Husband Drives His Wife 90 Feet To The Neighbor’s House And Hands Over His 98 GMC Sierra, Then She Learns He Traded It For A Car She Says He Already Has

Garage owner Finnegan thought he had pulled off the perfect trick. He put his wife Jessa in his blue 1998 GMC Sierra, drove about 90 feet to the neighbor’s house, and told her the truck was gone.

Black 1955 Chevy with a woman at the wheel beside a white pickup truck driving on a highway

It was worse than that, by his own admission. He had not sold it for cash at all. He had traded it for another car plus money, and the car he brought home was one she took a single look at before saying he already had one just like it.

The whole saga plays out on the Finnegan’s Garage channel, and it is a fun one for anybody who has ever tried to talk a spouse into a new old car.

“We’re Flat Out Of Room” And A Deal With The Wife

Finnegan explains the setup plainly. He has a warehouse full of cars, some nice and some not so nice, and he says they are “flat out of room.” He also has a couple of large projects that need paying for.

Because he is attached to every car and cannot let go of them on his own, he made Jessa a deal. She picks which cars go, but she cannot glance at one, decide she hates it, and send it down the road. She has to drive each car first.

She drove five of his cars and chose two to get rid of. One of them was his blue 1998 GMC Sierra daily driver, which he calls an awesome truck that he loved.

He Drove 90 Feet And Announced The Truck Was Gone

In the previous episode, Finnegan says, he “bamboozled” her. He told her they were getting rid of the truck, put her in the passenger seat, and drove roughly 90 feet to the neighbor’s place.

Then he got out and announced that Rod and Junior were taking it. Rod, the neighbor, is the same man whose garage figures in the rest of the story.

The twist came next. Finnegan had not simply sold the truck and pocketed the money. He traded it for a car plus cash, and he was excited about the car. Jessa was not.

“You Already Have One Of These. What Are You Doing With Your Life?”

The car is a 1955 Chevy with the chassis of a Corvette underneath. Finnegan pitched it to her as getting two cars in one, with the Corvette part nobody can see. He also pointed out that it should take up less space in the warehouse.

Jessa was having none of it. According to Finnegan, she took one look and said, “You already have one of these. What are you doing with your life?” He already owns another 1955 Chevy, a car he calls Blasphemy.

His answer in the earlier video was to compare cars to kids. He and Jessa have more than one child, he said. They share a last name and look alike, but they are wildly different people. In his view, six Mustangs are not the same car either.

Meet “Bad Idea,” The Autocross Chevy With Exhaust In The Fenders

Finnegan says the Chevy was built by a shop in California’s Central Valley, which he believes was Newman Car Creations. It was made for autocross and road course events, including the Optima Ultimate Street Car Challenge, and it appeared in Super Chevy magazine.

The car even had a name, “Bad Idea.” He says the nickname came from the builder’s ideas, such as running the exhaust up into the front fenders, which everybody on the internet called a bad idea.

Under the hood is an LS engine that Finnegan puts at about 480 horsepower, with a six-speed manual. The builders later changed to a full-length exhaust and got it tuned, and he says that “woke the car up.”

The car’s paper trail is thin on the road side. It was last registered in California in 2015, and it sat in Rod’s garage for at least four or five years after Rod moved to the neighborhood. Finnegan says it had not seen the street in all that time and was covered in dust.

Fresh Battery, Brown Gas, And A Chevy That Fired Right Up

Finnegan wasted no time. He filmed the day after Jessa saw the car and was upset about it. He bought an Optima battery at the local O’Reilly’s, hooked up the positive first and then the negative, and found that the trunk’s LED lights came on.

“That means we have power,” he says. He adds, with a grin, that the GMC truck never had a trunk light, and suggests Jessa might like that.

The gas was another story. He figured the fuel was junk because it was old California gas. When he and Rod pulled the sending unit and siphoned the tank with a hand vacuum pump, the fuel came out brown and orange and smelled like varnish.

After the old gas came out and about five gallons of fresh went in, the engine ran. He saw close to 40 pounds of oil pressure and 13.5 volts. There was a slight skip at idle, and he guessed it needed its fuel injectors cleaned.

Jessa Takes The Wheel And Admits “It Is Fun To Drive”

Finnegan says he spent his usual half day off on Sunday draining gas, fitting a battery, checking fluids and getting the car going. After a five minute test drive, he told her she was going to love it.

Then she climbed behind the wheel. She noticed the soft clutch, the smooth shifter and the steering. At one point he made her say it out loud: “It’s fun. Go ahead and say it.” She did, telling him that it is fun to drive.

She even tried her first burnout. Finnegan coached her to rev it up and let the clutch off completely, because riding the clutch burns it out before the tires break loose. The first try produced a burning smell that was the clutch, not the tires. The second try, he says, smoked the tires.

He admits he now has a new clutch to put in, but he is happy overall. As he sees it, he gained space too: the new car is about three inches shorter than the truck, so he met the goal “by like 3 inches.”

What Every Buyer Can Learn From The Sierra Swap

The story is funny, but it carries real advice for anybody bringing home an old car that has sat for years. Here is what Finnegan did, in order.

Start with a fresh battery and check that the lights and gauges come on before turning a key.
Do not trust old gas. If it is brown or smells like varnish, pump it out and put in fresh fuel.
Look at fluids and tire pressure before you take it anywhere, even around the block.
Expect a small misfire or a vibration after years of sitting, and plan to clean the injectors and check the tires.

He also learned something about insurance. Finnegan says State Farm would not insure the car with a roll cage in it because they said it showed intent, so he cut the cage out. He says that is why he insures all of his cars with Hagerty.

As for the marriage deal, Finnegan says the next trade that comes home will get the same treatment. Jessa will drive it and this car, he will pick one more out of the warehouse, and whichever one she chooses, he promises to sell.

Jessa had the last word on the Chevy. After her ride she told the camera it was “so fun to drive,” and said the brakes, steering and clutch were all great.

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