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I spotted an (insert obscure car name here) classic car today! (Archived)

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  • nolid5nolid5 Member Posts: 148
    Spotted 2 in the past 2 days.
  • gsemikegsemike Member Posts: 2,413
    plum crazy purple with 383, pistol grip 4 speed, bench seat, manual steering and brakes in my friends garage. I'm so jealous.
  • explorerx4explorerx4 Member Posts: 20,723
    an army green porsche 914 with classic plates.
    also, someone commuting to work in a white 944.
    an all white exterior mid 70's eldo convertible.
    2024 Ford F-150 STX, 2023 Ford Explorer ST, 91 Mustang GT vert
  • reallandyachtreallandyacht Member Posts: 28
    I would love to have your old beast!

    I do believe sir, I say, I say, I do believe I AM in love with that fine piece of Detroit steel! :P

    That Thar Be A Purty 'Un!

    Almost like it more than my ol' coup! ;)
  • british_roverbritish_rover Member Posts: 8,502
    Our 1959 Series II is out front right now under the service drive. If you drive by the dealership around 5 PM you will probably see it on the rock display out front. I am going to move it there after I get some pictures of it next to a 1997 Defender.
  • explorerx4explorerx4 Member Posts: 20,723
    still there tomorrow morning? heading back that way for 9am.
    2024 Ford F-150 STX, 2023 Ford Explorer ST, 91 Mustang GT vert
  • british_roverbritish_rover Member Posts: 8,502
    Yup I got it all locked up as best I can and four wheel chocks under it to keep it from rolling away.

    Planning to leave it there through Saturday evening since I don't want it outside on sunday.

    I have pictures of it in my carspace.
  • explorerx4explorerx4 Member Posts: 20,723
    if the weather is good maybe we can set up a picture with my 'definitely not an off-roader' mustang.
    2024 Ford F-150 STX, 2023 Ford Explorer ST, 91 Mustang GT vert
  • british_roverbritish_rover Member Posts: 8,502
    Yeah I will be around at 9 am although I possibly have someone coming in tomorrow. I don't know when they are coming in exactly.
  • lemmerlemmer Member Posts: 2,689
    Saw a Ferrari 308 in rush hour traffic - they look a little small next to your average Yukon.
  • Mr_ShiftrightMr_Shiftright Member Posts: 64,481
    Not only that, a Yukon could probably beat it in a drag race.
  • andre1969andre1969 Member Posts: 26,023
    in general, as far as Ferraris go? I guess whenever I think of a Ferrari, the 308 is always the first thing that pops into my mind. Probably because of Magnum PI. :confuse:
  • andre1969andre1969 Member Posts: 26,023
    I would love to have your old beast!

    I do believe sir, I say, I say, I do believe I AM in love with that fine piece of Detroit steel!


    Thanks. :) Now that I think back on it, there were three other GM convertibles for sale at the little lot where I bought my Catalina from. There was a '69-70 DeVille convertible, in a really beautiful shade of midnight blue, with a white leather interior. It was a gorgeous car, but I think they wanted something like $7300 for it.

    Then there was a '75 Grand Ville, in a shade of baby blue that seemed really common on Buick LeSabres back then. They wanted around $5600 for it IIRC. It had a 400, which by then was probably strangled down to about 180 hp. Oh, and it had been a Canadian car, with no a/c.

    There was also a red 2nd-gen Corvair convertible they wanted $4995 for. The body actually looked solid, but it had taken a light hit both front and rear, slightly damaging the corners of the car.

    The '67 Catalina was the one that really caught my eye though, as I've had a fascination with these things ever since I was a little kid. I was surprised too, that it was the cheapest of the 4. He wanted $3995 for it. I wasn't able to get him down much, but got it for $3775.

    I'm surprised it was actually that cheap in relation to the other 'verts. Now I guess I could see the Caddy being worth something, but I figured something like this would be priced higher than the Corvair with its body damage, or the '75 Grand Ville!

    I came kinda close to buying a '67 DeVille hardtop sedan once. It belonged to a guy who worked in a local pool hall, and he was selling it. Wanted $700 for it. It ran great, and the body was solid, but the paint and interior was pretty ratty. If I hadn't bought a rat of a '69 Bonneville just a few months earlier (which promptly broke down, so I just pushed it behind a storage building until I could afford to deal with it), I would've been tempted!
  • Mr_ShiftrightMr_Shiftright Member Posts: 64,481
    308s are so-so. Being V8s they were somewhat unique for Ferrari but they weren't particularly fast and the earlier models proved troublesome. It would be darn near impossible for a carburator version of the 308 to pass California smog regulations---which is why one only sees the injected versions out here. The 328 is a better car than earlier the earlier 308 or later 348. The 328 "got it all right".
  • kyfdxkyfdx Moderator Posts: 265,827
    ... seeing the lease ad for the Maserati Quattroporte to the left?

    $5K down and $1900/mo. for 48 months.... woooooohooooo.. I think I'll get two!!

    Edmunds Price Checker
    Edmunds Lease Calculator
    Did you get a good deal? Be sure to come back and share!

    Edmunds Moderator

  • imidazol97imidazol97 Member Posts: 27,676
    I'm getting a buick LaCrosse and Saab 95 ad.

    2014 Malibu 2LT, 2015 Cruze 2LT,

  • british_roverbritish_rover Member Posts: 8,502
    One of my clients has a Quattroporte and I must say well all I can say is WOW.

    I didn't get a chance to drive it but I just sat in it and it was amazing. He has an executive GT and his only complaint is that the SMG is a little funky in auto mode but after a couple of software updates it has been better.
  • bumpybumpy Member Posts: 4,425
    Was that the 2-liter V8? Too bad the micro-8 idea never caught on... it would have been fun to see Honda put something like that in a 1989 Prelude.
  • Mr_ShiftrightMr_Shiftright Member Posts: 64,481
    3 Liter I believe. I think you could build up an 89 Prelude stock motor to easily beat an old 308 anyway...Maybe not outhandle it, but 0-60, no problemo. A stock Prelude might even beat it, it's only like an 8 second car until you get into the later FI models.
  • lemmerlemmer Member Posts: 2,689
    The earlier (and slightly less attractive) 308GT4s were a more like 7 second cars, but you've already made your feelings known on those. I still say they are cool.
  • Mr_ShiftrightMr_Shiftright Member Posts: 64,481
    I think there's a general consensus on the 308GT4s--it's not just my prejudice, it is practically everyone's---at least the people who vote with their checkbooks. A 2+2 with a mid engine has just got to look bad no matter what you do. Consider the design challenge of that!!

    Horsepower for the 308s is only around 205.

    The 328 is a way better car. Ferrari made over 1,400 changes to the 1985 308 to get to the 1986 model 328.
  • lemmerlemmer Member Posts: 2,689
    Just to give you further ammo, I like Mondials.

    That being said, if it was my money I would likely buy a 328. They seem worth the premium over the 308s. It seems like the absolute cheapest Ferraris are not as cheap as they should be, as if people trying to get into just any Ferrari pushes up the values of the bottom feeders. This seems to be the case on eBay anyway.

    How about 348s? I like those too.
  • Mr_ShiftrightMr_Shiftright Member Posts: 64,481
    348s?

    Step 1. Take gas can out of garage

    Step 2. spinkle over car liberally

    Step 3. Ignite

    Step 4. Buy a 328.
  • lemmerlemmer Member Posts: 2,689
    What is so bad with 348s? I have a friend who has owned two and had decent luck with them. Of course, rather than gas, he has enough dollars to 'sprinkle over car liberally.'

    In the interest of full disclosure, the same guy has a 412 and has previously owned a Mondial (and maybe the Mondial caught on fire once). He also had a 330GTC that he has since sold. I don't know where that falls on the Ferrari scale.
  • Mr_ShiftrightMr_Shiftright Member Posts: 64,481
    To Ferrari lovers, the 348 is a dog.
  • explorerx4explorerx4 Member Posts: 20,723
    couldn't make it yesterday, roads were still wet at home, but dry after i got through unionville. wet roads and my mustang don't play well together.
    the rest of the day got used up by unexpected stuff.
    1 hour kitchen light swap turned into 3 hours, father in law ended up in the hospital, so i ended up driving my younger around instead of my wife. did get home by 8pm though.
    hope your 9am appointemnt turned out well.
    2024 Ford F-150 STX, 2023 Ford Explorer ST, 91 Mustang GT vert
  • british_roverbritish_rover Member Posts: 8,502
    Hope your FIL is ok.

    The truck is still outside but tomorrow night I will pull it back in and if the weather is good next week I will put it out again.

    Had about seven or eight people stop to ask about it in the past few days so it is a great attraction.

    My 9am did not even show up. You know if you are going to make an appointment and you are going to be late or not be able to come you should call ahead and let the other person know.

    Nothing makes me more mad then people not showing up for apointments.
  • gsemikegsemike Member Posts: 2,413
    To any Long Island guys, I went to the Bellmore train station last nigth and it was hopping. There was far too many classics to list here. There was a surprising number of 57 Chevys, the usual (but nice) Camaros and Chevelles. In total, they had to be about 150 cars that were worth at least a glance.

    It was mostly old detroit iron with a few newer Americans sprinkled in. I did not notice a single Japanese Fast & Furious car though there was one pimped ES300 getting no attention. I guess that there is another spot for those guys.

    It's really a free car show.
  • reallandyachtreallandyacht Member Posts: 28
    Sorry for the delay in response . . .

    Sometimes I download emails for future reading (I go fishing 20 - 30 hours a week - where is the time to read emails?).

    Yesterday I saw a real NICE '65 Sedan DeVille ...

    I just told my wife there was the convertible for sale up your way ... I suggested we buy it so I can rip the interior out and put it in mine .... she just laughed!

    truth be told ... it is getting to the point where it may be wise to do something like that (buy a car to part out) - I have been trying to find a cheap (with in reason) interior door panel with a nice arm rest - I found a place that makes them for $500.00 (for an upper and lower as they say - what ever that means... mine is all one piece :confuse: )
  • Mr_ShiftrightMr_Shiftright Member Posts: 64,481
    The only problem with a parts car is what to do with the carcass after you've stripped it, and of course where to put all the spare parts you now have. What I used to do when I had the room was just take the smaller, precious parts and then re-sell the partial car, as a ROLLER, to someone else who needed body panels or other large items. I think having spare engines, etc. is kind of crazy and who needs old wheels and tires or mufflers? But heater control modules or precious stainless trim pieces, etc. or door panels--- those can be very hard to find or make.
  • british_roverbritish_rover Member Posts: 8,502
    cause it is not new.

    My client with the Bentely Arnage T came in today. He has finaly come to grips with what it is worth so we are going to try and help him unload it in the next couple of weeks.
  • bumpybumpy Member Posts: 4,425
    The only problem with a parts car is what to do with the carcass after you've stripped it, and of course where to put all the spare parts you now have.

    Pick the parts you want off of it, then call the junkyard. Let someone else have a whack at your leftovers.
  • bumpybumpy Member Posts: 4,425
    What looks from the front like a '59 Buick, a 1971ish Challenger, and a fire engine red Ford something-or-other (it looks like a Falcon with sideways tailfins :confuse: ).
  • prosaprosa Member Posts: 280
    Upon what is that ghastly "Rolls Royce style" limousine based? I thought at first it was a Town Car, but now I'm not so sure.
  • Mr_ShiftrightMr_Shiftright Member Posts: 64,481
    Well a junkyard won't take a stripped carcass. Their ground space is valuable. You'd have to pay them to take it. Some cars are so unprofitable for junkyards that they won't even take good ones of certain vintages because no one is restoring them or fixing them.
  • andre1969andre1969 Member Posts: 26,023
    Upon what is that ghastly "Rolls Royce style" limousine based? I thought at first it was a Town Car, but now I'm not so sure.

    I think that thing is a Town Car, just more heavily modified than these atrocities usually are. At least, the dashboard looks like it came from a Town Car.
  • andre1969andre1969 Member Posts: 26,023
    I like that '55 Chrysler. And I'm sure it's a lot more desireable than the types of St. Regises that normally catch my eye! :P

    That '73 Delta looks nice, too. For some reason, big '70's Deltas usually never caught my eye the way a LeSabre or Impala/Caprice would, or even a Catalina/Bonneville. I find myself liking them more and more, though.

    As for that '75 LeMans, the first thing I'd want to do is lose the dreadful fender skirts. I've also never seen one in that color. It's funny too, I'd kill for that color on, say, a '75 LeSabre convertible, and it looks great on something like a Caprice, Delta, or even a full-sized Pontiac. Somehow though, it just doesn't seem right to me, on that LeMans. It's funny how one color can be a real turn-on with one car, but a turn-off with another. :confuse:
  • chuck1959chuck1959 Member Posts: 654
    As for that '75 LeMans, the first thing I'd want to do is lose the dreadful fender skirts. I've also never seen one in that color.

    Agree the color's got to go! But the skirts I'd keep, because you don't many with them.
  • bumpybumpy Member Posts: 4,425
    I guess California is different. Junkyards will take anything around here and stack it 2 or 3 deep in the yard. There are even a few freebooters who will come around and pick up your crud. If it's something they already have and not worth keeping (like a '92 Elantra) they just crush it and ship it off to China.
  • Mr_ShiftrightMr_Shiftright Member Posts: 64,481
    Probably it has to do with land values. They don't even want a Chevy Citation in their DRIVEWAY....
  • reallandyachtreallandyacht Member Posts: 28
    If you want to just toss them - let me know the condition.

    I might pay to have them shipped to me.

    In a dozen or so years they will be worth a small fortune!

    .... besides that - my garage is so stuffed full of odds and ends that a bit more won't matter - can't even fit one car in there now a days! :)
  • fintailfintail Member Posts: 58,425
    I think the fender skirs on that Pontiac make the rear end look kinda fat. Some cars can pull off skirts, mainly cars a good 15-20+ years older than that Pontiac. I don't mind the color though, really. It's not brown or bronze!

    And yeah, that fake Rolls looks like a 95-97 Town Car.
  • reallandyachtreallandyacht Member Posts: 28
    RE: what to do with the carcass after you've stripped it

    There is a difference between a salvage yard and a scrap yard.

    After something has been stripped of all salvaged parts - it gets crushed and the iron is sold for scrap.

    If someone were to start parting out a hull it might be worth having a cutting torch to whack off the rear quarter panels and in some cases the metal around the windshield and rear window since some do rot away and it would be easier to cut and weld that rather than to actually fabricate replacement frame work for it.

    A couple weeks ago I popped into a local shop that does restorations and they had some MAJOR rusted hull of some old rag top (just the roof was movable unlike a convertible) car (Can't recall the make) which ALMOST ;) had a floor in it. They said that hull was worth $125,000.00 :confuse: !!!

    If I had bought some land and saw THAT THING on the property I would have made a MAJOR error! I would have thrown it to the trash without a second thought!

    That was the wrong value associated information for a pack rat to be told :confuse: now it will be a LOT harder to let ANYTHING go!

    That made me aware that if someone had cut one up and saved it they could quickly be RICH today just by selling those critical sections, panel's, and channels.
  • andre1969andre1969 Member Posts: 26,023
    some friends of mine, a married couple, were trying to reduce their fleet. He had been driving a 1978 Malibu Classic sedan with a 305 that had well over 200,000 miles on it. She had been driving a 1976 AMC Hornet wagon with a 258 straight six, and only about 70,000 miles, but they were hard, neglectful miles.

    When his father passed away in 1993, he inherited a 1987 Nissan Sentra, total stripper, with a stick shift. They decided it was time to get something newer and more reliable, so they bought a '94 Civic EX. The dealer actually gave them something like 70 bucks for the Malibu, because one of the kids working there wanted a beater to drive around in.

    Well, now it came time to get rid of that Hornet. They would have given it to me, but even back then I had a few too many cars. I was also living with my grandmother and had a wrecked '69 Dart and a non-running '69 Bonneville stashed away. Plus my '57 DeSoto, '68 Dart, and an '82 Cutlass that was my daily driver at the time.

    They called around to a few junkyards, and I also called around to a couple I knew. They wouldn't even TAKE it! I remember the junkyard I normally deal with just politely say "We don't have a need for anything like that at this time."

    Ultimately, we drove it down to a place called Leon's Auto Salvage, "The Walking Man's Friend", south of Culpeper VA. We actually talked Leon into forking over 90 bucks for the thing. He had one of his guys drive it back as far as he could onto his 100 or so acres, and take the wheels off and bring them back, because it had fairly new tires on it.

    Leon rarely crushed anything, so as far as I know, it's still down there! Last time I went there though, was 1997, and I walked around and couldn't find it. But among a sea of 10,000+ cars, I guess a single car could be easy to overlook. Even a Robin's Egg blue 1976 Hornet wagon!

    Also, just out of curiosity, how many cars do you think you could feasibly stash on an acre of ground? Not that I'm thinking of doing it, but just curious. :shades: I figure that, allowing about 10x30 feet per car, which would give you room between them and enough room for an aisle to drive down, you could get about 145 cars to an acre. Of course, if you weren't that worried about accessibility, you could really pile them in.
  • british_roverbritish_rover Member Posts: 8,502
    I went to the Simsbury car show today and saw a bunch of stuff. Of course I forgot my camera so I don't have any pictures but that is ok I guess.

    Saw a lot of cool stuff but I cannot remember it all.

    Oldest car there 1912 ford that was only on its third owner.

    1927 Rolls Royce Phantom that looked a bit like this car but in green. image

    1963 300C convertiable that was on its second owner with 55,000 documented original miles.

    image

    Looked kind of like that but in black.

    A bunch of replica cobras but no real ones. A Shelby Series one.

    A ton of thunderbirds including one square bird convertiable that was in ok shape for sale.

    About 20 AMC models of various years including a bunch of ramblers, a Javelin and one AMX.

    Vettes, Camaros and Mustangs by the boat load. One 1954 DeSoto.

    A few packards.

    There were a couple of Cosworth Escorts that were RHD and actually pretty cool.

    One claimed to have a 500 horsepower 4 cylinder.

    One of my favorites though was a Lead sled ford that looked kind of like this but in primer black and full moon hub caps.

    image

    Also kind of looked like the car Stallone drove in that movie Cobra.
  • Mr_ShiftrightMr_Shiftright Member Posts: 64,481
    "One claimed to have a 500 horsepower 4 cylinder."

    I spit my coffee over my keyboard on that one....

    Let's see those dyno slips pardner....

    I really like that Mercury.
  • british_roverbritish_rover Member Posts: 8,502
    Yeah me too. The little cosworth actually looked very bad [non-permissible content removed]. It looked like you could drive it right to a WRC event and have a respectable day.

    I would still like to see the dyno slip though.

    This might possibly the longest cheesisest car commercial I have ever seen but the Cosworth RS looked just like this one. Cosworth RS

    The car that I saw at the auto show was actually ford but I swore up and down it was a Mercury till I read the information tag in the windshield.

    It really did look a lot like the Mercury in the movie Cobra.

    image
  • british_roverbritish_rover Member Posts: 8,502
    a dark blue fintail with 220,000 miles on it and a 280SL like this one but in dark blue.

    image
  • fintailfintail Member Posts: 58,425
    A fintail at a car show...cool.

    I saw the twin to that 280SL this morning...silver, black cloth top, immaculate. There's a maroon one I see quite a bit around here...it must have some kind of sport exhaust, it doesn't sound bad at all.

    I've noticed there's some kind of pagoda SL sitting outside a house in an expensive area (nothing under 1M) near me...it's been out there as long as I've driven by. I'm almost curious. But they are not very expensive even for a good well-sorted one, so it would be a pointless project, and they do rust.
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