Have you ever made a trip to look at a Pro-Car that wasn't what it was said to be?

Josh Gentry

Josh Gentry

How many have made a trip to go look at a Pro-Car that wasn't what it was said to be? As most of you know, a couple weeks ago I went to look at the Henney Packard that Kasey bought, that on CL was said to be a 59 Cadillac. hearse. Although we knew it was a Henney, we didn't know exactly what it was. A couple years ago, I was told there was an old hearse sitting in the garage of a Funeral Home in east Tennessee, that the owner was wanting to sell. So I called the owner of the Funeral Home to find out more about it, and he said he had bought the Funeral Home a few years back, and the car came with it. He said it was a 73 hearse white with a black top, but wasn't sure of the coach builder, but I was welcome to come and take a look at it. So, I set up a day and time with him, and I made a 3 hours or more trip to east Tennessee to go check it out. I get about 20 or 30 minutes away from his Funeral Home, and he calls me and says he was having a cookout with his family and could I come another day. I told him I was about 3 hours away from home, and about 20 minutes from his Funeral Home, and would really like to at least check it out real quick. So he had a guy that worked part time at the Funeral Home meet me there to show it to me, and when he opens the garage door, the said to be 73 turns out to be a very nice 83 Superior. While it wasn't a 73, it was very nice under all the dust. The guy didn't have the keys, but he said it had ben about a year sence it had ben started, but it ran and drove really good. Even though it wasn't what I was told, looking back now I wish I would have bought it. It was a really nice car. I'm not sure if he ever sold the car or not. So what are some of your stories?

Josh
 
Josh Gentry said:
How many have made a trip to go look at a Pro-Car that wasn't what it was said to be? As most of you know, a couple weeks ago I went to look at the Henney Packard that Kasey bought, that on CL was said to be a 59 Cadillac. hearse. Although we knew it was a Henney, we didn't know exactly what it was. A couple years ago, I was told there was an old hearse sitting in the garage of a Funeral Home in east Tennessee, that the owner was wanting to sell. So I called the owner of the Funeral Home to find out more about it, and he said he had bought the Funeral Home a few years back, and the car came with it. He said it was a 73 hearse white with a black top, but wasn't sure of the coach builder, but I was welcome to come and take a look at it. So, I set up a day and time with him, and I made a 3 hours or more trip to east Tennessee to go check it out. I get about 20 or 30 minutes away from his Funeral Home, and he calls me and says he was having a cookout with his family and could I come another day. I told him I was about 3 hours away from home, and about 20 minutes from his Funeral Home, and would really like to at least check it out real quick. So he had a guy that worked part time at the Funeral Home meet me there to show it to me, and when he opens the garage door, the said to be 73 turns out to be a very nice 83 Superior. While it wasn't a 73, it was very nice under all the dust. The guy didn't have the keys, but he said it had ben about a year sence it had ben started, but it ran and drove really good. Even though it wasn't what I was told, looking back now I wish I would have bought it. It was a really nice car. I'm not sure if he ever sold the car or not. So what are some of your stories?

Josh
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I seem to get all the cars that everyone either wants to part out or doesnt think it can be restored!! So when I go look at a car it is a toss up as to weather or not its what its supposed to be. But you did really well on my Henney except that you left out it was missing the left front wheel!:4_11_9:
 
I lucked out my first time ....I was looking for an 80's hearse emailed a PCS member he had one with only 22,000 miles on it, needed nothing but rear brakes

my first coach 1987 cadillac Eureka Concourse Landau
 
Casey Lockhart said:
I seem to get all the cars that everyone either wants to part out or doesnt think it can be restored!! So when I go look at a car it is a toss up as to weather or not its what its supposed to be. But you did really well on my Henney except that you left out it was missing the left front wheel!:4_11_9:
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:poster_oops: Sorry about that. He said he thought there were some Packard hubcaps laying around somewhere, but I never found them.

Josh
 
Josh Gentry said:
:poster_oops: Sorry about that. He said he thought there were some Packard hubcaps laying around somewhere, but I never found them.

Josh
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Well I figure if I look around his place I can probably find the wheel and hubcaps too. I just havent been back up there yet. However my ford wheels off my pickup fit enough so I can roll it around!!:071:
 
The hearse that I own now I went to go look at and it was SUPPOSEDLY a 1974 Fleetwood hearse conversion with the 500 and a bunch of aftermarket mods on the engine like headers carb etc... Yea I showed up and it is a 73 superior commercial chassis with a bone stock 472 in it and not much in the way of mods besides rims and older cheap repaint.
 
I sent a PCS member to look at a car for me, and he calls back to tell me that he bought the car. :poster_oops:
 
Douglas Smith said:
This is why you send someone who has no money so they have no way to buy it :p
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They didn't need much money to buy it, and it was a car needing virtually nothing to be done with it other than a wash and wax. It was a very low 4 figure amount.... Less than what it cost to paint a car back then. It had been totally refurbished by one of the chassis builders just a few years before.
 
Paul Steinberg said:
I sent a PCS member to look at a car for me, and he calls back to tell me that he bought the car. :poster_oops:
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I did that to a friend on a truck one time, but felt bad about it and sold it to him a couple weeks later. If I would have known he was just going to turn around a few months after I sold it to him and want to sell it, I would have let him buy it to begin with. And yes, I bought it back. I will never buy a car out from under someone again.:poster_oops::hide:

Josh
 
Bad carma falls to everyone that will ever own this car. I had a Voo Doo Hex put on it... :4_11_9:
 
I checked out a limo for a PCS member who did buy the car. After the deal was done he admitted his fear of a buy out. I told him if it had been an ambulance I would have bought it.
 
You never know. I called on the 62 and asked if it was a combination, end loader etc. The owner had the car a few years so you would think they would have a idea what it is. I asked if it had a partition etc. They way it was described was a end loader so me and a friend go take a look and turns out to be a friggin crown power 3-way with levelizer.:dancing:
 

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Oh Yes

One time I went to look at a 65 or 66 light blue Cadillac combination, at least that is how the funeral home employee described it. You may remember it as my 1977 Superior Cadillac combination. He was off a little but I still bought it.
 
56 limo story

I Flew 1000 miles to look at 56 limo 20 years ago, and the guy gave me a bare light bulb on an extension cord to go back into a CAVE to see the car. He said he thought it would "run good" if he could get it out of the "cave", but he didn't bother to get it out..............maybe it is still there? :blahblah:
 
One upon a time I thought I bought one of these

59crowns4.jpg


After I sent the "intermediary" the money...he kept promising to get me the title after we sorted out which title belonged to which car. Long story short, I never got the title and the car left on a trailer with Texas plates. If anyone is wondering, said person who I was dealing with is a member of this site.
 
I know some of you have heard my tale of woe about my visit to a certain dealer in Rockford, IL. But since Josh asked, and he probably hasn't heard it, I'll tell it again.

Several years ago, I was looking to buy a Springfield Travelall ambulance. I found an ad for a very nice one at a dealer in Rockford, IL. Had photos of it and everything. Looked very good in the photos. I called the guy, and made arrangements to go see/get it. He said it ran good and I could drive it home. So I bought a one-way plane ticket from Baltimore to Chicago, followed by a bus trip from there to Rockford, and he meets me at the little bus depot.

We rode out to his dealership, and there it sat....the ugliest, rattiest, rustiest Springfield Travelall ambulance I've ever seen. (Mind you, I already had an ugly, ratty, rusty Travelall ambulance, but this was worse.) It was on a lot full of similar-condition cars of all types. This was not the ambulance in the photos, it wasn't even the same color. Oh, it was "all there" all right - but most of it was on the ground under it in little pieces. Running? Not a chance, though the dealer assured me his guy would get right on it and have it running in a couple of hours.

So what happened to the really nice ambulance he sent me photos of? "Oh, I just sold that one last week." Um, yeah. (I found out later it was never his, he got the photos off the internet.)

So there I was, 800 miles from home with no way home, etc. What to do? Well, I obviously wasn't buying the rough one there to drive home. So I got him to drive me back to the bus depot, bus to Chicago, new one-way ticket home. I'm out $400. The only good part was that none of the $400 went to the crooked dealer.

I had been warned in advance about this guy by another PCS member, which I should have heeded. And take this as a warning if you see anything advertised from a dealer in Rockford, IL. He still has that Travelall, and other pro-cars.

----------

A few years later, I found a different Springfield Travelall ambulance for sale, on e-bay, in southern Illinois (what is it about Illinois?). I talked to the seller, a local fire chief who assured me the truck was OK and could probably drive home. He also told me he was recently released from prison after a fraud conviction (I can't make this stuff up, honestly.) And so, having learned absolutely nothing from my earlier experience, I bought the ambulance sight-unseen on e-bay.

I bought a one-way ticket, flew to St. Louis, met the fire chief, rode an hour-and-a-half to the middle of nowhere, just outside of nothing. And there it sat. And again, it was nothing like he described it.

It was better! :D

It started right up. The rust was far less significant than described. It ran well. The heat worked (it was March). And oh yeah, he forgot to mention it only had 15K original miles on it. Put gas in the tank, got an oil change in Decatur (and lunch with PCS member Dave Burkham), and I drove it all the way home to Maryland without a hitch.

Ya just never know.
 
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