My adventure

Hello ALL! Thought I will tell you all about my adventure from this weekend. The goal was to drive from North Alabama to Augusta GA to pick up a nice solid 1960 Brookwood wagon. I stumbled on to a Craiglist add that reads like this. "$3000.00 obo, will run, call for details ask for gary XXX-XXX-XXXX no calls after 9pm please no emails i will not check them" The pictures of the car are below. Well I called the guy and talked to him and get more details. Well to keep it short he said that the only things missing on the car was the chrome down the driver side and things like the door panels. He did text me some pics of the interior(not great ones) and I was aware there was going to be some work. The floor pans only have a few small holes that would need patched and the car would run and drive. I then started talking price and got him down to $2500. I asked tons of questions and was assured that the car was what it appeared to be a nice solid base. We discussed him holding the car and he wanted me to Western Union some money. I respectfully declined and explained how I have been burnt by that before and lost some money. I said I will be there Saturday evening. I had some things I had to do Saturday morning and it was close to 12:00 by the time I hit the road. I head out with my enclosed trailer and truck. I pull up to the location and see the car sitting down the hill. As I walk up my stomach starts turning right away. I wanted the patina that was on the paint and the driver side of the car from the door back has been primed with a spray can! The roof has the same treatment! I think ok well I have come this far I know a few body guys that can fix this. I then walk to the front of the car and see the rounded part of the windshield on the passenger side is busted all up. Then I ask where the passenger rear quarter glass(curved) was. "Its missing and we don't have it. I told you that." No I think I would have remembered that! Turns out that all of the trim on both sides was missing. The rockets and all! The floor pans are rotted(looked like the whole floor was shoot with buckshot)with one spot so bad I could stick a football through it. Well I was almost physically sick by this point. I explained to the guy how this was not the car that was described and There was no way I could pay that much money with the shape it was in and all the missing parts. I climb back in my truck and drive back up to the interstate and get on my phone and start surfing classifieds and craigslist to try and have a good reason for spending $300+ in fuel to drive over. I made lots of calls with no one answering and left lots of messages. We decided to get a hotel since it was almost 9:00 PM by this point.

Well late that night I get a phone call from a man I called about a 1937 Plymouth Desoto. He tells me that he bought a warehouse and found this car buried in the back corner all covered up. I ask him what his bottom dollar on the car was and he said $3500. That was more than I had planned to spend this weekend but I figured it was worth a look. I had a fall back plan of a 1950 Chevy 4 door that was all original that had also been tucked away in a garage for many years and untouched for $3500. We get up the next morning and drive over to see the Desoto. I was shocked when I saw the car! The car has 38K original miles on it and is only missing 1 wiper! The guy put a new battery, coil, and spark plugs in the inline 6. He also suck another carb on it and drove it around the block. It appears that everything works on the car and it has amazing patina! We opened the trunk on the car and it still has the spare and all kinds of old tools in it. You open the glove box and it looks brand new. The front seat has wore through but it otherwise in good shape for 76 years old. The car was last tagged in 1968! My guess is that it has been buried in that warehouse since then. The vent tube on the engine has no oil reside in it. I am not sure at the moment if I am going to keep the car or flip it for profit but it is a amazing find. I loaded it in my trailer and headed home. I haven't unloaded it yet so I only have the picture below for now. I will post picture when I get some.

 

wow...I can't wait to see pix of that car!

 

Pretty neat wagon though...

Now let's see more pictures of that gem of a DeSoto!

 

Too bad the Impala was such a disappointment, but that DeSoto was a GREAT find!

 

sucks when plans gotta change like that but i'm glad you made your trip a success and by the story it sounds like you did.

 

Excellent work on getting that Desoto. Always good when it works out.

 

Excellent work on getting that Desoto. Always good when it works out.

My weekend was kind of like that, but had to do with boats. Went for two, and came back with one. The description some folks give is soooo out of the relm of reality.

 

I had a similar situation when I went to purchase a wagon, but I drove from Ft. Lauderdale to Long Island, NY. I WAS PISSED when I saw the car. Glad you were able to grab that Desoto. It may be a keeper.

 

Nice story. Glad you ended up with a nice car. I'm sure it's rare.

 

Glad it all worked out and you found a great car!

 

Great story! It situations like these with a "found" car, how is the issue with the car's title handled? In this instance, was the title in the glove box or something when the guy bought the warehouse and transferred it over to himself then was able to sell it? Is the salvage title process the usual way to handle situations like this? Sorry if it's something that should be obvious to a car person, but I've always lived in Southwest Florida where it's relatively recently populated and just about everything is fairly new so "barn finds" and such aren't as common as elsewhere.

 

Ga and Al didn't issue titles back then, so just a simple bill of sale I believe.

 

Nice find on the Desoto. Great fall back on your part. Sometimes a lump of dirt has a diamond ring hidden in the middle.

 

I can see where the Chev was a huge disappointment. That Desoto, though, more than makes up for it! My Grandfather had a 40 Plymouth, which replaced his 28 Desoto. The 40 had enough back seat room they set up lawn chairs as extra jump seating! I can't wait to see more of that beauty! Make sure you send us lots of pictures of that one!

 

Here are some more pics I took last night. It was getting dark so I couldn't get great picks and you can't far enough back to get good ones in my garage. These will have to do for now. I have a lot of pics so I will post as many as I can or until I get tired. :lol:













This is on the back of the front seat.


Will post more later on of the dash and all. I don't have them on my computer yet.