>
> Garry Archer writes (in part):
> >Last week I went for a haircut... and the TR had gone... ARGH! Desolation!
> >Where is it??? So I went inside and grilled her (no, I said, "grilled" her).
> >
And Roland Dudley writes (again, in part):
> This brings to mind another sad British car story, right in my own
> neighborhood. Just a few blocks from my home sits an MG TC. It's been
Here's "the one that got away" for me. It was 1987 and I was looking for a
cheap E-type. I looked at several cars, but the cars that needed work had
prices that didn't accurately take into account the work that was needed, and
the cars that didn't need work needed work and were priced like they didn't.
Finally, I thought I found the right car. It was a 1967 XKE roadster in a
barn. The floors and rockers were badly rusted, and it didn't run, but the
engine wasn't seized, all of the parts were there (very important - missing
bits of minor chrome trim can easily be $50 a piece on a Jag), and the
interior and top were even decent! The car had been parked 5 or so years
before because of what was probably a valve guide noise (very easy to fix).
The owner wanted $4000. Getting new floors and rockers welded in would cost
about $2000, and another $1000 would have easily gotten the car running.
I offered $3000, he eventually went down to $3700, I eventually went up to
$3500. Neither of us would budge from there, and I didn't end up buying
the car. Instead I bought a running 1971 coupe for $6000, a car that I've
talked about here enough. A buddy of mine eventually bought the '67 roadster
for (ack!) $3300, and started restoring it into concourse condition. The car
still isn't finished, but what is together is beautiful, and it could have
been mine (mine, all mine, in a daffy duck voice).
Joe
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