Cars you let get away and regret

Discussion in 'General Station Wagon Discussions' started by HotRodRacer, May 17, 2020.

  1. Silvertwinkiehobo

    Silvertwinkiehobo "Everything that breaks starts with 'F.'"

    Joined:
    Apr 21, 2014
    Messages:
    14,928
    Likes Received:
    2,950
    Trophy Points:
    710
    Location:
    New Braunfels, TX
    No, Marshall, the problem with the Black Sheep is that everyone they see is a 'black sheep,' and would never consider themselves one.
     
  2. Leadslead

    Leadslead Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    May 20, 2016
    Messages:
    799
    Likes Received:
    328
    Trophy Points:
    166
    Well... The Jeep was more of a burgundy than black.... Oh you said black sheep not black Jeep!
    Well... They all can't be winners...
     
  3. Silvertwinkiehobo

    Silvertwinkiehobo "Everything that breaks starts with 'F.'"

    Joined:
    Apr 21, 2014
    Messages:
    14,928
    Likes Received:
    2,950
    Trophy Points:
    710
    Location:
    New Braunfels, TX
    Since you're talking about Jeeps, there definitely are some losers, as of late.
     
  4. annap01gt

    annap01gt Blue Safari

    Joined:
    Feb 6, 2013
    Messages:
    1,933
    Likes Received:
    693
    Trophy Points:
    271
    Location:
    Sw Florida and still above water
    1961 Triump TR3a, Triple black, wire wheels, never so happy to get rid of anything in my life but it is my "If i hit the lottery car. 1967 Mustang coupe Baltimore Colt special, dark blue paint, white vinyl top and pinstripe, 2 tone blue pony interior. Baltimore Colt insignias. Just a handfull made and sold by Archway Ford if remember. Saw one other in Md in late 60s, none since. 1972 Toyota Celica ST, turquoise with black interior, totally used up and rusted out when sold but still think it was the most beautiful car I ever had. Wife - 1972 Datsun 510 wagon, mango orange, ivory interior, black stripe along bottom of doors also rusted out when sold but ran fine. Her lottery winnings car.
     
    Doghead and HotRodRacer like this.
  5. Doghead

    Doghead Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Oct 6, 2019
    Messages:
    12,445
    Likes Received:
    4,306
    Trophy Points:
    706
    There are continually less of them, each time we gather. Any more, the remaining ones have turned into grey sheep, with age. Unfortunately for us, those grey sheep have left behind more than their share of black lambs [​IMG]
     
  6. OldFox

    OldFox Curmudgeon

    Joined:
    Feb 20, 2013
    Messages:
    1,318
    Likes Received:
    338
    Trophy Points:
    195
    Location:
    West Tn
    69 Charger RT, 440 6pak, 4spd Paid $500 for it from a guy's father. He had lost his license and gone to jail for 6 months.
    69 Mach 1, 428 SCJ, 4 spd, triple black
    67 Nova, 350 hp 327, 4 spd
    100% NOS restored 57 T-bird. Belonged to a VP of McDonalds. His wife offered it to me for 10K when he died.

    There were others too. Who knew back then that they would become so valuable. I sold the 1st three for less than $2k and don't even remember to whom.
     
    HotRodRacer likes this.
  7. Caprice Estate

    Caprice Estate Dads 74 Caprice

    Joined:
    Mar 24, 2013
    Messages:
    166
    Likes Received:
    100
    Trophy Points:
    87
    Wagon Garage:
    2
    Location:
    Milton, Ontario, Canada
    Had many wonderful vintage cars from 1977 when I bought my first, a 1956 Chevrolet Bel Air sedan to my present a 1957 Pontiac Pathfinder Deluxe sedan (Canadian model). The two cars that I have pounded my head into a wall for selling was a 1956 Chevrolet 210 sedan I restored. (1981-1984) and a 1957 Chevrolet Bel Air sport sedan hardtop, that I did a body off restoration on. (1984-2007). I had my reasons for selling at the time but now I just shake my head at myself. Doooh.
     
    HotRodRacer and Grizz like this.
  8. MAK

    MAK Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Dec 17, 2014
    Messages:
    862
    Likes Received:
    360
    Trophy Points:
    166
    Wagon Garage:
    4
    Location:
    VA
    Mid 80's on way home from work stopped at New England Classics in Stratford, CT looked at a 1953 Bentley R-Type - I love this car - like the picture, was a drivers car, they said they went thru it mechanically and that it ran great, offered to repaint and reupholster and sell me the car $7,500.00 - but alas non working wife, 2 under 5 year old kids and a job that sucked the life out me 70 hours plus, I couldn't do it. upload_2020-11-18_7-18-39.png
     
    ArnieM888 and HotRodRacer like this.
  9. ArnieM888

    ArnieM888 Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Feb 5, 2021
    Messages:
    222
    Likes Received:
    256
    Trophy Points:
    81
    Location:
    Manitoba Canada
    .
    Seeing that Bentley picture reminds me one that got away.

    I lived in a small city on the Canadian prairies , I was about 15 in 1966 and already a "car guy" ... and every month or so an elderly gentleman would pull up to the stop sign at an intersection in front of my parents house with his old Bentley .... at the time I thought it was a Rolls Royce. They look the same.

    Jump ahead to the 1970's , I owned my own body & paint shop and wanted to restore an old car .... I asked all around town yet no one seemed to know about the Bentley .... the only info I got was it belonged to a doctor who had passed away by that time.

    Jump ahead to 2018 ... now I am old and retired ... one day in conversation with a local historian who was well into his 90's and he remembered the car very well. It belonged to a pharmacist who owned 3 drugstores , he had never married or had family , didn't leave a will , and a public trustee was appointed to liquidate his substantial estate . Some long distant relatives in England eventually received the funds once everything was sold.

    But here is the thing , my historian friend said nobody was interested in the Bentley ... all they saw was an old British car with right hand drive that nobody would know how to keep running .... yikes !!!!

    I regret not looking harder for it back then. It has never surfaced as far as I know because I would have heard about it .... such a car is extremely rare around here .
     
  10. 60Mercman

    60Mercman Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Oct 12, 2018
    Messages:
    5,423
    Likes Received:
    1,812
    Trophy Points:
    512
    Wagon Garage:
    11
    Early in this thread I posted a very scaring and deep emotionally challenging experience as a teenager involving a ‘57 Ford Sunliner. Since then I’ve tried not to let too many cars get away. There have been several in between however including a ‘56 Lincoln, a ‘59 Colony Park, and a pair of sweet ‘54 Chevy BelAir sedans bought during college, and no moparandfomoco man they were not purchased new. One of my last separations was a really great 1962 Imperial LeBaron. I fondly kept the name the previous owner had given the car “ Milburn D.” Wearing a gorgeous dark blue metallic with grey broadcloth interior it truly was a head turner. I loved everything from the split grill to the Cohiba styled cigar tail lights. I also am one of the odd balls that didn’t mind the lack of toilet trunk treatment. Not available for ‘62. My only real pet peeve with that car was washing behind the headlight buckets. I spoke unkindly of Virgil, and wondered if he ever washed one. Fortunately washing wasn’t a much needed activity. Thank you for offering a platform to discharge emotional bile. I love the cars I have, and am very deliberate on the few and rare occasions when I do let go of a car.
     
    ArnieM888 likes this.
  11. ArnieM888

    ArnieM888 Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Feb 5, 2021
    Messages:
    222
    Likes Received:
    256
    Trophy Points:
    81
    Location:
    Manitoba Canada
    Small town near me was a mid 1950's Desoto wagon beside a big old brick house ... had not been driven for years but body was excellent and it had the early Hemi ... something like 276 cu in.

    Desotos of that era were not exactly pretty but this one was all black (faded of course) and plenty of chrome trim and looked good. Of course I waited too long , the old guy died , house sold and car disappeared.
     
  12. Station Wagon Ranger

    Station Wagon Ranger 1953 Ford Country Squire Station Wagon

    Joined:
    Jun 24, 2015
    Messages:
    72
    Likes Received:
    35
    Trophy Points:
    36
    Wagon Garage:
    1
    Location:
    Southern California
    Great story Orthmann! Homer Splawn.....thats a name right out of a western! Classic. Its like this guy my girlfriend worked with a few yeas back...Cole Minnick. And another guy I knew who worked in a federal job...Lon Fairchild. I mean who gets to have cool names like that?!
     
    OrthmannJ likes this.
  13. ArnieM888

    ArnieM888 Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Feb 5, 2021
    Messages:
    222
    Likes Received:
    256
    Trophy Points:
    81
    Location:
    Manitoba Canada
    ..

    Google ...... " 1958 Pontiac Bonneville Tri-Power" .... I had one of them in 1969 and didn't know what I had ... I was only 17

    It was a 2 door hardtop , lots of miles on it ... tattered interior .... engine used oil so I eventually sold it.

    But here is the thing ... and why mine was exceptionally rare ..... it was Canadian built and for some reason GM factory cars were always a bit different than US built.

    The Canadian model was assembled on a Chevrolet B-platform and instead of calling it a Bonneville it was named Pontiac Parisienne .

    But here is the kicker ... it had the new high performance Chevrolet 348 cu. in. V8 engine .... which was the same engine as the famous 409 that was the fastest car on the race track in its day .... the beach boys even wrote a song about it.

    And mine was the tri-power with the three 2-barrel carbs ... excellent for economy because it only used the middle 2-barrel for normal driving and the other two only opened during high power demands (similar to how a 4-bbl works)

    Turns out the car was as rare as rare can be ... but I was not aware of it at the time .. I was fixated on the Mopar 383 & 426 Hemi muscle cars coming out that year and my "old Pontiac" seemed irrelevant.

    ..

    See my next post for a much better "Pontiac Bonneville Story"

    ..
     
  14. ArnieM888

    ArnieM888 Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Feb 5, 2021
    Messages:
    222
    Likes Received:
    256
    Trophy Points:
    81
    Location:
    Manitoba Canada
    .

    Another heart warming Pontiac story that should be named ... "the one that didn't get away"

    It was around 1992 .... I owned my own auto body shop and was good friends with my Snap On tool salesman ... he was a Pontiac affectionado and always asked me to keep an eye out for a decent collector car .... but I knew of none.

    One Saturday he called me ... all exited ... he had just bought the car of his dreams ... a 1967 Pontiac Catalina Convertible ... 389 engine ... 4bbl ... and all the options. He wanted to drop by my shop and show me the car on his way home.

    He had bought it from an elderly gentleman in a small town ... paid a fairly high price for it ... but was an all-original one-owner car that was road ready and didn't need any restoration.

    Beautiful dark red color with black roof ... I told him he had a real treasure ... but when he popped the hood I told him it had an after-market intake and carb ... his heart sank a bit ... then I looked at the factory spec plate under the hood and said ... this might have come with the 3-dueces carb option ... his heart sank even farther.

    I told him not to worry ... everything else was original and if he hunted the junk yards he could find a correct-era carb and manifold.

    Next day was a Sunday and he called me at home ... he said if men were allowed to have an orgasm he just had one (he had a great sense of humor)

    Turns out he was going to take his wife out in the car out for an evening cruise ... decided to check tire pressures and top them up ... then decided to make sure it had a spare tire ... up until then he had never even opened the trunk ... not even when he was buying it.

    Told me it had the original factory spare ... never been used .... still had the little rubber tips on the thread ... the trunk was immaculatly clean original carpet ... and sitting on a piece of cardboard was the original Tri-Power manifold and carbs and air cleaner with impeccable black paint and factory tri-power decals

    .
     
  15. OrthmannJ

    OrthmannJ Always looking for old ford crew cabs

    Joined:
    Apr 25, 2009
    Messages:
    16,014
    Likes Received:
    4,406
    Trophy Points:
    833
    Location:
    Yakima Washington
    Thanks Ranger.
    Believe it or not, he was a cowboy. And to make things even more interesting his father was A. J. Splawn. Something of a legend in Central Washington.
    Here's a brief write up about his father from our local newspaper a few years back.
    https://www.yakimaherald.com/news/l...cle_2b932832-d5bd-11e8-ae0d-bfb3f4c54030.html

    456px-A._J._Splawn.jpg
     

Share This Page