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

Mr_Shiftright

Well you can be honest about it and still hope that he scores a home run off someone. Stating the facts of the market is not a personal attack.

texases

I saw a couple of completed listings for '89 TCs on Ebaymotors, they were clean, good paint and vinyl roofs, and they go bid up to about $1,200. So you were generous, if anything.

tjc78

That was my first piece of advice. Check completed listings on Ebay.

Mr_Shiftright

I just checked about 1/2 dozen sales of '89s on eBay and given what NICE ones are selling for (not much) I'd have to say that your friend's car is essentially worth what a junkyard would pay for it. Clean drivers going for $650to $1250....mint low miles show cars around $2200.

Pretty sad, really.

tjc78

It is sad. I can't remember exactly when I sold my 89 but it had to be around 2004 or so. I asked $4500 and got $4000 for it.

It was in stellar condition, with around 73K on the clock.

bullitt4248

I recently purchased a semi basket case Avenger it has a six cylinder Corvair engine - the numbers on the heads appear to be 50B - then next to that 6876569 - not sure about the first 6??????
The tranny is #GM 4 under that is #3833192 - under that is # 524 4 - 5 may be a E??????
The bell housing is marked # 9855502 - next line GM 1 - next line #GM 62 maybe not sure.

I was told by the guy who claimed to have owned it(stored it) for 30 years that its one of 17 or 18 early one piece Avenger GT 12 model and as far as he knows it was like a orange red color (now under three other colors) - did dig down to the red and there is red over spray in the engine area and under dash area.

Last observation - the corvair engine is more of a mid engine than rear. It has the oil filter near the driver compartment and the tranny is in the rear .

Any info would be appreciated as I plan to take it down to bare frame and restore it in my garage. I am a career fire fighter getting ready to retire - did I bite off more than I can chew?

texases

Sounds like you have a GT15, the Corvair version, the GT12 had the VW engine. Google away, seems to be a lot of info out there, including copies of manuals for free. Here's a good summary web site, and here's the site with the manuals.

You'll also want to get hooked into the Corvair community, sure they have plenty of info you might need.

As far as what you can do, that depends on your skills and tools and space.

And forget the 'it was one of 17' kind of stuff, it's worth your time if you like it, nothing more or less.

Mr_Shiftright

Look on the top of the block, forward of the generator, for the engine #. Look for a two-letter suffix, like RA, RB, etc.

tjc78

Never heard of this before.

Riviera XX

texases

Me neither, at least now I know 'XX' was for '20' (20th anniversary, that is), and not something else...

Mr_Shiftright

Trying to get extra $$$ on an 80s trim package---well lotsa luck on that...

Actually his price was fair enough, given that the "bragging rights" you're buying are kinda weak.

tjc78

Just click it (preferably before breakfast)

Franken Escort

Mr_Shiftright

"it's just like a Lamborghini, according to builder Chris Moore. "---well, not *just* like....

fintail

Got a call from the garage today - fintail is about done, appears to have simply been a thermostat. They claim the problem vanished after changing it. I hope that's the case. Small highway trip to the annual MB club event Sunday after next, I'll give it a good test then.

berri

Fin - have you gotten over to that new, large LeMay auto museum in Tacoma yet?

fintail

Nope, but I plan to this year. The annual Kirkland Concours (best show in the region) will be there this year, I'll probably go then.

lemko

There's an article in the current issue of Collectible Automobile about the LeMay museum. There was an another article interviewing Mr. LeMay in Collectible Automobile before he passed in 2001.

Harold LeMay, for whom this museum is named. once owned more than 3,000 vehicles. His wife Nancy said there wasn't a car Harold didn't like and a lot of cars followed him home. Did Harold start off like andre1969? Someday we might see the largest collection of R-body Mopars ever! :P

fintail

From what I recall, LeMay was a real hoarder and had a lot of unrestored cars. Seems he was ahead of the curve, as unrestored is the new fad.

Andre should try to get one of each R body variant - wouldn't be an especially expensive collection.

Speaking of expensive...I've read that there will be a 540K special roadster at the local MB club meet weekend after next. Something like that has to be worth multiple millions today.

Mr_Shiftright

He collected some great cars, but he also had hundreds and hundreds of totally rusted out, stripped piles of crap, too.

ab348

Since I understand he made his money in the garbage business, that makes sense.

texases

"He collected some great cars, but he also had hundreds and hundreds of totally rusted out, stripped piles of crap, too."

No, those are cars with 'patina'... :P

Mr_Shiftright

To give you an idea, some of his cars sold at public auction for $300.

andre1969

Someday we might see the largest collection of R-body Mopars ever!

Well, I have two already. That's probably two more than most people want to put up with. :P

fintail

You need to get an R-body police car!

On the "project" note, I think next year I am going to treat the old car To a set of these

andre1969

You need to get an R-body police car!

Oh, I'd love one of those! There's a '79 St. Regis that shows up at the Mopar show in Carlisle from time to time. I don't think I've seen it there in the past couple years, though.

I think the transmission in my 5th Ave might be toward the end of its life. It's fine on acceleration from a dead stop, but at highway speeds, under certain load conditions it will start to shudder. And, I know there's a big hair band reference in there somewhere, but the car absolutely HATES speeds of around 55 mph.

If I get the transmission rebuilt, I might see if the shop can change the gear ratios. In 1981, Mopar started using a tall 2.26:1 axle in their RWD V-8 cars. To somewhat compensate, they changed first gear in the transmission from 2.45:1 to around 2.74:1, and second from 1.45:1 to around 1.54:1. Copcars used a 2.94:1 axle, so they kept the old first and second gear ratio through 1983. In 1984-89, copcars got the quicker 1st and 2nd gear, just like the civilian cars.

The transmission has been shuddering for years though, and hasn't gotten any worse, so I might be able to delay that, for awhile. I just won't be entering any burnout contests anytime soon!

On the subject of copcars, if there's any such thing as collectability, supposedly the 1984 is the best year to get a Diplomat or Gran Fury copcar. It was the first year of the "good" transmission ratios, and the last year of the Carter carburetor. For 1985-89 the Carter was replaced by a Quadrajet. Horsepower actually went up a bit, from 165 to 175 hp, but I think the torque band wasn't as broad, and as a result both 0-60 and top speed suffered a bit.

michaellno

On the "project" note, I think next year I am going to treat the old car To a set of these.

All the better to make your car look like the villians car in a James Bond movie!

lemko

Oh man, those would look super-sharp on your ride! My 1989 Cadillac Brougham still sports a set of Uniroyal Royal Seal tires like it came with when it was new. These are extremely hard to come by nowadays.

fintail

There was finally enough pent up demand for MB-correct wide whitewall radials (13") to be made - probably happened with 190SLs becoming valuable. Correct wide whites were very hard to find even 10 years ago. They should really set the car off - I remember some Pontons in "Goldfinger" had similar tires, as micheall mentions.

fintail

A mint R-body cop car would probably be the most valuable of the platform, too.

fintail

I just learned this - The people at Bring a Trailer are using a fintail as their project/rally car

fintail

Drove the old beast a bit today after the thermostat replacement - seems to hold its temperature well, running maybe even a little cooler than before. Didn't take it out on the highway, but I will in 2 weeks if the weather is nice, for the big local MB club show.

I also had a couple people in my building come up to me and talk about the car as I was cleaning it, people I have never talked to before. Even a cheapish old car is cooler than a bland new one costing 1000% more.

fintail

All cleaned up and ready for the MB club gathering in 2 weeks:



Next year it will probably get tires to replace this Clinton-era set, an alignment, and maybe something else if I am feeling generous. Mechanic who works on the car said he thinks the cold start system is starting to go - I guess a nearly 50 year service life is more than the original engineers expected.

And eventually a valve job is on the horizon, but with oil consumption at about a quart a year, I am not jumping yet.

xwesx

Not too shabby! Re-chrome it and the car would look new from that distance. :shades:

fintail

Thanks. It's a real 10-footer. The chrome is actually quite decent for being original - might not look the best with an indoor cellphone pic.

srs_49

The car looks great. But you could have done better than using a parking garage with a PVC drain pipe as the backdrop :P .

How 'bout some sweeping vista with Puget Sound in the background? Or Mt. Ranier?

fintail

Oh come on :P I was tired after spending a few hours cleaning every inch of that thing. That's as good as it's going to get.

I haven't done many artsy pics with the old car, maybe the most interesting being a view of it through the pillarless windows of a 560SEC:

explorerx4

2001 7 Series

Mr_Shiftright

nah...you can buy a nice low mileage 2001 7 series for $7000 or less.

fintail

German structural integrity there. Shame, looks like it was a nice color.

Mr_Shiftright

Probably an act of mercy for the owner in reality. These were extremely troublesome cars.

lemko

Fire Rages Through Garage Filled With Classic Cars! :surprise:

MY WORST NIGHTMARE!!!

qbrozen

i like that station wagon out front. What is that?

xwesx

It looks like a late '70s Pinto to me. I have a '74 wagon.

Mr_Shiftright

Well shame about the Shelby GT350 and the '56 Chevy Panel truck, but the other stuff is easily replaceable...if you even wanted to.

fintail

I think Lemko is upset about the 61 Caddy :shades:

omarman

Maybe that Shelby GT350 is some kind of clone/custom or tribute car. I saw a couple pics of a white Mustang labeled "gt350" on their web site and it doesn't look real to me. Could be a different car, but...

stickguy

that is not a wealthy area (far from it) so odds are there were not any 200K classics in there.

andre1969

Damn dirty apes!

Mr_Shiftright

Oh didn't see the '61 Caddy--that's too bad as well.

fintail

Danish Museum liquidating collection...something for everyone, amazingly diverse selection...lots of cool weird projects here.