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Old 08-21-2017, 01:54 PM   #41
d.j. moordigian
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Default Re: What do you regret?

I passed on this car in about 1972 for $1500., less engine. What was I thinking?

http://www.hotrod.com/articles/1967-...orlds-fastest/
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Old 08-21-2017, 02:17 PM   #42
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Default Re: What do you regret?

you were thinking you didnt have an extra 1500. laying around..............
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Old 08-21-2017, 02:29 PM   #43
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Default Re: What do you regret?

Quote:
Originally Posted by ronn View Post
you were thinking you didnt have an extra 1500. laying around..............
Sad to say, I had the money. I also have a 4 cammer,..my "avitar" photo!
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Old 08-21-2017, 07:15 PM   #44
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Quote:
Originally Posted by john charlton View Post
With a heavy heart I will tell you my spectacular regrets
Regret no.1
Many years ago when I was new to the hobby a local farmer told me he had a combine harvester last used by his father. It had a Ford gasolene/kerosine engine, the combine had not been used in years and was destined to go for scrap . He knew I was into Fords and if I took the engine out I could have it free for nuddinks ,yes you know where this is going !!! .When it dawned on me a while later that most likely it was a "Claas" combine with the German G28T "B" engine in it . Yes I was too slow and the combine was cut up for scrap and yes I was told the engine did have an aluminum oil pan, SOB !!!
Regret no 2
I was at a country fair a few years ago with my 31 AA Truck . A man approached me and told me that on the farm near to him was an old Ford truck he wasnt really sure what model but it was old .I then had a mental picture of a 50/60s truck maybe a Thames Trader a 5 ton truck made by Ford .He gave me the name of the farm and a rough location . Some months later by chance I was passing the farms location and thought I would give this "old truck" a look . The farm was in deepest Norfolk County and would be sure to have a "sooner" about . A "sooner" is a farm dog called a "sooner" because sooner or later it will bite you .This dog is closely related to the the American "junk yard dog" and is of similar temprement that is if it doesnt move it will pee on it ,if it moves it will bite it .Maybe we brought these to USA on the Mayflower. Anyway drove into the farm entrance and was pleased to see "Fido" was safely chained on a long chain connected to his outside kennel . The dogs uproar brought the farmer out to investigate . He was affable when he realised I was not tryng to sell him insurance . Yes he did have a Ford truck and yes it was an AA and yes it did have a steel cab and yes it did run and yes it had been on the farm forever and no he no longer had it . He had gone to a farmers auction and left his son in charge . When he returned the truck had gone . It had been parked next to old farm machinery which was going for scrap . The scrap metal men had arrived to take the scrap and cut up the truck with oxy /acetalyne . The farmer told me his son "did not have a full kit bag" this had happened about a week before and yes I could have bought it for a song MORE SOBS !!!
Regret no 3
I went to an auction where a complete Budd cab AA LWB truck was being sold . I knew the buyer slightly he was a rodder and found he had only bought it for the cab and all sheet metal and of course the title . It had 6 excellent Budd wheels on it far better than my truck but I would have to buy the rolling frame to get them. He had sold the engine but the rest of it was there . He quoted a price which was a bit high and no demand here for a LWB frame . I thought I would wait a while to see if the price had come down . Sadly his wife lost her cool and wanted it out of the driveway . So he called in the scrap man who cut it up and carted it away . I had only missed it by a few days and he gave me the scrapyards telephone number . I phoned them and was told that very morning the truck wheels had been put in car shells a crushed to a cube in a hydraulic compactor . Even MORE SOBS !!!

To sum up lost a G28T engine a running AA truck and 6 Budd truck wheels,axles and transmission . And did I tell you how I dropped a still rotating angle grinder on a near NOS roadster door handle , Oh woe is me !!!

John in weather was cancelled today Suffolk County England .
I think I'd try to befriend that "scrapman" (maybe with a bottle of Jack...)
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Old 08-21-2017, 07:46 PM   #45
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Old 08-21-2017, 07:54 PM   #46
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Unhappy Re: What do you regret?

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Old 08-21-2017, 08:09 PM   #47
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Default Re: What do you regret?

And another thing. Took my delivery over to the son-in-laws shop to get a paint job and some body work. He's a metal genius. Well that was over 10 years ago. It is primed for the most part and the body is done except for the fenders in the rear. With the Monterey auction over he says he will now have some time to get it done enough that I can sell it.
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Old 08-21-2017, 08:25 PM   #48
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Default Re: What do you regret?

Not having Larry Shepard with me when I bought Sarah but...I didn't know Larry when I bought Sarah but since then both myself and Sarah have spent a lot of time with Larry Shepard and Sarah is in 100% better shape today than when I bought her but my bank account is a bit less paying Larry Shepard to making Sarah into that better shape. All in all though, both myself and Sarah are better off today knowing Larry Shepard.

This has been an unsolicited public service comment regarding buying a Model A without Larry Shepard by your side......it pays to have him or any other Model A mechanic there if you don't know jack shit about the mechanics of Model A Fords.

Ed
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Old 08-22-2017, 02:18 AM   #49
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Default Re: What do you regret?

Not buying a Ferrari GTO in 1973 for £7000
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Old 08-22-2017, 03:46 AM   #50
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Default Re: What do you regret?

I regret not getting a model A earlier in life.

And I regret not hotrodding a model A sooner than later.

Not the butchering of bodies, but making it more driveable mechanically at todays speeds.
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Old 08-22-2017, 09:59 AM   #51
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Default Re: What do you regret?

I regret trading a 30 Model A roadster body and frame for a Yamaha snowmobile (used) back in early 70s. A body had no rust and extra doors. I was young and too broke to restore the A.
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Old 08-22-2017, 10:18 AM   #52
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Default Re: What do you regret?

When acquiring the first Model A, I could not resist the temptation to make it "unique" by adding repro accessories and minor performance modifications, etc. After attending meets and cruise-ins, it didn't take long to realize that a straight unmodified Model A is really the most unique and I regretted making the modifications. Fortunately, what I did change was easily reversed.
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Old 08-22-2017, 12:53 PM   #53
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Default Re: What do you regret?

Dumb an dumer. We all know 33- 34 of any make is big big bucks. My mother worked for a local doctor he gave her this 6,000 mile Plymouth that he drove
his German Shapards around in. Chrysler did not make station wagons.
at this time. This one is not from all the bulders of that time. It is different.
When the Dr died around 1965 mother found bill of sale for a 4dr 33 plymouth.
I have reason to believe this was built locally could be the boat yard. So dumb
ass me & my band of dummies put a coupe body on the thing. The wagon
body went down back and dust to dust.. At 71yrs I have nightmares yet.
worse off a releltivly new 1958 Mercury Park Lane loaded and AC IT WAS A
J code == tri power 400hp and I trashed the manifold air cleaner and put
a 4 barral holly on the thing. Now try and buy that setup never mind even
finding a convertabal Park Lane
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Old 08-22-2017, 01:23 PM   #54
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Default Re: What do you regret?

I have many regrets, but, not many concerning a Model A.

Not so much of a regret, more a brain fart. The first time I pulled the flywheel off mine for some clutch and clutch cover work, while I working and putting it back together I didn't notice the 3 punch marks on the 'wrong' [ back and front] side of the flywheel and crank flange. I just marked how the flywheel was mounted when I removed it. Apparently the flywheel had been off sometime after the engine rebuild. Later I removed it again and noticed the 3 punch marks where they shouldn't have been [ to my thinking].
The engine never vibrated very much, but, I decided to match the marks when it went back together that time [ 180º different]. It vibrates even less.
I'm trying to remember how I discovered that problem. I think I had the little inspection cover off for some reason [ maybe to tighten the bearings] and noticed the punch marks on the front side of crank flange and turned the engine 180º and noticed the other punch marks. So, that took a half day to R&R everything for a try.
So it was just a matter of putting it back together as it was rather than really looking it over to make sure it was right, or, wrong.
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Old 08-22-2017, 01:54 PM   #55
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Default Re: What do you regret?

In 1977 I passed up a "frame-off restored" 1931 Pick Up Truck for $750. Wife objected, as she called it (attacking our meager savings account for a toy). Balls are larger today!.

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Old 08-22-2017, 05:59 PM   #56
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Default Re: What do you regret?

I reqret that I didn't spend more time with my dad working on the A and T.
I think of him every time I work on a vehicle.
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Old 08-22-2017, 06:35 PM   #57
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Default Re: What do you regret?

Timely thread.. and my response;

23 Aug 1969, I married the love in my life, forty-eight years in the books.! To aid in financing our new life together moving from upstate NY to NAS Cecil Field, FL.. I decided to sell my '33 3 window (sob).. '58 Pontiac V8 and automatic, everything else was original.! Bought it for $750 and sold it for $850 (sob and kick) I just think now of what it could have become.. Happy now with our '29... and the same beautiful girl I married.!
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Old 08-22-2017, 06:39 PM   #58
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Default Re: What do you regret?

One regret I have is, when disassembling my car, not saving every last nut and bolt and whatever else thinking, oh that is rusty and a little bent better get new stuff! I throw NOTHING away now...even total junk, I put in a special box marked "junk."

On another note, in 1980 I had an opportunity to buy an all original 1906 Model N for $6K. It was in excellent original condition, and ran. Of course, 6 grand in 1980 was a lot of money but wow, what a find that was. Of course, the regret was that at the time I just did not have six thousand bucks.
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Old 08-23-2017, 09:51 AM   #59
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Default Re: What do you regret?

Not realizing in the early 60's what parts,, etc. you could still get from Sears, Monkey Ward, Western Auto.and such. Also not buying the 6 phaetons in Dallas for $400. each in 63.
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Old 08-23-2017, 01:10 PM   #60
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Buying my '29 roadster I call the "Clown Car". Hard to explain what happened, but a combination of: trust being taken advantage of, starry
eyed ignorance and more money than brains! The car has turned out to be a big lemon. A very shoddy restoration that I should have noticed before
I bought it.

I broke off part of an uncommon Simmons Swan Manifold trying to do something not so smart. The manifold has been repaired, but it ain't the same.....

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