Deals I missed out on 'back in the day'

[HeavyFuel]

$ 11,000 in 1988 for a 1970 petty blue superbird with a sun roof. when we passed on it the guy wrecked it pulling out of a parking lot. It sits in his barn now with frame damedge.

...didn't know a sunroof was an available option on a Superbird...

That's okay, I didn't know MH was alive in 1988.

[twilt]

around 1990, i had the chance to buy a rock solid running/driving 71 super bee. 440 car with $2500 worth of fresh engine work for $900.  i passed on it and instead bought a not running 318 70 charger out of a salvage yard for the same price. 

fast fwd to 1993. got a tip about a 71 R/T 440 4 speed car-solid car-missing engine- in a very rural junkyard about 60 miles away. I procrastinate and take 6 months to go down to look at it. In the meantime it had been crushed.   

[71Charger500]

Actually it happened TODAY.   Now my charger is almost complete, and im working my a$$ off just to get money for this one, much less another one.   So anyway, my friend says "dude theres a dodge charger down at this house".   We drive down there, and sure enough, sitting in the driveway (as he says it always does, at least its not in grass) is a bronze 1970 R/T SE w/ tan interior.   Exterior has a big dent in the rear quarter, and a little rust around the edges, and some bad paint, but nothing horrible, and the interior had a few rips, pretty nice though, and it was a 4 spd. pistol grip!   If I had to guess, i'd say 440.   Now its just sitting here everyday so I figure its for sale, my friends a big car guy too and me and him have been looking for something to work on, but even splitting the cost I doubt we could get what this guy will want, so I walked away without asking.   I don't like it nearly as much as my charger, but it'd be fun to have.

[Old Moparz]

I remember posting to a question like this earlier this year, but forget where. The few cars that come to mind, mainly because of the magnitude of doofusness at the time, are these.

1)   Spotted an ad for a 1970 Superbird in the early 80's. It said restoration started, all the dirty work was done, still needs assembly & paint, $2200 or B/O. I called on a Tuesday, ads came out Monday, needless to say it was already gone.

2)   Saw another ad for a Challenger convertible in the late 1980's while looking for a replacement car for my wife. The ad said new roof & new interior, $1200. The phone was busy for days, but when I got through, it was gone.

3)   When I tried to find a rplacement body for my first rot box Charger in the early 80's, I gave up & opened my range to all B-Bodies. I called about a rust free Road Runner in New Jersey with no price & I was told, "I want $3000 for it, but there's no motor." He then said it was an original Hemi car & still had the red, white & blue paint on it from when it was raced." I got directions to go look, but the next day the timing chain on my rot box, POS Charger let go. I had no motor to put in the Road Runner, so I called him back to cancel the appointment. Someone else bought it & eventually restored it.

I saw it at Englishtown a few years later & cringed.     (Here's what it was)

[GTX]

DAMN!!!

That one takes the cake!

3)  When I tried to find a rplacement body for my first rot box Charger in the early 80's, I gave up & opened my range to all B-Bodies. I called about a rust free Road Runner in New Jersey with no price & I was told, "I want $3000 for it, but there's no motor." He then said it was an original Hemi car & still had the red, white & blue paint on it from when it was raced." I got directions to go look, but the next day the timing chain on my rot box, POS Charger let go. I had no motor to put in the Road Runner, so I called him back to cancel the appointment. Someone else bought it & eventually restored it.

I saw it at Englishtown a few years later & cringed.    (Here's what it was)

[Ghoste]

I remember you telling that story now too Moparz.  Wow.  Did you know the person who did restore it?

[Old Moparz]

No, but it was at Raceway Park in Englishtown, NJ for the Mopars at Englishtown show (Now called the Mopar Atlantic Nationals) a few years after I had the chance to buy it. When I had called in the early 80's it was probably priced realistically without the Hemi, but a few years later prices jumped quite a bit. If I recall, I think the factory Hemi race cars in show condition that I had seen in Hemmings by then, were around $50,000 or more. Seeing it at E-Town really bugged the crap out of me.

Cheap by todays prices, but I can almost guarantee if I did buy it, the red white & blue paint would be in primer, & the car would have a 383 in it.   

[73rallye440magnum]

saw that one coming old moparz as soon as you mentioned red white and blue... that stinks. you were close. cool thread.

[CaptMarvel]

Nothing in particular, but when I first fell in love with cars back in the late 70's/early 80's, I regularly scoured the classifed ads & I could find big block late 60's Chargers & Roadrunners, early 70's Cudas, Challengers & even the occasional AMC Rebel machine all day long for under $2000.00. Did they have Hemis? I'm sure some did, but I would have been happy with any of them. These were the days of the gas crunch, & these cars were voracious gas drinkers and at least 10 years old, so they werent worth anything as a general rule, kind of like my old comic books from the late 60's/early 70's, which thankfully my mom did not throw out & I still have..... 

[andy74]

when i was 15 or 16, there was a guy on my paper route that had a 71 challenger,318,3 speed manual with no powersteering or brakes,banana yellow with black vinyl roof.he had put in a 4 point cage,and built a 340 for it,and it was all for sale for 500 bucks!! well my dad said hell no,because of the cage,and a buddy ended up telling his dad who bought it.i still see it once in a while,he did it up really nice,and my charger is faster!!


great stories here,keep em coming!

[triple_green]

in 1981:

68 Charger 426 hemi 4-speed tan with black interior, 60,000 miles (used to pull their boat). $1200. I was gone within 15 minutes of the newspaper coming out. I went to see it anyway just becuase I had never seen a 4 speed hemi Charger. The car was in pretty good shape too, not pristine but not too bad.

3X

[Brock Samson]

 Back in '91 when i was shopping El Camino Real for another van,.. I came across an orange '72 Baracuda Grande or whatever,.. padded roof console, small back window, decore group etc. it was a buddy seat three on the tree with tan int.  $pretty darn original '70k mile car, with good paint w. surface rust it was 5K.

but the ultimate story must await the telling for now.. 

[Bluestar]

Back about 1986, I have the oppotunity to buy an Orange 440+6 4 speed Superbird in Rhode Island.  The car was last inspected in 1971 and the odometer had 20K miles on it.  Needed a complete restoration, but the guy wouldn't sell the car to a couple punk kids.  Since we really didn;t have the cash at the time we never pursued the car and eventually it disappeared.

#2 About the same time frame a guy known locally as Mopar Bob had a 71 440+6 Cuda with the Shaker Hood, no Motor, but the original motor was available locally for sale from someone elese.  The whole thing could have been had for $4000 if I remember right.  I had my Charger at the time so I wasn't in the market for another car unfortunately.

#3 Found a complete 71 383 Cuda in a junkyard in the boondocks of RI.  THe car at the time wasn't worth saving, but we stripped every last Cuda part off of it including those crazy E-body Magnum exhaust manifolds.

#4  Convertible 68 Barracuda with 318 for free "IF" the guys son didn't want it.  Well turns out the guys son did want it and it is still sitting in the sons garage to this day basically untouched.

#5 1970 Convertible RoadRunner for $300 but the frame was bad so we passed.

[CaptMarvel]

Now that I've pondered a bit, I do recall one I kicked myself for. Back in 88 when I got out of my 4 yrs in the Navy, I returned to my home town of Clovis, Ca. to set up a house with my new bride & infant. One day outside a Togos, there was a copper 69 Barracuda convertable & it seemed really clean (I think it had a 340 & auto console?) anyway, the asking price was $3000.00 & we talked about it, but even though we were in the market for another car at the time, we decided for a Plymouth Turismo. The sometimes crappy part about growing up is choosing what you need vs what you want (level-headedness bites!)...I still remember loving that Barracuda though at the time....

[hemihead]

In 1982 passed on a mint Lemon Twist Superbird $3500. In 1979 on a used car lot I passed on an original Hemi Dart asking price,a mere $1250.

[69charger2002]

i've only passed on one.. went back and it was gone. 69 charger project car. $750, complete. missing windshield so the interior was all moldy and wet. i figured it wasn't worth it.. this was 1998.. and it's the only one i didn't buy(as many of you are well aware).. if i think it's a decent deal, i get it. no matter what.. i've never had a chance at a superbird or a daytona or a hemi car.. i came into the mopar world a tad too late(1997)
trav

[The Mad Scientist]

I missed out on a 67 Polara 2dr hardtop:   383 car, console shift 727, ac, ps, power disc brakes, white vinyl interrior with front bucket seats, original gold paint was flawless,car ran sweet and smooth, had good rubber, no cracks in the white vinyl top, and it had 33,000 original miles  

price tag was 2,500

[six-tee-nine]

Well..........

pfieuwwwww...

I would be very glad if I would find myself a '68 383 4 speed or a still running R/T project car for less than 10.000 dollar and i'm not even dreaming of #'s matching cars

[71charger_fan]

In 1978 I pass on a 73 340 Road Runner for (I don't remember exactly) about $2200 because it had a trailer hitch.

In 1980 I passed on a Petty Blue 440 Superbird for $6000, a 73 Charger 340 4 speed car (don't remember the money), 73 Charger slant six with a dead engine (free!, I just didn't have a place to store a non-running car at the time), and a 68 Barracuda 383 S fastback for $1800. I did buy a 68 Barracuda convertible which I wound up keeping for only a couple of months when I found out I liked the idea of a convertible a whole lot more than actually owning one.

In 1982 or 83 (forget which) I passed on a GT-350H in immaculate condition for somewhere around $7000 because I thought that was rediculous for a Mustang.

In 1987 I passed on a 71 Charger R/T, orange, white interior, 440 car, complete but with spun bearing and dented passenger fender for $2400 and on a 71 GTX air grabber car with a complete and decent body but no engine, transmission, or interior for $1200.

I did, however, hound the owner of the local C-P dealer to sell me his AAR he had squirreled away in the back. I was after him for years to sell me that car. Finally, one day, I was ready to kill him as he decided it had sat around too long and he just sold it. He knew me, knew how to reach me, he just didn't bother. Aaaaaaaaaaaaagh!

[MOPARHOUND!]

In 1981 I was about to turn 14, legal age for driving at the time in Kansas.   Needed a car.

Looked at a daily driven 1971 440 'Cuda with gilled fenders.   Someone had put a Holley 4 barrel on the car, but not knowing numbers back then, I don't know if it was a 440 6-BBL car, or a 383 car someone put a 440 in.   From what I understand, there were no 1971 440-4v 'Cudas.

The car was B5 Blue with black bill boards, but someone had repainted it at one time, and the engine call out was now solid black on the bill board.

The guy wanted $850 firm for it, but I only had $775 at the age of 13.   A month later I came up with the other $75, called him up, but the guy had sold it the night before to a guy from Kansas City.

Oh well, would probably have wrapped it around a tree.     Thus, I was banished to suffer driving a 6-cylinder 1969 Chebby Nova on my 14th birthday.  

[skip68]

In 1986 my buddy had a 68 R/T that was clean. I used to ride to school in it with him. I wanted the car bad when he said he would sell it to me for $800. but I was stupid and like 17 and even though I wanted it, I wanted to get a newer car ( 82 camaro) Oh well,thats one that got away!..........................