The one that got away

[6t8-390gt]

I remember about 2 years ago I was driving home from work when I noticed a 68 Fastback on the side of the road, going 55mph I take a quik look. GT grill and lights, faded paint and a hood scoop. Right away I discount the hood scoop, but before the next traffic light I convince myself to turn around.

Low and behold it's a 68 1/2 428 CJ car. Original motor, trans, and rear, moderate rust, but complete car. I call and speak to the wife of the owner, she says the owner has had it since the mid to late 70's and is asking $10,000 for the car. I ask for the owner to call b/c I had more questions. She said he was busy and would not call I had to deal with her. She did not know anything about the car other than what she already told me. Not liking her attitude and not needing another project I passed on the deal.

Anyone else still kicking themselves over missed deals???!!!

 

[390cs68rcode]

IF that were me I would be kicking myself.

I can tell you I would not have passed on that. :grin:

 

[68sunlitgold]

a few years before "Gone in 60 Seconds" came out, I was trying to round out my collection by buying a 68 fastback, but of course it had to be Sunlit Gold. Well I must have turned down over 10 fastbacks that were under $3k (most had little or no rust) just because they were not Sunlit Gold. I even turned down one that had all the body work done and just needed paint for $2500, but it was red. Boy was I dumb!!! Oh well maybe someday.

Doug

 

[rvrtrash]

The year is 1977 and Al Gore hadn't invented the internet yet, so info was hard to come by. A naive 19 year old was home for the summer from college and cruised by the local Ford dealer to look at cars. On the lot was a plain white 1965 Mustang fastback with a price of $6,000 , a lot more than 65's were going for at the time. It had a fiberglass hood with a molded in scoop, fiberglass front valance, plexiglass rear window with a little spoiler molded into the top edge, no rear seat- just a fiberglass tray kind of thing with the spare tire sitting in the middle of it. Why was this cobbled together Mustang worth so much he wondered? About three weeks later I found out and rushed back, only to be told that the 350R was already sold.
Steve

 

[390cs68rcode]

I wonder what 11 year old 2007 Shelby's will be selling for in 2017? :icon_ecst

 

[Mosesatm]

About two years ago a friend of mine from Eugene, who knows nothing about Fords, called for some advice. He said that some guy who owed him a lot of money wanted to trade him 2 Shelbys in exchange for the debt. I was in a funeral home in Lafayette, California at the time so I was only half paying attention to him until he said that one car was supposed to be a '67 Shelby GT500 with a 427 side oiler and the other was a Paxton '67 GT350. He said that they both needed work but wondered if they were worth at least $40,000. Good Lord, either of them would be worth that if he was accurate in his descriptions, but alas he was close but not dead on.

He called a couple days later and said that the GT500 had a replacement 427 side oiler crate motor and the GT350 had a dealer installed Paxton. Oh well, so much for winning the lottery. I was going to be in Seattle the following week so it was nothing to take a day to drive to Eugene and look at the cars.

The 350 was in need of a complete restoration but the 500 was restored to the primer stage. All it needed was to have the paint applied. It had been parked in a mechanic's shop since 1973. When the owner blew the original motor he took it to the mechanic (an expert Ford big block rebuilder) to install the new crate motor. While the engine was out of the car he had the local body shop fix up the body. The guy never paid for the motor so the mechanic held on to the car for 30+ years.

We prepped both cars and fired them up. The GT500 was pure heaven. The poor 289 had been run hard and put up wet but it fired and ran with valor.

The 2 potential new owners (my friend and the mechanic) figured they needed $45K to get their money back out of the deadbeat and asked if the cars would fetch that amount on the open market. I told them could easily get $15K for one and $30K for the other and they should make the trade. For the help I gave the they offered the cars to me at that price.

I thought about it for a second or two but turned them down. I don't regrete not buying the cars because at that time I didn't have a place to keep them and I was happy spending a day working on the cars and helping the guys out......but someone were to offer me the same deal today it would be a whole different story!

 

[Gatorbait]

The one I missed was when I was 16 years old (1986), and really getting into cars. I was looking for one to twist my dad's arm to help me restore for my first car. I was out riding my three wheeler and found this car sitting in a barn. I had remembered seeing it drive around town when I was much younger and standing at the bus stop. It had this really cool huge wing thing on the back. I knocked on the door and the lady said it had been her son's car, but he was gone away somewhere and had abandonded it. She wanted $1500 for it. I poked my head in the barn and saw the engine all tore apart (manifold off, valve covers laying around with dirt in them) and two very large rust holes in the top of the rear fender where it met the roof. It looked like too much of a project for me, and $1500 was all the money in the world to me at 16. Instead, I spent $1600 on a Gulfstream Aqua 68 Mustang coupe with a 200 six and a 3 speed, which basically needed paint and seat covers.

By now, some of you have figured out that car in the barn was a Plymouth Superbird, and I figured that out too about a year later and made a b-line for that barn only to find it empty. I still get sick to my stomach thinking about missing that one.

 

[hcsstang]

When my son was about 16 ,he knew where every mustang was for sale. So he took me on one of his excursions and he showed me a Shelby that was for sale . He sure tryed to pursade me to buy it . but I didn't have much money at that time. So I passed it up and he still reminds me of that time. This past weekend we went out to eat and ran across a car salesperson who likes Shelbys. He told that he has owned a total of 42 Shelbys in his life time. He dosen't have one at the present time. I don't know if he was pulling my leg or something else.

 

[rvrtrash]

I guess I got lucky and listened to my son. He's the one that talked me into going to look at a couple of Mustangs he'd heard were for sale and that's how I found my CS and Boss 351.:wink:
Steve

 

[jk89cat]

when i was in high school, back in the early 90's the body shop that was fixing my then wrecked saab 900 turbo , i noticed a ok looking stripped t mustang fastback, well it turned out to be a 67 gt500 sans motor and trans, i could of had it for 4k , the body was all there, the fastback window was gone and missing 50% of the interior . i was 7 at the tiem, and i begged my dad , and any relative who would listen to me, just me and my family didnthave the cash at the time . if i was 18 i would tryed to get a loan for it, but i missed it, it sold before my saab was done beign fixed

 

[Mustanglvr]

My GT/CS could have been the one that got away.

Now that I look back at all the opportunities to buy cars, I guess buying my GT/CS was the best one yet. The GT/CS was my dreamcar from the time I was really little. It was really all I ever wanted. And it happened that just before I heard about my car, I had just gotten a $20,000.00 windfall! I was planning on only spending $3000.00 or $4000.00 on a 67 GT or something from a friend who has Mustangs, but never in my wildest dreams did I think I`d get a California Special. I spent twice as much money for it, compared to what I planned on spending, but it was well worth it. Now I`m broke again but I have my California Special!:grin: :rofl: :teleport: :cheesy:

 

[19HCS68]

I lost out on two great cars in 1983. Both ironicly was being sold for $13000 FIRM. Both cars were in PRIMO condition. The first one was a black 1971 Jaguar XKE coupe. It had it all, V-12, manual trans, knock off wire wheels, low miles,everything original. It was beautiful. The other was a blue 1967 Vette. It was also loaded, 427 tri-power, 4 spd, side pipes, low miles, all original. I was 20 then and it would have been daily driver in Utah. Couldn't get either one for practicalities. No fun in the snow. Not to mention what insurance would have cost me at that age. I look back and wish I could have got at least one of those cars. But thats the way it goes. Hind sight is always 20/20. :wink:

Gary

 

[ironhorse]

Several got away ...

I had a fair share of cool Mustangs get away in the 1980s and 1990s ...
I remember looking at a '69 GT Sportsroof with a 390 in 1986. I think they wanted $3,500 Canadian for it, and I thought I'd better pass because I was going to college in the fall (and already had to sell my 351-2V '69 Mach 1). Besides, the Q-code 428 was long gone. Sigh ...
In 1990, I owned a 1984 20th anniversary special GT (the one with the red GT-350 striping that got Ford into trouble). I looked at a sister car in a junkyard near Edmonton, Alberta, that had been hit hard in the front. I could have had it for $1,000, but that was more than I could scrape up. Oh, and it was one of the specials with the turbo 4 instead of the 5.0 ... something like only 300 of those were made. Sigh again ...
Back in 1995, I saw a rough '70 Sportsroof in a parking lot here in Calgary, Canada. It had all the typical Seventies mods: Jacked up rear end, shackles, leaky sunroof, crushed velvet dash and seats, hacked-in AM/FM cassette and plenty of rust from a rough life on Canadian streets. I still should have left a card on the dash, though, when I saw the "G" in the serial number -- G as in Genuine Boss 302. Sigh sigh sigh ...
Oh well, at least I've got my GT/CS.
Kevin

 

[rvrtrash]

OK, one more from me. 1976 and my girlfriends, sisters, boyfriends best friend had a '70 Boss 429 sitting in his garage. I told him if he ever got rid of it, I wanted it. A few month later I broke up with my girlfriend and a few months after that ran into the sisters boyfriend. They'd been looking for me but my ex-girlfriend wouldn't tell them where to find me. The guys friend had just sold the Boss to someone in Seattle for $2,000.00 . What do they say about the wrath of a woman scorned?
Steve

 

[6t8-390gt]

Like everyone else I missed my fair share, I'll share another one... When my car was in the bodyshop (2000) I noticed a 70 Sportsroof on the side of the road it was complete but rough, obviously modified. I was not interested and drove by the car a hundred times before I finally stopped. The price on the window was $4500. It had a modified big block in it and had been drag raced. I checked the VIN and it had a "G" engine code, which at the time did not readily know. I went home and that evening checked the engine code...BOSS 302, the next day I went back and the car was gone!!!

I am embarassed to say I have similar stories on a 65 Shelby, 68 GT350, 68 GT500KR, and a KR Convertable. How I wish I could turn back the clock!