The gods of rust are reclaiming my friends trusty Mopar. There gets to be a point of no return with corrosion so off to CL and Facebook marketplace. A deal on a Mopar too good to be true appears. Lo miles no rust. Cash only.
You request a meet at the local police station. They decline and tell you there are cameras everywhere at their apartment complex. . You request again and they still decline. And more foolishness from them. You reply,"I didn't get to be old by being stupid." You look at the pics and notice the covered tags are out of state.
FB lists them in one state and they want to meet in another.And you can see the car is tagged in a third by the tag and and inspection sticker.
It was a shorty Dodge van, just what we were looking for, but seemed to be "Come into my parlor, said the spider to the fly".
Practice your due diligence in all of these quests, and if it doesn't seem right, if the people janky, pass.
The happy ending was we scored a different shorty, lo miles and just a spot of rust from a long lost friend of his from thirty years ago by sticking to our rules. They ended up sitting and talking for more than two hours, sadly finding her husband had passed.
Stay safe and no stupid stuff.
P.S. they have one other FCA for sale. A1928 Hudson that needs everything.

 

Yeah, I see ads on facebook all the time for a car that is WAY to cheap for what it is.... Contact the seller, and you get some song and dance about how they moved out of state, or, are in the military, and stationed overseas, etc. Just send me a check, and I'll have the storage company deliver it to you..... Or something equally as 'trustworthy'.... I just report them, and look for something else.

 

I was talking to a guy who almost got me. He had a 1985 El Camino that was a driveable project. He also had nearly $4500 in parts to go with it. He sent plenty of pictures.



It had new tires on it, it ran but the fuel pump had gone out and while there was a lot of tin worm on the body, the frame was solid and he had new panels for the door shells and such. I drove nearly 500 miles to swap my PT Cruiser for it. When I got there, I found this.



All the "new" tires were flat, many parts had been taken off, the drivers window wasn't rolled down, it was broken and so on. The kicker was the solid frame had places I could poke my fingers through.

I still have my PT Cruiser.

 

So many people in these ads will not speak to you, and will only email or text. I can discern a lot about a person's intentions in a conversation.
Questions that might come to you spontaneously in a conversation aren't raised.
Since we are not going backward in time when people spoke to each other here is a trick I learned when the concrete trucks were coming and no inspector to approve the pour and steel placement in sight.
Make them run down to the store and bring back a daily paper, and have them send you pics with that paper in sight. Not pics from when Ronald Reagan was president. 1985

Along with data plates,stamped numbers, castings numbers, and all the info you need. If they claim they can't find the requested information with your gentile direction seriously consider passing.
I am trying to put together a set of matching American Racing wheels, swirlies they are called. This guy has 3. Or says he has three. He claims he can't find the casting numbers on the back. Horse pucky. That can tell you what the circle is,
bore, diameter width, and offset. Stuff that is kind of important. I am not going to be willfully ignorant and go off on what likely will be a wild goose chase. People pull these pics from all over the internet
and cut and past them.

To end this on a happy note, the van purchased from a lost friend did pass Md. state inspection. Roughly twenty dollars in parts, a stick on outside mirror, and a side marker light.
It doesn't get much sweeter. Stay safe all.

 

Those pics probably were from when he bought it. Look how clean the concrete was. If you got an address you can look it up on google earth/maps. They usually will have multiple dates when the pics were taken. You can do a virtual "drive by" and see what was in the driveway years ago. I was real lucky when i bought my Indy ram off ebay. The guy was great and answered any question and sent up to date pics. It was about a 3-4 hour ride away from me so it helped a lot for me to decide to buy it. There was actually more to the deal that was listed, It had a JL subwoofer and amp that was not even mentioned. Guy even sent me pics of it getting put on the trailer to be delivered. Of course this sort of thing is RARE and i got extremity lucky!

 

I drove 2 hours in the PT to look at the Expedition I've been corresponding over for months. I drove the PT up, I drove this back.





It has issues. It has sat most of the last few years. I put $20 of fuel in it and drove it 110 miles home. Granted the cruise doesn't work and when I was playing with the heat and air, it nearly cooked me and when the A/C compressor engaged, the truck slowed 20 mph until I got it turned off. Give me three weeks and it'll be a daily driver.

 

An Expedition that travels 110 miles on $20 of gas is a keeper. Congrats on your new find. Did you fold down the rear seats and put the P.T in the back?

 

15 mpg is about what it's supposed to do. I filled it all the way up today for $65.

The truck is really solid and in excellent shape. I ran it up on a friends rack today and it does have one rusted rocker, but not really any rust elsewhere. A wet oil pan but otherwise no leaks. just a lot of little issues from sitting a lot. It definitely needs brake hoses in front like the previous owner said.

 

My ram 2500 gets decesent milage, but rust is everywhere LOL I treat it as I find it
There is a Dodge ram 1500 6 lug down the road a little that is almost done rusting, I remember when the owner parked it in his front yard, it was his fathers, when he died he left it to him, and all he;s doing is watching it rust away

 

Pic please. I thought that only Dakotas had six lug wheels. And the much newer trucks of today.