The one that got away

[Paul from PA]

Of all the loves we had so far in our lives, which one do you wish you still have, Not including Debbie in 8th grade, mine would be a 1970 GTO Ram Air IV Convertible. I picked it up in a local trailer court. It had a different motor, automatic transmission and one straight fender. I drove it one summer and either sold it or traded it on something else, not even sure. It's been a day or two....... Name only one that you let get away. I have had many.

[keiser31]

My 1967 Dodge A100 compact pickup with a V8. I had to make a house payment and had to sell it after owning it for 27 years. I cried the day it drove away....

[pkhammer]

1967 Pontiac GTO I purchased in the fall of 1981 from a friend's brother. He had gotten married, started his own business and hadn't driven it for a while. A fresh battery and air in a tire or two and that 400 was purring like a kitten. Original paint (green), nice straight body, and black interior with electric bucket seats and Hurst dual gate shifter. Paid the princely sum of $500! The car needed brake work and new tires and I had just moved out of my parents house and needed money for an apartment so it got re-sold a few months later.

[g-g-g0]

Healey WESTLAND, Riley powered and one of 65? built and only 4 or 5 originally shipped to the US. Very rare car. Job transfer required selling this car and other Austin Healey’s in late 70’s. Car went to the Downers Grove area in Chicago. Wonder where it is today? 

[Xander Wildeisen]

1930 Packard 740 Roadster. Older restoration, done in 1968. Painted 68 Cadillac colors. Drove the car quite a bit, and showed it at different events. That era of Packards are wonderful cars. Love the styling of the roadsters. Sold to keep the wheels moving forward with a business. 

[TexRiv_63]

We've done this before, I have a pretty long list. Probably this '69 Hurst/Olds:

[PAV8427]

1965 Chevelle I saw for sale in a mall parking lot in the late 80's. 
Really just learned about the z16's. 
Only saw it once and I still swear I saw the SS emblems were on the front fenders. 
WAS it a z16. 
Kickin myself for not going back and looking again. 

[Mark Huston]

1961 Oldsmobile Starfire convertible.  Purchased it in 1976 and sold it in 1982.   Had many memorable road trips including driving from San Francisco to Los Angeles down Highway 1 along the Pacific coast of California.   The one I wish I would have kept.  
 

 

[Paul Dobbin]

    1965 Ford Mustang Deluxe Conv.  (Pony Car)  Purchased 1970 iwht 289, Auto, PS PB, power top, radio, rally pack, rally wheels    Restored 1992

    Sold 1994.    Was always garage kept, no rust, rebuilt 289 with 302 heads.   Was my wife's first car.  Picture taken the day we sold it.

    I wish I had it back.  I think it's still in Florida.    We all do something stupid, occasionally.

[JACK M]

Several !!!

 

[CHuDWah]

4 hours ago, Paul from PA said:

Of all the loves we had so far in our lives, which one do you wish you still have...

All of them, both four-wheeled and two-legged.  Sorry, can't pick just one - loved them all.

[K8096]

4 hours ago, Xander Wildeisen said:

1930 Packard 740 Roadster. Older restoration, done in 1968. Painted 68 Cadillac colors. Drove the car quite a bit, and showed it at different events. That era of Packards are wonderful cars. Love the styling of the roadsters. Sold to keep the wheels moving forward with a business. 

I believe this car is currently owned by a collector in NE Ohio.  

[K8096]

5 hours ago, keiser31 said:

My 1967 Dodge A100 compact pickup with a V8. I had to make a house payment and had to sell it after owning it for 27 years. I cried the day it drove away....

Here’s one by me that might be available.   Needs a lot of body work.  

 

Edited August 24, 2022 by K8096 (see edit history)

[keiser31]

3 minutes ago, K8096 said:

Here’s one by me that might be available.   Needs a lot of body work.  

 

Is that one you could ask about? Just what I need....another project.

[Xander Wildeisen]

13 minutes ago, K8096 said:

I believe this car is currently owned by a collector in NE Ohio.  

Carl is his name. Here is the night it went on the transport. Sad day on my end, good day for Carl. I am sure he is enjoying the car.(I was asked to smile for the picture, crying inside)

[K8096]

1 hour ago, Xander Wildeisen said:

Carl is his name. Here is the night it went on the transport. Sad day on my end, good day for Carl. I am sure he is enjoying the car.(I was asked to smile for the picture, crying inside)

Yep. My father knew Carl’s father going back to the early 1960’s.  

[K8096]

1 hour ago, keiser31 said:

Is that one you could ask about? Just what I need....another project.

I can ask about it.   But I won’t.  You need to get the Dodge coupe you’ve owned since you were 14 years old drivable before I’ll ask about it for you.  😀.  That’s called tough love.  

[TAKerry]

1957 190SL. I traded my 8 yr old 82 firebird for it, sold after 5 years for 10K!  Would love to have it today, it would be at the next auction and the sale funds would be used to purchase something really cool!

[plymouthcranbrook]

I have lost count of the number of cars and trucks I should have kept.  The problem for the poor is that in order to get another one, the current one had to be sold or traded in.

[Porsche 68]

Unfortunately no pictures 1965 Griffith 400 bought it 1982 for $500 bucks drove it for a summer scared the crap out of me ! Flimsy as toilet paper but fast!

[95Cardinal]

I would like to have this one back:

 

I bought it 1979 or 80...in pieces.

Took me 3 years to assemble it and get it roadworthy.

Painted it in my garage. That was the first - and LAST - time for that!

We drove it for about 7 years, then sold it to a dealer.

 

I know where it is, but the current owner doesn't want to part with it.

 

Edited August 25, 2022 by 95Cardinal
Added comment (see edit history)

[Matt Harwood]

2 hours ago, K8096 said:

Yep. My father knew Carl’s father going back to the early 1960’s.  

I thought I recognized that Packard. Carl is a friend of mine and I've seen that car at multiple shows. It's in good hands!

[Matt Harwood]

I sell a lot of cars and try not to get attached, but two really tug at me and make me regret selling them.

 

1941 Buick Super 56C, which was not only beautiful but was also a fantastic driver:

 

1966 Corvette L79, which was just a screamer. Nothing ripped through the gears better than this red roadster. L79 Corvette is best Corvette:

[yachtflame]

In 1971 my uncle found out I was going to buy a motorcycle. He owned a couple used car lots in Norfolk, VA and sold/bought cars to Navy boys. He found out I was going to spend $600 on the bike so offered me a 1961 Red & White Corvette for the $600 with the promise that I’d never get a motorcycle. I said I could promise him I wouldn’t get one for a year or maybe 5 but I couldn’t promise that I’d NEVER get one. So that one slipped by. I’ve always wanted one since!

[1935Packard]

I'm probably going to sell  the '49 Cadillac convertible soon that I bought 20 years ago and that I have really loved.  Fantastic car, but I don't have the garage space anymore and it's too far away now to drive regularly.  So probably time to let it go.  But after I sell it, I'm sure it will be the one that I let get away!   

[Erska]

Two cars I wish were still in the family:  One, my 1950 MG TD (#2038), sold early 1980s since, just starting work life, I had no time or space for it.  Second, and pictured, my father's 1933 Packard Twelve Convertible Sedan, which he sold late 1950s in Los Angeles when I was two or three.  Would have been nice to just lock that one away the last sixty years! 

[lump]

Wow. Too many for me to list, for sure. But if I MUST choose just one...  Never mind. I just! 

[mrspeedyt]

two cars…no three cars. 51 mercury coupe. 52 Hudson hornet. 56 Corvette. all needed work.

[Highlander160]

Ok, I'll risk this one. Delete it mods if you must but fundamentally it fits. 

 

36 Ford 3W. This car ahd the finest original sheetmetal I'd seen. Black (what else) and it wasn't a new style "street rod" it was PERFECT. Big n little tires, perfect stance with long front shackles. Had juice brakes, a 39 trans, and a 283 mated to that. Interior was copper and white pleats on the door panels and seat, white headliner, smoothed dash with old SW gauges. Moldings and dash were painted old Chevy copper too and it had a 59 Impala wheel. Sold it because we made so dadgum much at the time. Just under 4 grand (!) and today it would probably bring close to 70. 

 

If I have to stay on point I also miss my legit 69 Boss 302. Treated to all the Ford "Total Performance" tricks, fast, sexy looking, rare, and plain. No woodgrain, console, rear slats or spoiler. The only option was an AM/FM stereo. and mid level seating (knit vinyl I think it was called). 

 

Thanks, feeling melancholy and nostalgic now...

[Steve_Mack_CT]

Posted the finished car here already but I regretted trading this 56 Chevy 210 away for a 71 vette around 1984.  My now wife, a few pals, and dad thought it was a blunder, I agree...

 

Here is the car when I initially brought it home, in my grandmother's driveway.  (Gram never drove so I had a claim on her garage for around 10 or 12 years, a 15 minute bike ride across town).

 

This car was with it's original owner until 81 or 82, buyer sold to me shortly after acquiring it and getting a layoff notice.  He had done nothing with it.  So it was stone stock, original 265 pg AT when I got it and I kept it stock.

 

Admittedly an emotional tie, I would like another tri five but not high enough on the list to replace any of the cars we have now.  So I guess I am over the one that got away...  🤔😁

Edited August 26, 2022 by Steve_Mack_CT (see edit history)

[DrumBob]

I didn't own this car, but I could have easily. When I was a sophomore in college, I used to hang out at a friend's house during the summer in Cherry Hill, NJ. A kid down the street had a '50 Studebaker Starlight coupe he wanted to sell. I looked it over and it was all there, and ran and drove nicely. No rot, didn't need any major work at all. He offered it to me for $300, and I turned him down. What a dumb thing to do.

 

Later that year, I met a kid on campus, the nephew of the college's drama professor. He had enlisted in in the Navy, and had to report for duty in a couple of weeks and needed to sell his car, a '52 Pontiac 2-door. It needed some body work, but ran and drove, with no major issues. I called my father, who, of course, talked me out of it. 

 

"You don't want that old piece of junk. It'll never make it home. You'll break down on the road. Forget it." I did what I was told. In hindsight, it was just more bad advice I got from my old man. 

 

I could have had it for $75. 

[Jim Skelly]

My neighbor did two tours of duty in Vietnam and returned home in the early 1970s.  He had sold his '57 Ford Custom two-door before he left, a car he had raced many times at Detroit Dragway and had won many trophies with.  I wondered what he would buy now that he was back home for good.   One day he came home with a dark blue '66 Mustang hardtop.  It was in excellent condition, but I wasn't impressed with it since it didn't even have the Hi-Po 289.  It turned out that was to be his everyday car.  He soon came home with a black '66 Shelby!  He started working on that car and it would usually take several attempts to keep it running without stalling when it first started up.  It had a really aggressive cam and who knows what else.  I told my brother that it probably no longer had a choke assembly!  Unfortunately, he died in a car accident a year or so later in the Mustang.  The Shelby was eventually put up for sale in 1974.  It had 22,000 miles and the price was $4000, which was a lot of money for someone going to college and working in the summer.  Both quarters were just starting to rust behind the wheels, and it appeared to be an original paint car.  I had the cash to buy it, but Dad talked me out of it since I would have had to store it until I finished college.  Looking back on it, the floors probably would have needed some work.  We called them Rustangs back then because most were rusted out after 4 or 5 years.

Edited August 28, 2022 by Jim Skelly (see edit history)