Hot Rods Best deal on parts or cars

Hey all,
I just got a great deal on a Merc. Flathead 8CM, not great condition, but complete... ($300)
Whats the best deal you have come up on?

 

I bought a 52 chevy hardtop for a quarter, then I bought the 48 Merc sitting next to it for fifty cents. yes, they were real cars and it was a long time ago.

 

I sure hope its a great deal for you. But the odds are stacked against you.
70-80% of flatheads have cracks that will cause overheating, water in your combustion, leaky oil pans frame rail cracks, loss of coolant etc. Don't celebrate until you have it on the road and full of fluids.

 

Used to go to impound auctions to buy parts cars, one day I bid $75.00 on a 67 Rambler Rebel 2 door hard top and got it because there were no keys and it was automatic no body wanted it. Took it home, got it running, cleaned it out and found a pristine Thomas Special bamboo fly rod still in the case with the store stock tag on it . The rod sold for around $360.00 and the car was well worth fixing up. The picture was after I pounded the dents out and painted it.

 

57 Chevy 2dr ht with 15000 miles from the proverbial little old lady original owner. Only option was the Powerglide. $750 !!! Been a few years since then. ( 1967 )

 

I paid $75 for the 8BA in my 40. That was in 1972
Paid $25 in 1963 for an 8CM.

 

I got a rebuilt boss 429 for the price of getting the heads out of the shop once about 600 dollars as I recall. It gets better but who really cares right?

 

Oh, make it better, Pn'B !!!

Bought my first car (OT Volvo 164) for $50 from a neighbor because the local shop said it would need $800 in brake repairs... $15 of new brake line got it on the road

 

The reason I knew the guy who was having the heads done was because I had done the lower end. he wouldn't let me return the money for doing the lower end because I had treated him fairly. I guess the machine shop had quoted him half of what they asked when he went after the heads. Never pays to be greedy.

 

Back in 92, My Dad and I spotted a 57 Ford retractable (very rough) laying back behind a guys place. It had been hidden but he had cleared some brush recently. My Dad was looking for 57 9" rear, so we stopped and asked the guy about it. He said we could have the car if we hauled it away. We got a trailer and loaded it up, before we left the guy said we had to take the rest of the parts for it in the garage too. So about 6 boxes of stuff. Hauled it home, which on the way it basically fell in half. Pulled the rear, then salvage what we could and hauled what was left to the scrap yard, think we got about $30, then sold the remaining parts for $400. We ended up with $215 each, plus my Dad got the 9".

 

Have had the good fortune to get lots of things worth the money over the years actually comes from being poor I think.

 

This was about 1970, , traded a 6 pack sight unseen for a 57 Ford sedan that a guy had parked by the curb in front of his house with the plates expired. The city got on his ass to get rid of it and his time was up. The thing sat real low to the pavement, I thought the springs were probably just weak. I told him I would have to get a trailor and he said it will run, just bought a new battery about 3 months ago. I went and got his beer and come back, he handed me the keys and title. I got in it and saw why it sat so low, the guy worked for an electrical and plumbing contractor and the whole back seat and trunk was full of scrap heavy duty copper wire and pipe! got like $400.00 for the scrap, sold the snow tires off it , put the new battery in my Dads truck and sold the Ford for $350.00, That makes that old 57 the best Ford I ever owned!

 

Bought this for $35, of course this was 1966

 

Last fall. Complete (even the panhard bar) 9" 3.00 '66 Galaxie rear axle to put into my Merc. Found on Craiglist. $20.

 

Around 1981/82 bought a 71/72 Pinto to give to my lot boy/ detailer @ my body shop.
Paid $300 for it and it wasn't really in 2 bad of shape. So that weekend I go in the shop and clean it up to give to him the next Monday morning when he came in. Washed and waxed the outside. Then started cleaning the interior, it was full of trash, probably hadn't been cleaned out since new. Popped out the rear seat to vacumun out all the french fries and burger wrapper and lo and behold there was a stained dirty envelope with $800 in it, musta been there for years. That's what ya call a win/win deal

 

Dope money.

Whoever lost it was a dope.

 

Got all kinds of good deals years ago. Like a running and driving 57 Chevy Bel Air 2dr sedan for $100, Traded it even for a 55 BelAir 2 dr hardtop. Or a 56 F100 running and driving for $75. Easy to find stuff like 3x2 setups for FE Fords. I bought one set for $35 and another for $25, complete.
I think my best deal was my 65 Corvette convertible. It was apart, but for $2000 it was a good deal.
But more recently, I bought a 66 Fairlane GT for $400 and a 64 Galaxie with a 428 in it for $1200.
I hardly ever find a good deal on something I am actually looking for.

 

Bought a 34 ford coupe back in 1990 for 5500.00 , sold it the next week for 7800.00 . It sold for two or three more times eventually bringing 10,500.00. .....2300.00 was nice money for a new dad with a family to support.....

 

Bought a one owner 57 Olds 4 dr HT at an auction for $87.50 and a 57 Pontiac 2 dr HT from an individual wanting to clean up his yard for $50.00. Best part of all was I drove them both home!

48 Poncho

 

Bought a barn find 29 tudor A with 28k for 700.00 and drove it for 2 years before selling it. Had 60k on it then. That was 1972.

 

About 25 years ago I was commuting from Milford CT to Stamford CT daily. I had an s-10 pickup.
One of the ladies I worked with told me she was loosing her apt due to redevelopment and was
moving in with her boyfriend who lived in Stratford. She needed some of her items brought from
her apt to his house. It was on my way so I said no problem, over a week or so I dropped off
5 truckloads. At the end of this she told me she had an old vw in her landlords barn- did I want it
I figured it was something to play with so I said sure. She brought me over and opened the door-
it was a 64 Karmen Guia that had had the battery die so she left it in the barn. It had 21000 miles
on it- she had bought it new but it was a demo. Literally was driven basically to church on Sunday!
Filled the tires, put in a battery and freed up the frozen clutch- turned around and sold it for enough
to build myself a two car garage.

 

The year, 1967. I stopped at the local Ford dealer to pick up a 1954 Ford Sunliner (the glass roof Ford) I just bought from a guy for $25. While I was there the salesman wanted me to take a '57 Chevy convertible that had been abandoned there 3 months prior. He said they would even get the title for me since they had it for over 90 days. The price......$25. I passed on it. I had enough projects. I could have afforded it but then $25 was a good part of a weeks work.

 

Here was a well spent $35. 27 Ford body, Model A bed, 40 something front and banjo rear, A spring. A Car Craft magazine special series, many hack saw blades, a couple of years work, and help from some great friends resulted in this Dallas area T. This unfinished pic is the only one I have.

 

Summer of '65 and I'm cruisin town on my 56 Olds convertible when I see a classmate of mine stagger out of a bar and onto the sidewalk..he sees me and flagged me down so I pull over.
"Hey...I'm half drunk and I ran outta money...wanna buy my 40 sedan?"
"How much?" I ask.
"$10" says he.
I fished out 8 bucks from my pocket.
"This is all I have, George"
He says "Thas enuf" and snatches the cash ...finds the title in his billfold, drops it in my lap and disappears into the bar again!
I can't believe my luck! The 40 ford is parked at the curb in front of the bar, right in front of my Olds "whale body"...keys are in it.
It's a 40 standard 2 door sedan painted the latest....chevy marina blue metallic. The interior was a little garish in blue and white candy stripe tuck and roll...had a stock 40 flathead but a 39 ford floor shift tranny. Sported wide whites and full moons and sat low in the front...still not sure if it had a dropped axle or tired leafs or what.
I fired it up to see it had almost a 1/2 tank of gas. Left the Olds at the curb and went joy riding in my new 40. What better place to see how much rubber it'd lay than right below my girlfriends 2nd floor apartment window.
I idle up to the stop sign below her open window and rev the old flat motor to the moon [prolly 4500 rpm] and totally dump the clutch in 1st gear.
BOOM! clank clank clank...got about 8 inches of scratch before the tranny let go!
I limped it home in 2nd and 3rd gear and gave it a good wash before my dad got home from work.
Long story short.........he says get rid of that piece-a-shit and all the other old fords I have on his propitty before he gets home from work tomorrow or he'll call a wrecker and he'll GIVE 'em away!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
George sobered up, called and wanted his car back...a buddy of his drives out to my house and re-claimed the full moons he'd loaned to George the previous day.
The 8 dollar 40 drove out of my driveway with no hubcaps, a busted trans and I got my 8 dollars back.
shit.

 

Best deal I ever mad was in the early 80's. Got a call from a buddy that said "tell the guy you won't give more than $125.00 for the thing." Had no clue what he was talking about. Guy calls me up at work tells me about what he has and wants $400.00 and, of course I tell him $125.00. I went to look at the car and found that it was a 1969 Chev Kingswood 9 passenger wagon. I started looking closer and found it had the original 427, TH400 and 12 bolt posi in it. Gave the guy $125.00 and drove it home. Later sold the 12 bolt for $250.00. I still have the 427 and TH400 that I paid nothing for.

Len

 

Had a total in my shop back n the 80's, was a 69 big chevy 4dr, Insurance adjuster comes out and takes 1 look and says "It's a total" I say "I'll wave the tow bill ($100) and storage ($100) and take the salvage. He says O.K.
He never looked @ the odometer or under the hood. Only had 12000 miles in it and had a 427/400 turbo. It was a "little ole lady sedan" 2 days later the engine and tranny were out and the roller wreck was off to the scrap yard on my rollback. got $175 the the scrap and my 32 coupe got a new drive train for 25 buckaroos

 

In 1962,I rototilled a garden for a 1948 Merc.

 

I bought a complete 1932 Ford 5 window coupe for 75 bucks but that was 53 years ago. HRP

 

Noticed a recurring theme here....no deals after the '80s

 

My first car was a 1930 Ford 2 dr sedan with rotten fenders. Paid $30 for it and drove it home. Eventually sold it to a guy that had over 20 Model As for $150. Those were the days (1964).