(Never a frown)....With Golden Brown
As you may have already noticed, I'm not one to hesitate when it come to taking my opportunities. I'm a total believer in fate, especially when it comes to purchasing cars. You snooze you loose and if I had taken all of those opportunities I would have had no regrets.
Some of the ones I didn't take were sub-ten grand RS3100s (x2), a Twin Cam Escorts for $7000 and a Lotus Cortina cylinder head for $1500. These were a big stretch for the finances back in the day but knowing how the price of classic Fords have gone, in hindsight I should have jumped at all of these opportunities.
One that I did take was a small ad in the Age newspaper back in 2002, or around-about that period. I was looking to change jobs and I bought the paper (remember them) one Saturday morning to see what was on offer. There wasn't much on the jobs front but a tiny 3 line ad in the Classic Car section had an $800 V6 Capri for sale at a wreckers (breakers) yard on the other side of town.
I rang the number and jumped in the car to head over as soon as I could. I was the first person to call so I had first opportunity to buy at the advertised price. A string of calls had the wrecker wondering whether he had under-priced it but the state of the Capri at the time meant it was its full money.
The Capri was complete with all it V6 parts but rusted through every panel. The boot floor was being held in by rust stuck to the original spare wheel. I was well beyond repair but was well worth the asking price in parts alone.
A running engine would have been a bonus but the wrecker was flooding it with fuel and cranking the proverbial out of it to get it to fire. After watching him give up and turning his attention to extracting the cash from me, I spent a few minutes cleaning around the base of the carby while he wrote me out a receipt in the office. I gave it one crank on the ignition and the engine roared into life, chugging on 5 cylinder for 30 seconds before running out of fuel.
I got the Capri home and had it ticking away sweetly within an hour. After parting the car out, I made 3 times what I paid for it and built my garage with money I made.
Some of the ones I didn't take were sub-ten grand RS3100s (x2), a Twin Cam Escorts for $7000 and a Lotus Cortina cylinder head for $1500. These were a big stretch for the finances back in the day but knowing how the price of classic Fords have gone, in hindsight I should have jumped at all of these opportunities.
One that I did take was a small ad in the Age newspaper back in 2002, or around-about that period. I was looking to change jobs and I bought the paper (remember them) one Saturday morning to see what was on offer. There wasn't much on the jobs front but a tiny 3 line ad in the Classic Car section had an $800 V6 Capri for sale at a wreckers (breakers) yard on the other side of town.
I rang the number and jumped in the car to head over as soon as I could. I was the first person to call so I had first opportunity to buy at the advertised price. A string of calls had the wrecker wondering whether he had under-priced it but the state of the Capri at the time meant it was its full money.
The Capri was complete with all it V6 parts but rusted through every panel. The boot floor was being held in by rust stuck to the original spare wheel. I was well beyond repair but was well worth the asking price in parts alone.
A running engine would have been a bonus but the wrecker was flooding it with fuel and cranking the proverbial out of it to get it to fire. After watching him give up and turning his attention to extracting the cash from me, I spent a few minutes cleaning around the base of the carby while he wrote me out a receipt in the office. I gave it one crank on the ignition and the engine roared into life, chugging on 5 cylinder for 30 seconds before running out of fuel.
I got the Capri home and had it ticking away sweetly within an hour. After parting the car out, I made 3 times what I paid for it and built my garage with money I made.
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