SOMETIMES THEY COME BACK: PART 2

This is Part 2 - For Part 1, click HERE.

.......................The next day, I get a text message from the neighbor down the road. His name is John and he's a super nice guy. The kind of guy that you could ask any favor in the world, and he would do his best to help you. A really good guy, the type of person you'd want as your neighbor. 

A couple of months earlier, John had stopped by to see a beautiful '40 Coupe I had. The car really was amazing, and he drooled all over it over the course of three separate visits to see it. For some reason though, he was a little hesitant to pull the trigger. By the third visit, I politely let him know that if he didn't want it, I was going to list it for sale. He told me half-heartedly to go ahead and list it, but before he left, he said with some hesitation, "So, what do you think is going to happen when you post it? Like how long do you think it will last if I change my mind?" Now, this car was a 10/10 - hammered stance, nice black paint, built flathead and nice nice nice. I told him my honest opinion: "John, this car won't last a full day if I post it." I meant it. He just kind of looked at me funny, said thank you and left. 

How he fell in love with this car is no secret. STANCE for the win.

Hello...

A day later, I hear a car coming down my driveway. It was John again. I went out to greet him and he asks to see the '40 again. "No problem," I say. We go out to the shop, and as we're standing there looking it over for the fourth time, John sticks his hand out and says "Ok, done. I'll take it!."

This car was so close to staying with me it wasn't even funny. 

The only problem was, as soon as he left the night before, I posted it for sale on my Instagram, and a guy sent me a deposit it within two hours. It didn't last a day, just like I'd told him. Not even close. John couldn't believe it and was visibly disappointed.  From then on, there was a heightened sense of urgency in his voice any time he spotted a car of mine that he may be interested in. 

Sorry, John..

So now I have this beautiful pickup and I'm getting this text from John... The message read: "Hi Jake, what's the Model A you have sitting in your driveway?" I explained that I had just brought it home from Central Oregon. He goes on to ask how much it is. At this point, I didn't know the truck well enough to price it too far out there, and honestly, I was really thinking about keeping it. So, I just threw out a number. He called right away and asked a few basic questions. Then he said simply, "I'll go ahead and take it then." Shit. 

Remember this scene from SOMETIMES THEY COME BACK PART 1 ?

And just like that, it was done. He came down, looked it over and loved it. He hands me the money and asks if I could drive it down to his place. I don't think he had ever driven a Model A before. Honestly, at his size (probably 6' 2" or more) and how big of a guy he is, I wondered what he was thinking buying something that he'd be so cramped in. He never even sat in the truck, just said he wanted it, and that was that. 

Pretty easy to see why he wanted this thing: It's gorgeous. 

It turns out my curiosity regarding how well he'd fit in the little Model A pickup was justified. About a week later, I got a call from John. He said, "Well, I think if you hear of anybody that wants a nice Model A, I'd sell this truck. I can't fit in it." Now, he didn't ask me to buy it back, just said that he would sell it if someone wanted it. He also added that he's just as happy with it sitting in his garage, he liked just looking at it. 

A month goes by, and I thought about that truck a little, but in the meantime, bought another couple Model A's, a '29 Roadster, and a '30 Coupe. The Roadster was in the shop and spoken for right away (should have kept it!) but the Coupe was still on my trailer the day after I got back from picking it up. It was a two-tone brown, older restoration car that had sat for 30 or so years. A nice car, but kind of a tough color. I didn't know what I was going to do with it just yet, but I wouldn't have to wait long. 

The roadster mentioned above "Should have kept it" was an understatement. Unbelievable car with the same ownership since the 1940's. Yeah, I screwed that up.

"Hi Jake, what's the story on the little Coupe you have on your trailer out there?" It was John again. I didn't think anything of it, just figured he was curious because he liked old cars. Surely, he wasn't asking because he wanted to buy it. After all, he already knew he didn't fit in a Model A. "What's the price range on a car like that?" he asked. Again, I had JUST bought this car and had barely walked around it in the daylight. I threw out a roundabout number, thinking we were just having a conversation about old cars. To my surprise, his reply was, "I'll take it." Huh?

This is the Coupe that never touched ground at my place. I took it straight to John's and dropped it off. As far as I know, he still owns this one. No word on whether or not he's sat in it....

So, John has now bought two Model A's from me and can't fit in either one of them comfortably. Fine with me, I'm not going to stand in his way. With each car he bought from me, he would say "I'd like to just trade these in toward the next '40 Ford you get." We would sort of chuckle about it and that was that. But a month or so later, I got my hands on a car that I knew right away he would want. And I knew just what I wanted: That Model A Pickup..

Look at this beauty queen. 

Now, it wasn't a '40 Ford, but this thing had the same look as the '40 I'd had that John wanted so badly. The second I brought it home, I figured it would just be a matter of time. The car in question was a 1938 Ford Convertible with '39 trim. It was chopped and had a great stance, jet black paint, red interior, the works. And the part that I knew would appeal the most to John: Under that traditional-looking car was a complete street rod. It had an injected ZZ4, automatic transmission, 9" rear end, 4 wheel disc, power steering, AC, etc. Everything you could imagine, it had it. And it was a VERY high-end build, no backyard stuff. You could tell it was a $150k + build just at a glance. 

To my surprise, John didn't stop by like a moth to a flame as I'd anticipated. A few days went by and I never saw him. I gave him a call and found out that he was down with Covid, but would let me know when he was feeling better. He asked about the car, how much it was, etc. but seemed pretty uninterested. "Hmm," I thought, "maybe I was wrong." 

Yowza...

A month goes by and I'm driving this '38 convertible around a little bit here and there. It's one of those cars that just drives so well that it makes the rest of your stuff seem like a huge pile of shit. I didn't like that, because I liked my piles of shit. 

One day, I get a call from John. He's in noticeably better spirits and right away he asks about the '38. "Do you still have it?" I said that I did, that I was saving it because I knew it was the perfect car for him. He kind of laughed and said he would run by and have a look at it. When he got to my house though, he wasn't laughing...

For a long time, these cars were pushed to the side, nobody wanted them. A few really hot ones were put together and their popularity has definitely grown. This is one of those... 

"I had no idea the car looked like THIS," John said with his mouth visibly agape. And he was right to lose his composer over this thing - it really was an insanely cool car with a killer look. Easily the best-looking '38/'39 Convertible I've ever seen. 

 "Take it for a spin," I tell John. "It drives every bit as good as it looks and then some." He's hesitant. I'm watching him look this thing over and I can tell right away he's thinking, "This is going to cost me." And he was right, it was not a cheap car. But if a guy had it in his head that he wanted a car like that, he wasn't going to find a better one than this. 

One word, STANCE.

Against his better judgement, John takes the car for a drive. He pulls away from my house and it's about fifteen minutes before I hear it rumbling back down the road toward me. 

He gets out and I say, "Well, what did you think?" John doesn't say much at first, I can tell he's in deep thought. I can also see in his eyes that he's remembering the last time he hesitated on a car I had that he wanted. But this one was considerably more money, enough to make a guy perspire as he pondered just how in the hell he was going to explain this one to his wife... and that's just what he was thinking. 

Good from any angle.

John walks around the car a few times and then abruptly says,"Well, I should run..." I could tell he was trying to break the spell it had on him, and was thinking if he could just get away from it-far, far away, he would come back to his senses and escape the trap that was this beautiful, 4-wheeled contraption with paint so deep you could fall into it-which is seemingly what he'd done...

He walks back to his truck and gets in. He fires it up and rolls the window down in the "One last thing" kind of way that old guys always do to invite you over to their car for a few more words before they pull away. "Here we go," I think to myself. 

"Jake, think about how much I could really buy it for and give me a call." Now, I had already given him the price. It was no chump-change, but it was fair. It was also not negotiable. Rather than cross that bridge right then though and shut the whole thing down, I decided to let him stew on that car for a few days instead. "Let me think about it, John. I'll call you." With that, he pulled away, staring at the car all the way down my driveway. 

I mean, honestly...

That was a Tuesday, and I waited until Thursday afternoon to give him a call. I figured that when he answered, he was either going to have forgotten about the whole thing all together, or he would be chomping at the bit to hear what I had come up with because he wanted the car so badly. It was the latter.. 

"Hi, Jake. Well, what's the good word on that car?" He got right to the point. So did I. "John, the price is the price on that car. But I was thinking: How do you feel about letting that Model A truck go?" As soon as I said this, I could tell he was hoping I'd say that. "Sure, I would be happy to trade it in. What are you proposing?" 

I made an offer: The Model A pickup, and "X" in cash. It was a fair deal, one that gave him back almost all he was out on the truck when he bought it. I thought it was the perfect compromise. "I'll do it," John said. "It will take me a few days to get that kind of money from my bank. DO NOT SELL THE CAR-I WILL TAKE IT." I guess he still remembered how quickly the '40 sold.. 

Later that afternoon, I get a text from John. It read, "It will be five days before I have all of the cash. The Model A is sitting in your driveway-this is a done-deal." I get home and he wasn't kidding, he had the truck dropped off in my driveway, keys in it. 

And just like that, I owned a beautiful Model A pickup, again. The only thing that was different about it from the last time I'd seen it was that the gas tank was now full. Everything else was exactly the same. Perfect.

So, what does the future hold? Well, it made its way to me twice, I figure maybe I should hold onto it. At least for a while. So far all I've done is take the trim rings off of the wire wheels and drive the shit out of it. It's the most fun you can have at 42 mph and I kind of like saying "The truck so nice, I had to own it twice!" so we'll just see what happens...