Buick - Part I

Oh man. Yesterday Mike and I and his best boy Roman went over to Roman's friend Morrice's house to check out an old car.

Morrice just moved into a very old house which was vacated by the death of the old man who had lived there most his life. Mike wants an old car (everyone knows it) and in passing the other day on the phone, Morrice mentioned to Roman how there's some old car in his garage he's gotta get rid of. A lightbulb went off above Roman's head.

Morrice just sees a very heavy pile of crap. (Morrice likes new imports not old rods) The way he described the car to Roman, we didn't know what to expect. We definitely did not expect to go nearly blind by the sight of the diamond amongst the contents of the historic time machine that was the garage.

The car was amazing. Of course, it doesn't run and of course it's pretty nasty. It appears to have sat untouched for at least the past decade. Parts and spare engines and authentic barber chairs lay under a thick coat of dust, grease and lack of sunlight much like the car.

The keys were in the ignition. It was difficult to get to and I was having slight images of Clarice Starling in the back of that car with Benjamin Raspheld's head in that movie I can't remember the name of. None of us got in it.

Rust - I'd say less than 1% of the body had rust. Amazing. It was kept in a garage and that is what seperates the diamonds from the boulders. We guess that it's between a '49 and '53. It's all original. It needs work. It needs a lot of work. But if Morrice knew what he had in his garage, he would know that this thing would go on e-bay for at least $4,000 as is.

I did the talking as usual. Morrice knew nothing about it and it turned out he was just the messenger between us and his pa. Since I had no bar or guideline and since they really just wanted to be rid of it, I offered $400. Seemed fine until he called his dad and said his dad got offered $2,000.

Bluff? Maybe. For real? Could be. It is certainly worth it. But here is the difference. The guy obviously didn't seal the deal yet and ah hem, we're friends of Morrice's friends.

But it did most certainly feel like Mike's dream had just been denied. Roman told Maurice we'd be in touch.

Stop back in for Part II later. (Part III is currently happening so I don't yet know how this story turns out. ) Damn, I hope good. If only you saw Mike's face when he saw this car.