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Raceman
09-08-2002, 10:15 AM
My neighbor of 7 or 8 years directly across the street was into GTO's already when I met him. He and a mutual friend had bought several which they kinda worked on together. (the other friend's money, my neighbors time and knowledge of Ponchos) Anyhow, this deal kinda got stale, the cars left, and my neighbor decided to buy one of his own. He built a nice, brick 2 car garage in the back yard just to keep the new project in, just so his other garage wouldn't be jammed with it. It was a 65 tri power, 4speed, convertible, with fair paint and real solid, except for a couple of patch panels........a pretty decent car that he decided to strip and paint. The UPS trucks rolled to the door with boxes of repop parts, the front sheet metal came off and went to the dip shop, the engine seeming to be in relatively good mechanical shape was removed, detailed and re installed. There the project stalled for several years. One day as I was pulling in my driveway I noticed a "for sale" sign in their front yard. I went over and asked, and they said they were moving a couple of blocks down to a single story, being tired of a two story house for just the two of them. I saw her in the yard the next day and said, "why don't you get him to sell me the old GTO since you've only got a 3 car garage at the new house?" She said, "well he's thinking about takin' early retirement next year and I hope he'll get re-interested in it. He's gonna need a hobby."
So moving day comes and he calls and wants me to help him move it to the new house. I told him that the car trailer is so much trouble I don't usually fool with it for short trips, especially for cars that don't run, 'cause a rollback guy I know will move em around within 20 miles for $25.
He asked me to call the guy and I did. So the rollback showed up and they were trying to get the GTO out and it's dragging a rear wheel. (brakes locked up) They got it loaded and headed to the new house. They were trying to get it unloaded and having the same difficulty with the dragging wheel. My neighbor asked the wrecker driver (who he'd never met previously), "how'd you like to have this car?" The drive said he'd love to but couldn't afford it now. My neighbor said, "yes you can, get it outta here". The wrecker driver: "what do you mean?" "Get it out of here, I'm giving it to you", my neighbor said. "When you get it unloaded at your house, bring the truck back, because I've got a ton of spare parts to give you".

Needless to say, several hours later I heard the story and was flabergasted. I called the wrecker driver and asked him to sell me the car. He said he was keeping it and intended to finish it.

That's been a little over a year. The wrecker guy's hauled several cars for me since then. Each time the old GTO comes up. Last week I bought another old Corvette and called him to bring it home. I asked about the GTO....same answer.

Friday he called. (yesterday) I've decided to sell the GTO. I promised you first choice. I want to sell it today. We struck a deal and he delivered it this morning in two trips, first the car, then most of the extra parts, one more load due next week.

I would've preferred to buy it from my neighbor, but I'm just glad to have it. Fortunately it was in dry inside storage and the bare metal hasn't begun to surface rust. My critical storage problem just got 1 car worse, so I'm hoping to take it straight to a body shop Monday if I can find one with a hole in the schedule.

eautosales
09-11-2002, 08:01 PM
just take it to my house:D
i have lots of garage space