As a gearhead, shopping for parts can be tough. Sure, in theory most projects should be relatively easy to shop for as, whether or not we’ve all realized it, this really is a Golden Age in regards to aftermarket support for almost every major chassis of domestic origin. Want to make your Mopar/Ford/GM handle, stop, go, and/or look better? There’s a multitude of companies with just the parts for you, albeit often at a price.
Herein lies the problem, as I’m pretty sure that the majority of you BangShifters are like me in that you have a budget that you need to keep to, which often means saving for weeks or months to buy that new and shiny part you’ve been lusting over. If you’re even more like me, you have multiple pans in the fire in regards to projects, which makes it difficult to save four figures for that transmission or engine when there’s a bunch of smaller items on the To-Do list as well.
That’s where the used market comes in: eBay, Craigslist, Racing Junk, forums, junkyards, etc. It’s a bit like the Wild West in regards to policing for scammers and plain old dishonest sellers (As well as buyers, to be fair), but if you’re patient and can spot the difference between honest and rip-off artist, there’s great deals to be hand on “gently used” and new parts.
The vast majority of the time I’ve managed to score some good deals and meet some really good people in the process, some of which I’ve remained in contact with. However, there’s always a few experiences as a buyer that really make you shake your head; I’m not talking about someone that just takes your money and runs, but goes to extraordinary lengths to make the buying process as difficult as possible.
I’ll start with my worst experience:
Back in 2006, I was hell-bent on fixing up a 1990 Ford Thunderbird LX that had been in the family since new (Look, we all make questionable decisions when we’re young); of course, “fixing up” meant replacing the naturally aspirated 3.8 V6 with a 5.0 V8 and a Super Coupe manual transmission, along with the other typical grandiose plans that you form when you have more dreams than money (This is still a problem today…).
Being a poor college student I needed to buy 99% of these parts used, but as luck would have it I found a guy (Let’s call him “Tony”) down on Long Island that was selling a complete M5R2 swap for short money. Multiple, and by “multiple” I mean about a dozen emails were exchanged the week before to discuss the parts being sold, their condition, and where/when to meet (He didn’t want to ship a transmission). The majority of these emails were sent by Tony, as he emailed me every day up until that Saturday to make sure that I was definitely coming.
Saturday comes, my buddy and I load up the Jeep that we borrowed for this eight hour round trip, and we head out. There’s a whole ‘nother story that I could tell about this Jeep having an oil leak so bad that it had to be topped off with a quart of oil every 500 miles and the smokescreen that it created at WOT on the highway (As the guy tailgating us found out), but I’ve leave that for another day.
Getting to the meat of the story: We arrive at Tony’s place in the early afternoon only to find him in a panic as we’re “late”. Turns out that none of the parts that he advertised for sale were actually in his possession, but instead still bolted up to a Super Coupe sitting in a junkyard that a friend of his owned, a yard that was closing in about an hour! As he explained it, he didn’t want to pull the parts as he wasn’t sure if I was serious about showing up or not…
He “generously” offered to pull the parts if I wanted to pay him now and come back the following weekend, which I considered for exactly 0.0001 seconds before telling him to take a hike. On the plus side, it was a great road trip and a story that I can look back on and laugh about.
There we have it: That’s one of my worst used parts buying experience; what’s yours?
I drove a 4 hour round trip to Maryland to purchase a set of wheels I had won on an auction sight. The wheels I saw in the pictures were not the ones he was offering. He said it was a ‘bad light & a bad camera angle.’ The wheels were supposed to be early Cragar Super Tricks off the front of an old funny car (skinnies) He cut me a big break, ’cause we had driven so far. We got them home & put them on the Chevy II and took it for a drive. It shook & vibrated like the lugs were loose (they weren’t, we checked) We thought the new V-Dub tires needed balancing. That’s when we found the rims were bent, apparently, from a wheel stand. I called the ass several times, with no answer & finally a disconnected number. Don’t pay $350 for wheels before you have them checked
Having a scrap yard that I had previously worked for not sell me the nicest 69-72 GMC grill I have ever seen in my life because of lawyers. “Were not allowed to sell parts” Oh but I can buy used I beams out of the same pile…. To the crusher sad I’ve seen so much cool stuff DRIVEN into that yard and crushed.
Me being the bad guy I still owe a sbc to a guy for a trade. The mill was never to be stored outside and I haven’t repaid. I’ve done just about everything but reinvent the wheel to pay the guy back. It just gets worse for me. Now I want to build the mill from scratch if I have to to pay him back. I got lots of things acomplished in this journey but not exactly I had in mind. Yea I could buy a small block chevy dip it hone it rering it new bearings and call it good. I want intrest paid to the man too1.
I was looking to purchase a foxbody mustang and found some nice deals in texas (houston) so I emailed with a guy on the north side of houston about his car which looked great in pics and he promised me it was in perfect shape. I reminded him I was driving 11hrs from KC and he said come on down, I told him I would be in on Sat night and remained in contact via phone/text on my trip there to make sure he knew what time I would be there. I got there a little after dark and found his address in a very confusing apt complex, and having a 20ft trailer made it interesting. He came out and walked up to this fox that had 2 flats, fender that was barely bolted on, would not start…I was dumbfounded. I asked why he did not have the car ready and he had no reply except he would take 500 off lol This car was a complete pile, nothing like the pictures which I found out were taken 3yrs prior haha. So what do I do, I go to get some food and buy a local auto trader…find a black LX coupe and call the guy up, mind you its 9pm now and told him I wanted to come look at it, he agreed. I got to his house around 1030 because houston sucks and is huge, drove the car, struck up a deal, and loaded it at midnight haha.
Had to replace the headlight on my Camry. New one was $39. Found one in a 4 condition (out of 10). Brought it up to counter figuring they would charge me $15 and I could clean it up. The girl says; “$35.” What! A brand new one is $4 more and shipping was included! I had her go to Amazon to show her. So she says; “$35, you want it?”
I bought a 400 engine up in TN. that was supposed to be stroked to 451. When I got it home I pulled the oil pan to change the gasket the guy said leaks. The rods and pistons were there but there wasn’t any crank. I called the guy about twenty times before his wife finally answered and told me he had split town and didn’t know where he was.
A friend and I went to a local junkyard to pull a turbo off a Saab for its exhaust housing for a project car we were working on. We go in and ask the price for the turbo, and the guy at the counter says “I don’t know until I see it”. So, we go out there and start pulling it. After spending all afternoon removing half the contents of the engine bay and weathering a thunderstorm in some junk cars, we finally bring the turbo to the counter. The turbo is junk and had extensive shaft play, but we just wanted the housing, which was fine.
The slob at the counter tells us that the turbo is $300. We tell him that we can go on eBay and get a cheap turbo BRAND NEW for under $200, and he tells us that it’s $300, take it or leave it. We dropped the thing on the floor right there and walked out. That was the last time I even attempted to buy anything at that place.
Most recent one was last year. Busted the passenger side mirror on my F-350 while out of town. Next day I go on my smart phone and hunt for a nearby salvage yard. Call them, “yep, got several”. Drive 20 miles to the yard, dude is having “computer problems”, sends the part puller out to get the mirror off a truck. Guy comes back with a mid 90’s F-150 mirror. Explain to both that isn’t even close, look out the window at my truck I sez. Guy’s only response; Only one we got, so do you want it or not?
I was able to refrain from telling him where to store that mirror on my way out the door.
I had a bad experience over the holidays. I’m doing an LS and 4l60e swap into a Chevelle and wanted to try to get it done while taking advantage of my remaining vacation days over Christmas break. I won an online auction for a very nice expensive rebuilt torque converter. I ordered at the end of November but due to slow shipping didn’t receive it till just before my vacation began. I went to install it on the Monday before Christmas and try as I might, it would not seat into the transmission. At the time I was not familiar with the differences in model year transmissions so I was not sure if the tranny guy or converter guy screwed me. The torque converter manufacturer was closed for the holidays but I was able to determine the converter was for an LT1. I was finally able to get my money back and order the correct converter but it delayed my project for 4 days during my vacation.
I have had kinda the opposite a few times, One I was selling a reverse manual valve body 727 on Craigslist and after trading emails for a week the guy finally sends on saying he is coming over to pick it up.
I was only asking $500 for it with 2500 stall converter and he sends I am bringing $100 dollars cause that is all I think it is worth BTW.
Told him where he could stick his 100 buck and don’t bother showing up or bugging me again!
I’m too ashamed to count the amount of times I did a bad deal! Live and learn!
We all do dumb things coming up… just try not to repeat them, right?
I was gathering parts for a ’57 Chevy 1/2 ton that I put an LS into. I find this Vortec 4.8, pictured with flex place, accessories, wiring, oxygen sensors – a drop in motor. It’s a smoking deal at 400 bucks or so. I ask the seller “Does it come with the accessories (o2 sensors, exhaust, alt, wiring, etc) pictured?” He says “Yeah, we sell as pictured, I can get you more pictures of this particular one if you want” and stupidly, I take his word for it : I’m buying what’s in the picture.
When the motor shows up it has no accessories, no brackets, lots of cut wires, a bad water pump from collision damage, no 02 sensors, no computer – it’s a long, long list of parts from “as pictured”. Not even the same motor as in the picture, I think..
So I contact the seller and he’s full of sentence fragments and “hard luck, kid”s . Ebay’s dispute team says “Ship it back on your dime for a refund”, which when we’re talking about $250 in shipping back a $450 item, is another big “hard luck”.
So I collected all the parts to make it work, turning my bargain motor into an overpriced one in the process.
I’m still not done fixing all the wires they clipped, but it runs with 50 lbs startup oil pressure.
I sold a ring and pinion and shipped it USPS without insurance. (DDUUMMB MOOVE)
Package cam back to me empty and I had to pay the guy his money back.
Lesson, always buy the insurance and never ship through the gov’t. The package was cut open with a knife and shipped to the wrong address.