What did you miss out on?

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In 1990 I was living in California, Long Beach. I was driving a 78 LeBaron 2 dr, not a bad car, 318 in it. I stopped at a light, looked over to the left at a car dealer lot.

There was a 73 340 Duster sitting up on one of those car stands. Went to look at it, Lemon Twist 4 speed, black interior, 72,000 miles on it. $1500, stupid me.

Around high school time, 83 or so, a Kmart down the street from me had a side area where people put used cars. A 69 Charger showed up one day $1000, didnt have that much money then.

My Parents bought a brand new Dodge Custom 880 in 64, gave it to me when i started driving. 383, 300hp road cruiser C body. loved that car.

it had 133,000 when i started driving it, in 89, it had 189,000, I was going to school for Aviation Mechanics, and got hired by McDonnell Douglas. My parents still owned the car, so my dad decided to sell it, it may have had a burned valve, had a miss that didnt wouldnt go away. I loved that car.

So we found the previously mentioned 78 Chrysler for $1800, and sold the 880 to a junkyard, for $100, just about cried that day. When we were still there, a collector saw it and bought it right there.

Flash forward 5 years. I was laid off and moved back to seattle. I was working at a Chevron station while looking for a computer job.

I see a custom 880 go down the road early on a sunday morning, i run around the corner to see f i can get a good look at it, too late, it was gone.

A few weeks later, i was busy working on a car, and hear the ding ding of the pumps.

I look up and there sits the Custom 880. I look at the license plate, and its the same.

i look under the bumper and the 280Z dent is still there. I ask the guy if i can look inside, the holes under the dash for a tape deck i had was still there. MY CAR HAS RETURNED TO ME.

It looked brand new, totally restored.

Jeff, the owner said he would sell it back for $3000, i didnt have that much, so i asked if he could meet me there after work and see if i could take it by my parents house.

We go over there that night, told my dad to go look out in the driveway, you should have seen the look on his face.

Well he wouldnt buy it back. But i convinced a buddy of mine to buy the car, and now it sits nice and safe in his heated garage in tacoma. YAY, moral of the story, rebuild your engine>
 
The summer of 76 I had a 1971 Cuda 340 and sold it because I was getting married and needed a more economical car. For $750.00, it needed a front right fender as I got hit at a light.
 
I worked at a military base in Vallejo, Ca. At one of the DRMO auctions they had anything and everything. Including a hemi powered air raid siren. Ever see one of those monsters? I think it didn't sell and just went to scrap. What a shame. Crate upon crate from chevy,ford, and ma mopar of parts dating back to WWII. I wonder what was of use in those crates. Pallets of tank and pump engines. This was in 92. I worked at the DRMO for about a month and it made me sad everday cutting things up. Brand new frames for 1911's, and slides. For days of electronic consoles and firing systems for submarines. My friends dad bought a torpedo firing system panel for the light switches of his shop.
 
Red Express...RoadRunner Wait something jogged loose. GM dealer my brother in law works at had a lil Red about 93 that looked like it just rolled off of the showroom. It was during Christmas so they were closed. I asked b.i.l. how much and he started telling me about test driving it. Slight lope, smoking tire and aroud 36k on the odometer. What about the price man? Don't know. So we went back home and went back to visit in the spring. I asked about the truck again and he said it sold for $3500. He is a boe tie dick head that will not lift a finger to help anyone get anything but a chebie.
About 2 years a go I was in the pick a junk and struck a conversation with a man that was in the Mopar section. He had a GTX he would let go for $1500. I went and looked at an auto console bucket seat car in his backyard that had a 383 that he said would run. I had money and nowhere to put that treasure. Then when we were walking back out front he said...let me show you my babies. So up came the garage door and there sat two cars under cover. First cover peals back, I'm thinking project cars, and there sits a beautiful 70 RR 440 4 speed black with black bucket seat interior. Then car number 2 is revealed. It's a turquiose (origional Butterscotch) 70 383 RR with black bucket seats and a column shift auto. After talking a few minutes he mentioned putting the 4 speed back in the car...huh. Sure enough there was a hump in the middle where the pistol grip belonged. Then he mention selling it for $4500. To broke for that so I just went away crying the blues. And yeah I'm still kicking myself for not comming up with the money.
 
Ugh, bad memories.
1987, I was a jar head on Camp Pendleton. I had a 66 Belvedere convertible. the tranny blew, and I was about to deploy to Okinawa and Japan and had to get rid of it. I ended up selling it for $350.

1988, sold my 318 3 spd 70 Duster for 500

and I know it's not a mope. but in 1989, I blew the tranny of my 1966 Volvo P1800. on a young marines salary it took me 3 months of saving to get it rebuilt. I had to drop my insurance to afford it. as soon as it was fixed, I took it out for a test drive and was rear ended by 3 illegals in a 78 Chevy. totaled, and no insurance......
 
Early 1980's I knew a guy with an AAR Cuda sitting in his barn. Complete car in primer with the engine out & disassembled. He wanted $2300 because that's what he said he had in it in machine work & parts. I thought that was too much & I also didn't have a place to put it. He later sold it to a guy who walked up with $1000 cash. :banghead:

I had a friend who had a 1970 big block Dodge Charger that he bought in the early 1970's when he was in high school. He also had another Charger parts car parked on his parents farm. In the late 1970's he bought a wrecked '70 Charger 440, six pack, 4 speed that had been custom painted & then wrecked. He took the front suspension off of his parts car & fixed it & then drove it for a number of years. Sometime in the mid 1980's he decided to fix up the Charger he bought in High School so he traded the Six Pack car for a rebuilt big block (383 I think) to put in it. :banghead: :banghead: I tried to tell him it was a mistake. He later admitted that he shouldn't have done it. He also later sold his High school car. I think he's realized that was a mistake too. He's back into Mopars now. I think he said he has a couple of B bodies he & his son are working on.

I know it's not a Mopar, but around 1975 I had a friend whose step-dad (a cop) had a 1965 Mustang convertible that he had bought new. 2 year old top, incorrect front seats (him & his kids had shifted the car so hard so many times that the backs had broken off of the original seats), every body panel had been wrecked & repaired at one time or another. Original 289, four speed, four barrel, ralley pack (or whatever they called the little tach & one other gauge mounted on the collumn). My brother & I wanted to buy the drivetrain to put in an old Falcon Ranchero to use as a parts chaser. The guy said he wouldn't part out the car. He wanted the whole thing out of his yard. $50. We went over to fire it up & my dad came by to watch. When he saw all of the blue smoke coming out of the exhaust he just shook his head no. He didn't want that "piece of junk" parked in his back yard. :banghead: My dad later learned a bit more about cars & realized that not letting us buy it had been a mistake.
 
My first year out of highschool went to a car show with my young bride.

For sale at the show was a completely restored 1970 road runner, ev2 hemi orange, 440- 6 , 4 speed, dana-60, all original parts, the only thing deviated from stock was the color.
It was originally yellow.
The guy was crippled due to diabetes and lost his legs, he had to sell and was desperate for the money.

All he wanted was $10-k, yep, $10-k.
Unfortunately I did not have the money, and my new wife had no idea of the gold mine that was laid before us so she have me the first NO!!!

That was a word I heard many more times throughout my marriage ha,ha.

Right next to that car was a 1970 challenger, hemi orange,white stripe r/t with a 340-6 pack and tons of chrome in the engine compt.
it had been featured in Mopar action and was for sale for $20-k.
it was perfect as well, but I wanted the runner worse.
I would have bought them both if I had the cash, but I was recently married right out of highschool and was living pay to pay.
 
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