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Nice cars sitting in the weeds
Just wondering how many of you see nice (or not so
nice) old cars sitting out in a field or back
yard, and have an urge to rescue? (Isell, I'll
count you in automatically).
At a house around the corner from me (down the
street from the Nomad and Model A guys, for those
of you keeping up with my recent posts in other
topics), there is a large supply of cars I like in
poor shape. For the 3 years I lived here, there
was an early 70's Chevelle SS sitting in the back
yard, behind a pool with no water (the house was
missing a bunch of shingle until recently just to
add ambiance). The SS needed a paint job, but
looked OK otherwise. they also had some rust bomb
Blazers and a mid 70's Corvette. A few months ago,
a '75 Trans Am (really ratty looking) showed up,
parked in front of the SS (even had a rag jammed in
the space where the shaker hood should be).
Anyway, a few weeks ago the SS disappeared, and the
Corvette took its place fo honor in the backyard.
My point (since I really should have one) is this:
Do any of you have inersting cases of cars as
lawn ornaments to share? And have you ever
actually approached a stranger about buying one of
them (or to berate them for letting a nice
potential classic go to rot)?
nice) old cars sitting out in a field or back
yard, and have an urge to rescue? (Isell, I'll
count you in automatically).
At a house around the corner from me (down the
street from the Nomad and Model A guys, for those
of you keeping up with my recent posts in other
topics), there is a large supply of cars I like in
poor shape. For the 3 years I lived here, there
was an early 70's Chevelle SS sitting in the back
yard, behind a pool with no water (the house was
missing a bunch of shingle until recently just to
add ambiance). The SS needed a paint job, but
looked OK otherwise. they also had some rust bomb
Blazers and a mid 70's Corvette. A few months ago,
a '75 Trans Am (really ratty looking) showed up,
parked in front of the SS (even had a rag jammed in
the space where the shaker hood should be).
Anyway, a few weeks ago the SS disappeared, and the
Corvette took its place fo honor in the backyard.
My point (since I really should have one) is this:
Do any of you have inersting cases of cars as
lawn ornaments to share? And have you ever
actually approached a stranger about buying one of
them (or to berate them for letting a nice
potential classic go to rot)?
2020 Acura RDX tech SH-AWD, 2023 Maverick hybrid Lariat luxury package.
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Comments
I would never buy a restoration project. I think a person is FAR better off spending the dollars for a finished or original car.
And I'm glad we have a Homeowner's Association where we live...just in case!
No, that's almost as bad as buying something that's been sitting in a wrecking yard--but if the car just arrived at the yard, then there's hope. And usually lots of hard, poorly rewarded work.
What worked best for me, back in the days I was buying project cars, was looking for an interesting, straight car that was spending all its time parked in a driveway or in front of a house. It was surplus, but it hadn't gone to seed yet. You could probably drive it home--which is 99% of the secret of success--clean it up and have a little fun. No major mechanical work. There used to be lots of these cars in the Bay Area, where people generally treat their cars well and rust isn't a problem, and sometimes you could get a decent deal.
I also made the mistake of buying a 1969 Bonneville for $400 from my cousin. It ate starters faster than my golden retriever eats table scraps. Specifically, it ate starter solenoids, so when you tried to start it, it would keep cranking until it either started or killed the battery. It was smooth and fast, between the time that it would finally start and the time it would overheat, but that was about it. Looking back, I wish I had just gotten it fixed instead of finally getting rid of it, but I was married at the time, running out of money fast, and couldn't afford to keep it.
I live in a condo now, so it's a little harder to have "lawn ornaments" today. Still, I haven't learned. Last year, a friend gave me his late grandmother's '67 Newport. I got historic plates for it, parked it at the curb, and drove it around the block every once in awhile. Mechanically it was great, but the body was rusting, and the interior was falling apart. When the brakes finally failed, that was it. I've already got a couple of antiques, and really didn't need another one, so I sold it.
I still have the '68 Dart, btw, and it's pretty much become a "curb ornament". I get offers all the time from people who want to buy it. Logic says I should unload it, but it's been a part of my life for too long now. Oh well, maybe some day I'll wisen up and get rid of it (or fix it up)
-Andre
I almost forgot about 2 more "lawn ornaments" that I still have, in a roundabout way. About 20 years ago, my grandparents bought 20 acres of mountainous land in southwestern VA. There was a 1958 Edsel station wagon and a late 40's Buick on the property, both looked like they had been there forever, full of bullet holes, nothing but metal left (not that those old cars had a lot of plastic).
Well, last year, my grandmother signed the property over to my uncle and me. I'm kinda curious to see what another 20 years have done to those old cars! (I haven't been down to that property since I was 10!)
-Andre
http://www.carsinbarns.homestead.com/
Very often what happens is that a somewhat exotic car breaks big time and the owner offs it to a bottom-feeding bargain hunter (like ME for instance!).
But UNLIKE me, many of these bargain hunters have neither the financial or cranial abilities to fix the transmission on a Maserati or the cylinder heads on a V12, so the car just rots. Call it "prestige by proxy" if you will.
In the later years, it sported a large NOT FOR SALE sign in the window. Guess the owner got tired of having the doorbell ring!
Sometime, around 1972 it disappeared.
One day in 1991 I was driving down that road and had to do a double-take. Somebody had rear-ended the car, and the quarter panel split cleanly in half. The lower half was crumpled, but the upper half was bent so that the tailfin was pointing up at about a 45 degree angle. And you thought the tailfins on a '59 Caddy were too much!!
Then one day I drove down that street and the car was gone. I'm sure the neighbors were relieved, as they probably considered it an eyesore. Still, I kinda missed it. I got my '57 DeSoto in 1990, and had been planning on stopping by just to say hi to the owner, and see if he'd let me check the car out and compare it to the DeSoto. A great American treasure lost ;-)
Just east of Clinton, NC, there was a 1971 or 1972 Chevelle SS sitting under a tree catching bird droppings. The car must have been there at least 10-12 years, unmoved.
This car was the same color as the 1971 SS454 that I used to own, and every year that I drove by it there, I would get a tear in my eye, both for my stupidity in selling my SS, and for the sad fate of the SS that was just sitting there.
I see few post 80s cars in the weeds. Im sure they are out there, I live in a nice suburb.
I always like the trees that sprouted through the engine hoods. Kinda makes the parking space permenent.
First was a 1961 Renault Dauphine Gordini that had sat in a guy's yard in rainy North Vancouver for at least 8 years. A friend of mine bought it and we decided to do a modest "Red-Green" type restoration on it. The engine was seized - I sold him a good bottom end from another Dauphine. We had to unseize everything else on that car, from the brake adjusters to the accelerator pedal. The rust on the bolts was horrendous! All the brake hydraulics were shot and replaced. The few rusty bits of bodywork were chopped out and patched. The head was reconditioned. The car was subjected to a cheap-ish paint job which my friend bartered for. After an investment of some $500 or so, this car ran. It lasted for 6 years in everyday use and proved to be very reliable. The reason it died: my friend sold it and the moron who bought it stuffed the poor Gordini into a tree.
I bought a 1963 Peugeot 404 sedan in 1985 - the car had already done 273,000 miles and it had been parked in the owner's yard in West Vancouver for 5 years. All the car needed was a torque tube centre bearing, an engine mount and fresh brake seals. I drove that car every day for another 80,000+ miles before it died of terminal rust.
I presently have 1966 injected Peugeot Coupé restoration project in my nice, dry garage and most of the new sheetmetal to rebuild it. Hey, if you love a car, the economics of full restoration are meaningless. Obviously you don`t want to spend $50,000 on a show-quality restoration for a Peugeot, but a decent rebuild is actually quite affordable, especially if you do some of the work yourself. Also, consider the price of a good new car, what, $25 to 30 K?
Let me know. There's a sale on shelving units this week. Should I deal with the husband or the wife of these pack rats?
I suspect that somehow ownership of something that someone else once gives these folks a small but to them significant sense of power. When your life has turned into a refuse yard, this could be important.
Generally, though, these cars rotting away aren't very valuable to begin with, so nothing lost really. The Mustang is probably just an ordinary coupe with a 6 cylinder engine, and the Corvette is no doubt the type that is the least valuable and least collectible (late 70s, early 80s or a beat up C4 perhaps?)
Occasionally, you will meet some foolish pack rat who is destroying a valuable or significant car. I think folks like this should be arrested and the car seized in the name of decency.
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By this time, the gas tank had been cut off, which they do to all the cars, and the back seat cushion was loose (I hear that the average junkyard makes about $1-2 per car just in change down in the seats), but everything else was there.
Still, I'm guessing that it ended up in the junkyard for a good reason, and should probably stay there!
-Andre
Behing every garage queen is a suffering wife.
Something about a 4-door hardtop with rear windows that actually go all the way down attracts me, too. Probably the fact that it doesn't make it so rough when the air conditioning dies!
Personally, I'd never buy the thing to restore to show quality, but I figured if the engine and tranny were still decent, might make a fun boat to drive around in until it got worn out.
-Andre
Still, looking back, I should've let that dog rest, and reason (and high gas prices) won out with my decision to leave the '77 alone, too!
-Andre
I think it might have had something to do with the tilt, but I'm not sure.
Anyway, they could only find one other R-body steering column (and sadly, I recognized the car it came out of...same junkyard!) I ended up losing my tilt and my cruise (the cruise stalk wouldn't fit on the other column) but on the plus side I got functioning interval wipers and a nicer steering wheel with no fake wood!
-Andre
And, ironically, they aren't even very good cars.
Giving them a small, real or imagined power over someone.
What I really don't understand is the people that just let 'junk' lie. Get the wrecker to give you $50 for it. That's $50 you will never have. Because you haven't fixed it in 5 years, so you will never fix it.
Guy across the street moved in and pushed a dead Toyota pickup into the drive. 5 years later, when the count of dead cars hit 3 in the driveway, I finally called the city. Had to make 5 complaints to the city to get any real action.
He had a wrecker pull one car away. Don't remember what he did with the 2nd car. The pickup he pushed into the garage one day before the city was to take formal action aganist him. Oh yes, the house had a 2-car garage. With no cars in it, but 3 dead ones in the drive.......
Him and the people 2 houses down that let the 2 kids vandalize the neighborhood (and I think mom actually helped them at times) was the reason I sold my house and moved.
I think bolivar is right on, it is a "control" issue that explains why people would let old cars rot in their possession. I can understand if you are on a farm or some such (big hassle to tow it away unless you bury it), but for people who are only a phone call away from the wrecker, what's the point. Many of these cars are best scrapped and recycled, there is no other reason to keep them.
Sure enough, the Chevelle SS that I mentioned before is still parked under the same tree. This year, however, it has a couple of 1970 Chevelle Malibus parked nearby to keep it company.
It looks like a restoration project is upcoming. Maybe by the year 2012 it will be completed......