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The old guy at the Puyallup swap meet who talked me out of buying the wrong car
Three weeks ago I drove up to the Puyallup swap meet in Washington with $4,500 in my pocket and my heart set on a '66 Mustang coupe that looked pretty decent from 20 feet. I was standing there talking myself into it when this older fella in a beat up Ford hat started pointing out stuff I had missed, like the door gaps being off and the frame rail underneath being full of filler and pop rivets. He didn't say it mean or anything, just walked me around the car and showed me what to look for, then said 'the car you can afford today is the car you'll hate in two years, save up and get the good one.' Turns out he had owned a body shop in Tacoma for 30 odd years and had seen about a million guys make that same mistake. I walked away from the Mustang and used part of that money for a decent set of jack stands and a compression tester instead. Last week I found a '65 Falcon with a rebuilt 289 and solid floors for $5,200 and I'm going back Saturday to look at it with his checklist in my head. Does anybody else have a car they're glad a stranger talked them out of?
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paulw6318d ago
That guy did you a real favor. Back in 1998 I had $3,000 saved and found a '69 Camaro in a guy's driveway in Spanaway, red with black stripes, and I was ready to hand over the cash that same day. My uncle's neighbor, a retired painter named Ray, happened to be there and asked the seller if he could pop the trunk. The whole floor pan was gone, just carpet and rust flakes holding hands. I put that money into tools and a beater truck instead and learned how to actually work on cars. Never did get the Camaro but I still have that truck and no regrets. Good luck with the Falcon on Saturday, a solid 289 car for that money sounds like a much better buy.
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