# Automobiles Anonymous



## GTOcop (Mar 20, 2011)

My wife said I'm addicted to my cars and that I should get in a program for some help. I told her the only help I need is block sanding and color sanding. Maybe I should start a non-profit organization to help pay for stuff though. With Obama still in office I think I have a pretty good shot at getting the paperwork through as long as I can show I'm spending more then I'm receiving.


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## Instg8ter (Sep 28, 2010)

"My name is Brian and I am a Pontiaholic"......LOL Cop....yeah help block and color sanding would have been nice, but you know you would be going over any part someone else did anyways...., heck i even went back over my own work because i don't trust myself. we are all fanatics when it comes to our Pontiacs


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## Eric Animal (Oct 28, 2007)

My wife never really bothers me about the car.....she sees that it is one of the few things that I enjoy......It could be worse, I remind her....drugs,girls, liquor,a new puppy, etc....:lol::cheers


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## Thumpin455 (Feb 17, 2010)

When you get to the point of owning so many you have to write them down to remember them all, then you and the wife have my sympathy. Until that point feel fortunate that there are others with it worse, they have the inability to pass up any old beater if they have the cash in their pocket.

Hi I am Todd, I have a car problem. I dont see it as a problem but others do. I think that is why I rarely sell one, it keeps that car from being a problem for someone else.


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## ALKYGTO (Mar 29, 2010)

Torque > Crack, liquor, weed, food.

The sight, sound, smell and feel of a vintage automobile is truly a drug. Kinda wierd the emotion you can tie to an automobile. I tell myself sometimes it's just sheetmetal, glass and rubber but yet..... I can't walk past it in the garage without looking at it. The feelings you even get seeing a nice car pass going in the oposite direction. Checking out the details on someone elses ride, whether it's nice or even picking out the imperfections (jealousy?) I'm inexplicably drawn to some automobiles.


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## 400fitz (Jul 7, 2010)

I just got a "fix" (no pun intended) by coming to the forum.


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## Thumpin455 (Feb 17, 2010)

It always makes me feel better when I see the first muscle car or hotrod each spring. This year it was a Chevelle, last year a Nova. Next year I want to be the first one out driving around, making noise and having people crank their heads around to see what it was. I cant drive around without looking in everyones back yards for old cars, a grille, taillight, or a fender lurking back there gets my attention.


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## Instg8ter (Sep 28, 2010)

lol Thump'in, I took the backroads home from Indy last month scanning the weeds for barn cars. Have a guy i bug every summer when i see his open garage door with a 67' GTO covered in boxes and junk the grille the only part visible any more...."he is gonna restore it". meanwhile what appeared to be a nice driver 6 years ago is rotting away....is that like drug abuse?


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## GTOcop (Mar 20, 2011)

Thumpen...I totally agree...that's my favorite part of classic cars is finding the "forgotten" treasures...I found my 65 Falcon Convertible sitting behind a pile of race car parts when me and a friend went to drop off a motor he built for the guy. Paid $1500 cause the guy said it didn't run and it wasn't worth it to him to figure out what was wrong. Ended up who ever rebuild the engine last didn't stake the bolts on a connecting rod and it came off the crank. No damage to the block, crank or rod, just needed new bolts and proper installation. Found my 67 Mustang Coupe on the side of a house behind a old camper. Kid went off to college and left the car on the street. It racked up $2700 in parking tickets and the kid couldn't pay them. All I had to do was go pay his parking tickets and he signed the title over to me. Needed new paint, suspension, tires and brakes but otherwise was in pretty good condition. The GTO is the best though. Driving in the foothills of a retirement town in Arizona. A guy was putting a "for sale" sign in the window that simply said "1967 Pontiac $7500 obo" hit the brakes, checked the VIN and wrote the check on the spot. Ended up the guy loaned a friend $7500 to help pay for his wife's funeral and gave the car as collateral. The original owner died before he could pay back the money and he only wanted the money he loaned. The man that I bought it from was not a car enthusiast and didn't care to be. Car was bought and paid for in Tucson, Arizona and delivered to Yuma. 96,000 original miles with factory A/C and all the documents were still there, guy even kept a maintenance log. Unfortunately it had been in an accident at one point and the the repair job was less then ideal. Frame was not the correct year and it had the wrong rear axel. The passenger door was off a tempest too, the door panel they didn't change was the first clue. The hood was a tempest or lemans too.


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## likethat (Oct 5, 2007)

I hate to say this but I owned 31 cars and 2 boats 5 years ago.... yikes! I chopped that down to 11cars and no boats. Moved back to Ohio built a huge barn with plenty of room for them all. I get a new neighbor last year that use to own a body shop and likes boats, cars, backhoes, tractors, dump trucks, and RV. I let him put 4 boats and a 36 ft RV in the barn for winter. The wife found out and said I am not aloud next door to play any more because he is a bad influence. Well she works 12hour days


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## Thumpin455 (Feb 17, 2010)

When I first moved in here there was a 68 Firebird under a tarp, about 5 miles down the road. A 78 Trans Am in a back yard two miles down from that one. A 67 GTO under a tarp a block away. And now there is a 68 Buick GS post about half a mile out of town. I thought about stopping in to ask about them, but all except the Buick vanished in the order I mentioned them. No idea where they went. I figured if I had stopped I would probably own them now, and I would have more projects that will take longer for me to get to, and less parking around here. There is a 65 Mustang on a back road less than a mile from here, sitting in weeds behind the house. I want to see what they are going to do with it, but I really dont want to buy it.

People stop in here all the time, and they assume I am letting the cars rot and I am not driving them. Not the case at all, but I too get annoyed with the people who say "I will restore it someday" and it just rots until they scrap it. Most people around here cant afford some of my cars, like the 72 HO Formula and the 70 GTO. Nobody in their right mind would want the 79 Formula since it is a street strip ride with a Butler 467 in it, not much car for lots of money, but it goes pretty quick.

I think part of why I didnt stop to ask about those Birds and the GTO was because of how annoying it is to have someone stop and try to buy mine for $500. I didnt want to bother them, but apparently someone did since they are all gone now.

Did I mention I know of all the GTOs in town? And I know the guy who has a 429 BOSS Mustang that he drives around in the summer? Even know a guy with early Hemis and blowers for most of them. I have only lived here since 05.


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## GTOcop (Mar 20, 2011)

When I lived in Arizona mine was one of only three 67 GTO's in town and mine was the only one driven daily. The other two only came out for car shows. There was only two 65's and only a handful of the 68 models (one was a really crappy clone of a Judge owned by a young Marine. He always tried to tell people it was an original Judge but anyone who knew anything knew better)


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## likethat (Oct 5, 2007)

All the time people would stop and ask for me to sell. Got on my nerves some times also. I always feared that some one would steal stuff. Many of what I had were good cars. Once I put them up for sale they didn't last long. I priced them cheap but not to cheap all way more then scrap price then but definitely deals. Now 10 of them where parts cars. I got a 67 lemans for $100 with a gto hood complete car. A 66 convert tempest for $300 with a compete top, wiring, pump, lines, everything but well molding. Mean other deals free or next to free. So I made money on them and kept the parts I needed. I did let go of some nice projects a 66 GS air car, a 79 f150 460 short bed fleetside. It needed a bed but was in great shape every where else. I had just finished all the suspension brakes with all new parts the engine was 60 over and trans was fresh. Paint was not bad just the bed had some bad structural rust issues. Had a 4 in lift needed tires, but rims where newer. The guy got a great deal. Some Scouts and so one.
Out of the 11 I have left 7 are muscle cars I kept the most valuable. Out of that 7 only 4 will get some sort of restoration. The other 3 out of rest of the 7 are original and will stay that way as long as I have them.
I hated to see some of the collection go, but realistically how much do you want to be slave to this hobby.
I was glad to see some of the buyers with that happy look in there eyes when they left.


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## Thumpin455 (Feb 17, 2010)

I plan to let some of them go, but only to people who will be able to do something with them. Also none I have sitting in my yard right now, except the Mustang I would sell it right now, but I have my keepers here, and there are only 6 of them total. As I get some of them running or fixed up a bit, if someone comes along with enough to pay off what I have in them, they will go home with them. I can only do so many in what is left of my life, I only have so much parking space, and eventually I want to be done working on cars so I can spend my money elsewhere. Besides if I get bored when these are done, I can buy another and start again. I want 7 vehicles, not 40+.

My father in law and father liked to hear that.


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## Eric Animal (Oct 28, 2007)

I'm getting ready to move to a more "car friendly state"....Florida.arty:


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## Too Many Projects (Nov 15, 2008)

Eric Animal said:


> I'm getting ready to move to a more "car friendly state"....Florida.arty:


You move to FL and I'll come visit you in the winter too....:seeya

I REALLY liked the area of TX where Rick lives and am considering that IF we ever find the courage to uproot our lives to relocate. Right now, it would take a 6 place car hauler and a complete moving van JUST to move what's in my SHOP..... My wife says I'M the bad influence as most of the other car guys that come here marvel at all the "stuff" I have crammed in my building and the cars waiting for "someday". My building is 2100 sq ft by 16ft tall. I have over 30 linear ft of pallet racking stuffed to the gills (yes, I have a forklift too..) and I have a 4 post hoist just to stack vehicles for storage. I actually NEED 1 or 2 more to free up some floor space. Personally, I don't see anything "abnormal" about all this but I've been told it's not natural behaviour......:rofl: Last year I bought a canvas quanset building to park my boat in because there wasn't room in the shop anymore....:lol: NOTHING sits out in the weather to rot away here, or have prying eyes looking to see what they can get.


Hi, name is Mitch and YES, I am a caraholic. I am powerless over the lure of a muscle car and can't seem to satisfy my craving for more. I've tried to stay focused on what I have but there are SO MANY more I WANT.


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## Thumpin455 (Feb 17, 2010)

Sounds completely normal to me Mitch. Actually it sounds almost familiar, except I dont have the ability to stack them. I wish I did... I can dream.


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## Mikesan (Apr 2, 2011)

Some of you guys are really living the dream. We have plans to build a house later this year or next and it has a 3 car garage as part of the house and a 4 car attached to it. I'm already looking at another piece of the lot and wondering if I can put up a proper 6 car shop on it! Probably not.


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## GTOcop (Mar 20, 2011)

Me and the wife are looking at buying a new place. We just looked at one that had a proper workshop detached from the house. Three work bays with probably another three work bays worth of shop space and two body lifts already installed. The. It had another work space built as an addition that the present owner used as a full machine shop. There was a small office built above the work area overlooking the work bays. I don't even remember what the house looked like. When my wife asked what I thought of the house I told her I didn't care what it looked like because I probably wouldn't be in it o much with a garage like that.


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## ALKYGTO (Mar 29, 2010)

I thought collecting cars in small scale would help, but it really does'nt. I've got probably 300 GTO's in small scale and still have 5 cars in the garage/driveway.


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## GTOcop (Mar 20, 2011)

I'm looking at getting another one myself. I want to find a 1966-1974 Bronco for the winter months here. Something I can fit all the snowboards in and take up to the mountains. I would choose a classic over a new car any day of the week.


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