Hola Kenyon
I liked the events that happened. The local pick & pull here in
Colo Spgs will pay only $75 if it is taken there.
Rodger & Gabby
COS
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Thursday, April 19, 2007 10:42
PM
Subject: IML: Down in Flames for a water
landing
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
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