The day I posted the ad on 3tcgarage forums, a newer member sent me a message.
"Ben, I am very interested in your carb/manifold setup. Since I am in Portland, it seems like it might be easiest to talk on the phone. Bill"
I called bill that night, and after finding out that he lived only a few blocks from me invited him over the following morning to check out the carbs. He really wanted them, and made me a cash offer with the option to keep the carbs on the car as long as I needed. When I said I'd like to wait and see what other offers come, he asked for right of first refusal and also said he might be able to work out a trade with some cars and parts at his shop. I perked up at that idea and said I wanted to see his shop right away.
The next day I met Bill at his place, where he showed me the stuff he no longer wanted to deal with. He offered to trade me a complete running 1980 Toyota Corolla Liftback and a 1982 Toyota Corolla Sedan complete except for the engine. There was also going to be a lot of scrap metal, blown engine, broken parts, whatever didn't sell. It was a big pile of stuff, and it was obvious that Bill usually deals with nicer toys than these. The two cars had been purchased for use in a 500 mile rally race where you could only put $500 into a car. Bill loved the white car so much, he pulled the 3tc engine to rebuild for use in his 1977 Corolla station wagon. Bill hated the blue car so much, it had been sitting at the shop for a year.
Behind Bill you can see one of his fully restored vintage Alfa Romeo convertibles, a fully restored Volkswagen Thing, and a super vintage Alfa Romeo team race car in the rafters.
The coolest part about checking out Bill's stuff, was that he wasn't looking for a verbal agreement that day. He's retired, relaxed and doesn't stress about time or money. He made it clear that it was up to me if I wanted to explore this deal and decide whether this stuff was worth trading for. Bill also sounded more excited about trading because it meant that I'd be clearing valuable space and making some of his more valuable assets accessible. He told me if I could sell the VW Thing for him next I'd get 10%, and there were a lot more things to sell after that.
Over the next 2 days I dove into the 1980 Corolla, pulling the garbage seats, spare parts and tires out. I simultaneously removed the seats, carpets and trim pieces from the 1982 parts car. I picked up some industrial carpet cleaner, and with the help of Bill's industrial upholstery cleaning machine went over every inch of the two carpet pieces and all the seats. I could have spent multiple hours getting the seats back to show room condition, but I knew that this car was only going to be worth so much money. It was amazing finding out that the whole interior bolted right in. Especially the carpets, they matched every contour of this very differently shaped car. From the holes for the seat bolts, to the curves that were secured by the door trim pieces, the installation was easier than the removal (and much less grimy). After a full day's work, Bill was impressed and the car was ready.
Bill had only used a few words to describe the blue car. It might sound whiny or crabby, but Bill is hilarious when he's being blunt. "It runs and drives, but inside it is a terrible, terrible place to be. That car was so miserable inside, I just couldn't stand it." After our most annoying shopper left Bill said, "God I was getting so mad listening to that women, I wanted to just hit her in the face. I was so glad when she left in that terrible car (a 1981 Corolla with a clearly blown head gasket) so she could go blow herself up somewhere else."
A couple days later, I sold the car to a young and enthusiastic woman. She hadn't owned a car in a few years, and was only planning to drive this car for a few months before moving cross country. Within 30 minutes of leaving, she called and had broken down halfway to Beaverton in rush hour. Unngngggghhhhh. I dropped everything I was doing, stopped mid-trip to the bank and went to get the car running.
Ben: "Hi, I just came across the bridge and will be there in a couple minutes."
Girl: "Hi. Oh I just got rear ended."
Ben: "What. Is the car messed up?"
Girl: "I got the lady's phone number, just the rear bumper a bit."
Ben: "You only got her phone number?!
Girl: "Oh I guess I should have gotten some more info, I'm new at this. She's an old lady, hopefully she'll pick up."
Ben: "... ... ..." hangs up.
I checked out the car, decided it might have run out of gas so I went and bought a gas can. When I got back, her crabby mechanic friend had showed up and we decided to push the car onto a side street. Car has gas. Car is cranking, but making no spark. Shortly after, car won't crank at all. Ignition coil might be bad, starter is probably bad, might have blown some fuses. Mr. Mechanic doesn't want to try anything, because he clearly has no respect for older cars that aren't Fords, or maybe he just couldn't handle how us oldschool Corolla owners enjoy success from random attempts at repair. Even though the car wasn't my problem any more, I could tell it could easily ruin this girl's weekend and possibly more if I bailed. It was obvious that this car needed more work than the two of us were ready to do that night, and I didn't want to pay for any work or towing. So luckily an idea popped into my head to call my new friend in Seattle who had expressed interest in buying the car later in the week.
Ben: "Hey Dan."
Dan: "Hey Ben, what's up man?"
Ben: "Well, I just sold the liftback to this girl, and within 30 minutes I think she's killed the starter and the coil. So I don't want to have to deal with getting it towed somewhere to pay for repairs, and I wondered if you'd still be interested in it how it sits."
Dan: "Oh sure, those things don't change the value at all for me. I've got those parts already."
Ben: "Oh yeah? How soon could you come down and pick it up, if I was flexible on payment?"
Dan: "Hmm, probably Sunday. I could move some stuff around, bring you down $100 and paypal you the rest in a few days."
So I knocked the price down for him, took back the title and sent the girl on her way with her money. She was really happy I hadn't been a creep, and I was really happy I didn't have to put any more time or money into the car!
This morning, Sunday the 27th, Dan came down around 10am. I met up with him and brought my tools, we poked around and got really tired pushing it up a hill so it could be push started. We decided to take a break, and drive over to Bill's to get some parts off the white car. I went to run some errands, and met up with them a few hours later. I had the idea to hot wire the car from the battery to the newly replaced coil. After the third push up the hill, we got the car running. Everyone psyched, especially me. Now just need to ship a few interior and body pieces, and get the white car picked up for scrap value.
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