Car Thread

[robert.]

I will be along for the ride on this thread.

I'll make my comment now that will be applied to all stuff on this thread.

Beautiful

You would have to be Timothy Leary to find this beautiful.

[rogruth]

Looks like a beautiful re-use of a bunch of junk.

[E7]

The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test.

[webenda]

This is 3800 Bluff Place, San Pedro, California.


Cabrillo Beach parking was full, so I drove up here to park. My Greenbrier was unable to back into the parking spot. Full throttle, no go. I drove around looking for a place to park. When I got back to this spot, the pickup was gone, so I parked behind the Ford. (What was I thinking?) After a couple hours swimming, I returned to find the Ford still there and no one behind me. I could not back up at all. While running full throttle in reverse I managed to turn the front wheels away from the curb and in "drive" move forward until I hit the Ford. With the Ford pushing back on the Greenbier, full throttle reverse worked for a little bit of backing then stalled. It was enough to clear the Ford on second try.

I had taken the seats out in order to haul stuff. Once I had eight wheels stacked on the engine compartment when a lady stopped in front of me for no apparent reason. Those wheels bouncing around in the seat well area made such a racket she got out of her car and examined her rear bumper. (Good grief, I was at least six feet away from her.)

Other than lack of a low enough gear, I had no problems with it. It was a '64. The original owner was so disgusted with it (for lack of power) he offered it to me for $100 in 1966. Before he came to his senses I had placed $100 in his hands. I drove it until 1968 then sold it to a band who used it to haul their equipment to gigs. I had paid $100 for it, so that is what I sold it for. They drove it for two more years, then the rear axle bearings went out halfway between Bakersfield and Los Angeles. They told me I could have it back for the towing fee, they wanted something more powerful for running over the grapevine. I said no. I guess the towing company got the pink slip in lieu of payment for towing.

[John Webster]

65 and later Corvairs could be made to handle quite well for their time and they had options like the 140 hp. four carburetor and 180 hp. turbocharged engines with 4 speed transmissions and limited slip differentials.

I have a 65 turbo coupe with the 4 speed and limited slip in pieces in my garage.

The aggravating thing is that for the $1000 I bought that car for in the early 70s I could have picked up an early Jaguar XKE or an Austin Healey 3000 or a Mercedes 190 roadster, all of which are worth serious money today. The Corvair in restored condition wouldn't bring much more than $6000.

[webenda]

Really, $1000 for an XKE? I paid $1800 for my '66 in 1971. Sold it for $2,000 in 1975. The guy who bought it took it to an auction in Scottsdale, AZ and got $26,000 (or so he said.)

This '62 must be special, it has a 3.8 Flat Floor Engine and a 3.8 Flat Floor Louvered Bonnet with matching numbers.

XKE.jpg (34.24 KiB) Viewed 11616 times

[sarge]

Really, $1000 for an XKE? I paid $1800 for my '66 in 1971. Sold it for $2,000 in 1975. The guy who bought it took it to an auction in Scottsdale, AZ and got $26,000 (or so he said.)

This '62 must be special, it has a 3.8 Flat Floor Engine and a 3.8 Flat Floor Louvered Bonnet with matching numbers.

The owner knows precisely what he has there and is ticking all the collectability boxes. A Series 1 roadster, early flat floors instead of the dished ones that give a little more legroom and the louvres refer to whether the bonnet itself has louvres or is punched with louvre inserts welded in.

Prices then varied according to locale. They still do today for cars amongst the "normal" population. If what I paid for my B was a baseline 1 in rural Pennsylvania, it would fetch about 1.25 in New England, 1.6 in Florida, 1.5 in Arizona, 1.8 in California. Much has to do with the fact these cars now, much like your E-type then, aren't classy enough for Barrett-Jackson toffs; they sell locally. The more affluent the area the more they trade for. Add into it the demographics like concentration of nostalgic retirees and there is a further effect.

The collectors who sell back and forth at Barrett Jackson (the Scottsdale auction) are really in their own rarefied world. Some cars are taking off in price there, but it is so disconnected from the rest of us. These are prices 'realised" for often over-restored examples of rare variations that people then seize upon as the value of their much more common (and tatty) version in the garage. It should sound familiar to trainheads too, BTW- Grin!

The collector market took a real pounding between 2005 and 2010, and there is a lot of suspicion amongst the garage-and-spanner crowd that many of the transactions at these auctions, BJ, Amelia Island, &c, were to establish recorded price-points to prop up a collapsed investment environment and more than one cheque was quietly returned or adjusted in the parking lot across the street afterwards. In short the rich trading back and forth amongst the rich to fix values and protect the investment.

I'm glad I'm not in the trailer-toff culture.

[webenda]

Oh, the floor where your feet go is flat in a "3.8 Flat Floor." Thank you for that info Sarge. Mine had foot wells that filled up with water when it rained with the top down. Removing the carpeting to dry it out the first time revealed no drains. Did not have a shop-vac yet, so drilled holes.

So price guides may be artificially inflated?

[sarge]

So price guides may be artificially inflated?

Ya think?

[rogruth]

Do you suppose that also applies to model train price guides?

[Rufus T. Firefly]

Do you suppose that also applies to model train price guides?

Price guides are just that guides and are out of date before the ink is dry. Used to use a guide for antiques and collectable decades ago -- Warman's Antiques & Collectibles - it was updated every year and defined variability in a marketplace,

[webenda]

Do you suppose that also applies to model train price guides?

It should sound familiar to trainheads too, BTW- Grin!

Say it isn't so Sarge.

[sarge]

So, while we are waiting for a few bits for the Midget we finish up a project on the B in true survivor-car style.





This cover is an old original that needed some help, the centre snap at the windscreen had pulled through after the material shrunk, another side snap had gone missing, some pulls in the material again as it shrunk with age. So, bought from a fellow for less than $50.

One of the local Comfy Mayhem lads is an upholsterer, so he was happy to patch where the snap pulled through, moving it forward a half-inch in the process, replacing the other missing one, and then the tricks of the trade come out. He used a vinyl sealant of some sort he uses when he does school-bus seats (pretty kid-proof by experience) to seal up the little tears and pulls, and imparts the wisdom that something in Armour-All softens without degrading this material so it becomes supple and behaves like it originally did when new. Total bill from him was a little over $30.

So, for something like $80 I end up with an original cover, what the trailer toffs would pay $320 for as a new "repro" piece, and it was done with the help of the local lads pooling talent and wisdom. That's what the survivor hobby is all about.

[rogruth]

This same idea can also apply to model trains.

[robert.]

Sarge if it ever gets slow during the car shows.You can throw that car cover over your self and shout I'm batman.