Car buying war stories.....

[Bob Parmenter]

....almost everyone should have at least one good one.

I was reminded of this one when Richard (ford2custom) mentioned a '40 Chev with rack and pinion on another thread. Irony, that's the hook of my story too.

This must have been 20 or so years ago. I was looking for something interesting to play with and found a small, poorly written ad for a '40 Chev coupe with a big block and 4 speed. Sounded promising, but then they almost always do don't they? This was before the internet had caught on and I liked looking for cars in seldom seen venues as it cut down on the price competition.

Called the guy and he wanted to tell me all sorts of stuff, but all I wanted was his address. I don't find seller descriptions all that meaningful after the basics, they never see the car the same way I do. So, I get to this fellows house. It's a fairly new, very modest neighborhood of starter homes. They were all around 1000 sq. ft. or so, with single car garage. The young man came out just after I parked, as did his wife with one little one on her hip, and another in the oven. Sure sign they were VERY anxious to sell the car. I must be a little different in my car buying routine from the "normal" buyer as this has happened to me more than once.....he holds out the keys right away and says "you want to drive it?" I was in the process of putting on coveralls at that moment so said "no, not yet". I prefer to inspect a modified car like this first, starting underneath. Okay, Ford 9" rear on parallel leaf springs, crude ladder bars, beam axle on parallel springs in front with rack and pinion mounted to the frame, floor looks solid, rails straight, etc. After a few minutes of mental note taking I crawl out, and the first thing I see is a look of anticipation on both their faces. Then the game is on..... I said, "I'll bet that thing is a real handful when it hits a bump isn't it?" Without missing a beat the wife says "YEAH, how'd you know?" Husband shoots a dart like look at her!! OOOPPSSS!!! We had a brief discussion of what happens with the frame mounted r&p vs the axle setup (like the youtube vid on the other post). There were other issues with the car, worst of which the roof had been used as a trampoline at one time, and after having fixed one of those on one of my Hudson's I swore I'd never buy another. Anyway, I could tell they were in a bad way for money, so after telling them it wasn't the right car for me I wrote a new ad for them that better promoted what was good about the car, and then told him a couple better places to put the ad so it would hit more eyes. Also, delicately as I'm able, I suggested that the wife not "hang around" during the process. About a week later he sold the car, for a price I wouldn't have paid, after gettin more calls than he could imagine and thanked me for helping him get some much needed money. Poor guy had lost all their savings on a get rich quick franchise scheme and needed to get out of the dog house.