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Thu Sep 22, 2005 12:43 am

Just took a 4 hour drive(round-trip)with truck, trailer and cash in hand to buy the 51 split that is for sale in Peoria Az. The owner said it was never hit and had no rust except a small spot in the inside of one of the heater channels. The car was rotted through in the rear lower corners of the back seat area. It has had a right rear quarter dome at one time and it is molded with bondo at the bottom. Bothe rear corners of the body directly above the spring plate retainers are rotten through. The passenger heater channel is rotted though. The driver front quarter is rotted through and the bottom recreated with bondo. The decklid is molded with bondo on the iner lip. The front lower inner apron is removed and replaced with a flat steel section(which would not allow the hood to shut if a spare was there. A ton of problems, all unbenownst(supposedly) to the current owner. Ithas fresh rattle can undercoat everywhere, it is fresh work, there is bondo dust stuck in the undercoat all over the place, yet he claims he has never looked under the car. There is a ton more, but I am tired. Like I said, I was a serious buyer, but the car was horribly misrepresented. Not to mention that all 4 fenders are shit. It has some good parts, but is missing a ton of HTF parts. I just wanted to let any potential buyers know that this is a waste of time, unless you are a mad fabricator and dont mind replacing the lower 4 inches of the body. If anyone wants anymore info on this trainwreck, please feel free to PM me. Danny

Thu Sep 22, 2005 9:42 pm

I saw it too.

A lot of hidden crappy bondo and other work and after I talked with Danny on the phone, a lot of different stories about it.

As of this morning, he was pissed at both of us cutting his car down so he's painting it Orange and is going to take it back to CA to sell, last I heard.

It is a decent project if you have the welding resources to do it but not for anywhere near $5000.

And $5000 or so to buy the missing or unrestorable parts...

Thu Sep 22, 2005 10:14 pm

sounds like a great car for an eastcoaster :lol:

Fri Sep 23, 2005 1:57 am

nah, that car belongs in cali. :D

Fri Sep 23, 2005 6:51 am

Danny7 wrote: Just took a 4 hour drive(round-trip)with truck, trailer and cash in hand to buy the 51 split that is for sale in Peoria Az. The owner said it was never hit and had no rust except a small spot in the inside of one of the heater channels. The car was rotted through in the rear lower corners of the back seat area. It has had a right rear quarter dome at one time and it is molded with bondo at the bottom. Bothe rear corners of the body directly above the spring plate retainers are rotten through. The passenger heater channel is rotted though. The driver front quarter is rotted through and the bottom recreated with bondo. Danny

You misunderstood him, he said the glass was not rusted.

Fri Sep 23, 2005 6:58 am

Oh, I guess I forgot to mention that. The door glass DID have RUST, stains that is. All along the top of the passenger door glass. He had apparently hosed it off, and where the glass rested against the door it rusted because it didn't have any scrapers.

Fri Sep 23, 2005 5:21 pm

Ok, I'll ask the obvious:

You took a 4 hour round trip drive with cash and didn't see pictures of this abomination first?????

Fri Sep 23, 2005 6:53 pm

Yes, I did see pics. About 7 to be exact. The problem is that they were all taken from convenient angles, and the areas I mentioned were camoflaged well. The car looked quite nice in the pics, but no one is going to lay on they're back and take pics up at the bottom when they know that the bottom is rotten. It was a clever presentation of a turd. The pics and the word from him that it was a nice car warranted the trip. I am not an idiot, just blinded by the desire to own a split, I guess. Danny

Fri Sep 23, 2005 7:17 pm

Quote: just blinded by the desire to own a split

We've all been there, dude.......

Fri Sep 23, 2005 8:05 pm

Danny7 wrote: Yes, I did see pics. About 7 to be exact. The problem is that they were all taken from convenient angles, and the areas I mentioned were camoflaged well. The car looked quite nice in the pics, but no one is going to lay on they're back and take pics up at the bottom when they know that the bottom is rotten. It was a clever presentation of a turd. The pics and the word from him that it was a nice car warranted the trip. I am not an idiot, just blinded by the desire to own a split, I guess. Danny

If they are the pics I saw (if its the same car), the pictures were very well disguised. The car looked pretty good from what I saw.

Fri Sep 23, 2005 9:19 pm

http://cards.webshots.com/invite/pickup/105216243bHEb/album/452368482UBMRJq

:D I am not sure if I did that right or not, but that is the link to the pics I saw of the car. You guys be the judge. If I can't buy a used home is Splitsville, I am going to build a new one. Anyone got a reasonably priced split section for sale? Thanks, Danny

Fri Sep 23, 2005 9:45 pm

Those are the photos 2splits saw, I sent them for feedback before heading over there.

The pictures were well done and hid quite a bit.

Sat Sep 24, 2005 12:25 am

Those fenders are 'shit'??

Gimme! How much??

Sat Sep 24, 2005 12:29 am

ehos, what part of three guys saying...

Quote: The pictures were well done and hid quite a bit.

...dont you understand?

:wink:

Sat Sep 24, 2005 7:21 am

Well damn, those are the pics I saw. Just goes to show you, never buy a car on pics alone. The trip to see a car may take hours, but the frustration of buying a messed up car sight unseen will last much longer.

Based on the pics I saw, I would have probably bought that car. Glad someone went to check it out to get the real story.

Sat Sep 24, 2005 7:25 am

Yeah, I'll admit seeing the pics make the car look pretty good. But before driving that far I would have asked for more pics of the places I couldn't see.

Sat Sep 24, 2005 7:26 am

eh0s wrote:
Those fenders are 'shit'??

Gimme! How much??

On the rears, I'd say 50% of the edge where they bolt to the body was rotted away.

The fronts might have been ok but they had some THICK undercoating on them.

Sat Sep 24, 2005 7:33 am

johnshenry wrote: Yeah, I'll admit seeing the pics make the car look pretty good. But before driving that far I would have asked for more pics of the places I couldn't see.

Amen John.

When I sold one of my splits and a rusty oval ragtop a year or so ago (on this site), I had over 100 pictures of each car available on a seperate photo hosting site. Interesting thing was that I only got a few questions, but got a lot of offers. Be up front about the car, and point out the stuff that is questionable. You'll probably find that you have a much easier time selling the car and won't have to deal with people after the car is gone.

Sat Sep 24, 2005 7:36 am

Always kills me how people try to sell a $15-$20k car with three pictures. If I see a seller trying to sell a "mint!" split and I dont see close up pics of the tire well, rear quarters, aprons, bumper bracket mounts, floor pans, etc. A assume that the seller knows nothong about splits. And then to further, the seem to get pissed when people ask detailed questions and ask for more photos.

A real enthusiast will take pics of all of the things that HE would want to see pics of if he were buying. Simple......

Sat Sep 24, 2005 9:31 am

johnshenry wrote: Yeah, I'll admit seeing the pics make the car look pretty good. But before driving that far I would have asked for more pics of the places I couldn't see.

Danny and I drove to Phoenix together to buy this car. I actually did ask for MANY more pictures than we got. But there was an issue with getting more pictures because the seller didn't even know how to use a computer. Hell, he called my email a "fax" 3 times when I spoke to him on the phone. That, and we were blinded by the split thing of course. :) We just felt we needed to move on it ASAP so that we would be the ones to get the "gem." HAHAHA Joke's on us.