I went to buy an LS1, drove a few hours to find it was an old LT1 sitting under a tree in the dirt. An LT1 looks nothing like an LS1, before I went I asked him to see if a magnet would stick to the block just to make sure and he said he did not own a magnet, thats when I should have hung up the phone. Who doesnt have a magnet on their refridgerator?! He wouldnt give me a dime for gas money, then he had the audasity to ask me to help him unload his truck...
Well he was an older man so I helped him unload his truck, I knew yelling at the guy wasnt going to help anything. I think its gods way of testing a car guys patience!
Sorry about your trouble, but 80 miles is not too bad, considering that's only the distance to go across Houston.
When I bought my Mustang, the guy said the floor was replaced and solid. He was correct in that floor was replaced, but with roofing tar over the big gapping hole and fiber glassed over.
One ad the seller says the car is "rust free", but in the pictures you can see the rust around the back window. I guess when they say rust free, they really mean the rust on the car is free.
I drove 8 hours with trailer to look at a car that was supposed to be a nice "driver". Turned out to be very rusty and had a lot of "coverup" going on. My trip was worthwhile though, knew about another car that was another hour away and was the car I ultimately bought. Ten times nicer than the first car and this seller was so honest, he kept making excuses as to what wasn't exactly perfect... "buddy, If you had any idea what I just finished looking at..."
Jeff-
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You remind me of the timing on a turbo engine...
I wonder if people are deceptive sometimes or if they just have no clue. Whether it's a shop or a private individual. We run into this quite often with dealing with buying cars, I called about a 55 Chevrolet convertible a few weeks ago I was going to buy the replacement body some guy had bought and was selling a good price. It needed a frame and I was going to put one of our frames under it and sell it. Easy Money with a 4 door parts cars to get a lot of the standard parts for the car. Well after discussing with the seller about how we might get this 55 convertible body off his rotisserie, he informed me that the body had already been gapped and I realized he did his door gaps on a convertible on the rotisserie. And informed me he had been doing his cars like this for 25 plus year and the work did was just like my shops work.
He could not understand why a deal breaker for me was the fact he had already done the door gaps. In his mind he was giving me free quality labor. He totally missed the point that this body had never been bolted to chassis but it was nearly ready for paint and bodywork.
I have found that the higher end dealers do a very good job (as they should) of giving you a true picture of the car. Individuals... not so much. I still don't understand why people don't invest 500 bucks on a flight before spending 10's of thousands of dollars.
I am somewhat on the same side of the story, jsut a different viewpoint. Until recently, our clients weren't letting go of their pride and letting us go buy the car that we are supposed to build. Big mistake. They tend to not look to close, then I am scrambling to try and explain why its going to take 18k just to get the sheet metal ready for the first bit of primer and filler!
And the whole Barrett Jackson thing? Why do people have a misconception that they only sell quality stuff? People go for the buying experience and the hype, and yes they have nice "salon collections" but the rest of it is just over priced Autabuy/craigslist stuff. Alot of car collectors stuff, (not the big dogs) just has to look good in their toy shed. We have had to deal with alot of total redos from that type of environment. But I always have to justify myself because they think they bought the primo steel.
I bought the Filler Detective (find it online). Best 100 bucks ever. Its the bull**** meter. Walk up to a customers build to talk price, pull it out and they go...."what are you doing with that!?" They actually work.
I bought the Filler Detective (find it online). Best 100 bucks ever. Its the bull**** meter. Walk up to a customers build to talk price, pull it out and they go...."what are you doing with that!?" They actually work.
Thank GOD I don't buy cars.
I have come to the realization that if I want a car it is going to be redone 100% anyway. I just bought a 67 C 10 to start on. it is a cab 2 fenders and a frame. 1000.00 and probably 1/2 of that will end up in the scrap pile any way. I know the floor and rockers will.
I have seen too many piles come through the shop to ever think someone else can put together a car that is both nice an correct for under 60 k and that might be low. We had one show up guy paid 68k full rotisserie resto. Everything new (repo parts) not bad paint not bad LS 500hp t56 but you can tell it was done FAST and after all the work we did to it I bet we could have damn near built a whole car for 15-20 more than what he has into it now and it would be 5 times better.
Brian Hobaugh SCCA National Tour June 2014
First Hemi 'Cuda Convertible Ever Built
Short clips: Goodguys Pleasanton autocross and pit videos
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