I disagree, us truck addicts are crazy too, we are just nice and polite. :)

I have a small story from a different angle. There's a house down the road from me on a somewhat major intersection with a lot of traffic. The house always has something for sale in the front yard, tires, lawn mowers. I found out the owner is a well known car guy, buying and selling hot rods for years. One weekend I see a "Rummage Sale/Car Parts for Sale" sign in the front yard next to the usual stuff along with a '33 Ford hot rod. I stop in to see what the guy has to offer and started to talk to the guy and ask about the Ford, I wasn't interested in buying, just talked to him about old cars and hot rods. He tells me he's getting tired of people asking if it's for sale, he's had a dozen people so far that morning ask about it. I thought to myself if he's getting irritated about people asking about the car maybe he should move off of his front yard and park it out of sight. I knew what he was doing and it was working, he was using it to pull people into his yard sale.

I'm certainly in a more residential area than some of you guys, but it makes me real nervous if uninvited "guests" just drop in. I go to a lot of trouble to conceal the fact I have a separate garage/workshop in my back yard. If I found someone wandering around back there, I'd be looking for my gun and a cellphone to dial 911. I don't think the principle is that different for a larger farm or country estate. If there isn't a 4 Sale sign on it, I keep on driving.

I was on a trip to see my father in western Illinois back in '07, south of Galena, heavy duty farm country. Out in the middle of nowhere I see a '51-'52 sitting next to what I'll charitably call a Modular Home. I figured what the heck, I need a break, I'll see if the guy wants to chat about old trucks. Well, I rang the doorbell, and after about 2 minutes an old bird comes to the door in his underwear (this was mid-afternoon) and says Whaddya want? He has one hand behind his back. I explained that I had a 52 and was just interested in seeing his. He says I can go ahead and look at it, but he'll be watching... I could see a rifle stock between his legs. I didn't linger too long. I can understand his concern tho, it was probably more than a mile to anything, he was old and alone. I had apparently woken him up from a nap. After that, I don't bother stopping unless I see the owner standing there.

http://i163.photobucket.com/albums/t...astle54COE.jpg
the owner of this old girl was quite gracious to me when I ever so politely awoke him one saturday morning around 9am. I still make the trip on occasion to drive past to check on the truck. he has another 48-52 coe, a 69 396 4spd el camino and who knows what else that have sat for the last two decades or so. none of which will he entertain selling. I'm friends w/ one of his neighbors and my friend gets pretty rowled about the deal.
Only reason I don't have these troubles is I keep mine well hidden...
JML

I know everyone who drives an older vehicle has been annoyed at some of the "offers" that folks make. I have come out of the parts house or Home Depot and find folks walking around my truck. When I ask if I can help them, they ask if it is for sale. When I tell the no, they usually say that anything has a price. I'll then tell them to make me an offer, but don't piss me off. Sort of puts most of them off, but some of them really try to insult me by offering a couple a hundred bucks for the ragged ol truck :-arrgh I know my 53 doesn't look like much, but I have a lot of money and many hours of labor involved, sometimes it takes some serious willpower to not take a swing at a few of them :-X15

Yep, and now most of the "junk" owners think all of their stuff is worth 2-3 times what it really is.

Ok, ok Joe, I agree us truck addicts CAN be crazy. LOL

I use to travel the back roads of the Carolinas and Georgia looking for fixer-uppers. After a few incidents with the "locals" (read I was a D*MN Yankee in the south), I took to leaving a postcard in their mailboxes. On the postcard it explained that I bought old cars and trucks for the purpose of restoration. It also explained that IF they sold their car to me it would be lovingly restored and respected. That may sound crazy but a LOT of people seemed to care about what happened to their car (even though most hadn't done anything with it for years). I often had people want to make sure that the vehicle wasn't just being scrapped or turned for quick a profit. Since I was often in the area for a few days it was easy for me to come back if someone was interested. I often got a phone call, bought a couple of projects and cut down potentially nasty exchanges.

One story I will never forget from my teenage years. I stopped to look at a 67 Mustang I had spotted from the road. I checked the car out as I walked up to the front door of an old farmhouse. The car was packed with junk. The windows almost completely covered up. It looked as though someone was using the car to move. I rang the door bell and a very nice older lady came to the door. I told her I was interested in the car and asked if it was for sale. She stared out at the car and looked back at me. She told me that the car belonged to her son and that she couldn't sell it without his permission. The reason I couldn't reach him was because he had left for Vietnam in 1969 and never came back. I learned that day that cars (and trucks) can be powerful symbols of people's lives. I left quietly that day.

Wow, that gives you pause to think.....

Not quite the same thing, but my truck was sitting in the driveway like so (except I kept the hood down.)
http://i1225.photobucket.com/albums/...g?t=1312428928

The city came by one day and asked my wife if the truck was running. She said she didn't think so and he said "Wrong answer" they said we had to move it or be fined.
Well there is a guy 2 blocks down from that old house that had S**t in his yard (plus rabbits in a chicken wire pen) that they never complained about. I could drive around town and see bunches of worse things. Buy the way the two munchkins are now 16 and 12 and that house is still just as bad.

We moved the truck to my in-laws 1/2 mile away and out of site until we bought our current home with a garage.

Not to mention the house next door that we finally put up a fence to block their trash view. We got tired of picking up dirty diapers in our yard. That house was busted for drugs a couple of months after we moved. And yes, it's still trashed...Grrrrr

Here's my newest rude story, at least I thought it was rather rude.

Last weekend I followed up on lead on a panel truck in a garage in the inner city. I go over and make a deal and haul out a beat up panel truck and two flatheads. My son and I, along with the seller, his wife and drunken brother-in-law, spend a hot four hours pulling plywood off the front of the garage and pulling the stuff out of the dilapidated garage. In the rafters of the garage are a bunch of rusty car parts belonging to the BIN. The sellers asks if I'd mind hauling the rusty parts to his BIN's house a couple of blocks away. Seeing as they helped a lot with pulling the panel truck and engines out of the garage I happily agreed to help out. We load the junk onto my trailer and into my truck and drive over to the BIN's house. My son and I help unload the stuff into the ghetto yard with drug dealers standing on their porches staring us down. After all is unloaded and the seller has his money he says, "Now that the deal is done I want to talk to you about your bumper stickers." I am a politically conservative guy and I have a bumper stickers for the recent governor and senate race on my truck. The guy starts ripping into me about why I support these two candidates and what reasons I have for voting for them. I tried to defuse the situation a couple of times by blowing him off but he kept coming after me. Finally I just told him I wasn't going to argue politics with him and left.

I thought it was pretty rude to wait to get my money and especially to wait until after I hauled his BIN's junk to his house before opening his mouth. I think it was just plain rude no matter what. If my bumper stickers and political views offended him he should have just gotten my money and said "Good bye", that's what I would have done.

I get asked if my truck is for sale a lot as well, I found when they persist after I say no I generally tell them that I looked for it for a year and there is no way. If they continue with the 'everything has a price' thing I always tell them what it's worth to me and what it would take for me to sell it ranges in the hundreds of thousands. And I say it with a straight face, cause I'm serious when I do. Nostalgic value is a good way to get people to back off because it's not a matter of money then.

And it might just be me, but everytime someone tells me to make an offer (which I do too when I sell stuff btw) I figure it's one of two options; either they know what it's worth and want to see if you'll give them more, or they have no idea and will be happy with just about anything. Most people bet on the safe side and low ball just to test the water, unless you meet someone who really really knows his stuff, you'll never get a honest offer.









Anyways, I live in a small town so people generally watch what they say cause the rest of the town knows real quick, but I did have the pastor at the church behind my house (there is a parking lot of theirs behind my house that I was parked in, they are kiddy-corner from my house) thought my '67 Mustang was abandoned because it "has a lot of cancer issues" (rust) when I went over to talk to them about renting a spot so I didn't have to park it on the street of a busy corner. It had been there less than a week. It's not the most exciting story, but I just went "Really? It's a 67 freaking Mustang, people don't abandon those"

Whenever I meet someone who is selling something I am interested in and tell me to make an offer I always ask them to set the price because it's theirs and they should know what it's worth to them. I also say I don't like making offers because I don't want to offend them. I figure if they are at a swap meet or have a "For Sale" sign on the item they should know what they want for it. If they refuse to give me a price I always offer $1 no matter if it's a trinket or a drivable car. Once they refuse the $1 offer we usually get to a more reasonable starting point.

Sorry, my bad. Marcus Welby(M.D.) warned me years ago to switch to decaf.I'd rather be dead.

Went by NAPA this mourning looking for a couple of 1/8" brass fittings. Waited on the guy at the counter for 5 minutes to get off the phone, then when he does get off the phone he tells me it will be a while to catch up on paper work before he can get to me. I walked out the door with out saying a word. I think if I had of said something it wouldn,t had been nice. It will be a very long time before I go back into this store that is if I every do go back.

Oach... Did the store just open? Was he the manager? Only one counter person, is this a small store? I would call and let the manager know about this... Most retail buisness's you handle the phone calls first, you want to bring them into the store. Someone in the store is already there.