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Comments
Sounds like he really knows cars. I'd be worried about the why behind the 'not starting'.
Shifty Sez: "Expect the worst and you'll never be disappointed"
** TRUE STORY (eye witness)--- friend of mine bought a very clean Volvo 240 that wasn't starting---seller said it was "running rough".
He got it started and the engine shook like holy hell. The whole car vibrated.
He took the head off, only to find NO PISTON inside one of the cylinders and a leather belt wrapped around the crank pin oil galley.
(I found him a good used engine, eventually).
Now that's a horror story.
On my Benz, I've now put on something like 2k miles. Lessee... $1500 purchase price, $70 aux water pump, $30 speakers (do those count?), ~$12 in oil so far, $280 winter tires (again, do I count those? tires that came on it are new, just not good for winter, so I'll be putting those back on in April), $20 heater fan rebuild kit, $20 heater valve ... I think that's it. So still less than $2k so far.
It has now busted through its backyard exhaust patch it came with. I'm not addressing that yet, though. Its just before the first muffler. Inspection is good till 2011, so either I'll fix it before that time or before selling, whichever comes first (like that's a riddle). :shades:
'11 GMC Sierra 1500; '98 Alfa 156 2.0TS; '08 Maser QP; '67 Coronet R/T; '13 Fiat 500c; '20 S90 T6; '22 MB Sprinter 2500 4x4 diesel; '97 Suzuki R Wagon; '96 Opel Astra; '11 Mini Cooper S
My parent's neighbor had an 86 5th Ave bought new. He put over 250K before any major trouble (reverse got cranky). I remember it had awesome tufted leather seats and frigid A/C (I swear today's cars don't get as cold).
Uh-oh, that aroused my curiosity! Tell Andre all about it!
And finally, FINALLY, that dude I sold my '68 Dart to finally came and picked it up! I kinda miss it, as I went through hell and back with that Dart, and it's been a part of my life for 17 1/2 years. But it also hasn't run since 2001, and it's got 338K miles on it, and it's just time to move on. So, while I was a bit sad to see it go, I was also humming "Na-na-hey-hey-good-bye" as it got towed away...
I can't believe the guy finally picked up the Dart, even though he paid for it (what?) a year or so ago.
I was saddened to part with my '80 Volvo 240 after 21 years of ownership, but I can honestly say I don't miss it much now.
Yeah, it was around New Year's that he paid me in full for it. He kept saying that he'd come get it, but would always come up with some plausible excuse, like losing his garage space when he had to fix his daughter's car, and then one day he was going to pick it up, but his daughter's door got kicked in and the place burglarized, so he had to secure it, and the last was that the truck he was going to use to pull it away with died on him. I called him yesterday and told him that the thing is starting to get in the way. I've been having to drive around the thing, on the grass, which wasn't so bad during the summer, but now that growing season's over, everything's getting wet and soft. I almost got my '79 5th Ave stuck in the yard trying to go around it last week, so I'd had enough. Plus, I've been wanting to get more gravel delivered so I can widen my driveway, but where I wanted to dump it was roughly where the Dart was parked.
Another problem, is that the house two doors down from me is vacant, and the owners are starting to use it as a bit of a junkyard. There's a partially dismantled 80's International school bus, plus a couple of handicap vans, and a few wrecked cars on the property...all of them untagged. My neighbor, who's between us, wants to call the county on them. Actually, one of my roommates does, too. But I've been begging them to hold off until I got that Dart out of here, because I was afraid that if the county came sniffing around, that Dart would draw attention. It had gotten to the point that a wild honeysuckle bush had sprouted beside it, and grown taller than the car. Amazing, how fast those things grow!
Same kind of thing happened in our neighborhood. One neighbor does ZERO upkeep to his yard, so the city inspect his yard...and everybody else's, when he complains he's being singled out. Surprise, we all have to trim our trees back from over the street :mad:
And the neighbor? His yard still looks like :sick:
Why? Trees look nice when they overhang a street... especially when they do so on both sides and form a complete canopy over the road!
We used to have massive maple trees down the main street of my town (Helix, Oregon) that were a century or more old, and they covered the whole road, which was probably 60' wide. I have fond memories of riding down that street on my bicycle in the cool shade on hot summer days....
Unfortunately, they were getting toward the end of their lifespans in recent years and were removed in order to rebuild the sidewalks and curbs. When the city rebuilt, they took tree growth into consideration (which was not done the first time) when replanting and placing the walks. Maybe in another fifty years.....
Oh just what I would want... more leaves to rake and more bird droppings to clean off the car. Trees look nice, but between them tearing up the sidewalk and everything else keep them in the backyards. I currently have to take one out that the previous owners put too close to a retaining wall in my the corner of my yard. So not only do I have to pay for tree removal I have to put on my mason's hat and fix the wall. :sick:
Nah, I had moved the Dart onto my gravel driveway back in early 2008, so it was easy for the tow truck to just back up and get it. As for the DeSoto, if it's roadworthy by then, I'll have it at the Mopar show!
I'm surprised nobody has a scale model of the 1957 DeSoto. Danbury Mint has two of the 1957 Chrysler New Yorker and two of the 1957 Chrysler 300, several variations of the 1958 Plymouth, and even a 1956 DeSoto.
1) The Dart is gone to its new home
2) The DeSoto has gone to the mechanic for a freshening up
3) The 'Trep is waiting to be picked up now that it has been totaled
Sounds to me like you've got quite a lot of space to fill in your yard! C'mon, get moving and get a replacement for the 'Trep already.
Probably worth $1000---should be easy to fix up cosmetically, but I bet the wiring is a rat's nest and there's no functional bed.
He's now getting pestered from about a dozen of us with advice on what to replace it with.
Thanks. Fortunately, the car was unattended in a parking lot when someone pulled a hit-and-run on it. Damage isn't all that bad, but at 10 years, 150K miles, it was enough to total it. I would've been tempted to buy it back and fix it up myself, but the salvage laws in Maryland are kind of a pain and try to discourage that.
I've been planting oak saplings all about in the yard. I've been finding them coming up in inconvenient areas like under my grandmother's deck, my neighbor's flower garden, etc. I'm probably going overkill with 'em, but as slow as they grow, I'll probably be dead by the time they're big enough to worry about!
There's one oak tree that came up in my grandmother's yard near the property line that's maybe 18 feet tall now. Well, I found and old picture of the DeSoto taken around 1991 in that same part of the yard, and the tree wasn't there then. So, if it takes 18 years just for that, I guess I'd better be patient!
I always find it frustrating when a car meets its end in such a way. I still have not quite made amends with the loss of my '96 Outback.
Per 'Trep replacements, how about a V-6 Lucerne? Try to get a 3.6 as I think the 3.8 is no match for the Lucerne's size. I was thinking how more sensible a Lucerne would've been than the Cadillac DTS I instead purchased. Funny, I'm sure everybody would love to see you get some kind of hot rod Poncho or Mopar muscle, but I see you were thinking more like 4-cylinder Altima, Fusion, or Honda in another post. How about a 4-cylinder Malibu?
I don't believe the 3.6 is available in the Lucerne. It had the 3.8 and the Northstar originally. Then last year it got the 3.9 from the Impala. I have driven the 3.8 and the V8 and can tell in that car the V8 is the only way to go IMO. Much more reifined and powerful for not that bad a hit in FE.
Stripper
Beast
Another 80s Mopar for Andre
Yeah, its only 110 hp, but still kinda cool.
'11 GMC Sierra 1500; '98 Alfa 156 2.0TS; '08 Maser QP; '67 Coronet R/T; '13 Fiat 500c; '20 S90 T6; '22 MB Sprinter 2500 4x4 diesel; '97 Suzuki R Wagon; '96 Opel Astra; '11 Mini Cooper S
When I was in high school a kid I knew found one of those Supras...maybe even the same color as that one. It was nice when he got it...not so nice as time passed :sick:
What was there was an aluminum body and front and rear suspension---that's it---no interior, drivetrain, gauges or paint.
Well the pawn shop guys don't know diddley about Cobras so they take it to a Vegas Cobra expert. Everyone is initially dubious since there are a gazillion replicas out there, some of which do work in aluminum.
Anyway, I'm lookin' at the car through the TV screen and I'm thinkin' "you know, this car looks pretty real".
SURE ENOUGH, the VIN #s are all there.
Guy (clueless) sells it to the pawn shop for $30K; the pawn shop invests another $80K or so to restore it (with a big-A 427 aftermarket block, and replica parts).
So the shop is into it $110K. Of course, it's not going to bring the same money as a correct Cobra, but still, he's going to come out pretty fat on it.
Why can't I find things like that in storage yards?
All I find are things like 1/2 a rusted Triumph Spitfire or a '95 Taurus with 4 flats and different colored doors
Oh that's not exactly true---I do get lucky once in a blue moon.
How much would that chassis have been worth untouched? I wonder if they might have netted more just selling it that way?