Hidden Treasure

[Ranching]

Have any of you ever stumble across a hidden treasure?
My best one was about 20 years ago....I used to buy stuff on Ebay for my little ranch, saddles, pumps, sprinklers etc....
One day I came across a silver ring with a diamond in the center, surrounded by rubies. I paid $225 for it. A year or two later, I took some of my watches and some of my wife's jewelry to get appraised for insurance purposes. I don't know why, but I took that cheap silver ring. The jeweler told me, I think this is white gold....when I went back, he told me...I have a surprise for you. The ring was platinum and the one carat diamond, as well as the 10 rubies were all high grade. It appraised for 7,800 dollars in 2004. I think my wife has only worn it once or twice!
Anyone one else?

 

[Runwildboys]

I found a sto....found a dollar once.

 

[Creeper]

When I was 19, in 1971, I was looking for a car to buy and I saw an ad in the paper for a 1968 American Motors AMX. A what you say! John DeLorean designed the car as a two seat competitor to the Mustang for American Motors, a now defunct car builder. This car had all the best features offered by American Motors in 1968. But the price was low for the car and the ad read, "as is". My brother and I worked on cars a lot and he had a 1970 "Rambler Scrambler" with the same motor as the AMX so We went to look at it a few miles from where I lived. The seller was a jeweler, and the car was his fiance's. They were selling it because they were getting married. But he also admitted there was a problem with the rear end of the car. I was making a bad knocking noise and a mechanic told him it was a problem with the rear differential. We took it out for a spin. The body and interior were in perfect condition, and the 390 Cubic Inch engine pushing 315 HP moved this 2900 lb. 2 seater car like a rocket. I bought it on the spot.

When we got it home and got the car on lifts and started looking into the problem with the rear we realized it was actually a bad shock absorber, which I replaced with air shocks. The problem went away and the car was perfect and worth more than twice what I paid for it. Not exactly a treasure, but I did love that car. It was not a well loved car because of its looks (people often confused it with a Pinto!), but faster than most muscle cars of the time. With a new carburetor, headers, wider tires on the back to give it traction, and some other parts for the ignition system I could beat almost anyone in a street race. Only my friend's Hemi Challenger was faster. That was the fastest car I ever drove. And he also got it for a steal. Some guy who was serving in Vietnam bought it from the guy's mother!

I eventually had to sell the AMX when I got married because we were pretty broke at the time. That is something I regret to this day.

I also found a $20 bill floating down a street in NYC once.

 

[rags747]

When I was 19, in 1971, I was looking for a car to buy and I saw an ad in the paper for a 1968 American Motors AMX. A what you say! John DeLorean designed the car as a two seat competitor to the Mustang for American Motors, a now defunct car builder. This car had all the best features offered by American Motors in 1968. But the price was low for the car and the ad read, "as is". My brother and I worked on cars a lot and he had a 1970 "Rambler Scrambler" with the same motor as the AMX so We went to look at it a few miles from where I lived. The seller was a jeweler, and the car was his fiance's. They were selling it because they were getting married. But he also admitted there was a problem with the rear end of the car. I was making a bad knocking noise and a mechanic told him it was a problem with the rear differential. We took it out for a spin. The body and interior were in perfect condition, and the 390 Cubic Inch engine pushing 315 HP moved this 2900 lb. 2 seater car like a rocket. I bought it on the spot.

When we got it home and got the car on lifts and started looking into the problem with the rear we realized it was actually a bad shock absorber, which I replaced with air shocks. The problem went away and the car was perfect and worth more than twice what I paid for it. Not exactly a treasure, but I did love that car. It was not a well loved car because of its looks (people often confused it with a Pinto!), but faster than most muscle cars of the time. With a new carburetor, headers, wider tires on the back to give it traction, and some other parts for the ignition system I could beat almost anyone in a street race. Only my friend's Hemi Challenger was faster. That was the fastest car I ever drove. And he also got it for a steal. Some guy who was serving in Vietnam bought it from the guy's mother!

I eventually had to sell the AMX when I got married because we were pretty broke at the time. That is something I regret to this day.

I also found a $20 bill floating down a street in NYC once.

Two very nice AMC’s but I’m not buying that they were faster than most all Musclecars of that time. The Javelin was designed by Dick Teague, Delorean had No part in the design of the AMC Javelin as he was at GM and was responsible for the 64 GTO which was the start of the Muscle Car era. Delorean did create the Pontiac Banshee to compete with the Mustang but it never made it to market, it did make it to market as the Pontiac Firebird. You sold the car for the wife, is she still around?

 

[Ranching]

When I was 19, in 1971, I was looking for a car to buy and I saw an ad in the paper for a 1968 American Motors AMX. A what you say! John DeLorean designed the car as a two seat competitor to the Mustang for American Motors, a now defunct car builder. This car had all the best features offered by American Motors in 1968. But the price was low for the car and the ad read, "as is". My brother and I worked on cars a lot and he had a 1970 "Rambler Scrambler" with the same motor as the AMX so We went to look at it a few miles from where I lived. The seller was a jeweler, and the car was his fiance's. They were selling it because they were getting married. But he also admitted there was a problem with the rear end of the car. I was making a bad knocking noise and a mechanic told him it was a problem with the rear differential. We took it out for a spin. The body and interior were in perfect condition, and the 390 Cubic Inch engine pushing 315 HP moved this 2900 lb. 2 seater car like a rocket. I bought it on the spot.

When we got it home and got the car on lifts and started looking into the problem with the rear we realized it was actually a bad shock absorber, which I replaced with air shocks. The problem went away and the car was perfect and worth more than twice what I paid for it. Not exactly a treasure, but I did love that car. It was not a well loved car because of its looks (people often confused it with a Pinto!), but faster than most muscle cars of the time. With a new carburetor, headers, wider tires on the back to give it traction, and some other parts for the ignition system I could beat almost anyone in a street race. Only my friend's Hemi Challenger was faster. That was the fastest car I ever drove. And he also got it for a steal. Some guy who was serving in Vietnam bought it from the guy's mother!

I eventually had to sell the AMX when I got married because we were pretty broke at the time. That is something I regret to this day.

I also found a $20 bill floating down a street in NYC once.

Who made the Javelin? Was it AMC. My uncle had one back in the day. He also had a 1934 Ford coupe. Both were in perfect condition.

 

[rags747]

Who made the Javelin? Was it AMC. My uncle had one back in the day. He also had a 1934 Ford coupe. Both were in perfect condition.

Yes Javelin was 100% AMC when the Big 3 were literally the Big 3!

 

[Creeper]

Yes Javelin was 100% AMC when the Big 3 were literally the Big 3!

AMC was 4, an a little 4 at that. But they wanted to get into the pony car market and came up with the Javelin. The AMX was a 2 seater version of the Javelin, which had some back seating. The AMX was also about 6 inches shorter than the Javelin which was a problem for AMX owner who needed an emergency break cable. AMC kept selling me Javelin cables which were too long!

The AMX was an interesting car with an engine based on a Ford small block, a Borg Warner transmission and a Dana rear axle. At 2900 lbs, the 315 stock HP and something ridiculous like 390 ft lbs of torque made the AMX a screamer on the street. But the stock exhaust system suffocated the engine and the stock carburetor starved it for fuel . Two simple mods boosted the horsepower by about 25%. Then the problem became keeping the tires from melting when you gave it gas.

 

[Creeper]

Two very nice AMC’s but I’m not buying that they were faster than most all Musclecars of that time. The Javelin was designed by Dick Teague, Delorean had No part in the design of the AMC Javelin as he was at GM and was responsible for the 64 GTO which was the start of the Muscle Car era. Delorean did create the Pontiac Banshee to compete with the Mustang but it never made it to market, it did make it to market as the Pontiac Firebird. You sold the car for the wife, is she still around?

Actually, no. But it needed work and I had no money or a place to store it. I have looked into buying another one from time to time but they are hard to find. Despite being rare, they are not worth as much as some of the other muscle cars of the time. Parts are also hard to come by - always were.

 

[StarGazer1]

I haven’t had much luck finding treasure, but I do like to buy treasure coins from shipwrecks.