“Cars are the only thing on earth that will beat you, break you, make you bleed, make you cry, spend all your money, spend all your time, not work and not care that you will love more, the more they abuse you.” -Anonymous

     I am Jeff and I get cars for free. Yes, I pay for cars too. Sometimes I pay more for the free ones than for the ones that I buy. Free car? Needs a transmission? Thanks craigslist/friend/neighbor/random stranger! After changing the transmission and fixing myriad minor issues I sometimes could have simply bought a nice running car instead.

     Once you start getting free cars it snowballs quickly. You tell someone that you got a Studebaker for a dollar and then they mention their uncle’s old Ford that’s been on the side of his house under a tarp serving as low income housing for drug addicted rodents since the Carter administration, and yes, he’ll ask about it for you. Does it pan out? No! The car was sold last week for almost nothing to some jerk or it is worth more than gold bricks to the guy, or he’s “going to fix it  someday…”.   

     Then, every once in a while it does pan out! You are the jerk that gets the car for little or nothing! Get enough people asking their cousin about that crusty El Camino hiding in the weeds and soon you will have your own collection of rust and broken glass. People will come to YOU asking for free cars! 

     But before you follow me down this tortuous path I must offer one C aveat Auto-Grata: if you are not careful they will consume you. Your time, your money, your property, and your blood. I could open my own blood bank with all of the blood I’ve spilled into the engine compartments of old cars. But if you have a passion, some tools and a 10 by 20 foot space, let’s build something!