March 16, 2025, 06:12:39 AM

Author Topic: boomerang (long story)  (Read 2898 times)

Offline KCDAN

boomerang (long story)
« on: March 12, 2020, 10:26:36 AM »
A little story that I cant help but to share all over the effing place.

In November of 2016, I sold my 97 GT Mustang that I owned for 17ish years. The car was nothing special, 97 GT convertible with an automatic (hate that automatic part)
Figured I'd grown out of it, thing has way over 300,000 miles, blah blah.. and a few extra thousand bucks is always nice to have. The car was pretty mint, the paint was flawless other than one spot in the bumper. The top was replaced in 07 and it was still perfect. I took really, really good care of it. When I sold it, I drove it maybe once a month for the past year.

So it took about a month to realize I'd made an error and wanted the car back. The guy I sold it to wasn't interested in selling it back, so I just went out and bought a 2012 Mustang GT coupe 6 speed on 12/31/16. Great car. But in November of '18, after not having driven it for 8 months, I decided to sell it.. move on with my life.
Two weeks ago, I am digging through my desk and find the old broken key fob for the 97. IDK why it was there, or why I didn't give it to the guy when I sold the car (It worked, just the keyring part was broken.) Contacted the guy I sold it to, see how the car was.. he traded it at some used car dealership in March of 2017. That made me scour craigslist and facebook to see if maybe the car was on there.. never know. It wasn't.

Fast forward to 3/6/20. I'd been looking for a car for my son who blew the engine in his 325i last month, and up on facebook pops up an 01 Audi TT (for 1200 bucks.) Funny, I'd never searched out any type of Audi on marketplace, but there it is and I thought they were incredibly cool when they first came out. It had been posted for 3 minutes, so I sent him a message asking if I could come take a look. Called him 5 minutes later, told him the cash wasn't a problem, I'm not effing around, i cant be there until Saturday morning but if it's legit, I'll be driving it away. It's about 70 miles away in nowhere Kansas, at some tow place/used car sales hustle shop.  He agrees, says he wont hold it but if it does sell he'll call me. Fair enough.
Saturday morning, 8 am, wife hits the shower and i give him a call. Tell him i'm leaving at 9, be there at 10. He says ok, he did have a guy come and look last night, but he didn't know it was a manual transmission and he couldn't drive it. He also said he'd had 63 private messages since posting, but since i told him i'm definitely coming he wont sell it before I get there.
So we get there at 10. Look the car over, go drive it for a few minutes.. looks ok-ish.. could use a paint job and a little love. Runs good, has a brand new top needing installed and is just all around a steal at 1200 bucks. So, I pull the 1200 bucks out of my pocket and hand it over. He hands me an open title.. the previous owners had signed it. I start walking off, but light bulb went off. I should probably go ahead and fill it all out since I'm going to be driving 70 miles back through MO.. I get pulled over for whatever reason and shit will hit the fan. Ask him if he's got a pen.. he doesn't. Ask my wife if she's got a pen in her purse.. she doesn't (i know, right?)
Dude says he's got one in his little shop, he'll be right back with it. I ask him if he's got a restroom in there, I have to piss pretty badly.  He does, and says sure thing, go ahead.. and we proceed to walk in the front door. Shop is about 40x40 with a single lift in the middle. And sitting at the lift, is my old Mustang. I immediately look at my wife, who looks at the car, looks at me, looks at the car, and asks... "is that yours??"
"Am I seeing this right?? Is that my.. that's... that's my car!"
dude - "What? No that's a friends car, I just replaced a wheel bearing, he's supposed to be here any minute to pick it back up."
"No, that's my old car.. I sold it 3 years ago after owning for 17+ years. 97 GT, Cobra hood, black top with tan interior, Cobra R wheels and the front sits just slightly high, there's a yellow spot on the back bumper where it was chipped with a powerwasher. And under the padding on the hood is green instead of white. I can also identify it a million other ways if you'd like."
dude - "holy shit, this was your car!"
"Yea, this was my car."
dude - "That's wild.. want to buy it back? My buddy is trying to sell it."

At that point, how could you say no? So, I said yes. Told him I'd be back Tuesday with the cash, I'll pay asking price, no problem.

I drive the Audi and she drives her car home. When we get home, she informs me that she found 4 pens in her purse.. she just didn't see them when we were at the dudes shop.

So Tuesday comes, and it's home. It now needs a paint job. The leather seats are ripped up. The top is starting to go to shit. It had another 40,000 miles put on it. The check engine light and ABS light are on. Someone put shitty overlays on the gauges, and two of the lights are burned out. The fog lights aren't working now. It was treated somewhat poorly.
But the damn thing still drives and rides great.

So, I'm going to build it how I always wanted. A nice basic white paint job. 99+ cobra IRS. 18" FR500 staggered. Lowered with a nice suspension package. Tan top. some really nice seats. 98+ console that didn't have an ash tray and better cupholders. Coyote and 6 speed if this 4.6 and auto will ever die (always hated the auto.. but it will not quit!) Little things.
Pic is of me picking it up Tuesday.. no idea why it's sideways. Meh. Turn your head.


[attach=1]

« Last Edit: March 12, 2020, 01:17:51 PM by KCDAN »

Offline Venom13132

  • Launching!
  • Posts: 1166
  • Voodoo Blue 95 RX-7 LS3/TR6060 FEED Widebody
  • View Gallery
    • View Profile
    • Venom Speed Shop
Re: boomerang (long story)
« Reply #1 on: March 12, 2020, 11:44:13 AM »
haha that's a pretty wild story.  Glad you were able to get it back.
1995 RX-7 Voodoo Blue- LS3, TR6060: Full Feed wide body, 57DR 18's, K-Sport coil-overs, 99 spec\ tails and Carbon Fiber spoiler, SpeedHut Gauges, Aeromotive fuel system, TwinZ Diffuser, Texas Speed LS3 Stage 2 v2 Cam Kit, Comp Cam's Rockers, McLeod Racing 6405507M RXT Street Twin Clutch kit, ATI-1918628 - Super Damper/balancer, Lot's of other stuff.
2010 Cadillac Escalade: Daily Driver and pulls my 18' car hauler

Offline digitalsolo

Re: boomerang (long story)
« Reply #2 on: March 12, 2020, 12:41:52 PM »
LOL, that's crazy.   Pretty cool that you found it and got it back.   I had a Grand Prix GTP ('98 Pace Car) that I sold way to cheap many years ago.   It had a 150k miles on the body (but was very clean) so I'm sure it's scrapped by now, but that's one I wish I hadn't have sold.    I look around now and then for it (or a similar one) but never found one local/cheap enough to bother with thus far.   Congrats on getting yours!
Blake MF'ing McBride
1988 Mazda RX7 - Turbo LS1/T56/ProEFI/8.8/Not Slow...   sold.
1965 Mustang Coupe - TT Coyote, TR6060, modern brakes/suspension...
2007 Aston Martin V8 Vantage - Gen V LT4/TR6060, upper/lower pullies, headers, tune.
2021 Tesla Model 3 Performance - Stock...ish.

Offline freeskier7791

Re: boomerang (long story)
« Reply #3 on: March 12, 2020, 01:28:33 PM »
that is an awesome story! I love stories like these, cannot wait to see the progress.
https://www.youtube.com/thedriftingdad
1985 Mazda RX7 GSL Drift Car

CCVT

Offline KCDAN

Re: boomerang (long story)
« Reply #4 on: March 12, 2020, 01:31:12 PM »
LOL, that's crazy.   Pretty cool that you found it and got it back.   I had a Grand Prix GTP ('98 Pace Car) that I sold way to cheap many years ago.   It had a 150k miles on the body (but was very clean) so I'm sure it's scrapped by now, but that's one I wish I hadn't have sold.    I look around now and then for it (or a similar one) but never found one local/cheap enough to bother with thus far.   Congrats on getting yours!

The universe just lined up correctly, and I'm pretty stoked about it. I know it's just some slow Mustang, but I love that car.

If i had seen the audi listing 2 minutes later. - normally dont check facebook during the day
if I hadn't called. - NEVER do that
If my son said he didn't want to learn to drive the stick shift. - he's never tried
if the guy ahead of me said he did want to learn to drive a stick. - no comment
if the owner wasn't running late. - he was stuck at the DMV with his wife
if my wife had found a pen. - she had 4 in her purse
if I didn't have to use the restroom.... - there was a gas station a block down the road i was just going to use.


The only other car i'd really love to have back, much like your situation, is my 98 SVT Contour. Unfortunately, I'm sure it's lost to the gods.. but I am always keeping an eye out for a low mileage mint black/MNB with the sunroof.

Offline KCDAN

Re: boomerang (long story)
« Reply #5 on: March 12, 2020, 01:35:52 PM »
that is an awesome story! I love stories like these, cannot wait to see the progress.
Oh I dont think i'll be doing anything like a build thread.. i'll just get it done over time and before I know it i'll be 25k deep into it.
While I'm not exactly looking forward to the 4.6 dying, I wont engine swap until it does die. Otherwise i'll be stuck with a 350,000 mile 4.6 and auto transmission that I can do nothing at all with. But it would be a nice place to start the whole restoration.

Offline freeskier7791

Re: boomerang (long story)
« Reply #6 on: March 12, 2020, 02:10:28 PM »
I feel like reddit would love this story, crazy how things just all line up sometimes
https://www.youtube.com/thedriftingdad
1985 Mazda RX7 GSL Drift Car

CCVT

Offline KCDAN

Re: boomerang (long story)
« Reply #7 on: March 12, 2020, 02:43:40 PM »
I feel like reddit would love this story, crazy how things just all line up sometimes

Probably. IDK. All I can say for certain is American Muscle will be getting a lot of my dollars, and they have a local warehouse...

Offline frijolee

Re: boomerang (long story)
« Reply #8 on: March 12, 2020, 04:03:34 PM »
That's rad.  Thanks for sharing.
LS2 stroker FC, Mandeville big brakes, widebody, etc
Build thread:  http://www.norotors.com/index.php?topic=1274.0
www.roninspeedworks.com

LargeOrangeFont says: "Joel is right, and I love Joel. But his car sounds like the wrath of God."   ;)