To the untrained masses yeah it looks sorta like a Rolls. but to anyone who knows anything about cars, or is with anyone who knows anytrhing about cars it looks fake.
I'd save your dough and keep your car original. Unless someone gives that kit to you for free.
66 Mustang Stretch -- well, it's only a Mustang coupe, one of a gazillion or two. No harm done, but silly, yes.
80 Supra (yawn)
Fiat Ritmo -- I'd buy it for $305.
57 Desoto -- bidding is market correct for condition...see, sometimes buyers know what's what.
61' Deville Coupe --- yeah it's extra- nice but it's still just a coupe and it's still just a '61. Get real, take $15,000 --$17,000 and be happy.
1935 Chrysler Airflow -- yeah well I'm sorry but the general public is not going to bail this poor slob out of having made a tragic error in judgment in sinking wayyyyyy too much $$ in a car worth 1/3 the price, at best, maybe, on a good day. Now if it were the very rare Imperial limo....er....still not this kind of money....gee 0 bids, I wonder why?
74' Olds -- just what I ALWAYS wanted...a car with 33 year old airbags. I could add it to my used land mine collection.
I really like that '57 DeSoto. I'm impressed to see the bidding on a 4-door hardtop go up like that. I always thought it was interesting that the '57 Fireflite seemed to have a more upscale interior than a '57 New Yorker, which was a much more prestigious car. Just minor little touches, like the integrated armrests in the door and that fabric and the silver trim around the handle. IIRC, that silver insert was real metal, too, instead of that peel-off mylar crap, which my '57 Firedome uses.
IIRC, the NYer just had cheaper bolt-on armrests and full vinyl on the doors and just didn't look as well-appointed on the inside.
I like that '74 Ninety-Eight too. I never thought about what kind of danger the airbags could be after more than three decades. I had an '89 Gran Fury, which was one of the first cars to get airbags once the gov't started phasing in passive restraints. I think Chrysler started making airbags standard in EVERYTHING starting in mid-year 1988. I think the owner's manual said to take it to the dealer every 3 years to have the airbag checked out. I never bothered to. I wonder if anybody does. I never even bothered to check the owner's manual on my Intrepid to see if the airbags need to be checked regularly. I guess I just never thought I'd hang onto the car for as long as I did, but all of a sudden, here it is, over 7 years!
That '75 Olds W-25 would be a cool car, if it weren't for that awful landau roof that blanks out the quarter window. The going price on those things isn't up to $30K these days, is it? I mean, I know it's ultra-low miles and really nice, and probably the most desireable 1975 Olds model around with its might 190 hp 455 (said sarcastically) but still...$30K?!
No surprise...the '57 Desoto 4-door hardtop is supposed to sell for that, if not a bit more. That's what the price guides say anyway. Of course, it has to be a really great car for that kind of money.
The Olds price is ridiculous. True, it's a brand new car with only 1,700 miles on it, but still, the high bidder is going to be in the ditch on that one for the rest of his life. But hey, it's his money and if he's happy, there you go. Actual value....maybe $15,000 when he tries to sell it next month. Or maybe there are TWO lunatics in the country who want a brand new totally dull car, I dunno.
I had an '89 Gran Fury, which was one of the first cars to get airbags once the gov't started phasing in passive restraints. I think Chrysler started making airbags standard in EVERYTHING starting in mid-year 1988.
Not sure I believe the story (it sounds SOOOO urban legend) but the cars are certainly real and some are VERY interesting indeed. Obviously the collector had an eye for good stuff, and wasn't just a pack rat hoarding AMC Gremlins.
Nice that a couple of fintails are in there. The car ID'd as a Chevrolet Master is a 1939 Plymouth. The large unknown old car with the "CL 10 07" plate appears to be a 1937 Packard. I don't know what the ca. 1930 American open car is, maybe a Chrysler? The Euros seem much easier to identify.
Edit...I read it and see it is in Portugal. I bet there's very little rust then. Why can't I find a hoard like that?
I find old cars all the time...but not in hoards like that.
Recently came across a '61 Mercedes 190SL which the owner shut off in 1972 and left in her garage ever since. And there it sits, just like she left it, keys in ignition, tires flat, spiders crawling over the carburetors.
Also found last month a '47 MGTC that has been stored for 34 years with a $68,000 storage bill attached to it. 90% complete, very sound car.
Couple years ago, found a '38 Darl Mat coupe (Peugeot-based sports car) in a warehouse in Reno, all disassembled in boxes. Very rare car!
Of course all these cars will require buckets of money to get running and looking good.
But still, they are out there.
I HAVE seen hoardes, but they are all junk heaps. Car hoarders tend not to be discriminating.
Yeah, I have seen a couple hoards too. When I was about 14 a friend of my dad's bought a farm, and out in a pasture were 40 or 50 1940s-60s cars. Of course they had all sat out there for 20-30 years and were rusted beyond redemption. Still, I thought it was the coolest thing I had seen, and was more than happy to make off with some emblems and hood ornaments. The cars ended up being stripped of their chrome and scrapped.
It's amazing how many ordinary economy/compact cars are running around Arizona as daily drivers.
-1973 Hornet Sportabout Wagon, I had a long chat with the owner who is ready to move onto something else but he's put 188,000+ on this yellow wagon, it's a little rough around the edges, the paint is shot from being in the AZ sun but the interior (Black!) is in remarkable shape.
-1969 Falcon coupe, black painted roof over yellow. It's been so long since I've seen one of these I mistook it for a Mustang momentarily, it was in fair driver shape.
-Honda Accord CVCC Hatchbacks ('76-'80?). These have rusted out everywhere else but I've seen two that looked almost as good as new. The Japanese paint jobs seem to hold up well under the AZ sun although whether they were garaged makes a difference.
-'54 Hudson (Hornet?) unlike the others this old beauty had obviously been resto'd. It was two-tones, white over lemon yellow, 2 Dr H/T, rear skirts, very sharp.
Even if it's an urban legend, isn't it neat that you can store away 180 cars like that and leave them for someone else to discover.
It would be like me putting away my matchbox cars and storing them for 15 to 20 years. :P
I read an article in Car and Driver a few years ago about a rare Mercedes from WW2 found in a Russian barn some years ago, and the trouble the collectors went through to smuggle it out.
Yeah I first saw it a few weeks ago but then I lost the link and the original description was all in portugese so I could only read every fourth or fifth word.
Someone else sent me that new link with english translations.
Well I think the collection is real, but the idea of someone walking away from 180 cars and forgetting about them when they sell the property---that's kind of absurd.
Ha, well the guy must have been a bachelor...no woman would allow such a menagerie.
Although those cars are filthy, they might not have sat for more than several years. I knew a guy who stored cars in a barn (actually a big metal building with cement floors and all), and they got dirty fast when uncovered.
I need to find that Automobile Quarterly from the 80s with photos of a cache of mainly 20s-30s cars discovered at that time. It was amazing.
I too have seen photos out of Russia of stolen/"liberated" large MB/BMW/Horch etc from Germany that weren't brought to light til after communism collapsed. There was a lot of plunder in Berlin government buildings, no doubt.
This afternoon I saw a lovely '63 Caddy convertible, in kind of a diamond blue with a white top and period correct medium width whitewalls. It actally didn't appear to be restored, the paint had an old patina to it, kind of like my fintail. Classy old beast.
that I was as a used car lot that had a bunch of stuff ranging from total crap to mint condition. In that dream, I bought a burgundy 1973 Impala convertible for $3,000. I know, there was no Impala convertible in '73, as it was transferred to the Caprice that year, but in my dream it was an Impala! :confuse:
I remember too in the dream that I got miffed after I bought it, because as soon as I signed the paperwork I saw a '72 Impala convertible on their lot, and I prefer the look of the '72.
Anybody wanna take a stab at interpreting THAT dream? :P
You should go back to that dream and sell that extremely rare '73 Impala convertible, buy the '72 and use your extra profit for a dream trip to the tropics....that's my advice.
This dream was telling you to become a profiteer in the collector car market!
...it wouldn't be too hard to "make" a 1973 Chevrolet Impala convertible if you swapped out the grille and other various trim pieces.
I too prefer the look of the '72 to the '73. The massive 5-mph bumpers marred the look of the '73. I recall seeing a television commercial for the '73 Impala showing the grille retracting with the bumper when the car hit a pole. Were the grilles on full-sized Chevrolets hinged or spring-loaded?
Yeah, there's just something about the look of the '72 Impala that I find really appealing. It's actually kinda sporty looking for a big car, with its clean, low grille. I like the way the bumper bisects the grille right in the middle, so that the upper and lower grilles are both the same size. That's one thing I don't like about the current split grille style that Chevy uses...the upper and lower parts often just don't match all that well.
I think the '71 Impala is attractive too. The front-end looks very Cadillac-ish, which isn't a bad thing, but I just like the '72 better. The '73, I just didn't care for, whether it was an Impala or Caprice, although I thought the '74 was a big improvement.
I dunno if the big Chevies ever used a spring-loaded/hinged grille, but I guess it is possible. A lot of cars back in the 70's and 80's did. My '79 Newport and '82 Cutlass Supreme had hinged grilles, as does my '79 New Yorker. I think the '77-79 T-bird had a hinged grille as well, but I can't remember if the Mark V does.
...a bright yellow VW Karmann Ghia in front of a light yellow 1970 Lincoln that's been sitting in the same spot forever. I also spotted a medium blue 1978 Oldsmobile Ninety-Eight coupe.
I spotted both an '88 or so Buick Park Ave AND a Caddy Brougham in a parking lot. Lemko, how'd you get them both down here to the liquor store at the same time?! :shades:
Well, okay, the Park Ave was a deep wine red and had a vinyl roof, while the Brougham was a '90-92 model, and kind of a pale champagne color. Both of 'em looked in pretty good shape, except for some road grime, which EVERYTHING around here has right now, unless it's been through the car wash.
Somebody has a nice new toy. Automatic, though. Nice respray in blue with white stripes. No elaborate restoration, just a nice drivable car, nothing missing, worn-out or broken. Has some sort of power bulge added on the hood (a lot like the 67 Vette 427 hood bulge). Looks like the photo below, except for the fancy wheels and minus about 200 hours of polishing.
Depends totally on the VIN plate and what's under the hood and if what is under the hood is interesting.
If it's just a plain base model Camaro dressed up to look like an SS or RS, probably $8,500 bucks is plenty. If it's a genuine matching #s SS396 or a Z28 it can easily be triple that or more.
If it's a clone with expensive speed equipment and some awesome 400HP crate engine, perhaps high teens if it's really sharp inside and out.
Once they get ratty, you can start deducting big time.
Haven't you heard small cars are big again in the USA? Roger Penske's selling Smarts. If they'll work in a big-[non-permissible content removed] country like Canada they'll work fine here.
-1963ish Chevy II convertible, white, looking a tad ratty, I couldn't tell if it was a Nova, nor did I notice any engine badging..
-Prewar or perhaps 1946-'47 Buick, very nice and stately, painted in what appeared to me a non-stock dark metallic gray (did they have metallic paint back then?). It was a trunk-back 4-door.
-1964ish Dodge Dart, first generastion of the compact Dart which replaced the Lancer, light blue.
I like the Honda Beat. These Japanese cars are becoming more commonplace in Canada with the 15 year rule in effect (can import anything 15 years or older).
Even the brand name dealers are hopping on the bandwagon.
The Russian Packard liting, hmmmm very interesting. For the amount of moeny he's asking you'd think he'd get a translator for the description.
I like the Citroen SM, always liked these cars. But even though it looks mint, any small repair could cost and arm and a leg.
As for the last listing, when will people figure out that modifying a car to this extent eliminates 99% (99.9% in this case) of potential buyers and DOES NOT increase it's value.
but there's a few things that don't seem "right" about it. First off, in the description it says it has a 345 Hemi with 345 hp, and that there were 300 built. Umm, no. That was the Adventurer. The Fireflite had a 341-4bbl Hemi with 295 hp, and they built around 1000-1100.
Also, the valve covers on that engine say "Chrysler Firepower". I don't know if DeSoto/Chrysler valve covers would interchange back then. The Chrysler Hemi was larger than the DeSoto Hemi (about 100 pounds more), but I guess it's possible the heads could be the same size, and therefore the valve covers? Anyway, I'd imagine a Chrysler 392-4bbl found its way under that hood. Also, Mopars back then had those annoying air cleaners that sat off to the side, so this one loses a few more points for originality, but if nothing else, that open air cleaner is probably easier to get filters for!
I've noticed a few minor details about the exterior, too. For one thing, Fireflites had a "V" shaped trim piece attached to the contrast color sweep on the front fenders. Firedomes and Firesweeps didn't. Personally I think it looks better without it, because that "V" thing interrupts the clean sweap of that spear, but I guess if you're a stickler for originality, you're going to want it "proper".
My '57 Firedome has these "U" shaped chrome pieces on top of the front fenders, but I imagine they were optional, as I've seen plenty of Firedomes without them. However, I imagine a piece like that would have been standard on the higher-priced Fireflite. Oh, and to really be correct, the dual exhaust should come out through those oval ports just below the taillights, and not under the bumper. However, running them under the bumper instead of through those ports definitely prolongs the life of your chrome trim!
I'm pretty sure that interior's not correct either, although I actually like it. Maybe I'd lose those buttons on the door trim, though. The door panels look like Firedome door panels though, and not Fireflite. The parts that are white on that eBay car are grayish-brown vinyl on my Firedome, and the green fabric part is red vinyl. The armrest should also have an irregular-shaped piece surrounding it on the doorpanel, covered in silver mylar. However, the Fireflite used a totally different door panel, with a built-in armrest, and something referred to "aircraft" style door handles. However, I can't remember the last time I saw a Fireflite convertible, so I guess it's possible that they might have used Firedome trim pieces on the door panel, to save on cost?
Other than these details though, it's still a pretty car. I'm sure it's definitely worth something, but not $83K!
At the Cleveland Auto Show, in the classic car competition that was downstairs from the main show, a 1964 or 65 Chevrolet Bel Air with dog dish hubcaps. Also they had at least three 80's style El Camino's. One of them was a Black Knight edition.
Well somebody on eBay thinks it's worth at least $70K.
Car seems overpriced to me, but then I haven't seen it in person. I would have estimated $50,000 at best. I suppose if it is the world's best restoration, with every tiny detail done to magnificence, every bolt nut and cotter pin polished to perfection, every detail correct and accurate, with the car wrapped in tire mittens and sitting in an airtight bubble and never driven, started or breathed on....yeah, $70,000 might be worth it.
At $83000 I think you are in the hole on this car, at least for now.
Of course if you took a wrecked version of this car and made it look like the one in the picture, you'd burn up $70,000 easily....so in that sense it is worth it. The quality is apparently there.
If you pay a premium price for a real, high quality object, chances are you'll be okay in the long run. But good luck selling this quickly to anybody else for this money.
the eBay listing for that '77 Delta with the Lambo doors and the blingy rims says it has ABS. Do they make aftermarket ABS kits you can fit onto older cars? Or, since something like that '77 Delta isn't that different underneath from a '91-96 Caprice, I guess it's possible that an ABS system from the 90's version was retrofitted onto it?
At least they put all this slop on a car with a decent engine, a 403 (K-code in the VIN). I'd imagine that something like a 231 V-6 or 260 V-8 would really get strained by those heavy rims. But then, with all that heavy crap, plus the 8" lift, do you WANT it to be able to go fast? Or is that a bad thing?
I got to see a truly rare event. I saw a 1974 Olds Delta 88 4-door hardtop deploy its airbags! Well, okay, I saw it on tv. I Tivo'd this old movie called "Moving Violation" that sounded interesting. Not the 80's movie with the driving school rejects trying to get their licenses, but this one was about a hippie drifter and a chick at the soft-serve ice cream counter, who looks kinda like Jessica Simpson, that hook up and while making the beast with two backs in a rich man's yard, they witness the local crooked sheriff shoot one of his deputies, because he wanted in on the graft too, and got too ambitious for his own good.
I haven't watched it all the way through yet, but saw about 2/3 of it this morning. In one poorly staged scene, the hippie and soft-serve chick are running from the cops in a stolen early 70's Ventura. Was it really that common for people to leave their doors unlocked and keys in the ignition back then?! I see Jim Rockford do it on occasion, but it seems to me that people back then should've known better!
Anyway, a cop is chasing in said '74 Delta hardtop. A woman in a '66 or so Country Squire wagon stops to drop something in a corner mailbox. She leaves her door open as she walks to the mailbox. Delta takes off the door, and as a result loses control and smacks into a cinderblock wall, popping the airbags. I'm sure that way back in 1976, that must've been quite a sight to see in a car wreck. And strangely, I could see it coming a mile away. I mean, the thing was so obviously staged, with a convenient cinder block wall right there. Now they had been wrecking cars left and right in this movie up to this point, but mainly by rolling them, running them into each other, and sideswiping things. But nothing that would reliably make an airbag deploy.
It's actually a fun movie, in a bad, 70's sort of way. Roger Corman produced it, so that should be enough said right there. Oh, and Eddie Albert plays a drunk lawyer in it. He says a word that sounds an awful lot like "Cunning Linguist".
I wonder if parts of this movie served as an inspiration for Smokey and the Bandit? There's even a part where the crooked sheriff runs his car under a tractor trailer, shearing off the roof! Smokey and the Bandit even had a '74 Delta 4-door hardtop with airbags dressed up as a police car. However, I guess a '77 LeMans is a lot softer than a cinderblock wall, so the Delta didn't shoot off its airbags.
Anyway, lotta old cars in this one (well, they weren't that old at the time). Police cars are mainly early 70's Matadors, with a couple of '74 Furys and said '74 Delta. Late 40's looking Ford pickup that dumps a load of fruit in classic Corman slow motion. 1971 Caddy Eldorado. In one scene there's what I think is an old MG in a parking lot and a Jag E-type parked at the curb. '68-69 LeMans hardtop coupe and a '63 or so Dart hardtop that meet a grisly demise. It's amazing how easily cars go airborne in the movies...good thing they don't in real life!
Comments
I'd save your dough and keep your car original. Unless someone gives that kit to you for free.
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Decent state of preservation for one of these
Hmmm from an Italian junkyard maybe
Healthy bidding
Maybe a worthy project
Has this 61 been on before?
Very cool, very pricey
I'd love to see the provenance on this one. I really like it though. I kind of wish it didn't have that story behind it
Come on someone, save this
Improper wheels are everywhere
Now here we have rare options
I suppose this could be an andre-mobile
80 Supra (yawn)
Fiat Ritmo -- I'd buy it for $305.
57 Desoto -- bidding is market correct for condition...see, sometimes buyers know what's what.
61' Deville Coupe --- yeah it's extra- nice but it's still just a coupe and it's still just a '61. Get real, take $15,000 --$17,000 and be happy.
1935 Chrysler Airflow -- yeah well I'm sorry but the general public is not going to bail this poor slob out of having made a tragic error in judgment in sinking wayyyyyy too much $$ in a car worth 1/3 the price, at best, maybe, on a good day. Now if it were the very rare Imperial limo....er....still not this kind of money....gee 0 bids, I wonder why?
74' Olds -- just what I ALWAYS wanted...a car with 33 year old airbags. I could add it to my used land mine collection.
2001 BMW 330ci/E46, 2008 BMW 335i conv/E93
IIRC, the NYer just had cheaper bolt-on armrests and full vinyl on the doors and just didn't look as well-appointed on the inside.
I like that '74 Ninety-Eight too. I never thought about what kind of danger the airbags could be after more than three decades. I had an '89 Gran Fury, which was one of the first cars to get airbags once the gov't started phasing in passive restraints. I think Chrysler started making airbags standard in EVERYTHING starting in mid-year 1988. I think the owner's manual said to take it to the dealer every 3 years to have the airbag checked out. I never bothered to. I wonder if anybody does. I never even bothered to check the owner's manual on my Intrepid to see if the airbags need to be checked regularly. I guess I just never thought I'd hang onto the car for as long as I did, but all of a sudden, here it is, over 7 years!
That '75 Olds W-25 would be a cool car, if it weren't for that awful landau roof that blanks out the quarter window. The going price on those things isn't up to $30K these days, is it? I mean, I know it's ultra-low miles and really nice, and probably the most desireable 1975 Olds model around with its might 190 hp 455 (said sarcastically) but still...$30K?!
The Olds price is ridiculous. True, it's a brand new car with only 1,700 miles on it, but still, the high bidder is going to be in the ditch on that one for the rest of his life. But hey, it's his money and if he's happy, there you go. Actual value....maybe $15,000 when he tries to sell it next month. Or maybe there are TWO lunatics in the country who want a brand new totally dull car, I dunno.
You are correct about that.
2001 BMW 330ci/E46, 2008 BMW 335i conv/E93
Ultimate Barn Find.
Not sure I believe the story (it sounds SOOOO urban legend) but the cars are certainly real and some are VERY interesting indeed. Obviously the collector had an eye for good stuff, and wasn't just a pack rat hoarding AMC Gremlins.
Nice that a couple of fintails are in there. The car ID'd as a Chevrolet Master is a 1939 Plymouth. The large unknown old car with the "CL 10 07" plate appears to be a 1937 Packard. I don't know what the ca. 1930 American open car is, maybe a Chrysler? The Euros seem much easier to identify.
Edit...I read it and see it is in Portugal. I bet there's very little rust then. Why can't I find a hoard like that?
Recently came across a '61 Mercedes 190SL which the owner shut off in 1972 and left in her garage ever since. And there it sits, just like she left it, keys in ignition, tires flat, spiders crawling over the carburetors.
Also found last month a '47 MGTC that has been stored for 34 years with a $68,000 storage bill attached to it. 90% complete, very sound car.
Couple years ago, found a '38 Darl Mat coupe (Peugeot-based sports car) in a warehouse in Reno, all disassembled in boxes. Very rare car!
Of course all these cars will require buckets of money to get running and looking good.
But still, they are out there.
I HAVE seen hoardes, but they are all junk heaps. Car hoarders tend not to be discriminating.
-1973 Hornet Sportabout Wagon, I had a long chat with the owner who is ready to move onto something else but he's put 188,000+ on this yellow wagon, it's a little rough around the edges, the paint is shot from being in the AZ sun but the interior (Black!) is in remarkable shape.
-1969 Falcon coupe, black painted roof over yellow. It's been so long since I've seen one of these I mistook it for a Mustang momentarily, it was in fair driver shape.
-Honda Accord CVCC Hatchbacks ('76-'80?). These have rusted out everywhere else but I've seen two that looked almost as good as new. The Japanese paint jobs seem to hold up well under the AZ sun although whether they were garaged makes a difference.
-'54 Hudson (Hornet?) unlike the others this old beauty had obviously been resto'd. It was two-tones, white over lemon yellow, 2 Dr H/T, rear skirts, very sharp.
2001 BMW 330ci/E46, 2008 BMW 335i conv/E93
Even if it's an urban legend, isn't it neat that you can store away 180 cars like that and leave them for someone else to discover.
It would be like me putting away my matchbox cars and storing them for 15 to 20 years. :P
I read an article in Car and Driver a few years ago about a rare Mercedes from WW2 found in a Russian barn some years ago, and the trouble the collectors went through to smuggle it out.
I don't know why but barn cars intrigue me a lot.
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Someone else sent me that new link with english translations.
Although those cars are filthy, they might not have sat for more than several years. I knew a guy who stored cars in a barn (actually a big metal building with cement floors and all), and they got dirty fast when uncovered.
I need to find that Automobile Quarterly from the 80s with photos of a cache of mainly 20s-30s cars discovered at that time. It was amazing.
I too have seen photos out of Russia of stolen/"liberated" large MB/BMW/Horch etc from Germany that weren't brought to light til after communism collapsed. There was a lot of plunder in Berlin government buildings, no doubt.
I remember too in the dream that I got miffed after I bought it, because as soon as I signed the paperwork I saw a '72 Impala convertible on their lot, and I prefer the look of the '72.
Anybody wanna take a stab at interpreting THAT dream? :P
This dream was telling you to become a profiteer in the collector car market!
I too prefer the look of the '72 to the '73. The massive 5-mph bumpers marred the look of the '73. I recall seeing a television commercial for the '73 Impala showing the grille retracting with the bumper when the car hit a pole. Were the grilles on full-sized Chevrolets hinged or spring-loaded?
Yeah, there's just something about the look of the '72 Impala that I find really appealing. It's actually kinda sporty looking for a big car, with its clean, low grille. I like the way the bumper bisects the grille right in the middle, so that the upper and lower grilles are both the same size. That's one thing I don't like about the current split grille style that Chevy uses...the upper and lower parts often just don't match all that well.
I think the '71 Impala is attractive too. The front-end looks very Cadillac-ish, which isn't a bad thing, but I just like the '72 better. The '73, I just didn't care for, whether it was an Impala or Caprice, although I thought the '74 was a big improvement.
I dunno if the big Chevies ever used a spring-loaded/hinged grille, but I guess it is possible. A lot of cars back in the 70's and 80's did. My '79 Newport and '82 Cutlass Supreme had hinged grilles, as does my '79 New Yorker. I think the '77-79 T-bird had a hinged grille as well, but I can't remember if the Mark V does.
Well, okay, the Park Ave was a deep wine red and had a vinyl roof, while the Brougham was a '90-92 model, and kind of a pale champagne color. Both of 'em looked in pretty good shape, except for some road grime, which EVERYTHING around here has right now, unless it's been through the car wash.
What's it worth, anyhow?
If it's just a plain base model Camaro dressed up to look like an SS or RS, probably $8,500 bucks is plenty. If it's a genuine matching #s SS396 or a Z28 it can easily be triple that or more.
If it's a clone with expensive speed equipment and some awesome 400HP crate engine, perhaps high teens if it's really sharp inside and out.
Once they get ratty, you can start deducting big time.
OK for Canada and everywhere else, not the US
Fake bids on a fake Packard
Toyoglide
Kind of a Bugatti
From the same seller, I would MUCH rather have this
Now here's a DeSoto
Decent looking SM
The small Caddy looked better back in the day
OF all the things to end up in France
IMO few cars can pull off white...but this sure can
Nice fintail
It would be more efficient to get a big wad of $100 bills and burn them
I'd love to have a Beat or Cappuccino.
2001 BMW 330ci/E46, 2008 BMW 335i conv/E93
2014 Malibu 2LT, 2015 Cruze 2LT,
-1963ish Chevy II convertible, white, looking a tad ratty, I couldn't tell if it was a Nova, nor did I notice any engine badging..
-Prewar or perhaps 1946-'47 Buick, very nice and stately, painted in what appeared to me a non-stock dark metallic gray (did they have metallic paint back then?). It was a trunk-back 4-door.
-1964ish Dodge Dart, first generastion of the compact Dart which replaced the Lancer, light blue.
2001 BMW 330ci/E46, 2008 BMW 335i conv/E93
I like the Honda Beat. These Japanese cars are becoming more commonplace in Canada with the 15 year rule in effect (can import anything 15 years or older).
Even the brand name dealers are hopping on the bandwagon.
The Russian Packard liting, hmmmm very interesting. For the amount of moeny he's asking you'd think he'd get a translator for the description.
I like the Citroen SM, always liked these cars. But even though it looks mint, any small repair could cost and arm and a leg.
As for the last listing, when will people figure out that modifying a car to this extent eliminates 99% (99.9% in this case) of potential buyers and DOES NOT increase it's value.
2016 Audi A7 3.0T S Line, 2021 Subaru WRX
Also, the valve covers on that engine say "Chrysler Firepower". I don't know if DeSoto/Chrysler valve covers would interchange back then. The Chrysler Hemi was larger than the DeSoto Hemi (about 100 pounds more), but I guess it's possible the heads could be the same size, and therefore the valve covers? Anyway, I'd imagine a Chrysler 392-4bbl found its way under that hood. Also, Mopars back then had those annoying air cleaners that sat off to the side, so this one loses a few more points for originality, but if nothing else, that open air cleaner is probably easier to get filters for!
I've noticed a few minor details about the exterior, too. For one thing, Fireflites had a "V" shaped trim piece attached to the contrast color sweep on the front fenders. Firedomes and Firesweeps didn't. Personally I think it looks better without it, because that "V" thing interrupts the clean sweap of that spear, but I guess if you're a stickler for originality, you're going to want it "proper".
My '57 Firedome has these "U" shaped chrome pieces on top of the front fenders, but I imagine they were optional, as I've seen plenty of Firedomes without them. However, I imagine a piece like that would have been standard on the higher-priced Fireflite. Oh, and to really be correct, the dual exhaust should come out through those oval ports just below the taillights, and not under the bumper. However, running them under the bumper instead of through those ports definitely prolongs the life of your chrome trim!
I'm pretty sure that interior's not correct either, although I actually like it. Maybe I'd lose those buttons on the door trim, though. The door panels look like Firedome door panels though, and not Fireflite. The parts that are white on that eBay car are grayish-brown vinyl on my Firedome, and the green fabric part is red vinyl. The armrest should also have an irregular-shaped piece surrounding it on the doorpanel, covered in silver mylar. However, the Fireflite used a totally different door panel, with a built-in armrest, and something referred to "aircraft" style door handles. However, I can't remember the last time I saw a Fireflite convertible, so I guess it's possible that they might have used Firedome trim pieces on the door panel, to save on cost?
Other than these details though, it's still a pretty car. I'm sure it's definitely worth something, but not $83K!
Car seems overpriced to me, but then I haven't seen it in person. I would have estimated $50,000 at best. I suppose if it is the world's best restoration, with every tiny detail done to magnificence, every bolt nut and cotter pin polished to perfection, every detail correct and accurate, with the car wrapped in tire mittens and sitting in an airtight bubble and never driven, started or breathed on....yeah, $70,000 might be worth it.
At $83000 I think you are in the hole on this car, at least for now.
Of course if you took a wrecked version of this car and made it look like the one in the picture, you'd burn up $70,000 easily....so in that sense it is worth it. The quality is apparently there.
If you pay a premium price for a real, high quality object, chances are you'll be okay in the long run. But good luck selling this quickly to anybody else for this money.
At least they put all this slop on a car with a decent engine, a 403 (K-code in the VIN). I'd imagine that something like a 231 V-6 or 260 V-8 would really get strained by those heavy rims. But then, with all that heavy crap, plus the 8" lift, do you WANT it to be able to go fast? Or is that a bad thing?
Sold it with another salesguy, and took it out for a test drive to make sure all systems are a go.
That car just flies. So much torque, that if you step on the gas it just keeps on accelerating without any hesistation even past 120KM/H (75MPH).
Quick car, but a rough ride.
2016 Audi A7 3.0T S Line, 2021 Subaru WRX
I haven't watched it all the way through yet, but saw about 2/3 of it this morning. In one poorly staged scene, the hippie and soft-serve chick are running from the cops in a stolen early 70's Ventura. Was it really that common for people to leave their doors unlocked and keys in the ignition back then?! I see Jim Rockford do it on occasion, but it seems to me that people back then should've known better!
Anyway, a cop is chasing in said '74 Delta hardtop. A woman in a '66 or so Country Squire wagon stops to drop something in a corner mailbox. She leaves her door open as she walks to the mailbox. Delta takes off the door, and as a result loses control and smacks into a cinderblock wall, popping the airbags. I'm sure that way back in 1976, that must've been quite a sight to see in a car wreck. And strangely, I could see it coming a mile away. I mean, the thing was so obviously staged, with a convenient cinder block wall right there. Now they had been wrecking cars left and right in this movie up to this point, but mainly by rolling them, running them into each other, and sideswiping things. But nothing that would reliably make an airbag deploy.
It's actually a fun movie, in a bad, 70's sort of way. Roger Corman produced it, so that should be enough said right there. Oh, and Eddie Albert plays a drunk lawyer in it. He says a word that sounds an awful lot like "Cunning Linguist".
I wonder if parts of this movie served as an inspiration for Smokey and the Bandit? There's even a part where the crooked sheriff runs his car under a tractor trailer, shearing off the roof! Smokey and the Bandit even had a '74 Delta 4-door hardtop with airbags dressed up as a police car. However, I guess a '77 LeMans is a lot softer than a cinderblock wall, so the Delta didn't shoot off its airbags.
Anyway, lotta old cars in this one (well, they weren't that old at the time). Police cars are mainly early 70's Matadors, with a couple of '74 Furys and said '74 Delta. Late 40's looking Ford pickup that dumps a load of fruit in classic Corman slow motion. 1971 Caddy Eldorado. In one scene there's what I think is an old MG in a parking lot and a Jag E-type parked at the curb. '68-69 LeMans hardtop coupe and a '63 or so Dart hardtop that meet a grisly demise. It's amazing how easily cars go airborne in the movies...good thing they don't in real life!