He lusted after the automobile, but a lack of funds and other matters kept him from his dream.
Fast forward many years later, the former student has not forgotten about what he had lusted for in his prior years. So he set about to purchase himself the car of his dreams. He looked in many areas of the world (wide web) and found some perspective subjects that would potentially satisfy his lust. After looking all over the place and setting a range I was willing to pay, I settled on a couple of choices, both on eBay.
The first was a yellow 1974 with a after market hard top, in need of some work, hadn't been driven in some time, but not bad looking in the pictures. The other was a red 1970 with an after market hard top as well that looked a little better in the pictures and was a weekend driver.
This is where being a member of a group helps a great deal. Both of these cars were not close by and I was worried about purchasing a car that I had not looked at myself. The 6-Pack is a group which has a web site with loads of information, forums and runs events for TR250s and TR6 owners. I reached out seeking help in getting the cars looked at prior to bidding and was blesses with responses from some of the really great people on 6-Pack.
First these was Gilbert who was close to the yellow car and volunteered to go have a look at it. I has actually bid and won the car from the current owner, someone who was flipping it, but it was contingent on the inspection being OK. Gilbert went out to look the car over for me and reported back that it was in pretty good condition, frame looked to be strong and the body shell had no major rust cancer spots, the floorboards actually looked really good. I almost pulled the trigger on this car, but I really wanted something I could drive right away and this car would need some work to get it back on the road, mainly maintenance it looked like.
In stepped Bruce from 6-Pack. He's a surrogate buyer up in the bay area, he was a little too far away from the red car but knew a fellow TR6 owner in the area who would help out with the inspection of the red car. Bruce gave me Bill's phone number and we arranged to get the red car looked over. This is a vast simplification of what we had to go through to get to the car, but Bill persevered on my behalf and he had a chance to look the car over. His feedback was critical, the red car was a nice looker cosmetically, but it had some other issues that made me take pause in the purchase.
I settled on the yellow car, called the current owner and let him know I was closing the deal on the auction. The car will be on a transport truck this next week on it's way to my house here in Southern California.
Here's what I picked up off eBay for $4550.00.
I want to says a hearty thanks and cheers to Gilbert, Bruce and Bill from 6-Pack. These guys were all very helpful and really epitomize the comradery of this type of organization. I am glad I joined and look forward to providing others help as well as availing myself of the expertise out there.
