Good news/bad news: I've located my 1st car (!)...

[VintageMusclecar]

Bizarre turn of events today. This is gonna be kinda long, but there's quite a few points I need to hit to tie this story together. Sort of a "Back To The Future" story, so please bear with me.

As some of you may have seen in this thread I posted the other day, I've been looking for a project car, with a strong preference for a `67 Chevelle.

Right after I posted that thread, someone emailed me about a `67 SS they have for sale, but they don't have a title for it. I contacted my local title office today to see what hoops I'd have to jump through to get that car titled should I decide to buy it. That's another story, so lest I digress...

Rewind 23 years ago: I was 16 years old, and already a `67 Chevelle junkie. I happened across a `67 SS (a real 138 car) in the local paper for a mere $200.00. (remember THOSE days?!?) I bought the car and drug the remnants of it home, and proceeded to begin my learning curve. Someone had already pirated the engine, trans, 12 bolt and the SS hood. I didn't have much to work with, but it was a start!

Soon, the car had a 396 in it, with 11-1 forged pistons, prepped rods, a steel crank, OPCC heads, a nice lumpy Crane solid cam, and an OEM iron Holley intake. Since a 4-speed was a luxury I couldn't afford at the time, I stuck in a 400 turbo with a Vega converter (again, remember those days?), and my "deal-of-the-year", a fresh 12-bolt with 4.56 gears I scored for a measely $400.00.

It was loud, it was ugly, and it was fast! It did great burn-outs too, as witnessed by the attached pic.



(that was taken in front of a friend's house at his prompting...he had a few shots left on a roll of film he wanted to spend, and asked me if I'd oblige him with an "action shot" in front of his house...so I did )

Anyhow, a few years later, after several driveline incarnations, I decided to pull the car down to a bare body and frame to start fixing things the way they should be done. Boy, did I ever get in over my head on that one. One thing led to another, and after a couple of years of staring at the carcass in my gagare, I decided I wasn't going to be able to complete the car anytime soon. A friend had been bugging me to sell it to him anyways, so we struck a deal and he bought the car.

Part of the deal was that should he decide to sell it, I had first dibs to buy it back. It didn't quite pan out that way, unfortunately.

In the short time he owned it, he rebuilt the front suspension, stuck in a rebuilt 396 (based on a legit L78 block I might add), a 4-speed, a 12 bolt, and a nice set of rallys and tires.

Then he decides it's time to get married and settle down, so he needs to sell the car to scrape up the $$$ for a down-payment on a house. Despite my frantic efforts to scrape up the $$$ to buy the car back, he sold it to someone else.

(FWIW...that marriage didn't even last as long as his ownership of the car did...and he lost the house soon after that. )

Anyhow...

As I still have the VIN for my old Chevelle, I've tried several times over the years to track the car down, but to no avail. That is, until today.

Fast-forward back to today...I'm on the horn with the local title bureau regarding the other `67, the one with no title. Just on a whim, I asked the lady on the other end of the line if there was any way she could see if my old car was still titled in Ohio if I provided her with the VIN. *NOTE*...I'd asked this before on a few occasions and was told "no" each time in no uncertain terms.

At any rate, she says she can try the #, but she wouldn't be allowed to divulge the current owner because of the privacy act. I asked her to proceed anyhow, and she obliged.

To my utter amazement, the car was, and IS still here in Ohio!

Now for the bad news...it's at a dealership.

I asked her if she could divulge the owner's name since it was a dealership instead of a private party, and she said "yes."

2 minutes later, having googled the dealership, I'm on the phone with "G***", the current owner of the car. He gave me the basic run-down on the car; It has newer quarters (partials), and they weren't installed very well, starting to break out at the weld lines. The car is now turquoise, the interior is "mostly" there sans console which he says he has, and the wheels/tires are toast. He himself described the car as "sorta rough and needs work."

Other than that, "I could jump in it, fire it up and drive it anywhere I want to."

Pardon my skepticism, but I've heard that line many times before.

Then he told me his price. Apparently, he's suffering from "eBay-itis." (that is, if the car's in the condition he's lead me to believe it's in).

He's supposed to email me pictures in the next day or 2, so providing he follows through, I'll go from there.

I'm not holding my breath.

On one hand, I'm happy the car is still around and hasn't met it's fate at the crusher or anything similar. On the other hand, I've dreamed of finding the car for many years, and would LOVE to have the car back again, but it's not looking like that's going to happen unless the car is a LOT nicer than he led me to believe it is over the phone.

Nearly 20 years of dreams are looking to meet a rather anticlimactic conclusion.

Anyhow, that's my story, just thought I'd share.

[musclecarjohn]

Well that just sucks!

Get yourself all excited about finding your first musclecar only to learn the seller thinks it's worth a gazillion dollars!

I hope it works out for you this time...

[Supercar_Kid]

Cool story, even if your old Chevelle isn't something worth buying back, it's nice to know what happened to it since you've seen it last, and in this case at least you get the peace of mind knowing that it's still intact as a complete running car. Keep in touch with the seller...it's probably a car that hasn't gotten much interest at a dealership and perhaps you could negotiate a more reasonable price after he sits on it a little longer.

It sounds like the car might have enough sentimental value to you to justify the cost of a proper restoration. Doesn't sound like anyone else is gonna rescue her...so it's likely save it yourself now that you finally know where it is, or forget about it forever.
I know that last part is the toughest...

[427TJ]

I say buy it back. You only live once. Go for it. The car needs you! Buy it, do the work and do it properly, and you will look back and be glad you did. Imagine yourself in your old Chevelle, rumpy Rat underhood, five-spokes like the old photo, all done up right and looking fantastic and running even more so.

There's always 100 reasons to say no. Yes is almost always harder to say but it's often a lot more satisfying.

Do it. Don't think too much. Do it. You might lose sleep for a while but once that baby's in your garage you'll feel better with each passing day. Do it.

[camarojoe]

[ QUOTE ]
...unless the car is a LOT nicer than he led me to believe it is over the phone.


[/ QUOTE ]

I seriously doubt its alot nicer than the dealer described it... if it is it would be a history making event.

I'd still consider buying it back... I hope you didn't tell this dealer about it being your first car....if you did, you probably shot yourself in the foot and won't have too much leverage in negotiating... I'm sorta torn on what advice i would give you...while it would be cool to have your first car back, if its a rotted out, poorly running, falling apart and overpriced P.O.S., It may be something you can be GLAD isn't your car anymore. I know I've seen a car I sold only a several years prior, and after seeing it in its current state, any desire to own it again quickly diminished.

[Jeff H]

I'd go in and give him your price and leave him your contact information. After he doesn't sell it for weeks he'll dig out your contact information and probably come closer to your number than you think. If the car is as rough as it sounds with no original parts left it can't be worth as much as a more complete, original car. He'll learn that the hard way. Either that or go get a Honda Accord with a carbon fiber hood, big wheels, big rear wing, big fart pipe and trade it for the Chevelle. He'd probably have an easier time selling the Honda.

[djunod]

He'll probably gouge you for even more when he reads this thread...

[jg95z28]

A similar thing happend to me two years ago. I had already purchased my Gold 67 RS, thanks in part to my stepson helping to get me the bug to get back into 1st gen Camaros. He was still bugging me that he wanted a 67-69 Camaro, and he was willing to give up his supercharged 96 Mustang to get it. Well it was a slow day, in fact it was my birthday, and I was trolling ebay during my lunch hour looking at 1st gen Camaros and seeing what I might be able to get for under $10k and what is close to me in northern California. I then stumbled upon this ad for a powder blue 68 RS Camaro with medium blue stripes. I look at the license plate and low and behold the plate matches the plates on my first Camaro! I e-mail the guy to ask about the car, and after a few e-mails we determine it was my old RS. He had purchased it from a friend but was now selling it to buy a both. The friend had bought it as a parts car for the restoration of his 68 RS convertible but then changed his mind because he thought it was in too good of condition to part out. I had bought it in my freshman year of college for $3900 after my first car (A 67 Chevelle Malibu) had been totalled in a wreck. (Rearended by uninsured driver.) At the time it was all original, 327 2bbl PG with deluxe parchment interior. It was originally a British Green car, but the guy had painted it hugger orange. I had owned it through college which included replacing the original 327 with a rebuilt motor after it went south. (We did that in those days.) I also added headers (exhaust manifolds cracked), a 4bbl, dual exhaust, and fiberglass mono-leafs in the rear. I started to restore it after college and had plans to return it to British Green. After about 18 months and after finding countless amounts of bondo covering rust and body rot, I decided enough was enough. I didn't have the room or time to finish the restoration and my little brother was about to turn 16 and bugging me to sell it to him. I fixed the bad bodywork left from the previous owner, who by this time I deduced had bought it slapped bondo on it and painted it for a quick resale to me, and put it back together so my brother could use it as a daily driver and sold it to him for $1500. Within a year he had blown up the 327 and replaced it with a 355 along with pulling the PG and swapping in a TH350. He later sold it for $1100 when he couldn't get it to pass smog.

So here I was looking at my 1st Camaro online. The center console was now gone, but it still had the motor my brother built (it was painted lime green) and the stereo and Grant steering wheel I had installed when I owned it. The Parchment interior was now black and the center console was missing. The guy wanted $13K for it and knowing the condition of the body underneath the paint, I was skeptical it was worth that much. However, if it wasn't for that God awful paint job, I may have bought it back.

A week later I called the guy who had sold me the Gold 67 RS and he put me in touch with a guy selling a clean 67 coupe that had been sitting in storage for 25 years. That car ended up being the little blue 67 coupe I own today.

Things happen for a reason... but if it had been painted any color other than powder blue, I'd probably own my first Camaro again today.

Anyway, nice to see someone get the potential to purchase their first car back.

[VintageMusclecar]

The more I think about this, the more I doubt I'll try to buy it back. I don't want to quote the exact price he gave me, but let's just say for comparison's sake that last year there was a beautiful, original survivor `67 SS396 Chevelle for sale here on sYc, and (I believe) it was numbers-matching and unmolested. That one was avertised for roughly $2K more than what this guy wants for my old car...a car that's not #'s matching, and definitely not unmolested.

(FWIW, if I would have had the funds when that car was advertised here, I would now own that car)

The dealers "reasoning"...

"With a little bodywork and paint, I can get $30K+ out of that (my old) car."

Remember, this isn't a numbers-matching car.

If it's anything like he described it, it'll need 2 full quarters at roughly $600 a pop, labor to install them properly--I'll guess around $2-3K for that, re-chromed bumpers at around $750+ to re-do the originals, plus whatever peripheral issues need to be addressed, and if he intends on getting serious $$$ like he's talking, a $2K paint job ain't gonna cut it. Better make that $5000-$7500 minimum.

There's $10K + that I can pick off right off the top of my head. I'm sure there's more to do than that.

And it's still not a #'s matching car.

While it is my first car, and the sentimental attachment is HUGE, I'm just not willing to get screwed like that to get the car back. I've almost always gotten the short end of the stick on deals like this, and it's just not worth it anymore.

I don't mind someone making a fair profit at my expense, but I strongly advise against insulting me, and even moreso, trying to screw me.

At any rate...I have a pretty good idea of what to expect when/IF he sends me pics, and I might make the 8 hour road trip (round-trip) to go see it in person if the pics are even remotely promising. I'll take "X" amount of $$$ with me, and if my initial assessment is accurate, I'll consider making him an offer. A realistic one that's NOT an insult to either one of us. I know exactly what these cars are (and aren't!) worth. I won't bother leaving my contact info. It'll be a one-time offer on my part. If he bites, I've realized a dream. If not, I guess it was never meant to be and I'll just have to move on.

I'm already beginning to regret finding this car.

[jg95z28]

Take a few days and really think it through. That's what it took for me to get it out of my head about buying back my first Camaro. You're already ahead of the game, because you are using logic to determine what it will take and cost to make it the way you want it and compare that to what similar cars are going for.

You can always make another more suitable Chevelle look just like what you always wanted your first car to be had you been able to afford to build it when you originally owned it. (Did that make sense? )