I did buy shortly after that though.

My dad still regrets that the mercedes gullwing he looked at was priced at 5,000 and even though he knew it was awesome, he couldn't afford it. probably 600,000 + now.

Pisses me off when he talks about the new 64 409/4 speed impala he bought, then traded off for a vw beetle because he lived in seattle and spent all his time spinning the tires on the wet, hilly roads. He doesn't seem to regret that one?!? for some reason.

 

the stupidest thing was a 1937 Cord Sedan i found in a barn. It had 30,000 miles on it...i kick myself everyday...price was a little out of my reach at the time it was $6000...

 

345DeSoto, a BUNCH of guys have said that sort of thing on this thread. Yeah, there a few (but not many) things more important than hotrods & customs. I wonder how MANY songs & poems have been written about "the one that got away" how dumb was I? theme).

There was a certain 16-year-old back when i was 18, and she said she'd marry me when she was old enough. The next day, she changed her mind, gave me back the gold, and broke a big PIECE of my heart off.

I tell myself it made me smart for the NEXT 'round. She got herself pregnant, got married to somebody who mistreated her. i wound up feeling sorry for her, but by then I was married to my wife (same after 38 years, 3 kids & 2 grandkids LATER).

As much as it HURTS, sometimes things just work out for the best.

At least with cars I had, I could help DIRECT them to a guy who was gonna do osmething GOOD with those. I do not know if that girl is alive or dead. But, still, I cared (and care).

 

I hate to think of things like this, but it happens. 1967 Corvette Roadster originally with a 427, but it had a small block. I was looking for a original car with numbers matching. I ended up with a 69 roadster.

The 67 had been in storage since early 70's was a drag car, but super solid. This was in the early 90's.

$4,500.00 it is even hard to type.

 

I did worse than you.
I had a 1967 Corvette coupe, 427" 390 horse with A/C,factory side pipes, tint, headrests, and a (choke) Powerglide.
Sold it for $2295 in a news paper ad.
I think this was around 1970 or 1971.
Biggest blunder of my "car life".

 

I let a Mint '66 Belvedere with 40K actual miles and with all numbers matching factory 2 x 4 426 Hemi/automatic, for $20K even.
Right now,, I know of the worlds lowest mileage 1972 Pre "L" Pantera with 1650 miles on the odometer.

 

A built 350 sbc. We were on friendly terms with a guy whose horse my daughter rode for a while in shows. He'd built up the Chevy for a Camaro. After wearing the car out, he put the engine under a tarp in the barn for several years. At the time of the FREE offer, I had nowhere to keep the motor dry, so I didn't jump when the opportunity was there. Water over the dam.

 

Last one was a complete driveable '46 Buick Roadmaster, mechanically all set, new tires (owner would install at time of pickup) needed paint, interior was dusty from storage. 3 grand asking price.Three days before going to get it my wife lost her job. So I called it off.

Free 401/ST400 tranmission, only catch was I had to take whole car. But the car was stolen before I got to it. Confronted the thief, a scrap dealer who thought he was supposed to take it. Karma got him, he got busted for building stripping on local TV news.

'48 Indian Chief, in '71 for 50 bucks. Rolling basket, but making 35 bucks a week living in a upper flat with one blown up motorcycle already it didn't make much sense to keep it.

'67 BSA I bought new in '68. Owned the same time as the Indian. Rebuilt it and kept it until '74.

My '64 Mercury convertible,my '66 Pontiac, my '54 Chevy with the 383 Plymouth engine. I'll quit now, still a bunch more in my past.

 

A running 61 Chev. Impala with a dirty interior, 283 auto. for 100 bucks back in 75