Here Are Your Weirdest Experiences Buying Cars From Craigslist And Facebook

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Back when I was into Mustang IIs, I would swoop in like a one-person locust swarm anytime I heard of even a rumor of one showing up in a salvage yard, with a for sale sign parked somewhere, or anywhere within 100 miles.

One time I even flagged down a guy who had one on a trailer (which worked out perfectly, as I ended up getting a whole bunch of interior parts, a rear spoiler, and some other goodies as he had picked it up for the suspension stuff for his circle track car)

Anyway, “1977 Mustang II – been parked for a month, need to sell ASAP”

Yeah, turns out it was a mechanic selling it because someone had dropped it off more than a year ago and after getting a mechanic’s lien on it, they eventually got tired of moving it around out of the way.

So, it had been parked for a lot longer than a month, It was in a field behind the shop. Grass/weeds were as high as the windows. And the vegetation was filled with biting insects of some sort. Middle of the summer, so like 90 degrees and humid.

My wife was with me, as I was foolishly assuming I might be able to drive it home. So we’re jumping around the waist-high weeds, trying to check everything. Car didn’t start obviously, but the body and everything was extremely solid despite sitting for so long. Probably spent 10 minutes trying to get a look at everything, but I was unwilling to crawl down underneath.

We agreed to buy it on the condition he tow it to where I could work on it. My wife and I get back into the car and the itching starts.

Oh my god … our legs were covered in bites. My wife is particularly sensitive to insect bites, and hers ended up swelling up to the point where she had to go to the doctor for treatment.

The end result was that the motor turned by hand, but I couldn’t get it to start (it was a v6 model, so I wasn’t heartbroken). But it had excellent sheetmetal, so I pulled the doors, hood, and hatchback, and also got a bunch of the interior.

Never got the title, so I ended up selling it for scrap to a buddy.

Mini-Christine wasn’t done, though, as my buddy (who was kind of an idiot), didn’t set the brake when he was pulling it onto his flatbed and the car rolled over him (he was fine as he managed to be right between the wheels and just got knocked around by the diff/oil pan).