I thought this was removed due to my court comment.
This car looked great the first time I saw it but little did I know...
I did an inventory of what was represented in the ebay and the craigslist ad (which I printed) and out conversations (which I took notes on) and out emails (which I kept) and this is what is NOT on the car that was supposed to be: Flaming river close ratio steering box/rack, nope stock manual steering box OLD, sbc brakes (ssbc) with a new master cylynder and booster: Nope and the booster and master were rattle canned to look new and the brakes were tiny stock or b body, bigger 8.75 pumkin with hd pinion snubber, nope, big rear brakes nope, rebuilt 440 crate motor turned out to be a repainted 67 motor with a maltese cross on it. NOT a 440 HP. I asked him is this a 440/375 motor with the closed chamber 906 heads and he said yes. It is not. Its a 67 motor with a maltese cross? fitted and a new eddy manifold and thermoquad and burnt oil in the pan. Since it looked new I did not question it. Lastly the front swaybar was completely disconnected on the passenger side. It was not disconnected when I inspected the car the first day I saw it and when it made it to the body shop to estimate the repairs the manager, a mopar fanatic showed me how no threads or bolts were sheared from the crash. The hardware had been removed possbly to steal the thicker torsion bars or put the stock front swaybar back on the car. Anyway, the car spun out on the freeway on a damp road going about 50 and hit a truck with 6 passengers. We all sustained soft tissue injuries/whiplash. I came within 50 feet of death/serios injury by nearly getting t-boned by two lanes of traffic as my car was perpendicular to traffic. Mind you, this all happened within 40 miles of the previous owners house the DAY I bought the car and was drivng it cautiously home. Also the windshield wipers did not work, nor does the gas guage .This "rust free" car, that looked great due to a wash and wax to sell it ended up having a cheap and dead earl sheib respray over two previous crappy paintjobs over a ton of bondo in the quarters, and rear windshiled panel rot and rust under the vinyl top and who knows what else till I have the car blasted. I really should have had a mopar guy out there with me, but I was so jazzed to get my hands on a 71 that i paid his full asking price of $15,500. He let his ebay auction continue till 12 hours before the auction ended and beleiv me I was watching it and craigslist. So, anyone bidding on the car while the auction was live would have to EXPECT and would be legally entitled to a 1971 challenger refit all the parts represented to be on the car car at time of delivery. If I had even gotten it home and it was still driving I would have just asked him for the parts. Since he maliously attempted to defraud me and other bidders on ebay/craiglist, and property damage and personal injury arose out of his "tort", I plan to press charges/and or sue him.
I really wish I had found this website sooner. He had a spare grille that he wanted to charge me extra for 9the one on the car was cracked and when I picked the car up and after I gave him the money, he went to his van and got the camshaft and bumper jackthat were in the trunk when I bought it as well as the spare grille. He had put them in his work van out of sight hoping I 'd miss them. I surmise that since he could not ebay the grille, he stole/hid the rest of the parts to make up the differece. I'm sure he ade out fine on my car but it will cost him in the long run. His name is Alex Carmel (goes by Jim) and lives in San Jose hsi ebay id is: jh23fan. He is probably a member here. It was very interesting that when I called a mopar salvage yard locally and described what happened to me, the owner of the yard IMMEDIATELY mentioned his name.
I'm going to the DA on next week to request that a criminal case be brought against him. if that does not work we will have it out in limited civil.
It's sad that my introduction to mopars had to begin this way. Since my insurance company had an appraiser look at the car and saw justhow nutsty the body work on y "rust free" R/T clone was thye are trying to lowball me to the point that the car will be salvaged and I will have to sell my 1970 Z28 clone to fix this car up. total damage arrsing from one man's greed and deceit was two fenders that were FULL of Bondo, a damaged but fixable radator core support, a front valence, a 71 grille including the headlight doors, a front bumper and brackets, a weld draglite rim, hood trim and minor hood damage, and who knows what else since the bodywork is not off yet. the framme rails look fine but I'll do the string measuring from bolt to bolt to see if the front end is still true. Puls my car hit a newer chevy club cab pickup with six passengers which sustained about 7-8K at least in damage to its door and rocker panel. it probably isnt the best idea to tell this to the internet community but he has so much documentation against him pus a police report and validates my speed and lane location. He will have to pay for this one way or another. I'm not just some punk that could not handle a muscle car doing 50 miles an hour on the freeway. I own a 70 camaro with a 4:10 eaton posi and a mustang cobra with a 4:30 traction lock/posi I have any hours logged in on open road courses in semi wet conditions (seattle international raceway and portland international raceway) I know how to drive. if the front suspension is disconected or the brakes are not properly biased a car is going to be prone to crashing. Am I off-base here? Comments?
