What did you miss out on?

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MR. BIG BLOCK

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What did you pass up, not have money for, lost the number to, or have sold just before you got there? Looking back can hurt.

Summer of 1988. I had just graduated high school and had no money. Naturally that is the best time to find something. I was at a local show, drooling over a park full of northwest Mopars, when a guy asked me if I like Chargers. I assured him that I did, especially '68 through '70s. He said he had one for sale. It needed work but it ran. I got his number and called him the next day to look at the iron. At his house there it sat, a 1969 Charger R/T. It was relatively straight, needing very little body work, but the paint was bad. It did need interior, but at 18, I didn't care about that. It had a 440 in it, but he said it wasn't original. He had the original "383" in the garage and that would go with it (he had been misinformed, the one in the garage was also a 440 both with HP stampings). Then he said for the price he would throw in the '70 Charger 500, too. Sure enough, there it was. Stripped and ready for paint work. All trim was there, all glass, and grill, stuffed in the cabin and trunk. It, too, had a 440 hp engine. Like I said, I had no money. I had just gotten a job, but the guy needed the dough pretty quick. Oh yeah, all of it for $1,200!!! No joke. I need to go cry now.

What did you miss out on? :banghead:
 
I tried for 2 months to sell my Barracuda to pick a Dart Sport that was set up real nice. We were bolth having a terrible time selling our cars. To bad for me he sold his first. @ months after that the Dart Sport was for sale by the new owner for 3 times the original price.
 
a few years back i found a 66 satelite in real good shape the paint whas a litle faded but it had a 400bigblock that made real good power and it didnt have one single rustspot... nice interior with buckets just a real nice 66 satelite i even took it for a testdrive and had the money in my hand when i just got a feeling that it wasnt the right car... i still hate myself for not buying it...
 
It was about 9 years ago. I was in the middle of doing the V8 conversion on my Dart. there was an ad for a 70 challenger /6 with a 3 speed on the floor. Said it needed restored. Went to look at it. It was rough, but not too bad. Also came with a shell with good 1/4 panels. The price was $650 for both. Wasn't too sure if I could of swung it at the time. so i passed it up. Sad part, I would oif been able to do it and still got my Dart done.
 
In 1991 I gave away a 1970 or 71 Dart Swinger... Why ???? Cause it had a /6...... Boy that was dumb......Same year my sister had a 74 Challenger she sold for $3500.00 Way to much money for me back then.... :cussing:
 
everytime i drive past the dealership, and think.. wow, it would be nice to have a new car. thats about it.. i normally dont find deals or nice cars to be able to buy. ill tell you one thing tho..
i know where there is a 64 plymouth valiant convertable 273 gt. for 1000 bucks.. im hiding it from everyone i know, so when i can safe up the money.. Ill buy it, if i cant buy it before he sells it.. it'll break my heart. its a beautiful car. numbers matching.. im drooling thinking about it!
 
Winter of '82, a FLAWLESS SS/A '68 Hurst Hemi Dart, a 9.50 ride way back then, $20,000 and it included a complete carbs to pan spare engine. At that time that amount represented just about every penny I would have had to my name after liquidating all of my assets. Still know where the car is, it is still flawless and the price would be about the same today, all of my present worldly possesions except for the clothes on my back.

Same time frame, winter '82 at a swap meet, 3 complete running 426 Hemi engines with many misc. rods/pistons/heads/cranks/carbs/valve covers, etc. $5,000 and would not separate, had to buy it all.

Late summer '74, passed up several new musclecars (yes, there still were such things in '74) mostly because they were automatics. 360/auto Dusters/Darts/Roadrunners, a 440 Charger, I was so goofy at that time I thought only homosexuals would drive an automatic transmission. Passed on a 360/4spd. Duster (the very last and only new 360/4spd in the world) cause it would have cost $400 more to ship it to my local dealer from several states away. Passed on a 400/4spd Charger cause it was an SE with those 3 little windows in the roof. Passed on a 360/4 spd Challenger cause it had 2,200 miles on it, I wanted a NEW car. Passed on a beautiful '74 Javelin/AMX 360/4spd cause the dealer wanted full sticker price (something like $4,626) and I being young and smart knew you never paid full sticker price on a new car. After a month or so of passing up all the others mentioned above, I went back to buy the AMX and it was gone, somebody else paid full sticker. Ended up buying a new '75 Duster 318/4spd and running 17.4 at the track. All those above mentioned '74's with automatics were running 14.4-14.9.
 
Didn't buy the 383 Formula S for the asking price of $900.
Being 21 at the time and just having my first child, I didn't have a whole lot of extra cash laying around.
 
Was 1988 just graduated HS myself also and guy right across the street from school had TWO '70 Challengers for sale for $750 for the pair. One was an RT/SE and the other was a 318 SE. One burnt orange (RT/SE) and the other was gunmetal grey. Could afford them because I had just bought a '68 Road Runner for $700 and a '67 GTX for $100.00..minus engine; had a 426 max wedge in it! The owner said he parked it because the carbs were shot and the intake had a crack in it...SO I passed on buying the engine for another $50.00 Guy still has the engine but now we BOTH know what its worth. Oh well.
 
It was 1972. A guy I knew had a 71 Hemi Cuda. It was the fastest car in the area. His parents trailor burned down so he was selling it to help them out. He wanted $2500. He told me if I wanted it I could have it for $2000. Well I was 17 and my father said NO! I begged and cryed but it didn't do any good. He told me I would probably kill myself. Maybe it was the way I drove my fathers 68 Charger R/T that helped his decision.

Fred B
 
15 years ago I missed out on a 1972 340 Demon with 40,000 original miles, all unrestored in near new condition. Color was brown with black hood and side stripes, black top and mint black interior. He needed cash and said he would sell it for $3500. Went to get the cash, called him back a day later and he never answered the phone. I think he had too much time to think! I was only fifteen years old and I had to borrow the cash, if I had the cash that day he would have taken it!! He had a lot of NOS parts for it but it didn't even need them. The original 340 was blown up, replaced with a 73 340 mild build, also the original 3-speed was replaced at the same time with a 4-speed. Even had the original rallye rims and snorkle hood scoop. It still makes me sick!! :sad1:
 
Back in 1985, I could have bought a Sublime AAR Cuda, hit in the driver front fender, and missing the six pack, (and I had a 340 6 pack set up at the time), for $650! Really kickin myself now!
 
The first one was a 1971 HEMI Cuda, B-5 blue, buckets with auto colum shift. It did have a spun rod bearing & my dad said I didn't need anything that wouldn't run. This was 1976, I was 17. The price was $600.00. The guys parents towed it to the local ford dealer & traded in on a new truck.
The second one was a factory HEMI Dart. It was 1980 & I had just got married & no money. My dad offered to loan me the money, but I refused. I just thought if I was ever going to borrow money, it would be something I needed. Oh yea the price was $2500.00.
Now when I take my dad to these Mopar shows & he sees the prices, he just shakes his head.
 
In the 80s before the whole old car thing took off I looked at a cherry '59 Caddy Coupe DeVille convertible. The guy wanted $1000 for it, I was young and didn't have the money, so I passed on it. I ran into him a year or so later after people started gobbling up the old cars and he said he sold it for $15k, just the way I saw it.

A guy I worked with had an early 60's convertible Wildcat that he pretty much wanted to give me, I thought it was too big. I was driving a '65 Skylark 4 door at the time that just barely fit in my garage, the Wildcat was bigger than that.

A friend of mine let me hang onto his '69 383 Roadrunner for a couple of months, I drove it but never got around to actually paying him for it. One day he showed up, took the keys and handed them over to the new owner. Who paid $500 for it.

Another friend of mine had an early 60s Super Duty Grand Prix, maybe a Catalina... Some big ol' Pontiac. Kept wanting to sell it to me, I wasn't too interested. He finally wrecked it.

I had a '74 442 that I couldn't ever find any parts for. Finally I traded it to a guy for a guitar... after I got rid of it there was an article about it in one of those muscle car rags, seems they only made like 20 of them in this particular body style and nobody was making any repro parts at the time.

Then there was the '69 Super Bee I paid got for a song, the wife (girlfriend at the time) made me get rid of it. The guy who showed up to guy it was a friend of the guy I bought it from, he knew what I paid for it so I couldn't get much more than that. :-(

A guy up the road from me was selling a '69 Dart GTS, I negotiated with him for a while, then he decided to keep it. He showed up here one day while I was at work, told my wife that he had to sell it pronto, by the time I got home from work it was sold.
 
When I was 16, my dads cousin 1-owner 340 Dart Swinger, F-6 green, 4-speed, 3:91 suregrip. My dad said I didn't need a wore out hotrod, it did have 70k. Asking price, $800.00
 
1978 a 68 GTS Dart 383 4 speed. Green with black interior. $800. Went to change the title and had to wait a week to get the title work straight so I could buy it. Went back to pick it up the next weekend and the guy had sold it 30 mins. before we got there. What an A$$. Then my brother talked me out of getting a 70 383 Challenger R/T Red with black interior. Buckets, console and a pistol grip. $1200 About 6 months later my brother looked at the same car for sale with a rod knocking. My brother was a mechanic and told me it was a lifter. I had to work that day. When he told me about the car we went to get it and it was sold just before we got there. That was the one that got away twice. 1980 a 70 Hemi Cuda and I had no money. Could of had it for $6000. Then there was a 70 Pink Challenger with a 340 3 speed about ten years ago. $500. and no place to put it.
 
1977, I was 19, newly married ,working full time, and going to community college nightly. 2 blocks away was a 67 Belvedere GTX, black on black, 426 Hemi, 4spd., Dana 60, totally unadulterated for $1600.00. I asked the guy if he would sell it to me on time but he wanted cash on the spot. It sat unsold for about a month when the owner moved it to his service station. It was stolen one evening about a week later!
 
It wasn't a car, but I still made a big mistake in 1977 when I phoned down to a wrecking yard in The Twin Cities, Minnesota for a 440. I was working that day, so I asked a couple of buddies to pick it up for me. The owner didn't quite have the right engine, so he offered a replacement to them - which they loaded up and hauled back to me, some 300 miles one way, polite fellows that they were. Well, I took one look at that engine and told them that they were just gonna leave it on the truck, take it back, and get me my $400.00 back. Oh yeah..... nobody was gonna stick me with some dumb looking engine with 4 holes in each one of the the huge, wide, dumb looking valve covers............ and that really dumb looking sideways kinda intake with the places for two carburators. Who'd they think I was Houdini - I only had one carb, was the other one supposed to pop out of mid-air........... ? Nooosireeee........... Not me............
I still wake up in a sweat............
Daryl
 
1991...just graduated hs. No money, no job. Guy selling 70 Challenger w/ 440 6-pack for 2200. It was not an original 6 pack car, but was a straight driver. Would've bought just for parts alone. DOH!
 
Back in 1970, two weeks after I bought my brand new 340 Duster (4speed, B5,B5) for $2600, my aunt said she would sell me her 68 Shelby GT500 (optional side oiler 427, 4speed) for $1800.

In 1975, just after discharging from the Army, I passed up or missed out on two deals. I passed up a 1969 Corvette with L-88 427, 4speed for $2600. I missed out, by 15 minutes, on a Hemi Superbird, 7k miles for $5000.
 
Man, these stories do hurt...I thought of a couple more I'd like another shot at...

1973 Barracuda 340--$1300 in 1987

1971 Challenger 340--$3500 in 1988

1972 Challenger 340--$2500 in 1988-89ish

1971 Barracuda Gran Tour 318--$900

Mind you, back then, none of these were rolling wrecks, these all ran and were straight. My folks kept hinting that they ould help me get a car since I wasn't working much in high school. But it never materialized...of course, being a dad now...I understand and don't blame them.

Oh yeah, 1978 Li'l Red Express Truck--$2800!!! This was niiiice!!!But in '87 nobody wanted it very badly.

Live and learn, I guess.
 
the one that kills me to this day.............my buddy had it for sale............

68 cuda fastback 318/2bbl, auto, factory 999 paint code omaha orange, all documentation, well optioned w/ ac, ps, buckets, console, rocker mouldings, dlx interior. $6000 and it had just had the engine rebuilt and a recent paint job. they did an article on a guy who had a 340 formula s and galen said it was 1 of 2 known to exist. when i read that, i tried my damnedest to kick myself in the nuts.
 
Forgot one:::Winter '84, a '64 Super Stock Hemi Belvedere, at the time running 11.9 with a 440. Clean, original paint, uncut, $3,500. Absolutely knew it was a mistake not to find a way to buy it, but had been laid off from my job for almost a year and already had 4 vehicles. Always knew the car was special, found out many years later it was the rarest of all '64 Hemi's:::a steel front end 4speed hardtop. Presently know it's whereabouts and at least it has a good home.
 
Well I really hate to tell this one I still have a bad taste in my mouth over it.Here a couple of months ago I answered an add to a 69 Roadrunner for sale! Finally after about 3 weeks the guy called me.Well he was in Baltimore on a new job and was relocating soon.I got the directions to go see the car and I did! Well it was a FINE FINE Example of a ROADRUNNER!One owner other than him,one repaint,383 auto,power brakes and power steering.Car looked LIKE NEW! Guy was asking $18000.00 Well I had the money and I called the seller back,while talking to him I did what most any buyer would do! I tried to get it a little cheaper.I never said anything negative just trying to save a little $$! Well I told the seller to think about it(MY OFFER OF $17500.00) and I will get back to you.Well After 2 days I thought (YOU KNOW I AM BEING STUPID! BUY THE DAMN CAR) Well I tried to contact the seller by his cell phone,no luck(I GUESS I HAD PISSED HIM OFF WITH MY OFFER).Finally I called his Wife back and she said sorry the car has been sold! I DAMN NEAR CRIED! I kick my self in the *** everytime I think of it! When I say the car was nice! Well on a scale of 1 to 10 this Roadrunner was a 8.5 to a 9 EASILY!
 
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