What is your "one that got away" story?

[Piston_Twister]

My neighbor had a 66 Mustang coupe, black paint, white vinyl top with a red interior...first time I saw a Mustang up close. It sat in his side yard, which faced my homes front yard. She was a yard ornamnet for sure...10 years of watching that car it never moved...yet somehow she kept clean (didn't look like a usual yard ornament covered in dirt, dust and pollen).

Well when I got my license I asked if he ever wanted to sell...typical answer, "no". This went on for a few years. At the decade point of watching, I was getting ready to move out, thought I would give it one more shot and ask. We just had a huge storm the night before, I walk out to see the biggest tree in his yard uprooted...and you know where it landed...pancaked that poor car. I almost cried to see that.

And the smart a** looks at me at that time and says..."I think I am ready to sell now...still interested?"

Michael

 

[caspianwendell]

Back in 1977 or 78 a guy who had a space in a storage unit across from me bought a car for the engine and transmission. He was trying to sell the rolling shell for $500.00. I went over to check it out and noticed a tag on the radiator support that read "not intended for highway use, competition use only" It was a factory super stock Hemi Cuda... if I knew then...

Yeah but you would need the engine and tranny to get the big bucks

 

[droptop73]

True but on a racecar numbers don't mean anything. Race history is another factor.

 

[mweeps]

I have found several cars that Dad wouldn't buy for me in High School. Two 70 Boss 302's Grabber orange one with a Shaker and a non-shaker Medium Lime Metallic. A 69 Cyclone CJ for $3500 in 1988. But the biggest miss was a 68 GT500KR Convertible. Original owner car with 40k miles. Dark Highland Green with saddle interior, air and auto which made it one of 69. The lady was going to sell it to my Dad she passed away and her husband called to say he had sold the car when we were going to go out and clean it up and drive it and potentially take it home. He sold it for $30k in 1988 to the father of a kid his wife had refused to sell it to.

 

[Gold Rush]

Well them is all good story's but I think mine has them all beat. Back in the mid 80's I was working for a company in Cleveland doing telephone maintenance and the owner asked if I might be interested in a Mustang he had in storage. I said sure, let's go have a look and see what it really is. When he opened the door I almost wet myself, sitting there in front of me was the holy grail, a White Boss 429. He put the key in and she started right up and I just stood there with my mouth hanging open. He said he wanted Ten thousand for her and I had first dibs. Needless to say I didn't have anywhere near that kind of cake so I started talking to my bank then four more banks and all said the same thing, car is too old to loan any money on much less ten grand. Had to tell him I just couldn't raise that much and to let the next guy have it. I'm still sick over it, twenty five years later... Why did I have kids?????

 

[Luke]

Silver Baldwin Motion Camaro 454 4 speed was sitting at a fuel station in Adelaide South Australia. 60 Chrysler 300f complete with crossram in like new condition in Tasmania. The only other one was Dads XA GT RPO 83 he sold that and a week later it was in the bottom of the Mulgrave River just out of Cairns.

Funny the Mulgrave swallowed my uncles Laverda Jota 1000 about 3 weeks after he sold it too

 

[Kit Sullivan]

The one that DID get away:

Bought a Pantera from my brother-in-law in 1980. I loved that car. It had many problems, was hard to drive, very uncomfortable. I had nowhere to park it, lived in apartment complex with outdoor parking, was always afraid it would get stolen.

Sold it for good money, with a big sigh of relief that day. Have kicked myself and cried about it every day since then.

 

[Mach1JB]

The one that got away , that realy makes my stomack hurt....

It was in the summer of 1988 when i friend of mine asked me to come along to see some U.S.cars parked in and near a shed in a near by village.

As i live in the Netherlands , there are not too many U.S. cars around so i thought it would be interesting to go and take a look.

The shed was full of old European cars and a couple of U.S.cars , behind the shed under the trees was a orange mustang hiding.

I thought it looked cool... , it had black stripes... Cool.... , Mach1....!?

funny decals on the back "Twister Special"... ??? .......

For us dutch guys it was just a Mustang....

With no knowledge of U.S.cars and no "Internet" this one got away....

I still have the little note somewhere with the VIN number that i wrote down that day...

And "yes" it was one of those 96 VIN numbers................

JB

 

[Boss1Ray]

For me the first one was a 1970 Plymouth Road Runner Superbird. I found it advertised in the local "Penny Pincher/Bargain Post" type of paper. This was the Craiglist of its day.

Anyway I was about 14 and had been working hard summers as a construction helper for the last three years and flipping cars and trucks with that money to build my little savings. Finally convinced my dad to go with me to look. The car was in primer sitting next to an old house. The interior was all aluminum with just a driver's seat and the owner said it had been heavily raced (DUH). The coolest part for me was that it had a 440 6 pack motor. Owner said he didn't know if the motor/block itself was original but he said it DID come with the 6 pack as factory. The guy selling it was a local fireman and he told us he needed the money and could not keep the carbs from leaking. He (the fireman LOL) said the motor had caught fire quite a few times. He was tired of messing with it and wanted to sell it bad. My father thought it was cool but for the $1250 thought the guy was asking way too much for a used-up race car! The car needed tons of work/money to be streetable.

Dad also thought I'd be running that nose into every car in front of me! It does stick way out there... Looking back - that was one I would have liked to get.

Move to about 1981 - The next was a Boss 429 sitting in a big open field next to the highway in Seiling, Oklahoma. A truck driver friend who drove through there regularly told me about it. He said it looked abandoned and the field where it was located was a closed down trucking business. I just had to go look! So I drove the 2 hours to get there and found the car. I hate that I did not get pictures, but I did not! The car was there but all drivetrain was alreaday gone. I remember it was grabber blue and the KK number tag was still on the car. I wrote it down back then but have no idea what happened to the paper with that number! The other thing I found interesting was - someone had mounted a very large CB antennae to the driver's side rear quarter panel. One of those huge 108" whip antennaes! The base mount and spring was still there but the antennae was broken/gone. Ugly! I had to leave and next time I was up there it was gone.

Other than a couple of one-owner and low mileage Shelby's that is all I can remember for now.

Ray

 

[wwhite72]

My 72 coupe with a Cleveland that i had in high school that i had to sell when i went away to college. Paid $500 bucks for it in 1978 and sold it for $500 bucks. I goy a lot of young tail in that car! Went to a lot of concerts. Lost a lot of my hearing from the Jensen coaxals in the back. Had a ton of beer in the trunk. Lots of smoke went out those windows. How do you replace that? You never can. But my current 72 has the same feel.

 

[whitesoc]

I have two that got away.

1st one was back in 1982, a 67 Galaxie 500 XL ,was originally a 289 but my buddy put a 390 police intercepter in coupled with a 4spd, had it up for sale for $5,000. I turned it down and bought a 67 Cougar that was cheaper to start with but I spent more than 5 g's on.

Next one was in 1988 I had just sold my Buick Grand National( made a tidy profit) and went to look at a 66 GT350, Guy wanted 20 0r 25 for it and I actually had my name on the bill of sale and thought my fiance will kill me ( supposed to get married 6 months later) turned it down. Watching TV about a year or year and half later and I think that was the first time the GT350's cracked the 100g mark.....wife looked at me and said you dumb ass!

 

[rpmcarter]

KIT....great topic. Like you I'm always on the hunt so I "see" stuff. My wife and daughter are always fussing about my car "obsession". With that experience.... I kinda know my cars and I'll often ask unless their dog tells me not to.

Caspian..... was that chick from Nashville? If so she was my exgirlfriend and if it will make you feel better I lost her TOO!!

So I have more than one story because I'm looking and buying all the time....but I suppose the one that stands out the most.

69 GTO Judge... guy in our neighborhood gives it to his son!!!! which never makes sense to me. I told the wife...give it a few months he'll destroy that car. 1 year or so later, I'm doing my typical search (btw this was EARLY computer days 10 years ago). Sure enough I see GTO for sale 8000.00. (sure enough he had floated the valves and tore out the wiring in the dash which didnt slow me down one bit) I look at the phone prefix ....and immediately I KNEW it was the same one. I got up instantly told the wife be right back.... and flew out the door...drove the 6 blocks jumped out of the car...ran to the door. Dumbazz answers the door. let's me check the car out. "I want 8000.00 cash" I said well obviously I dont have 8000 on me tonight... but I will write you a check.... you can hold on to the car until the check cashes or whatever makes you comfortable that we have a deal, because I've got to go out of town tomorrow...but I'll be back on the day after....I'll bring cash and you give the check back. I'll even give you the title to my truck so you know I'm serious and not jerking you around. Told him where I live etc. He says... its okay dude I recognize your truck "I TRUST YOU". So I ask do you need ANYTHING from me for you to know WE HAVE A DEAL and I'll show up with cash? Nope.... we're good!

So I take care of business the next day get back in town stop at the bank, get the 8000 and rolling up on his drive the car is not in the drive....... I felt like throwing up. I get out ring the door bell ...eff'n little druggie answers the door all eff'd up. I said "please tell me you have the car in the garage" ...no dude I sold it yesterday (the day I told him I was out of town) and you never show'd up. I repeated to him the plan the agreement etc.. THE EFF'N little druggie punk said "oh that's right you did tell me that....sorry dude"

that was 10 years ago and I was still competing ... I wanted to drag him out in HIS YARD and .......

The one that got away , that realy makes my stomack hurt....

It was in the summer of 1988 when i friend of mine asked me to come along to see some U.S.cars parked in and near a shed in a near by village.

As i live in the Netherlands , there are not too many U.S. cars around so i thought it would be interesting to go and take a look.

The shed was full of old European cars and a couple of U.S.cars , behind the shed under the trees was a orange mustang hiding.

I thought it looked cool... , it had black stripes... Cool.... , Mach1....!?

funny decals on the back "Twister Special"... ??? .......

For us dutch guys it was just a Mustang....

With no knowledge of U.S.cars and no "Internet" this one got away....

I still have the little note somewhere with the VIN number that i wrote down that day...

And "yes" it was one of those 96 VIN numbers................

JB

http://www.mustangmonthly.com/featuredvehicles/mump_1211_1970_twister_special_mach1_mustang/

funny that was my NEXT story that made me ILL!!! One was forsale in Dallas tx.. great body all the car was in fantastic survivor shape.....needed motor work 16,000.00 about 3 years ago!!! I of course was traveling, could not get there in time. I've looked for it ever since.

 

[Mike429cj]

I know this is a "One That Got Away" story but I have to tell my story because I knew my car WOULD get away!

I had planned to buy a 71 Mach 1 and/or a 69 SS RS Camaro when I retire. I had foot surgery in November 2013. I had been watching a pewter 71 429 Mach 1 before that on eBay for a while. Then I was stuck in bed for two weeks and REALY started obsessing over that car. To me it was perfect. It was restored and had a ton of options. It was what I was looking for say perhaps, four years into the future.

I started to bid and the car would not reach reserve. It would re list and just drove me crazy. Finally I contacted the dealer who had the car and found they had the car on consignment. My exact words to him were, "just put me out of my misery and tell me what it would take to buy the car". I expected the price would be more than I was willing to pay and I could just find that out and finally just put it out of my mind. That was not what happened.

Long story short, we went back and forth and to my surprise my offer was accepted! The bottom line was that I knew in my heart that if I did not buy this car I would never find another car so perfect for me. So, this is my story of the 1971 429CJ Mustang Mach 1 that I did not let get away!

I likely will take care of this car until I die and someday someone else will have the pleasure of taking care of it. I am currently researching past owners and trying to obtain anything that pertains to the car. I already have three photos of the car before it was restored which a previous owner gave me. Whatever I uncover I will see to it that it is passed on to the next owner. I think we all owe the next generation of owners whatever history we can provide.

That is my story. Moral of this story.....don't let the next on get away cause there might not be a next one for you.