How did you guys find your car?

[mmissile]

I've found them almost any way imaginable over the last 44 years.

 

[Seventy]

No real tricks to find a car, c-list, ebay, classifieds, junk yards, word of mouth, back yard snooping, etc it all boils down to being in the right place at the right time AND always be looking...

Another trick is be realistic, if you are looking for a 68-70 B-body or 70-74 e-body, don't expect to get one running and driving for $8K!!! I have a buddy of mine been looking for a car for 10 years, passed up many good deals, a few that I have jumped on after he passed on them. The problem is he wants to steal the car, there is nothing wrong with looking for a deal, BUT some guys are just stupid about it.

I went to look at a 72 camaro, real solid car, and ALL THERE, motor spun free, no mouse **** anywhere, body was rock solid and looked to never had been repaired anywhere, original paint, 2 owners both related, it was parked because the rear end locked up, they covered it and put it in the garage which was right next to the boiler and nice and dry for 25 years...
I seen the car for sale on c-list, I was the second guy there to look at it, I arrived when the first guy was still looking, which I hate because it rarely works in your favor, it will either force him to buy it or if he passes you may be able to get a deal. I heard him talking and he offered $5K cash right now, I didn't actually look at the car yet, I was sitting on my truck waiting for him to be done. The seller said he would call and let him know.

When I ever seen this car, I was like WTF this clown offers 5K for this things, its perfect. He had it listed for $9500, i said "whats the rock bottom, give me a good price and I will count it out and tow it away today"... He said $6K, I said "done". We actually became friends, he ahs bought some parts off of me, he was selling that car to finish a 69 project he had that I had a ton of parts for, he said the first guy called and asked if he thought about his offer and he told him it was sold, he could tell he was kicking himself and was looking for my contact info, lol...
I restored and sold that car for over $30, btw, to this day I have NEVER seen a cleaner start than that car, I literally pulled all the trim, da'd it with 240, masked it, Poly primed the entire car, contrast coated it, board sanded it, and laid basecoat down, it did not have 1 dent on it!!! The underneath had some dealer applied undercoat that I just touched up, I had to of course have chrome done, did the motor, suspension, brakes, and interior, BUT the rear end being locked up ended up being a brake issue, lol... What a score that car was and I always thought about that guy that beat me there, how the **** did he not buy that car for the asking price!!! I would have paid the $9500 that day and wasnt going to dare bargain for better than $6K he told me...

So, moral of the story, go with cash, have transportation options lined up, be realistic, don't insult anyone, and know what you are looking at. 5 monutes of research would have saved me thousands the day I bought my first 50's caddy, I didn't know a few missing pieces would cost me more than I paid for the car. Now I know, lol..

be on top of c-list, do smart searches for instance -
(1968 | 1969 | 1970 | 1971 | 1972 | 1973 | 1974 | 68 | 69 | 70 | 71 | 72 | 73 | 74)
I put that with one of these groups at a time
(mopar | coronet | super bee | gtx | road runner | charger | Dodge | plymouth | challenger | cuda)
(barracuda | r/t | satellite | chrysler | 440 | 340 | 6 pack | six pack | 440-6 | 340-6 | hemi | 426 | dana)
(833 |727 | holley | edelbrock | t/a)

they cant be too long or you get the lost dog...
For ebay I just search the years I am looking for and the distance I am willing to travel from distance nearest first...

I have found many many scores, and many deals, and when I am looking for something specific, I am not afraid to pony up the money, When I was looking for my first ls6 car, I did my research and paid the money, some things you can not get for short cash, in the chevy world it is anything vette or FI before 70', anything yenko or copo, anything with ls6 motor (aluminum 454), etc just like mopar is anything hemi, v code, or cuda...


there are deals out there, what is your budget.
I seen this guy, its worth what he wants, can make a real nice car out of it..
http://newjersey.craigslist.org/cto/5165385193.html
$500 of paint (diy) or $2000 fast job at a shop then seat covers, carpet, headliner, door panels, some dash work, say another $2000 total, pay $10500 for the car, you will be into it for under $15K and have a car worth $20K pretty easily, I thought about it, but I have too many right now, and the bee is clogging up the lift..

 

[bkleenfltx]

"it all boils down to being in the right place at the right time AND always be looking..."

welp there ya go! My motto is has always been "always be looking". No matter what I own I always keep reserves on hand to make a purchase. I get quite few leads too. Most dont pan out. Some do and well I've done okay. Of course my wife says "why are you always on Craigslist". I tell her to go out in the garage and gander at my fleet.

 

[idrivemopar]

I went to look at my car with a buddy, he was interested in buying it, but I bought it instead, and he is still kind of pissed off at me even after 32 years! LOL

 

[mutt71]

My first MOPAR was a 1970 Roadrunner that I saw in the local news paper classified section, in 1976.
My current MOPAR is a 1969 Sport Satellite, that I found on E-bay.

 

[conv67bdere]

Moved into my house in 2007 - and my next door neighbor has a pretty nice workshop on his property. He's retired now but a lot of people know him and stop by his shop from time to time to shoot the breeze. Don't think I was in my house much more than a month, had already stopped over and introduced myself, and one of his friends stopped by and told him that he had a 1967 Belvedere Convertible that he didn't think he was going to be able to get to and restore, and that he was thinking about selling it. My neighbor mentioned it to me, and I realized that all of the car shows that I attend, I have rarely ever seen a 67 Belvedere convertible at the shows.

I didn't want to have one of 100 Camaros
I didn't want to have one of 100 Mustangs
I didn't want to have one of 100 Chevy's

I wanted a car that unique . . . that would usually be the only one like it ( model and year ) at the show . . . I wanted to be different . . .

So I was in the right place at the right time - and I bought the car - I'm still in the process of rebuilding the car on this forum . . . check it out and follow along . . .

 

[gdrill]

Travelling the back roads with a good pair of binoculars. A spotting scope is also handy for longer distances. I don't hunt animals anymore, but I still hunt!

 

[Mocajava]

I found my 69 Coronet on Craig's list. Been searching for 20 plus years here in AK for a 68 Super Bee with no luck...kind of rare up here. At 4:30 AM one morning, I saw her posted under" '69 Coronet for sale", emailed the guy right then and he responded! Grabbed a handful of cash, a car hauler and the wife and went to see the car 80 miles away that afternoon. She was in a guys giant building/garage and the external body work had already been done. Primered and sitting there running when we went inside, that 383 just purring. All the chrome and mouldings had been stripped but the interior was intact and in great shape. The guy and I talked back and forth for 15 minutes and then his wife came out and said dinners ready. I told him we would give them some time while my wife and I went for a drive and discussed it...so we did. Down the road we go to park and chat. My wife's initial comment when she turned to me was " You HAVE TO buy it, you have been looking for that car for 20 years....the only question is how much? I Love that Lady! We gave them half an hour to eat and pulled back in their yard. After a few back and forths over an agreed price, we loaded her up plus all the boxes of trim and chrome and took a few pictures with the guy. I swear he was almost tearing up as we got in the truck to drive off. As we started out of his drive way and down the road, he was taking pictures of her on the trailer. I could feel his pain as he was forced to sell so he could finance his house projects.
After an elated, sunny drive home with multiple thumbs up and horns honking in approval, we got her home. I made one trip around the block just to say I had drove her and started the strip down. The rest is on my build page and scattered through the forums as I ask questions through the members for help. I am very impressed with all the help and suggestions I have received from the members and will continue to ask. The work is still in progress....

 

[bkleenfltx]

This is one of my favorite threads.
and this by Seventy:
No real tricks to find a car, c-list, ebay, classifieds, junk yards, word of mouth, back yard snooping, etc it all boils down to being in the right place at the right time AND always be looking...

Another trick is be realistic, if you are looking for a 68-70 B-body or 70-74 e-body, don't expect to get one running and driving for $8K!!!"

I feel pretty good about my deal at 5500.00 for my 68 Sport that not only runs...runs great! and drives great!!! I knew I had to "just pay tha man"

 

[Daly]

I got my 69 Coronet running and driving for $6500 CDN, and it only needed a $.97 reverse light to safety. It's not a show stopper,but it's a 15 foot car (looks good 15 feet away)… A good starting point anyway… They are out there, but more often then not, you're going to stumble across a good deal, more then find one…
Hell I stumbled across my 91 C2500 too, picked it up for $900 and safetied it for $14, with not rust in Southwestern Ontario…

 

[mmissile]

What is safety? Some government control thing?

 

[Budnicks]

I've found them almost any way imaginable over the last 44 years.

Yep, newspaper, Autotrader, Pennysaver, Autabuy.com, I hate E-scam {E-bay},
word of mouth, National Dragster, Hemmings, even just driving around when I'm bored too
also Forums such as this one, MoparMuscleMagazine.com, DodgeChargers.com
But last one was looking for parts for another car on Sacramento Craigslist
& saw another 68 RR had to go & look...LOL

 

[bkleenfltx]

not about my Mopar but a fun hunt.

I was doing business with NASA and one of the guys daughter and my daughter were in class together. So my daughter was invited to a birthday party. Upon arrival Phil invited us to stay for the party. While chatting he ask if I was a golfer? "no I just hang around in my garage playing with classic cars." He said ..."I have a classic car, want to see it?" (the whole theory of bears and woods raced through my mind). He escorts me to the garage....there set my 67 Convertible. It was covered with dirt, boxes and even a bicycle. I hounded him constantly to sell it to me. After 5 years he finally said "come by the house if your still interested in buying the Mustang" I was there promptly with check in hand. Sold my 65 SS a few months later and the 67 has been in my garage now for 9 years.

 

[GetX'd]

Way back in 1972 I found my 68 GTX by the old classified section in the paper method. Probably not much of that anymore. It took me about a year of searching and Looking at many cars until the right one popped up in the paper. I paid $1000 cash (back then that was a lot of $$ for a young kid). I loved the look and the stance and all that - but the real test was when I kicked it down - she went sideways and it's been love ever since. I've kept her all these years and have just finished a restoration to freshen her up visually and mechanically. She's basically a brand new car bumper to bumper.

What are you looking for anyway - a finished car or. Project car? Seems to me like there are plenty of finished cars around for sale. You just have to have a bigger checkbook.

 

[verdelaw]

I'd been looking casually for about a year, and intensely for about 3 months. Mostly internet, but some newspaper, magazines, junk yards, back/front yard snooping. In that time I had learned that my expectations had to be tempered. I was looking for a 68 Charger with a 440, manual (new or old didn't care) trans, sure grip, minimal rust, no accidents, good frame rails, running and driving, almost complete, didn't care about R/T... for under $20k. Good luck finding that. What I did find was a real 68 R/T, running and driving non matching 440, 727, no sure grip, minimal rust, no accident, good frame rails, complete car. Found it on craigslist using searchtempest. By god if you want to find stuff on craigslist in America, use searchtempest or something like it.

http://autos.searchtempest.com/

This was all after I had narrowly missed out on a great (seemingly) car on Hemmings. It was a freshly primered daily driven 68 R/T with matching numbers 440 and 727 and good interior. Guy wanted $22k for it. It was in CO.. a long way away. Talking to him over the phone he semi-pressured me saying he had a buyer in Norway. He seemed like a legit seller, but he wanted me to put down $1.5k nonrefundable right away or he'd sell it to the Norway guy. After I had followed up on some really lame bullshit leads and found out a lot of scammers, I had promised myself that I'd NEVER put down money on a car I hadn't seen in person unless it was protected (like ebay etc). So the guy supposedly sold it away to Norway.

Anyway a month later I found mine in MN and I was in IL. I have a brother that lived about 25 minutes away who knows next to nothing about old cars. Had him go look at it. He told me it was exactly what the guy represented that it was. So I took off of work, drove up to MN, rented a car hauler, paid the man, and towed it back down to IL. It worked out pretty well overall. Except now my wife has since quit her job and we have a new baby... so very little has moved along on the car ops:

 

[YY1]

The last one I bought was by word of mouth.

Before that two from craigslist.

Before that, one from ebay.

Before that another craigslist.

..and before that, ebay.

I also enjoy finding out "where does that highway go to", and frequently drive or ride around to places I've never been, especially local or areas I see on repeated trips out of the county.

You kind of get a "spider sense" for where cars might be sitting after a while.

Last month I decided to go a different way to a place I was going to several times a week.

I even turned around to go down a different street.

BINGO- saw a 1967 Coronet 500, clean and straight, with a small square of lower quarter cut out, and a 70 Challenger.
Both next to an unattended 5 bay warehouse in the middle of a residential neighborhood.
There was even an 8 3/4 axle leaning against the wall.

One of these days, I'll happen to be there when the owner is.
I talked to the kids across the street, and gave them my business card to pass along.

 

[spenceryoung]

mine was a 74 duster that I bought on craigslist it was located in Shelbyville TN and I am located in greenfield IN rented a trailer and drove south for the day picked it up and went home now its getting a complete restoration and it looks sweet my other one was the charger which has always been a dream of mine to own that one was located in Fort Wayne IN and I was lucky that I was heading that way one day so I stopped by and looked it over it had everything that I wanted in a charger so I bought it and am now in the restoration process

 

[Sonny Black]

At a car show, car corral , on line......

And on For B Bodies only.com!:yes:

 

[Bobo]

did it the old fashoned way... thru ebay

 

[Darter6]

Back when......Used car lots. Now.. Craigs List