When a stranger rings your door bell

[jeff alder]

I am watching Mecum Vegas Saturday morning just to see a couple old Mopar's go down the carpet and the front doorbell rings. Of course, I'm in my Saturday shorts with no shirt or underwear for that matter you guys know...weekend Mecum watching garb. I see a burly guy with full beard about my age waiting for me to answer the door. He looks a little apprehensive, but both my hounds are barking at him through the glass front door. Turns out he is from the tiny town of Cabery Illinois, and he is in town doing Saturday work on a guy's pool from across town. Yes, it turns out he is a Mopar nut and owns a 67 convertible Barracuda. This came up in conversation with the pool owner, so he sent him to my house...LOL (there is one convertible under an old Oak tree in my front yard 4 fastbacks along my side road 2 by my barn and my Avatar 65 in the driveway.) So I guess he came to the right place!
So, he turns out to be a great guy, the same age as me not a lot of Mopar knowledge but he loves them. Good enough for me. His is a 67 Barracuda convertible red with a white top 273 auto with Keystones. He tore it apart years ago and children and life got in the way. He needed advice and help with putting it back together. He saw the black crinkle commando valve covers, and chrome air cleaners on my cars and wanted to know the story behind those options so clearly, he needed a lot of help. So, I talked him out of putting a 318 in the car and to just rebuild the 273 to commando specs or maybe a bit more in the dart charger range. He never heard of For A Bodies Only so I wrote down the information for him to become a member. He was there for about an hour and took a boatload of pictures and wanted to come back and get help when needed. Of course, I said yes, and I would expect we might see him here on this forum. So, when a stranger rings your doorbell he might just be a brother from a different mother needing a little help.

 

[Demonracer]

True enough, I had a similar situation years back. Now the stranger and I are good friends, I give him a hand when needed and he does the same.

 

[Bennoel 10]

I've been on both sides of the doorbell. I've always been OK with someone ringing the doorbell that's how I was brought up. Nobody answers you leave and try another time (maybe). Things have changed and some not for the best. So many scammers, thieves etc so one has to be careful. Guess I've been lucky as I have had only good experiences. Hopefully my luck doesn't run out.

 

[clifftt]

You're a good guy, Jeff.

 

[harrisonm]

Semi similar thing happened to me about 15 years ago. I was working on my 69 Barracuda fastback in the driveway, when a stranger polled up. Turns out his brother had left him a 68 Barracuda fastback. He said it needed a lot of work. We got to talking about my car. I showed him some before pictures of my car and told him that I did absolutely everything myself. He said the car had a lot of sentimental value, and he asked me if I would be interested in restoring it for him. I normally don't do that, but I told him I would look at it. Well, it had a LOT of rust, the interior was shot, it was a 318 car with few options and it looked like it hadn't run in years. I told him it was way more than I cared to tackle. I told him he would probably have at least $60-70K in it when it was done. I told him it was worth maybe $2500 as a parts car. I told him I could help him sell it if he wanted. I never heard from him again. I felt kind of bad for him.

 

[68gtxman]

About 20 years ago, I drove my 68 GTX back to Ardmore, PA - a place that I lived when I was in high school. I stopped for lunch at my favorite pizza joint. As I started to leave, a car came out of nowhere and almost ran head-on into my car but stopped just before hitting me. Two guys jumped out and ran over to my driver window and started yelling at me. When they calmed down a minute, I was finally able to see that they were just excited to see my car and wanted to keep me from driving off before they could talk to me. It turns out that they considered themselves the local Mopar muscle car fanatics and they wanted to know why I was there and why they never saw my car before. It turns out that they lived one block up from me on the same street, but they were a few years younger than me so we never crossed paths before. They were super excited to meet me and see the car too. I never did get back there to talk to them again. Maybe they are members of FABO or FBBO.

 

[CFD244]

A few years ago a couple of 20 something guys dropped by to check out my dirt bike I was working on. The next morning my mountain bike lock was cut, and my mountain bike was gone........Coincidence?

 

[jeff alder]

That GTX is a beauty. It's been a while since I have seen one with a dash and gauge cluster that looked brand new. The A/C is a nice bonus. I have all a bodies except 1. I am a smaller guy so I like the fit of a 65 Barracuda even though 1967 is my favorite year. My wife likes the bigger B bodies so she thinks she has a 1967 Coronet R/T 440 with the old inland 4 gear shifter. The title is in my grandfather's old farm safe. (It's Really mine)...LOL