The one that got away... '82 or '83, I am pursuing my destiny as "Future Champion Motorcycle Racer of the World", which was an odd choice since one of the requirements was that you could actually see further than the tachometer...and I couldn't...but such is the folly of youth. Anyways, as part and parcel of the whole racing gig, I was living in abject poverty. And I mean so broke I couldn't pay attention. A truly soul crushing lack of spare coin. Racing is a demanding bitch that makes coke addiction look like a litany of sound financial judgment. As such my domestic accommodations were, to be charitable, a little on the funky side. And at this particular spot on the wheel of funk I was living in a nasty old boarding house on Capitol Hill, way before Capitol Hill became all fabulous. And Mrs Bramley's Boarding House for Wayward Souls was inhabited by people, by and large, too stupid or lazy to steal. Except for my clothes out of the washing machine, which they tried to steal on a regular basis. I shit you not. It was a great place to live if you didn't mind taking showers holding your wallet in your teeth. But living in the house next door was a nice older fellah. Looked like some refugee from the Beatnik-Hipster North Beach scene of 25 years earlier. And as we were politely chatting one day the subject of how little action my laminated City Bus Pass was generating from the opposite sex came up, so he mentioned that he had an old car in the garage. "Used to run great when I put it away" Well, I may have been poor, but I wasn't stupid. I had heard all the lines before: "Hey kid...it's restorable" "Sure it is, Pop..and so is the Titanic" But, what the fuck...let's take a look And yes, what old Maynard G Krebs had under a tarp, a few old mattresses, and some rolled up carpets was a genuine 1959 Abarth 750 Double Bubble :huh No, not all bright and shiny like the one above. The paint was a bit faded, and the interior was filthy. But it was all there. Every little switch and trim piece just the way it was delivered. It needed some elbow grease, a battery, and about $40 worth of new fluids and, for sure, Lonesome Jinx would be living La Dolce Vida. I think he wanted $3200 for it May as well have been a million And if I had actually become Champion Motorcycle Racer of the World...I would still be kicking myself over the Abarth that got away. So you can imagine how I really feel about it
i've known a few crazy old fucks who'd pinch a nickle for gold. one guy had one of those old round barns. stacked to to bottom with stupidbakers and dueces from the twenties er something wouldn't sell even a radiator cap.....fucker Burnt to the ground with a total loss. then there was a friends stepdad. had a field in the desert full of Falcons and "gasp" corvairs....well he died. the real kids inherited the lot and sold it all for scrap. there was actually some falcons out there that would have been the cats ass with a little spit. then there was the "bastard" ( he was a real cocksucker) down the road from the shop. a field full of edsels?! oser weird shit people collect expecting to someday cash in. then they drop dead.
i had a 70 tbird 4 door suicide. that was the baddest lead sled ever. faster from 60-120 than 0 to 60...and would take ten minutes to stop. but damn. the ride was like pimp. woulda been tha baddest hoopty Eva.! ...another one i let go.
Funny to see that car here... I grew up a few miles from where it sat, and it was well known in our high school. The house and yard were equally run down and cluttered with appliances and other vehicles. The 3rd-hand story I heard was that a friend's cousin had gone to the door to inquire about the car, and the man who lived there answered. He said the car was not for sale, and that it was his son's, and that his son was still coming to get it as soon as he got back from Vietnam. This was around 1990...
Wow - one of my all time favorite cars - there was guy just north of Chastain Park in Atlanta who had two of those - we used to stop in and visit when he was working in his garage with the door open. A few years later I found one for sale nearby that the owner (different guy) was storing in his parents garage - it had rotted out floors but was basically all there. I offered him $1100 for it and we agreed to meet at the house to exchange cash for papers. On the way over he had second thoughts and decided to hang on to it - I was disappointed but totally understood. Still regret not getting my hands on that little jewel....
They are definately out there, persistance,and patience, the ability to keep your mouth shut and cash are the key.Like other posters have mentioned I'm not talking about ripping off the elderly,I've known people to put in some serious sweat equity to get thier hands on a car.Lifetime lawn mowing,painting a house roofing a house all with no guarantee the car will ever be thiers. people get nasty over "thier" finds.I love when a guy starts poking around about a certain model, you know "Is there any way to tell a barndoor bus just from the front?" and six guys pop up with."That one over in Parma on the cul de sac road by the golf course is a barndoor but the lady won't get rid of it,I work with her daughter..."
The one that didn't get away... Meet Barney the Purple Dinosaur This was a genuine upstate New York Barn Job. God bless the 1970's, the era of cocaine and incredibly bad taste in paint jobs. Purple??....are you fucking kidding me? Sat in a genuine cow barn for the better part of a decade. Had to go this one on trust, as I could not see the bike myself. But I did have a source in the neighborhood, and the report I got back was "Cosmetically shite, Mechanically not too bad...and all the little bits are there" Now, I have wanted a V7 Sport since slightly after the Earth Cooled (meaning: "in my youth") but they have never exactly been a bargain. And while my financial condition had improved enough over the passing of a few decades to allow me to have moved out of Mrs Bramley's Boarding House, I was coming off a spate of unemployment after 9/11 pretty much nutted the Aerospace Industry and found myself, once again, a bit put upon to produce the (almost) $3K needed in actual coin of the realm...even after I sold my book collection, paid a bunch of bills, and moved the wolf into the yard from his previous perch at the door. So I traded a pretty nice (but radical) '66 Triumph I owned for Barney, a pretty well thrashed (but also complete and mechanically sound) Eldo, and some light restoration work. Couldn't salvage the Shark Fins though. Ah, fuck it, the Lafranconi Sport muffs are infinitely better noise makers. I tell myself that a lot And this is the one I hope some day will be my barn job. To complete the cycle. To pass something on to younger hands. When I am old and disheveled (OK, fuckos, older and more disheveled), this is the one I hope to have in the shed when some bright lad or lass stumbles upon it and asks: "Hey, Pops, would you consider selling it?" Just to have the pleasure of telling them to piss off PS - The '66 Triumph was a shed job I found on the back streets of Stonington CT. Hideous with a 16" Harley rear wheel stuffed into the back and a horrible pea-green paint job that could have been much nicer if only the artist had used a better quality broom to paint it with. It came home in a wheel barrow for $500..and that included my keeping the barrow. Turned out to be the most expensive bike I ever owned
One time I had to go out to the old Bridgeforth place on a prowler call. It is an ancient falling down mansion. This old lady lived there with a bunch of cats. She lived alone and was the last one, everyone else had died off. One of the garage (big as my house) doors had a gap in it. It had a chain so I couldn't see inside very well. But I could see there were some old cars with the big fenders inside covered with dust. I know I saw RR and something like Dowserberg of Densburg or something? I gotta get some sleep, latter.
I found both of these books at my local library - first rate car porn. The Cobra in the Barn: Great Stories of Automotive Archaeology [ILLUSTRATED] (Hardcover) The Hemi in the Barn: More Great Stories of Automotive Archaeology by Tom Cotter and Jay Leno (Hardcover - Oct 15, 2007)
In 1995 I was offered a 67 GTA Mustang. One owner, little old lady story. White with black interior. All original with reasonable mileage. I passed when the dealer told me $10,500 firm. I found a 70 Boss about two months later and bought that instead. Those Mustang guys are a tightly wound bunch, but I keep my eyes open none the less.
Buddy of mine owns a small bike/atv repair shop and over the past 3 years has made some killer deals on bikes. last summer a guy phoned him, asking if he ever bought used bikes, etc. He said he did and would be interested in the guy's bike and could come see it in a week or so. The guy offered to bring it by that day....2 hours later he shows up with a Yamaha RD 400 (I can't remember what year) and my bud buys it for $500 cash. I stopped by later and was eyeballing it....has 512 miles on the clock and appears to be 100% original. Year before: A very nicely restored BSA Royal Star, purchased from a widow that called them. I was a bit upset over that one as the widow also had a BSA that her husband had purchased from my father back when I was in the USMC and couldn't convince him to keep around. Her son apparently kept it though.
My neighbor two doors down...I would ask him how much he wants for it, but I'm sure it would be sitting in my driveway in the same condition ten years from now if I bought it.
The no post hard top. BTW: One of these days you'll realize...I'm from California, and my dad is from..well, kind of everywhere. Dork. He tried listing all the vehicles he's had over the years and stopped when he got to >500 and started to run out of memories. My dad is a real vehicle lover.
Tried to find a picture of it. A little over 2 yrs ago a D-type Jaguar was found in a garage in the Vegas area. I am sure it was a LOT of money. I remember seeing the car at Quail Motorsports gathering. Not many left to be found.
