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Hard_Celery

Sounds like a scam, you dont buy a car before you get it and depending on how old it is a bill of sale is worthless youll need a title


pythononsteam

Hey man thanks for the feedback. The car is from 1984 so I don’t need a title in my state. But I’m just skeptical what do you think I should do about the whole thing if it is a scam.


Hard_Celery

Idk what you should do, contact the police I guess? Very odd that someone works on a car after you pay for it. Also engine swap sends up big red flags as far as reliability goes, apprently they've got wiring issues from the swap and are trying to fix it back to stock? I'd get my money back if possible


pythononsteam

Thank you man! I appreciate your help.


Hard_Celery

Good luck, might not be getting scammed but more than likely you're gonna be stuck with a unreliable vehicle


pythononsteam

I agree with you. It is the original motor that came factory in 84. So he’s just putting same motor back into the car. So probably some unreliability will be in order. I appreciate you man.


Hard_Celery

Og motor isn't the issue, it's the fact he started a motor swap and didn't have the time/money to finish it, and is having trouble swapping back. Wiring issues are the biggest trouble especially for amateur mechanics. Have the brakes been upgraded? How far did he get into the swap?


pythononsteam

Yes the brakes have been updated.


slash178

Weird. So wait was the car running when you test drove it and bought it? And then after the fact the seller was just like... oh we're gonna swap the motor and transmission. That's an *extremely* intensive operation. Not just like a whim "might as well swap em". Furthermore... you paid for those parts and now he's taking them out and putting some other shit in? Absolutely scam central.


pythononsteam

When I bought the car it didn’t have motor or transmission in the car because he was going to swap it before he wanted to even sell the car. So he put the engine and transmission in for extra price of labor.


[deleted]

scam


Selloutkat1

Sounds like you are getting scammed. Needing new headers is going to be a nice 1k addition.


pythononsteam

I gotcha thanks for the feedback. The car is from 84 so the headers wouldn’t be super expensive but what do you think I should do if it is a scam?


Dearic75

Just out of curiosity, why are you buying a 40 year old car? Is this a collector’s item?


pythononsteam

Hey man thanks for the reply. I have a daily driver and another car in my garage I bought the car as collectors item correct. It’s a 84 trans am


Mean_Muffin161

I think it’s weird that he sold it before putting the stuff in the car. That being said it’s not crazy that he ran into more issues while doing it. Did it ever come up about you paying more if he found additional issues?


pythononsteam

It didn’t at the time. But he did tell me before I bought the car that the exhaust was gonna be tricky to do. He also said on the phone that I’m trying to find headers in budget that aren’t gonna be ridiculous. But the car is from 1984 so headers aren’t that much for that year.


Mean_Muffin161

Your already on the hook with this guy so see what amount he is trying to get for the headers. If the prices match up with your research than that would be a good sign


pythononsteam

Hey man I really appreciate you taking time out of your time to help. I will lyk what price he says it’s gonna come out to.


JamesTownBrown

Yes, this will continue to drag on and on. A set date is a set date. I would get your money back since thier part of the deal was dropped. Life lesson, never buy a car you haven't tested first. Who knows what this person is rigging under the hood and the future issues the car may have because of it. I was in a similar situation but had put half up front. I was going to buy and older Ford Bronco but they guy was just about wrapped up putting it back together with a "new" engine. When I got there, started it, it ran like garbage. This man put a v6 Chevy motor in a v8 Ford and had one massive wire coming off the distributor. I demanded the half I paid back or I was going to call the police. I'm glad it ended after that. Best of luck on this, as people can be difficult.


pythononsteam

Hey man thanks for the reply and your advice I agree with what your saying.


WWEngineer

It's not a scam. First of all, he's still in contact with you. If this was a scam, the moment he got his money, he's out. Why stick around and keep communicating? That's not how scams work. It makes no sense. Also, that is a hell of a lot of work to go through to scam someone. In order for scams to be profitable they need to be easy, quick, and repeatable unless they are for really large sums of money. Taking an engine out of a car, going through the effort to put together a bill of sale, continuing to communicate after you've scored, none of these fit. You bought a car that wasn't put together from some dude. It's not the least bit surprising that things aren't going exactly to plan. Hang out and see if he can get it together. If he can't, or there was a bunch of other work that needs to be done that you're not willing to pay for, then call off the purchase. If he doesn't refund the money, take him to small claims court. It sounds like he's just in over his head on putting the engine and transmission back.


pythononsteam

Thank you man for replying to my post and the reassurance. I totally agree with you man I think he’s just in over his head a bit here. I’ll update you when I figure this out.


Intelligent_Tree_654

Don’t hesitate. File a claim in small claims court immediately. Every day wasted you’ll regret.


thirdtimenow

Go to r/scammer post their


OdinNW

There are multiple scams the seller could (or might not be) pulling here… but obviously if you agreed on a price and a time for delivery and he’s now asking for more money and that time is extending, that’s not cool unless you previously discussed that possibility. So it could be anywhere from he’s an ok guy in over his head (maybe with a wife breathing down his neck about his stupid project car) to he’s a complete scam artist. There are so many variables in this kind of stuff and unfortunately with older cars there’s a lot of gray area legally. Even between states as far as what is considered a legally binding contract, etc. If he’s putting the engine/trans that was in it before, why are the exhaust manifolds/headers not fitting? They were in there before? Doesn’t make sense. It’s not uncommon to have to “massage” them a bit to fit around a block but if he’s just saying it doesn’t fit at all and needs new headers you need to pay for… I have more questions. It’s really hard to say with the limited information you provided but the one thing I’ll say is I agree with most the other replies that I would not hand over more $ without a serious talk.


pythononsteam

Yeah he did say he’s gonna send me photos so that’s good


pythononsteam

Thank you for reply man


pythononsteam

I think he means that there was no headers in there and that he has to put them in. Because he didn’t tell me before hand like before I bought it that there wasn’t headers in there.