Wonderful story with a very happy ending. All you have to do was repeat that every week and voila - no need for a day job.
On Tue, Jan 24, 2017 at 10:56 AM, Dan Penoff via Mercedes < [email protected]> wrote: > I owned owned of these for about 7 days back in the early 1980s. > > I was doing fieldwork at the time and spent a lot of time on rural back > roads, which gives you the ability to see a lot of old cars sitting in > barns and sheds that would otherwise be totally unknown to the general > population. > > Out by Terre Haute, IN, I used to drive by an old farm that had a 54 Buick > sedan just like this one, only it had a blue with white side scallop paint > job. The car was tucked into an open shed on the side of the barn and > appeared to be moved from time to time. > > After seeing this several times over a period of about 3-4 months, I > stopped at the farmhouse and knocked on the door. An older woman answered > the door and invited me in. I told her I was interested in the car and > would like to purchase it if she ever sold it. She seemed interested, but > expressed concerns about the car being “hot rodded”. I went to great > lengths to explain that I was a purist and would never want to change the > car’s condition. That seemed to placate her in this respect. > > Long story short, her husband bought the car new and had driven it for > years. He had passed several years ago, after which she used the car to go > into town a couple times a month for groceries and errands. Due to failing > eyesight she hadn’t driven it for about a year, but her son came to the > farm regularly and would take it out for the occasional drive. > > I probably spent an hour and a half with her, listening to her stories and > getting a tour of the farmhouse. By the time I finally had to excuse myself > she seemed pretty satisfied that I was OK, I guess. She said she would > talk to her son and that she would have him call me. I emphasized my > intention to maintain the car as built and would offer a fair price. > > Got a call from the son a week or two later, and he was pretty nice. I > asked him what he thought it was worth and he said $800. We made a deal on > the spot and I arranged to come out the next weekend and pick it up. > > Drove out with a buddy the next Saturday and met the son. Mom was there, > too, and she made me promise I would take very good care of the car. I > assured her I would. > > Drove the car home and gave it the major Martha treatment. Only thing I > had to do was fix a leaky hose to the rear heater (this car had a rear > heater core under the back seat for the rear passengers!) It also had this > cool arrangement where there was no start position on the ignition switch - > you pressed the accelerator all the way to the floor, which depressed a > switch like a high beam switch to engage the starter. It also had the > “Wonderbar” (tube) radio, too. Cool. And 5,000 pounds of chrome, or so it > seemed. Damned front bumper must have taken me a day to polish, as I > recall. > > We had a weekly “cars and hotdogs” sort of thing at the local Dog 'n Suds > every Saturday night. I drove it down there the next Saturday, where a guy > offered me $2000 cash for it on the spot. > > I caught a ride home with a buddy. > > Dan > > > > On Jan 24, 2017, at 10:36 AM, Andrew Strasfogel via Mercedes < > [email protected]> wrote: > > > > 1954 Buick sedan with a time-capsule worthy dash. Currently under $1K. > > Runs when jumped! Stop me from giving in to my impulses. > > > > http://bringatrailer.com/listing/1954-buick-40/ > > _______________________________________ > > http://www.okiebenz.com > > > > To search list archives http://www.okiebenz.com/archive/ > > > > To Unsubscribe or change delivery options go to: > > http://mail.okiebenz.com/mailman/listinfo/mercedes_okiebenz.com > > > > > > > _______________________________________ > http://www.okiebenz.com > > To search list archives http://www.okiebenz.com/archive/ > > To Unsubscribe or change delivery options go to: > http://mail.okiebenz.com/mailman/listinfo/mercedes_okiebenz.com > > _______________________________________ http://www.okiebenz.com To search list archives http://www.okiebenz.com/archive/ To Unsubscribe or change delivery options go to: http://mail.okiebenz.com/mailman/listinfo/mercedes_okiebenz.com
