[mikediaz]

Anyone in CA and willing to inspect a car I'm thinking about buying?

I'm looking at a car that's in Simi Valley, CA and was wondering if anyone lived anywhere near there that was willing to inspect it? Please send me an e-mail at [email protected] if you may be able to help. We can discuss the details (including any payment for services rendered.$...)

Its a 1965 Bonneville with a 421 (non-numbers matching). So I guess the extent of knowledge required would be just to be able to record the engine codes, cylinder head codes, and other 421-identifying characteristics. The rest would be a basic inspection to see if the car is running in good shape etc.

Let me know,
Mike Diaz

[mikediaz]

Anyone in CA and willing to inspect a car I'm thinking about buying?

I'm looking at a car that's in Simi Valley, CA and was wondering if anyone lived anywhere near there that was willing to inspect it? Please send me an e-mail at [email protected] if you may be able to help. We can discuss the details (including any payment for services rendered.$...)

Its a 1965 Bonneville with a 421 (non-numbers matching). So I guess the extent of knowledge required would be just to be able to record the engine codes, cylinder head codes, and other 421-identifying characteristics. The rest would be a basic inspection to see if the car is running in good shape etc.

Let me know,
Mike Diaz

[mikediaz]

That's very true pittsburgh, and i wouldn't buy it without seeing it myself, but I wanted to be sure on its engine's legitimacy before flying out there to check it out

[mikediaz]

Well here's the car i've been looking at
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewIte...2&fromMakeTrack=true

Sort of a strange one this one,
the owner says he bought it and it wasn't running too good, rebuilt a carb and it runs great now. (he did a few other minor things, flushed out the engine.. etc)
Got it repainted, bumpers were good. blah blah

Now the contraversial part:
The auction claims the engine to be a 421 HO,
he says he never cared too much for what it had but when he bought it, the old owner thought it was a 428. He bought it anyways, took it home and it turned out to be a 421, not a 428.
I asked him why he hasn't checked the casting # on the engine and he said something along the liens of him simply not caring.
He also said he took it to the track and got 14s on the qtr mile. (not sure how that compares to the 421HO bonny's expected time)

His story is sort of wavy in the sense that whoever told him it was a 421 should have been able to tell him if it was a '65 421 and if it was an HO or not.

The cell phones we were using kept disconnecting. I might call him back later with a few more questions.

He says he's not big on numbers he just buys and sells cars. In any event, what do you all think? Can anyone make out anything from the engine pics? (i assume not cuz they all look so similar except for tripower manifold which tells us almost nothing). Anyone know any good questions to grill him with if i call him back? I'm about to give up on this one since it's so shady.


mike diaz

[Phyllis1965]

I'd check it out for you but I'M in NorCal.

Sounds way fishy to me. If the guy buys cars to sell them you would think that he would want to know what he had so he could get top dollar.... He's not interested in numbers?! I would assume that you are! How else you gonna know what your getting? I would not trust the guy........

[mikediaz]

yup basically. I think its looking up for this texas guy trying to sell me an expensive but nice 389 .

[Deadhead]

Airfare is pretty cheap. You could check it out yourself. That is a decent looking car from the Pics. I think that living in VA you would like a hardtop in the turns.

Could be a 421 bored to 428 as the source of confusion? Nice M/T covers. I agree that there are fishy unanswered questions, but it has a pretty oringal look from the Pics. You could also run a quick PHS on it before you bought it if he'd give you a VIN.

Just a couple of thoughts. There have been a couple of nice '66 389 convertibles & HTs on E-Bay recently. You could always have Central VA Machine build you a nice motor out of one of those.

[61 389-348]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by MikeDiaz:
Anyone in CA and willing to inspect a car I'm thinking about buying?

I'm looking at a car that's in Simi Valley, CA and was wondering if anyone lived anywhere near there that was willing to inspect it? Please send me an e-mail at [email protected] if you may be able to help. We can discuss the details (including any payment for services rendered.$...)

Its a 1965 Bonneville with a 421 (non-numbers matching). So I guess the extent of knowledge required would be just to be able to record the engine codes, cylinder head codes, and other 421-identifying characteristics. The rest would be a basic inspection to see if the car is running in good shape etc.

Let me know,
Mike Diaz </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

I saw the car yesterday at a show up in Thousand Oaks. The owner, JR Classics, buys and sells. The car is ok as a # 3 driver. Pics look much better than the car does in person. I wasn't interested enough to even look at the block code.

[mikediaz]

Yeah. the seller mentioned hoping to 'net' 11 grand out of it. I hope he meant he hoped to get that much from a buyer and not that he hoped to get that much as net profit (i.e. 11k + amt he paid)

Ah well the book is closed on that one.