and he sent me these pictures of him and his wife when it was brand new. pretty damn awesome if you ask me! the car is in need of some love now but is very salvageable, unfortunately he has been watching Barret Jackson (his words) and feels that even with a fair amount of rust and a seized up engine that it is worth 12k... oh well... just thought I would share these rad pics with ya'll
Ive seen the odd 'barret jackson' TV auctions on various documentaries on discoverey over here; its always 'how i make money from classic cars/Im a collector speculator' type documentary.... Anyhow, is there anyway to persude him the car will be restored by yourself, and then youd give him and his wife a weekend with it? Time might be against him now, and barret jackson prices are all very well, but explain hed never see the car again... or never enjoy it and relive those memories...
$12k isn't bad, if it's all there,might run,and if it's a Coupe! If it's running,that's a great deal!!!
Barret Jackson sucks, it's miss leading people into thinking they have a gold mine. Wouldn't buy from them or put my ass print in any of those piece of shit"s.
Based on the prices I see here on the LEFT coast, it would have to be pretty bad NOT to be worth $12K. I look @ Craigs list every day and very few, if any, 2 drs show up, all 4 drs.
barret jackson is the reason you cant find a 1st gen camaro parts car for under 5 grand let alone 32 fords etc
For this car I might say the price seems ok . The floors and under pinnings should be solid for a great rebuild .
he said that he lived up north for about 20 years after he first bought the car and the salt wasnt very kind to it... the car looks decently solid except for that missing chunk out of the pass quarter. he also said the engine was seized but did not elaborate. I'm not saying he's crazy on his price I'm just saying for as much as needs to be dont to this car I have seen other projects out there cheaper. I guess I just start naturally getting iritated when any one starts quoting their car prices from places like barret jackson of from some ding dong listing a car on egay for a obsurd price and people think that because some one is asking than that must be what they are getting....
Yeah they see the prices after thousands have been invested to rebuild them , hit him that it take 20 K and tell him call when the car is reasonable .
X2 and I agree with all that needs to be done if the guy will get realistic then deal with him other wise truck on down the road.
I think $12.000 is OK for a basically solid Coupe. It's been garaged. You can pay $5000 for one that sat outside for 40 years. A lot of people on this site are building much worse projects and I bet they wish they could have started out with that basis. It's a Merc Coupe. Mercury built cars for 70 years and only five of those years are the holy grail. There are only a limited number of them out there and everyone wants one. Don't blame Barret Jackson. Too many people expect everything to be cheap these days. It's the "made in China" mentality. Realizing your dream is supposed to hurt you in the pocket. But if you love and care for that car, restore it, with a few sympathetic creature comfort improvements, like Vintage-air, power steering and a Speedway 302 and then drive it 'til you're 70 then the purchase price will be a distant memory, and you will have saved a classic Merc. The flathead and transmission should bring you $1000 if it's not cracked. Unseize it and carefully get it running. You'll get $1000 for it then. A restored Merc coupe will turn heads all day long and you'll never tire of it. It's not a "compromise car" like so many others, it's the holy grail. Go for it. Ed
If you're so sure it's only worth $8000, make the owner an offer. You help him put it on eBay with loads of good hi-res pictures hosted independently with an honest description. Set the reserve at $8500. If it doesn't reach reserve you buy it for $8000. If it goes over reserve then you get to bid too. There are thousands of people worldwide looking for Merc coupes. The market will establish the true value. Ed Oh PM me the link, I'll bid too;-)
The price could be very fair if it's not rusted to hell, they are just so iconic and damn rare. It looks super nice to me, the engine and interior are not that important in the big scheme. Good luck however it goes. I love it. ~sololobo~
If you don't pay 12K, I'm sure someone else will. I don't know what it's actually worth, but I do know there are some folks out there that will pay crazy amounts for something like this.
It's a nice solid start and you sure won't be searching for trim parts, etc. As mentioned, roller coupes with no floors and rockers rusted out are 5k. 12k is too high. Ask him when he saw a rusty non running Merc with a rats nest interior for 12k roll across B-J's stage. If you really want it, offer 7-8k in cash and maybe go 9k. He bought the car 60 years ago, so that makes him 80+. Sounds like he's priced it 25% above market just to mess with people and really has no intention of parting with it. He'll turn down your cash offer with a smile and tell the next guy he just sent a guy with 8 grand in 100 dollar bills packing. He'll be buried in it or it will become available at his estate sale. Hopefully the family doesn't call a scrapper.
Most of use, if not all, put more money into our projects then their worth thats the way it seems to be. Buy it for 12 maybe 10k and depending on which road you take on the rebuild I can see me spending 30 thousand plus to restore it, is it worth 40k or more when its finished?
I had a guy do this to me "after we agreed on a price", I refused to sell to him. No big deal, I sold it for my asking price the next day. I feel this car has a fair price, not a deal but fair. Good luck and let us know how it turns out.
I know that cars are usually a little rougher in person than it looks in your pics, but I'd have no porblem paying $8-10K for that car as a base car. All the parts are there, the car has been stored inside, and the sheetmetal is pretty straight. I've spent $2,000 to buy chrome I didn't have like my bumpers, front and rear stainless.
So is the problem that 12k isn't a fair asking price for an unmolested, one-owner Merc coupe, or that you don't have 12k to spend on an unmolested, one-owner Merc coupe? Heck, I've got two grand in a Rupp kart project, and I haven't even bought an engine yet. I wouldn't have 12 grand to spend, either, so I don't mean that as insult. furyus