Hit the big six-O this year, but still consider myself a kid. Now in OKC, I have been amazed at the shear volume of HAMB worthy (or nearly so) cars available locally on Craigslist. A favorite pass-time of mine is to review the latest CL offerings on Friday nights. The budget range I'm working with is 10 grand or less. Here are a couple of recent examples......... 1960 Studebaker Lark / $2,900: https://oklahomacity.craigslist.org/cto/6080380643.html 1966 Barracuda / $5,000: https://oklahomacity.craigslist.org/cto/6047635372.html
I do it all the time electronically, I pick a number and see what I can get out of my favorites first, then on to stuff I had not considered really getting. Honestly, the '58 fell into that category.
Did the same thing as a teenager. Here in the Midwest it was "Deals on Wheels". It covered the 5 state area around where live. It was based out of South Dakota, so that is where the majority of the stuff was located. Even then, I knew the stuff from "out west" was a lot less rusty than what we had in Minnesota! I would page through it and pick one car per page. It may be just about anything from a project car to a sports car. Somewhere I still have a stash of the ads I clipped out and kept!
Hello, As far as the first real hot rod I purchased and where I got it, it was sighted at the local drive in restaurant parking lot on a Friday night. Cruising in my 58 Chevy Impala was totally fun. Sitting in the back row in the parking lot had a lot of advantages, too. But, this is where all of the discussions, show and tell, and new stuff displays were shown. I liked the look of the 40 Ford Sedan Delivery every time it drove through the parking lot. I really knew about the 348 and liked that it was installed in the sedan delivery. I wanted the delivery with that big 348, but the price was so much out of my teenage budget. Weeks later, after some teenage bantering about our cars, a deal was reached for my first actual teenage car purchase. I bought a real surf wagon of my own, a 40 Ford Sedan Delivery with a low powered flathead motor. When I first saw it, it had a 348 in it and a deal was made to fit my pocket book with a flathead. The guy transformed the fast sedan delivery to a cool looking plodder of a car with the stock flathead. Now, I had a really fast cruiser in the Impala, but it was out of place at all of the local surf spots. This sedan delivery had all of the right things going for it. for the next several years until I went away to college, I drove that delivery all up and down the So Cal coastline hitting the hot surf spots. 10 years later, my wife and I wanted a yellow 46 Ford Woody/SBC we saw in San Diego, but a deal could not be reached for that car. So, we did look in the local Pennysaver, the Auto Trader and the local pages of the Hot Rod Magazines. The LA Times newspaper also used to have a section just for hot rod cars and trucks in the classifieds. It was a small section, but had a ton of cool, So Cal hot rods for sale. But, we actually found the next 40 Ford Sedan Delivery AD on a local speed shop wall. There was a small 3x5 note card with a general description and color. It was the color that made us call the owner to see the delivery. We bought it after a ride around the block. I had some hesitation, but, it was my wife that said, “If this is how it will ride and handle, then let’s get it.” Actually, it was the A/C that sold her, I am sure of it… Jnaki After we bought it, she did have her way on the wheels and covers. At first, I wanted American Racing 5 spoke mags, but she wanted an early car look. So, she saw these small V8 hubcaps and rings at a car show and she bought them. Check one win for her… give a little, get a little and a long future for us…ha ! The 40 Ford Sedan Delivery in front of a 1940’s house on the Westside of Long Beach, CA.
Around here and in my time (90's) it was the Recycler. I used to work next to a liqure store and would wait outside until the delivery guy dropped them off. They went by counties and the best deals were in San Diego and Inland Empire, problem was no one around here sold those so we would drive to Corona to get the two.
A co-worker cleaning out his attic came across a Kansas City Star from March 14, 1949, which was two weeks after I was born. He gave it to me and I read the stories, the display ads, but most enjoyably, the classified ads, where you could get a '32 Ford coupe for a couple of hundred dollars. Loads of other interesting cars, too, at what today would be jaw-dropping great prices.
Each month when my Hemming's comes I find myself picking my wants. Usually includes 32 Fords! or a 66 - 275 GTB Ferrari
I like to kind of play this game in reverse. I will grab a vintage Hot Rod magazine open it to the Hot Rod Mart section and give myself a $5000 - $6000 budget and see how many awesome cars or parts I could buy with that cash. Nebraska dreaming for sure. Gary
Hey 2ndC, That is a cool scan of the Hot Rod Mart. We used to look at those every month, but we found out by calling one of the local hot rods advertised in So Cal (during that time period) that it was sold "months ago." But, it was a brand new magazine that we got in the mail. So, how could it be sold? We did not know that the ads and photo stories were printed a couple of months ahead and by the time it came out, the best deals were the ones that sold fast. Jnaki You wouldn't happen to have 1961 Hot Rod Mart issues from January to May, would you? There might be a listing of our 671 SBC motor and parts listed. We did not know the listing issue differential at the time.
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