Well, as everyone may have seen in the last couple of days I have been able to get back in touch with Darin (AKA Shorthood2006) about a machine that was purchased from him towards the end of last January to the beginning of February. The machine was sold as a 1949 short hood "that had been setting back in some farmers barn" & as an excellent candidate for a restore. Well, it was not. Darin had a guy coming down my way to pick up a shipping container and offered to throw it on the back of his truck to make the sale. The machine was delivered & my father took delivery and unloaded the machine of the guys truck and cut the guy a check.

It was a week or so before we started to tear into the machine (as a father/son project) to which we found the block was trashed. As some point it appears that the block had froze and the freeze plugs didn't pop, instead the block cracked. Someone attempted to weld up the crack and then used what appeared to be a body filler (like was used in a body shop) and paint over the repair. When we first started messing with the machine we filled it up with coolant and were going to change the oil and clean the carb to see if we could get it to fire off before totally tearing the machine down, well, once filled with coolant I notice what appeared to be a wet spot on the side of the block.

I started scraping on the area where this wet spot was and what did I find? You guessed it TRASH. As I'm sure some of you know F162 parts aren't the easiest or cheapest to come by. I contacted Darin about this issue and he said he would send one of his guys down with a spare block to correct the problem. I was satisfied & thought Darin was a man of his word, well, it turned out he wasn't. After this Darin ceased to have anymore contact with me. I sent message through the board with no response, I emailed him, no response & finally I tried calling to which he wouldn't answer.

I finally gave up and purchased another local machine for the restore that I wouldn't have to tear into the engine. I noticed Darin back up on the board a week or so ago and finally was able to contact him. When I got in contact I'm sure he was surprised as I hadn't posted on the board in awhile. I asked what happened 6 months ago to which he stated that if I still wanted the parts I could drive 4 hours to him and pick them up, at this point we were no longer in need of the parts as we had started with a better candidate for a restore. I told him that rather than driving up to him to pick up parts I would like to bring the machine up to him (no money out of his pocket, only mine) and get a refund on the machine being that the machine wasn't "AS ADVERTISED". At this point I could tell he didn't want any part of it and suggested that I put the machine on craigslist, LOL.

I'm not the same type of individual as he is; I would have to tell a prospective buyer of the issues with the machine for a clear conscious if nothing else. If I could get what I paid him for the machine by selling the machine for parts on craigslist I would, however I couldn't. I feel that I have been MORE than fair by offering to drive the machine 4 hours back up to him for a refund but he is unwilling to do so.

It's unfortunate that we have to deal with this issue in our society and everyone can't own up to there actions. This should be a lesson learned for EVERYBODY, no matter who you're purchasing something from look it over with a fine tooth comb because it make very well not be what the seller is stating it is.