Got a line on a 1960 LeBaron sedan sitting in a driveway locally. Owner had passed and the daughter was liquidating. She was in over her head, and had gotten some really bad advice about values, like double market reality. She wasn't happy about my offer, but we agreed to proceed at what I thought was a fair price that was below her asking price. I made purchase of the car conditional on it starting and running in the driveway, and she got a bit hot about that, since the car had gotten a $1500 tune-up/investment 3 years ago and "should be fine", despite the fact that the whitewalls were running down the tires and the fact that there was green slime growing on the body. Instead of a leisurely compression check and once over next week when I have time, I was pressured into coming "tomorrow" and doing a hard start in the driveway after checking only the oil and installing a battery. OK. Whatever. Car was worth it, and if the engine's fried, I'm not going to make that much of a difference anyway. I drove about 60 miles through rush-hour Bay Area traffic with the trailer to meet her back at her house, and I put in the good battery that I'd brought. Pulled the air cleaner and was met with the most horrific sight imaginable under an air cleaner, and I thought that I'd been around. Apparently not as much as I'd thought before tonight. Upon air cleaner removal, the aluminum on the carb body had white velvet oxidation all over it. Bad. The kind that looks like a sea urchin and is powdery. A glance into the intake throat revealed standing water! Horror of horrors. The interesting thing was that the top of the engine was dry, and the air cleaner metal had no standing water in the grooves or any oxidation whatsoever, so I can only presume that the water came up from the block somehow, since the interior of the engine compartment/underside of the hood was so clean and rust-free. Anyway, the bottom line is that the non-mechanical seller was terribly affronted that I'd question the receipts and fist-hand experience she had with the car several years ago, and had the "running when parked" syndrome going in the worst way possible. Until I started moaning and stirred up a froth of water in the carb with the end of my wrench to demonstrate what was there. Caveat emptor. My trailer is empty tonight, and the money goes back in the bank in the morning! Maybe she'll reconsider the second price that I suggested. Gravity is working in my favor at this point. She wanted to check with her mechanic that standing rust-clouded water in the carb throat was indeed a terminal thing. -K Kenyon Wills __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com ----------------- http://www.imperialclub.com ----------------- This message was sent to you by the Imperial Mailing List. Please reply to mailing-list@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx and your response will be shared with everyone. Private messages (and attachments) for the Administrators should be sent to webmaster@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx To UN-SUBSCRIBE, go to http://imperialclub.com/unsubscribe.htm