More on recognizing a great deal....

Got a lot of positive feedback on the last post about realizing a screaming bargain is in front of you and having sense enough to grab it. I don't know why, but gearheads always seem to be looking for the bigger better deal and often miss out on great stuff, and then regret it later. Here's a few more stories of what NOT to do. Bonehead # 1 wanted to build a 1969 Trans-Am clone. With only 697 built it's hard to find one for under  100K. But Pontiac sold 115,000 other V8 Firebirds that year and they can be bought reasonably. This guy found one for $2,500. It had a straight body, but the red paint was badly oxidized and the front seats needed recovering and probably new padding, and the dash was cracked. On the upside it had nice Center Line wheels and T/A radials on it, and a 350 and a 4-speed. I suspect it may have originally been a six-cylinder / 3-speed model. I say this because it had a flat hood-no scoops and no "350" or "400" emblems like the V8 models had. It also had a Saginaw 4-speed that was controlled by the terrible Vega shifter with the pull-up trigger for reverse. This wasn't a bad thing-those Saginaw 4-speeds in the late Vegas were tough-they'd stand up to a mild V8 and they had a 3.11 1st gear and a 2.02 second, which really helped you rocket off the line if you swapped one into a Camaro or Nova or Firebird with a V8. And the car had a 350 Pontiac that ran good, didn't smoke, didn't use oil, was pretty solid. I told him to buy it. All he'd need to make a clone T/A would be the hood, fender air extractors and spoilers and a white and blue paint job. I'd scrap the crappy Vega shifter for a Hurst unit.  And maybe a dash pad and seat covers. Including the purchase price of the car he could have had a '69 T/A clone for like six grand!!  He hemmed and hawed, because "real" T/A's had 400s, not 350s!! Puhleeze. It's a fake anyway!!  I pointed out that even if he "HAD" to have a 400 and a Muncie 4-speed-this car was still a great deal because the Saginaw and Muncie 4-speeds are the same length, and use the same rear trans mount and driveshaft yoke. Swapping in a Muncie would be cake. And even if he bought a 400 somewhere that was just a block-Pontiac crank and piston kits are cheap and everything else-the heads, the tin, the water pump, fuel pump, belt pulleys, balancer, intake and exhaust, distributor, alternator, power steering pump, etc off the 350 would bolt right on!! He'd save a ton of money not chasing parts that he already had!!  He passed on it, and never again found another 'Bird close to that price or condition. He never did build his clone '69 T/A. Years later I saw him driving a "Smokey and the Bandit" '77 model-and he pissed and moaned and said he should have bought that '69 way back when!!  Bonehead # 2  Wanted an LT-1 Corvette. A 1970-72 model, not the '92 and later C4 with same moniker. Obviously any decent example was high-priced-25 grand on up, which was a bit above his budget. One day on a used car lot we run across a '76 Corvette with $3999 on the window. We go look at it, it's white, and the paint is kind of crappy. But the interior is in great shape, and it's an L82 / 4-speed model!!. If you don't know-the L82 had everything the LT-1 did-forged crank, rods and pistons, "202" heads, 4-bolt mains. The cam was hydraulic instead of solid-but it was the old L46 "350 hp" cam-that had 224 duration @ .050, and .450 / 460 lift. Actually a little hotter than the famous "Duntov" and "30-30" solid lifter cams used in previous 'Vettes, and about the same as the vaunted LT-1. L82s also used a Quadrajet on an iron manifold instead of a 780 Holley on an aluminum one. We checked the numbers on the block and heads and it was a for-real L82. And it ran good. I told him to buy it, add a set of headers and an Edelbrock Torker II intake and matching 750 carb, and paint it whatever color he wanted. ( It had black interior which goes with anything ). The salesman even said he'd take $3,600 cash!!  Now where in the universe are you going to find a decent, running L82 / 4-speed Corvette for $3,600??!!!!  Dumb ass passed on it, and later paid $7,000 for an L48 / TH350 '79 model!!  That wasn't any nicer!!   Bonehead # 3 wanted a '70-71  Monte Carlo SS with a 454. Hard to find, and pricey when you do. We did find a '72 model ( the bodystyle is identical, except for minor changes to the front grille, and the "SS" package wasn't available in '72, but otherwise the '72 is identical to the '70-71s ). This one had a 402 big-block and a TH400 and was in good shape. He whined that it had a front bench seat. He wanted buckets and a console. I pointed out that Year One, NPD, Legendary and other companies could hook him up with buckets seats and the "horseshoe" shifter console easy enough, if that was the deal breaker. I told him to buy the car, and that a 396 / 402 could make just as much power as a 454 with the right equipment. I told him-Rat-Powered Montes are hard to find. I jokingly suggested a '69-76 Pontiac Gran Prix-they have 400 power standard all years and a fair number of '70-76 "SJ" models have 455s. "I'm a die-hard Chevy guy." he grumbled. Well for a die-hard Chevy guy, he's pretty stupid. He passed up the car. He finally did buy a '70-72 Monte Carlo, but it was a 350 2bbl model! With a bench front seat!  Quite a compromise if you "gotta have" a Rat motor and bucket seats and a console!  Bonehead # 4 was a dyed-in-the wool Mopar guy. He had a nice '70 383 Charger, but he also wanted to get a big Mopar for a daily driver. He passed up a nice '75 Road Runner. For this one year only the Road Runner nameplate was on the Sport Fury platform. This one had bucket seats and a console, the "Tuff" steering wheel, power windows and A/C and a 400 that would smoke the tires at will. Even though it was a one-year model and only about 6,000 were built, it wasn't "Unique" enough. He also passed up a 1979 Chrysler 300. These were based on the Cordoba, but they had a slick pearl white paint job, a gorgeous red leather interior, Rally wheels, the E58 "Police Interceptor" 360 V8, a Torqueflite and a 3.21:1 Sure-Grip rear end. Not a Hemi 'Cuda-but if you want a nice Chrysler "driver"-you can't do much better than these unless you buy a 2005 or later Charger or 300!!  That wasn't good enough either. He eventually bought a '72 Charger with a 318, decided it needed too much work, sold it and bought a Toyota pickup. How is that a "B" body driver??!!  Mastermind