Project Cars--You Get to Vote on "Hold 'em or Fold 'em"

andre1969

"4-4-2" stood for "4bbl carb, 4-speed tranny, and dual exhaust". In later years though I think it meant 400 cubic inches, 4-bbl, dual exhaust. And I'm sure in other years they had to change it to other things. I wonder how they tried to justify it with those funky little late 70's aeroback jobs with the Chevy 305. They probably still had a 4-bbl carb and dual exhaust. Maybe they even still offered a 4-speed floor shift? IIRC, Pontiac offered that tranny in a handful of Grand Prixes around that time.

jaserb

Since the kidney foundation hauled off the little Dodge I've been itching to find a new beater truck when we get to VA - I even have a candidate:
http://washingtondc.craigslist.org/nva/car/185122096.html

Wifey has put her foot down, though - as much attention as the Alfa has needed lately no beaters for my everyday car. Never mind that the Dodge hauled me around for 2 yrs and 20k miles like a champ. It was pretty loud when I bought it, too - it was missing 2 or 3 exhaust nuts. A couple of bucks at Ace hardware and I was golden.

-Jason

fintail

Good base for a silly clone, or a cool car to just drive

Another big Eldo

Early XJ....quite pretty, quite pricey

andre1969

I wonder how that '68 Malibu does with the 700R4 overdrive tranny? Those things really weren't all that strong initially, which is why back in the early 80's the Cadillacs with the V-8-6-4 got the THM350 (THM400 in the limos), while I think the Diesels, 4.1 V-6, and 4.1 V-8 got the 700R4.

Still, in later years that tranny was strong enough to go up behind the 305 in the Monte Carlo SS and the Buick Grand National, so it could be beefed up.

I always liked the idea of taking an older car and putting a 4-speed automative overdrive tranny in it, for a bit better highway economy. Only problem is, with Chryslers I hear you have to cut out the driveshaft hump and basically build your own new one, because the tranny is bigger. Chrysler never built a 4-speed automatic for their RWD cars, but did for trucks, and I guess it's shaped differently. Also, I hear it's not as reliable as the old Torqueflites so any fuel savings might be killed by more frequent/expensive rebuilds.

british_rover

That Eldo was FWD???

andre1969

Yep, the Eldorado was FWD starting in 1967, when it went to the same body style as the Toronado. The Riviera was also on the same platform, but was RWD.

The FWD setup wasn't the fragile type that we normally think of when it comes to FWD cars. Basically they took the THM400 transmission, turned it around backwards, put it beside the engine, kind of tucked in under one bank of cylinders, and it had a chain drive that connected the engine to the tranny. It was supposedly very durable, but I think one weak spot was that it had low ground clearance, at least by 60's standards. The engine sat fore-aft, just like in a RWD car.

I remember reading that the '71-78 Eldorado held the record for the world's largest car with FWD. And if you watch the first "Terminator" movie, there's a car chase scene involving a '76 or so Eldorado coupe. In one scene it burns rubber with its front wheel in a parking garage. I thought that was freaky the first time I saw it, because in the movies you usually saw a car spinning out with the rear wheels. And back in the early 80's I doubt if I really knew what "FWD" was...except that I remember my Granddad said it sucked when it broke! :P

fintail

That fantastic Jaguar resale value

Now I feel queasy

gsemike

Step your game up???? Is he stepping his game down by selling it???

lemmer

That thing is sweet!

If it makes you feel any better, my wife would have said the same thing.

I had a friend recently get a free old Mazda B2000. When my friend wouldn't pay $900 for it, the guy ended up giving it to him do he wouldn't have to pay someone to haul it away. My friend spent around $200 on tune up parts and an eBay bumper to take it from a non-runner to a daily driver.

lemmer

I know you guys are tired of this '72 MGB, and now, so am I. We drove ten hours round trip to see it (and buy it we thought). The paint was bad. The majority of the car was covered in small blisters. The guy said it happened because he wrapped the car in plastic for a hurricane and left it out in the sun for two months after. That doesn't account for the mediocre prep work, and the places where the original light yellow paint was showing through the chips and peeling on the panel edges and such. The door and trunk fit were atrocious. The overdrive didn't work. It had a radio shack tape player but no speakers. He had 'fast and furious' boost and air/fuel ratio gauges mounted in front of the shift boot. The wood trim needed refinishing. The leather and vinyl had wear, mediocre installation, and a couple of holes. It had rust in the battery boxes. It had rust in the engine compartment where the front fenders and the hood meet. It looked like it had broken welds in the same general area. The wire wheels were starting to rust. All the tires were cheapos and were dry rotting. One was completely bald, and the others had odd wear patterns.

When I look at the eBay pictures, I still can't believe it was the same car, but clearly it is.

qbrozen

yikes! sorry to hear it. What happened with the other one?

lemmer

Oh, and the guy said his bottom line price was $14,000. I think he should go back and find that high bidder at $6,600 and see if the guy will still pay that.

I am going to work for a little while and then post about MGB #2.

lemmer

This is a green '68.

It is in nearly perfect mechanical condition. If there is anything that didn't work or was worn, I couldn't find it. It felt far peppier than other MGBs I have driven. The handling was great, but the ride did not seem too stiff. To get it ready for sale, he replaced the steering rack, brake master cylinder and all brake components, and put new tires on it. I honestly believe if this guy knew of anything else to fix, he would have done so before he put it up for sale.

The interior was really nice. It has Connolly leather seats that were showing a little wear with a small tear in the driver seat. The top had some wear to it, but a replacement wouldn't be required for a good while. No real complaints about anything here.

The paint is the only issue. The paint is twenty years old, and I suspect the prep work could have been a little better. Supposedly painted with top notch Dupont paint. Road rash has worn off all of the paint on the fender lips behind both rear tires. The paint has stars coming out around several of the convertible top attachment points. It is starting to spiderweb some behind the top. It has some swirl-like scratches in several areas that are noticeable. It looks like they might have been there before the paint job and just reasserted themselves over the years. Around the wiper arms, the paint is faded a little bit. All in all, the paint job looks perfect from ten feet, but has numerous flaws up close. The passenger door fit is perfect, the driver door has a tiny bit of sag. The chrome is all good, but not great with one noticeable area pressed in on the front bumper guard. Under the front bumper the sheetmetal is dinged pretty good from a possum incident.

Dude wants $13,900, decided he would take $12,000. It comes with a pile of spares and extras. If the paint was a little better, we might have driven home in it, but my friend wanted to sleep on it. We suspect it might be worth closer to $10,000 but my friend is willing to pay a little more just to get it done. He is buying it as a gift, and just can't make up his mind whether the paint is nice enough to make it a no apologies gift car. We fear that the spiderwebbing areas might get bad pretty fast if the car is used in the sun regularly (this happened to my old MGB in a big way).

I really like this car. For the right price, I would have bought it for myself.

Mr_Shiftright

a Series I 1973 Jaguar JX would be my candidate for inclusion in the Ten Worst Cars in the World list. $2,500 would be generous to a fault, because you'll never stop fixing it and you'll never get the car right.

MGB--I don't think the car is worth $12,000 either. Rememeber they made 1/2 MILLION of these cars and most of them came here.

ghulet

I think for $12k if I just wanted a fun little ragtop, I'd be finding myself a Miata. I like collector cars and all, but I feel like if they don't cost substantially less or offer a substantially different experience than something newer, then why bother? Maybe I'm way off base here, but I just can't see spending that kind of dough on an old MGB.

lemmer

I get that feeling too. My $12K (or even $10K) would go for a Miata. I also think about how nice of a Porsche 944 Turbo I could get for $12K.

But in this case, the car is for someone who has owned and raced MGBs in his younger days. He doesn't have any interest in a Miata at any price. People want what they want, and that is ok.

lemmer

speaking of 944 Turbos. This one seems pretty decent for $8K. His propensity for jacking up the boost worries me a little.

qbrozen

I don't know whether this ad deserves a laugh, cry, exclamation, or what. Maybe all of the above.
http://newjersey.craigslist.org/car/183834879.html

Mr_Shiftright

Well the guy has to get real here. You can buy nice ready to roll 80s Alfas for $6,500, so deduct accordingly....bad trans, needs top, needs brakes, needs seats, etc. etc. Sound like about a FREE car we have here....well, if you wanted a builder, maybe $1,200 would be plenty for this car. Not my favorite year either.

MGB -- that car is overpriced at $12K because MGB lovers won't like it and in a few years it'll look like hell and you'll have to sell at 1/2 the price, if that.

lemmer

It seems like all of the MGs we look at are owned by engineering types, and they do all the work on the cars themselves. This seems to work ok until they get to the paint. Subpar paint & prepwork has been the common denominator on all the cars I have seen so far. They all look like they have been done in someones hobby garage.

andre1969

an engineer really doesn't care how it looks, just as long as it functions correctly? I know we have a couple aerospace engineers here at work that can barely dress themselves! But they're pretty good at keeping things in orbit and stuff like that, so I guess they serve their purpose. :P

Mr_Shiftright

Well MGBs are very simple. You hardly have to be an engineer, so the car encourages hobbyists in that sense.

Some upgrades are really good ideas on an MGB but one has to be sober about it. This is a car with 1932 technology, and there's only so much one can do to it.

the most irritating "upgrades" are IMO putting a Weber carburator on it (complete waste of money) or tossing the attractive alloy wheels and putting on troublesome wire wheels at great expense and to little purpose. Also the exhaust note is perfect and the installation of fart cans on the MGB really bugs me.

To the good might be electronic ignition, an auxiliary cooling fan and modified shock absorbers to replace the lever type. Also carbon fiber leaf springs is not a bad idea if the old ones are saggin'.

Overdrive is a big plus and I'd pay $1,000 extra for it at least.

jaserb

I sold my '87 Quad for $4200 or so. It had high miles but was ready to roll- its worst problem was a tear in the front spoiler. It went to New Jersey, coincidentally enough.

I can't really fathom $12k for an MGB with so-so paint, either. That seems more like TR6 money to me.

-Jason

Mr_Shiftright

Yes you're right, that's TR6 money--not that the TR6 is any better a car, but it is 6 cylinder and it is much rarer.

fintail

Funny ad

Nauseating wheels....year is wrong...sounds trustworthy

gsemike

94 4dr eg for sale

http://newyork.craigslist.org/lgi/car/185917104.html

Please tell me what an eg is and what the heck this guy is talking about

bumpy

"94 4dr eg" = Honda Civic sedan

"95 b18b with 55k" = base Acura Integra motor

"99 b16 tranny" = Civic Si transmission

"all with papers" = I didn't get these from a chop shop

"motor has dc headers but otherwise stock" = I was going to hook up the nitrous but ran out of money

"car has hids" = high intensity discharge headlights, not even close to being DOT legal, and will blind anyone within half a mile

"suspension sitting on mint [non-permissible content removed] sunflowers(no scratches or curbage)" = I tore up the old rims

"with bout 85%thread left on tire" = I've only done a dozen burnouts on this set

"and 2.5in. piping" = I don't believe in back pressure

"body needs a lil bit of work" = even though I have clear title in hand, I still drove it like I stole it

bumpy

a bit too young to be an Andremobile

"Spacious pimpwagon!!!"

"Needs carburator repair by the mechanic" = a mechanic in Tokyo

Where's the diamond?

money pit in the making

An automatic???

Rocky's dream car

british_rover

Whoa its like L33T speak for cars.

andre1969

I actually kinda like that '87 Safari. Every once in awhile I've toyed with the idea of getting a GM wagon like that to replace my pickup when it finally kicks the bucket. I was thinking it might get better mileage, for one thing. However, I've got the truck up to about 14 mpg now. And I'm pretty confident that I could get one of those GM wagons down to about 14 mpg! After all, they weigh about the same (~4000 pounds) and use similar engines (307 versus 305) and I doubt the overdrive tranny in the wagon would make much difference in my type of driving.

Plus, while a wagon could do a lot of the stuff that my truck does, there's still alot that the truck does that it couldn't do. So when the time comes, I'll probably just replace it with another truck.

One of my roommates has a 1995 F-150 back in Michigan that he's been thinking about bringing out here. It has the 351, 4-speed automatic, a towing package, and about 110,000 miles. I wonder how it would compare to my old 305 Silverado?

qbrozen

i'm impressed i had most of that correct from the ad!

The b18 and b16 were tipoffs to me that it was a civic ... but i still don't know exactly what "eg" stands for. I never heard that before. Does it have any meaning? As in "E.... G...."??

british_rover

Yeah I knew what B18 and B16 were but nothing else made sense.

bumpy

'EG' is the platform code for the '92-95 Civic.

fintail

That Civic ad forgot the code that mentioned he can probably be spanked by a 60 year old housewife in her Avalon...

Re: the automatic M3....I see a lot of those in my area. Never quite understood it, it's not like a manual wasn't available (as with AMG cars)...but a lot of them sell to people who will never take it above 75, so that might explain it.

Makes's steine's little beater look like a new Lexus

Uuuuuhhhh

Cute, not so cheap really

Mr_Shiftright

'55 Chevy convertible -- did anyone tell the seller that you can buy clean drivers for $50,000? Try $3,000.

Oh for joy! An out of warranty 8 Series BMW. I can hear the jaws for the money pit yawning wise. The uninitiated are usually sobered up after the first visit to the dealer (no one else will touch them) for a major repair....."How much?!!!! you.....must be kidding?" If you're okay with $2,500 brake jobs and $5,000 transmissions, go for it.

qbrozen

hmmm... the title of the '55 chevy says $22. That sounds fair.

The little '65 pickup is COOL! But $3k?? Eh.

british_rover

Yeah too bad the description says 22,000.

qbrozen

i know. it was a bit tongue-in-cheek on my part. ;b

I'm actually thinking he could split the zeros in all fairness. $2200 takes it.

fintail

Why?

andre1969

Why? I dunno, maybe Mrs. Brady wanted to show up her husband and that Barracuda of his. :P

au1994

yup, me thinks 2200 is more than fair. Just from what you can see, you're going to need new floor pans and door sills.

Plus and engine and tranny.

ghulet

I realize the pictures are crummy and all, and I think this is a four-door sedan (probably most rare but least desirable model that year), but the price certainly seems reasonable, even if for the drivetrain alone, for your project Fauxpar, though it'd be a shame to disassemble this tank:

http://chicago.craigslist.org/car/186071433.html

fintail

That does look nice on those old camera phone pics

"too bad the dealer didn't want it as a trade in. " might be a warning

qbrozen

going 160k miles in that xj6 is quite a feat. i wonder how much he's put into it along the way.

andre1969

too bad the dealer didn't want it, because now he's stuck with it! :P

I'd say those '67-68 Imperials are probably my least favorite Imperial (well, okay, once you go back before 1955 there were some pretty stodgy Chrysler Imperials to go counteract the timeless ones), but even I like that one. Especially if it looks good in person. I kinda like that color on it, too.

xwesx

It probably would not compare too well. The 1/2 tons tend to lose functionality every year, so 10 years adds up quite a bit!

All you would need to do with that wagon is chop the top off the cargo area and you'd be set. :P

oregonboy

All you would need to do with that wagon is chop the top off the cargo area and you'd be set.

Sounds like fun. You bring the beer. I'll bring my Sawzall.

james

fintail

Yeah, this should be useful

And this even moreso...what the hell? I could get a nice car for that money

andre1969

I think that Hash wagon rear end would be kind of a neat thing to have around the house. Great conversation piece, if nothing else. And I'm not about to pay for the privilege! Plus, with my luck, the only conversations I'd be striking up over it would probably be with the man from the county who comes by to tell me to get rid of it!

I guess with some welding and such, it might make a neat little cargo trailer. I see Prowlers and PT Cruisers occasionally with little trailers that kinda resemble the rumps of the cars that are pulling them.

fintail

Yeah, I've seen those Prowler trailers...I suspect Nash would need a lot of welding. I don't think that's a car many people have bothered to restore either.

One of the nicest - and priciest - of these I've seen in a long time

Pretty later 126