Did anyone see the '50 Chevy sold on Barrett Jackson...

[Triathlete]

...for $28,000 that had only 349 original miles!
Someone got a hell of a deal!

[Scott Harness]

...for $28,000 that had only 349 original miles!
Someone got a hell of a deal!

Prices have come way down from a couple years ago.Economy I assume

[Riff Raff]

Hmmm, I honestly hope the P.O. was able to "store" the 1950 Chevrolet for a maximum of $38.89 per month for 720 months. Otherwise the P.O. took a huge loss; essentially gave the vehicle away for free, and wasted a vast majority of his/her life over the last 60+ years. Pity.

[Triathlete]

Prices have come way down from a couple years ago.Economy I assume

Yeah, that is for sure...although they usually save the big $$$ vehicles for the weekend. I definately don't see anything going for 7 digits this year. A couple of really nice George Barris customs went for barely over what a stock version would sale for off the showroom.

[deermagnet]

A 59-year-old car with only 437 actual miles and Modesto connections.

Mark Young of Oregon isn't quite sure why the story of the 1950 Chevy Club Coupe he acquired last year has been such a hit on the Internet. Not that he's complaining -- he plans to sell it during an auction in January.

The attention-getter, it seems, is the story of how this mint-condition Chevy stayed that way all these decades.

When Young bought the car, he found a note in the glove box. It was written by William Wilson, the car's second owner, and detailed some of its history. The tale intrigued Young.

"I called him up and he told me the story," Young said. "I wrote it up a little clearer, though just like he told me."

Young then posted the story on his www.chevconnection.com Web site, listing the car for sale for more than $59,000. He pulled the ad after deciding to sell the car at a prestigious Barrett Jackson auction in Arizona.

"Somebody must have copied (the posting)," Young said. "You wouldn't believe how many people have called me about it, even since I took it off."

Two readers independently forwarded the story to The Bee. One of them got it from a relative who lives in Minnesota.

Wilson's note told that a Modesto couple named Trueblood bought the coupe brand-new from a dealership here in 1950.

Shortly thereafter, Harry Trueblood drove to the Old Fisherman's Club west of Modesto. He saw a woman tumble out of a boat on the San Joaquin River and tried to rescue her. The excitement must have gotten to him. He suffered a heart attack and died.

The odometer registered 413 miles after his wife, Jessie Trueblood, drove the car back to Modesto and stored it at the plumbing supply business that her husband had owned in downtown Modesto for 30 years.

She never drove it again.

Wilson, who owned a used-car lot next to the plumbing store, repeatedly tried to buy the car from her. She refused to sell.

Then one day in 1962, she told him she wanted a car for her bookkeeper to drive. But the employee preferred Ramblers to Chevys. So Wilson went to the Rambler dealership and bought a new sedan for $1,650 and traded her straight up.

Jessie Trueblood died in 1984, leaving no immediate family, according to her obituary in The Bee.

I tracked down Wilson, now 81 and living in Tuolumne County, and he confirmed the tale.

"(The Chevy) was absolutely brand-new," Wilson said. "(Jessie Trueblood) had them put puncture-proof tubes in the tires. They still even had the original air. They didn't lose more than five pounds of pressure in all those years."

Those small, soft rubber spikes that protrude from brand-new tires were still on the Chevy a dozen years after it rolled off the lot, Wilson said.

"The tabs had never worn off," he said.

He drove it only 20 miles before storing the car beneath layers of blankets in the garage of his home near Salida.

"I never drove it after that," Wilson said. "I was always afraid somebody would run into me and wreck it."

He trailered the car to the Watson Brothers Upholstery Shop on North H Street and had the Watsons install custom seat covers for a whopping $47. Then it went back to his garage, and only a few chosen friends enjoyed private viewings.

"All the ones I'd show it to, they'd want to put their hands on it," Wilson said.

Wilson kept the car until 2007, when he sold it to a Hilmar man for $60,000 -- and regretted it because he got creamed by the Internal Revenue Service on the capitals gains tax.

The odometer now read 433.9 miles. Hey, about time for a lube and oil job, right?

The new owner added only three miles before taking it to a sale in Lake Havasu, Ariz., where he sold it to someone who bought it on Young's behalf.

The car turned 437 miles and 59 years old when he rolled it off of trailer at his classic car dealership in Portland.

He got a beauty of a car, well-rested in two of Modesto's most comfortable garages and one that has intrigued car buffs all over the country and the Internet.

[deermagnet]

Seeing Amy Sparks working the floor was really the only reason I used to watch that auction.
What a doll! Without her there's no point in me watching anymore.
I think people used to email more questions about her than the cars!



Mark

[Scott Harness]

Seeing Amy Sparks working the floor was really the only reason I used to watch that auction.
What a doll! Without her there's no point in me watching anymore.
I think people used to email more questions about her than the cars!



Mark

I liked watching her scream...YES!!
SICKO! I know... ps I think she is still on,just not as much

[deermagnet]

I don't believe it!!!!

I just turned over to the Speed Channel replay and there was Amy helping to sell a Rusty Wallace car. She had a lot of blonde highlights in her fabulous hair. She looked better than ever.

I think she is married to an auctioneer and she also is an auctioneer herself. I also think here husband had some serious health issues in recent years. I hope all is well and we'll be seeing much more of her.

Mark

[Triathlete]

Yep, Amy is still there. And her husband is one of the auctioneers up there. They talked about it yesterday. And you are correct that she does some auctioneering also.

[Mark B]

Yes, I saw the auction. What a deal.
I am waiting for a 1972 Plymouth Cuda Hemi convertible sublime green with shaker hood scoope for under $ 50,000.