Hot Rods What's the difference in project car value? bucket of rust vs cleaned and primed.

I like to see things cleaned up, not to the point of being primed perhaps, but a car with a clean trunk and floor looks a ton better than something with old fast-food wrappers in it and someone's old underwear to look at.

 

Gibbs doesn't take paint well, it's oil, and people who aren't experienced with it aren't going to want to worry about paint sticking to an oiled surface. I think if the blasting is photographed well, the primer won't be a detractor.

The reason buyers sometimes shy away from fresh primer is they're worried about what it's covering up, what's underneath. If there's clearly no filler work done and he's got pics of it in bare steel right before it's primered, I think that would be a huge bonus.

I personally would pay more for a body that was properly blasted and primed instead of rusty, as long as I feel confident that the primer isn't covering up anything that will come back to haunt me later. Pics of the bare body would be good enough for me. Bare steel goes to shit in days around here.

 

Leave it as is or freshly blasted. Don't prime it.
Let the buyer actually SEE the metal he is buying.

Personally, nothing is a bigger red flag than a part or car for sale that has just been primed. It's just a turn off to me. Sure, most guys are not trying to hide anything, but if you're selling away the part or car anyway, leave the primer coat to the buyer so he can treat the metal and start with his own paint "system" from bare metal and know everything is kosher. Chances are he'll be stripping your primer right back down to bare metal anyway-save us both some work.

FWIW, I'd be interested to know what media you used to blast that coupe in 30 minutes? Did you use that tow behind compressor with an aggressive media? I'd be concerned about rippled panels if it was done in 30 minutes...

 

Just out of sheer curiosity, where in Canada are you? And what price are you looking at on the A coupe?

To weigh in on your question, I'd rather see what I'm getting into. I'd leave it as is. Maybe offer an incentive or discount for blasting and/or priming if the car is purchased at your asking price.

 

So what's a 30 min blast job going for these days ?

 

Fresh primer is a red flag for me too. I assume there is beer cans, pop rivets, and bondo under it. Also, as soon as those cars are one color, they will show every crease and ripple in them. For me, a one trip car that will roll on to a trailer is an advantage. That means I can roll it off of the trailer when I'm home.

 

Id leave it as an option for the buyer. I realize its not a big deal to you and you're not bondoing anything.
Just a, "I'll give you a cut rate on blasting it if you want". Getting a little on the after sale too.

 

Hard tail 57 said:
I was taken back by those statements myself when I read them, to each their own I guess....thanks.

I guess it boils down to preference.
Some prefer blondes, some brunette, some don't care.
Some prefer fords, some chevy, some don't care.

Everyone has life experiences that provoke the thought they have.

With this particular issue, I would be removing and redoing the prep under the primer. Not only that, now I have to strip the new primer from all the nooks and crannies. To me that means I need to pay a premium for the blast and prime body and then take it off !!! Duhhh ? and redo the prep work. More $ for something I don't want or need and am going to throw it away- then more work than just starting from square 1.

I suppose if you've never been a victim of someone else's prep work being faulty, you may think its a deal to not have to do this work. You build hour after hour ontop of the bad prep. You pour dollar ontop of dollar working to the final finish. And poof the first layer pops off the metal along with everything you've added to it. all of a sudden that body in primer wasn't that great of a deal and you've thrown 10x a blast job into the shitter.

 

You'll only buy a primed car to discover what lurks beneath, once!

 

If you can get to nice clean metal pretty quick, that's what I would do. I've sold a lot of cars and the more complete they look and the less rust they show the quicker they sell.
Most potential buyers are afraid of rust, and most lack the vision to "see" a pile of parts as a whole car.

I will agree with the many who say no primer, though. I've not bought a car or two because they wore fresh primer.


Posted using the Full Custom H.A.M.B. App!

 

I am of pretty much the same mindset in that I would rather find an untouched rig as the basis for a projee ct rather than buy a "value added" rig that someone had just sprayed a fresh coat of primer on before hauling it to swap meet.

For you selling them in their rusty state means you don't have the cost of stripping the rust, don't have the cost of the primer and what not and don't have XX hours of your time involved in getting them to that state. That means the end profit in your pocket will be the same even though you get less $$.

I would however prep them a bit by making sure that there was no trash, junk or rat shit or other distracting or disgusting stuff in them. It's a real turn off to drive a hundred miles or more to attempt to buy a project car and then find the thing is full of junk or trash and sitting in weeds up to your ass so you can't get around it to look at it. You have them out and lined up in a nice row on bare ground so I imagine that you have them cleaned out and any parts that go with them are inside the rigs or close at hand and organized so you can show them to a prospective buyer.

 

Not a chance I would leave primer someone else sprayed on a car that I was building. You have no idea what it is or if it was applied properly regardless of how many pictures were taken. So primer would add zero value to me I would pay no more than the pre blasted ones because I would have to remove all the primer anyways. Clean blasted would be another story. That would add the cost of blasting to the price for me but nothing more than that.

 

I think it depends on your target market for those cars. If you are selling them to HAMBers, or similar knowledgable car guys, then leave them as is. If you are selling them to anyone else, make them look as good as possible. Most people don't have the vision to see a finished car in a pile of rusty parts. If it looks clean and complete, it might not sell for much more, but it will sell faster.

 

It took you a half hour to do that? How many bags of sand? (@$10/bag). The equipment didn't run for free. ( you used up a favor from the boss at least) Now if you blow some cheap primer on it to slow down the rust and bolt it back together it may be more sellable. As stated above most would take whatever primer you put on it right back off.
Will it bring you much more money, I doubt it. You are not talking about $100,000 project cars you are talking about $5000 or less project cars. 10%-20% increase is about what you will see, do the math.

 

It's my equipment, and I am the boss. So no favours. Right the equipment didn't run for free when I blast for myself. Still use my consumables. It's not sand or soda, it's glass, water and a rust inhibitor. Thanks for the number game.

I think I understand where everyone is coming from. Makes lots of sense.

 

I agree

 

Some think primered hides big problems, I'd sell 'em is so folks can see what their buying. Some outstanding starts!

 

Sell 'em is, many are leery about rust hiding big problems! Besides it's less time and effort for you. You have some great starts for builders.

 

I think I am gonna get some of those metal shrink discs.

 

Discs are great, easy to use. Much more control than I could ever find in 60 years of oxy-acet warming local areas...LOL
Say, that '29 Sport Coupe is rather sound. I see fairly complete subframe and seat riser, most rust is confined to within sizes of available patch panels.

 

Hell, last year I pulled the steering out of a Corvair in a you-pick yard. I ran the box on eBay as it came out of the car - no sale. I wire brushed it off and spraybombed it and it sold on the Buy It Now in like two days. Now that's a cast iron box, not a sheetmetal part. So again, you tell me. Nothing I painted got any filler on it, all it took was making it shiny and hiding the rust color on it.

Let me put it this way - how many of the people who say fresh primer is bad, have actually sold cars in original rust versus in fresh primer?

It doesn't work every time, I have a '40 Buick I haven't been able to sell, but I think it's because I painted it blue instead of black or primer red/grey.

 

Blast them then wipe em down with diesel. Let the buyer choose their own primer. I've never used the sellers primer job, always stripped it back off.

 

What do you guys think those cars be worth blasted and bolted together with working tires?

 

More than if they were rusted and apart. Make them as complete as possible and as others have said previously don't primer em. What you see is what you get. Nothin to hide.