GRIM HARRY TALES
So the time comes to pick up the Super Sport. And then it goes. And goes. And goes.... And Harry is getting really weird about me getting the car I paid him for over a month ago! The weather didn't help much, going from rainy to more rainy, never giving a week-long dry stretch... not even a 5 day dry stretch. Still, it was Harry's ever-changing tales that worried me more than anything.

When scouting the car and negotiating, Harry was "buddy this" and "buddy that", but now that he had the cash in hand, and I had a post-it note saying I got a car, but not listing any of the parts strewn throughout the yard and garage, I was starting to get uncomfortable and suspicious. It got to the point that I was calling every 3 or four days and getting a slightly different story. Harry tried to placate me by saying he wasn't selling a single part out of his stock until I had picked up my car in its entirety... two days later there was an ad in the Sacramento Bee for "Crosley cars and parts for sale" with Harry's number listed!! He tried to explain that it was an error on the Bee's part, and that it wasn't supposed to run yet, yatta yatta yatta. I told him I'd be over the next day to pick up all the parts that were separate from the car. He was pissed, but agreed.

Good old Pete Husing showed up in his VW crewcab and we headed out to the burbs. Harry was sour and pissy about the whole deal. Pete and I opened up the cars that were wrapped up and started moving stuff around as per Harry's instructions. My motor was in the front seat of a hashed '48 Crosley wagon that was missing most glass and big chunks of the roof. My motor seemed OK, although I wish the carb had been on the block to keep the moisture out. We sorted through the contents of the wagon, but didn't find many of the parts of the Super Sport.
At around this point, two guys showed up answering the ad in the paper. They were looking for Crosley wheels, and Harry sold one guy a rim for $10. I had uncovered a Braje single intake manifold and showed it to Harry in case he wanted to sell it-- they didn't seem interested; Harry asked me what I thought it was worth, and I guessed $50 or so. He looked at me like I was an idiot and offered to sell it to me for $25... a price I took. After the guys left, Harry excorciated them for coming to buy parts after he told them not to (hmmm, then how did they get his address?...) because he was waiting for me, and laughed because he stuck the guy with a Morris Minor wheel. If I felt bad about dealing with Harry BEFORE this, I was really uncomfortable now. Years later I met the guy who bought the wheel... when he called Harry about it being the wrong size Harry claimed it was a RARE pre-war Crosley wheel... "very expensive". What a shitter.

By the time the wagon was open we were covered with mud (we being Pete and I, Harry wasn't doing a thing). We moved on to Harry's $3000 Hot Shot. This thing was probably pretty nice when he bought it 5 years back. Now the brand new top was rotted through, the new wiring scummy with mildew and rot, the freshly sandblasted windshield frame was pitted, and all interior parts just ruined from being poorly wrapped in a backyard for most of the past 5 years. Hadn't done much for the unpainted body and frame either. We found a few more parts for my car, and put them aside. I asked about the radio that was supposed to go with my car, and Harry tells me it never had a radio... that's true, but when SELLING the car he'd offered to throw one in. There was really no way to prove my version, so I just chalked it up to experience and got the dash plate out of the wagon to cover up the hole.

At this point, Harry informs me that I get the rotten windshield off the Hot Shot, and that he's keeping the one off the Super Sport since it's in better shape. Same with the four matching hubcaps on the Super Sport. "I might have better ones in the garage somewhere, but you're in such a hurry..." I admit that he told me that the best stuff stayed with the Hot Shot, but he also told me that the Super's parts were "sharp" -- not fouled junk. The "brand new gauges" I was supposed to get with the car turned out to be the same ones I'd picked out of a puddle in the bottom of the Super Sport the first day I looked at it. Harry kept saying, "I got all this stuff, but you're in such a hurry to get everything, you just take what's here..."

Pete and I left with half a car, and I planned on picking up the body as soon as possible. Harry watched us leave without saying a word.
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