Two Dead Cars
At least I'm not carrying around two dead cars.
I've been giving Autumn's comment quite a bit of thought. After considering how much money I'd have to dump into the Starfire and the Cougar to really get them back to decent condition I've decided it's not worth it. Buying fully restored classic cars that someone else has already invested time and money into would be cheaper than trying to do the work myself. That's the thing with old cars. You rarely get a return on your investment out of them. At best, you break even. Maybe at some point in the future I will be in much better financial shape to afford a hotrod or two. Now isn't the time.
When I moved into this place a few years ago I had the Oldsmobile towed here by a nice old fellow who doesn't ask any questions. In many ways he reminds me of the actor Bruce Dern. He's got a rusty, beat up tow truck and he'll haul just about anything with it for cash. He doesn't care if the vehicle that needs to be moved is currently registered or if it's insured. All he wants is cash up front. He's a very useful person to know. The last time he hauled the Olds for me he expressed interest in buying it. So I called him up first to see if he wanted to snag it. Tow Truck Guy told me he would have a while ago, but he was getting too old and just sold off his whole car collection. All he had left was one hotrod and a vintage fire truck which was for sale. Bummer.
Canopener had also asked about the Olds once. I called him and asked if he wanted the car. He thought about it, then said yes. Cool. That was going to work out well because he worked for a heavy equipment rental company. They had car haulers, trailers, probably even had tow trucks of their own. Canopener planned to be by to pick it up in a couple of days.
One down, one to go.
Just for the hell of it I went into IRC late at night and hit our clan's Urban Terror channel. Plenty of gamers were in there lurking like usual but nobody was saying anything. I typed in, "Is anyone here interested in a 1968 Mercury Cougar?" Nothing happened for a few minutes. All of a sudden I received a private message from one of the Urban Terror development team members, a guy who went by the player name "Oswald." He started asking questions about the car. Actually Oswald seemed really interested in it so I told him about every single thing that was wrong with the car. I mentioned the recent fire that had burned up a bunch of it's electrical wiring harness, all the cosmetic damage inside and out, etc. I sent him recent pics of the exterior damage. Oswald still wanted the car.
Well, shit. That was easy enough. All he's got to do is come get the damned thing.
I've been giving Autumn's comment quite a bit of thought. After considering how much money I'd have to dump into the Starfire and the Cougar to really get them back to decent condition I've decided it's not worth it. Buying fully restored classic cars that someone else has already invested time and money into would be cheaper than trying to do the work myself. That's the thing with old cars. You rarely get a return on your investment out of them. At best, you break even. Maybe at some point in the future I will be in much better financial shape to afford a hotrod or two. Now isn't the time.
When I moved into this place a few years ago I had the Oldsmobile towed here by a nice old fellow who doesn't ask any questions. In many ways he reminds me of the actor Bruce Dern. He's got a rusty, beat up tow truck and he'll haul just about anything with it for cash. He doesn't care if the vehicle that needs to be moved is currently registered or if it's insured. All he wants is cash up front. He's a very useful person to know. The last time he hauled the Olds for me he expressed interest in buying it. So I called him up first to see if he wanted to snag it. Tow Truck Guy told me he would have a while ago, but he was getting too old and just sold off his whole car collection. All he had left was one hotrod and a vintage fire truck which was for sale. Bummer.
Canopener had also asked about the Olds once. I called him and asked if he wanted the car. He thought about it, then said yes. Cool. That was going to work out well because he worked for a heavy equipment rental company. They had car haulers, trailers, probably even had tow trucks of their own. Canopener planned to be by to pick it up in a couple of days.
One down, one to go.
Just for the hell of it I went into IRC late at night and hit our clan's Urban Terror channel. Plenty of gamers were in there lurking like usual but nobody was saying anything. I typed in, "Is anyone here interested in a 1968 Mercury Cougar?" Nothing happened for a few minutes. All of a sudden I received a private message from one of the Urban Terror development team members, a guy who went by the player name "Oswald." He started asking questions about the car. Actually Oswald seemed really interested in it so I told him about every single thing that was wrong with the car. I mentioned the recent fire that had burned up a bunch of it's electrical wiring harness, all the cosmetic damage inside and out, etc. I sent him recent pics of the exterior damage. Oswald still wanted the car.
Well, shit. That was easy enough. All he's got to do is come get the damned thing.
posted by factory_peasant at 11:09 AM
4 Comments:
i bought a 51 chev once... and sold it a couple of years later...
total sympathy man.
god that car was funny, too bad i couldn't do it!
'51 huh? was it a business coupe? i like some of those but the split front window kinda bugs me. think they iced it in 1954. was just looking at a 1952 ford victoria with a continental package on it. guy was a flake though and never followed through with extra pics. didn't want to waste a trip over to check it out ya know...
yes, yes it was.
anyway i found the manual and eventually sold it to someone who had another one. i think he bought it for the manual.
apparently it's hard to get shop manuals which is weird cause this guy just ordered me one from someplace.
yeah actually some of those original GM shop manuals are worth their weight in gold. they are interesting because you can see exactly how GM mechanics were supposed to repair/replace 100% of parts in the vehicle. very useful.
when i gave the olds to canopener it came with the original GM shop manuals an extra rochester 4brl carb, a full set of the tri-bar hubcaps and a variety of spare parts. was a good deal for free, no?
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