MY 1966 HEMI CAR PURCHASE
I purchased this car at the Pamona California swap meet in 2002. It was a
Sunday afternoon around 2:30 and things were starting to wind down. I saw
my soon to be 1966 Dodge 2 door sedan pull in on a trailer. I went over to the
trailer as I was leaving to see the car. There was an engine strapped to the front
of the trailer under the tarp.
The couple pulling the trailer jumped out and you could see that they were
stressed out. I asked a few questions about the car and introduced myself. I said
"your getting here kind of late, things are about over." The related that it had
been a bad day. They had borrowed the trailer, got a late start, flat tire on the
trailer, and had planned on being there in the morning. This was a guy helping
his girlfriend get rid of a car her ex-husband had bought and never finished.
There were no emblems on the car, but there were holes where the engine call
outs should be. There was a big block in the car, a 4 speed hump and a clutch
pedal in it, but it had an aftermarket auto shifter on the floor. I asked what the
engine was under the tarp and she replied "it is the car's original engine." I
asked if I could look at it and was shocked when I pulled the tarp back and saw
a 426 Hemi! I quickly put the tarp back in place. I then looked at the V.I.N. and
consulted my Galen Govier white books, confirming that this WAS a factory
Hemi car. I asked if she had the title and she said no. I said "it is going to be
hard to sell a car without a title." She said that it never had one. She then
proceeded to tell me that her ex-husband had bought this car from the widow
of the man that bought it new and that the car had never had a title and it had
been bought new to be a race car. She said that her ex-husband really had no
business buying the car in the first place because he had no mechanical
ability or extra money to do anything with the car. She said it had been sitting
in the backyard for over 10 years. She was obviously NOT happy.
I gave her $100.00 for a deposit for a first right of refusal on a sale if I
determined I could buy the car, wrote down the V.I.N. and said I will be back
in 10 minutes. As I was walking away another couple of guys were walking
towards the car and asked me what the story was. I said "I am not really sure
but they don't have a title for it, and I am not going to buy a car without a title,
it might be stolen." They stopped right there, turned and walked away. I called
the California State Police, gave them the V.I.N. and asked if it had ever been
reported stolen, as the seller had no title and I was interested in buying it. They
said no, there was no report of it being stolen and in fact there was not even a
record of it ever being registered. This jived with what the seller said so I went
back and began negotiating the price of the car. After I had made the deal I
asked if she had the name and contact information of the previous owner. She
said "no, her ex-husband just drug it home one day and all she knew was what
he had told her. I can only assume that the original owner bought the car on a
manufacturers statement of origin (MSO) and it had never been titled since he
never intended to license it for the street.
