Hot Rods Have you bought a stalled project or have you stalled on your own project?

Over the years I have ran across a lot of cars & trucks guys have bought and had big plans but life, lack of experience, funding or just lost interest and never got off the ground then sat and gathered dust for years.

My original Model A pickup was just such a project, it was poorly cobbled up and it had sat for a number of years outside.

I have also had a very nice off topic fastback Mustang a guy threw a lot of money at and lost his good paying job and was forced to sell at a bargain.

Good deals are still out there but sometimes you have to beat the brush to find them, what have you guys be able to buy when the previous owner bailed out? HRP

 

I bought a 53 Ford Mainline as a stalled project. Completely torn down and body sandblasted. Lots of boxes and like an erector set. 4 year build got it though.

 

Yup - bought an OT '65 mustang project that had been stalled for 15 years - a "roller" with bodywork complete in primer.....put a motor, trans, glass, wiring and plumbing in it - made it run and drive - and decided is wasnt for me......passed it on to someone else to finish.......at least I did my part to move it along - I did quite well on the deal and had some fun

 

I've bought a few and created a few....

 

Yes, my current '39 Chev coupe was a stalled project. Mainly because the owner planned to make it a gasser, but got overwhelmed at the amount of rust on it. Then let it sit outside until the rust got worse! He told me when I looked at it that at 80 he knew he'd never be able to do it, so decided to sell instead.
He'd gathered a lot of parts over the years, and most of them were stuffed inside the car when I bought it. Some got used, and some I sold.
I'm still not finished with his project, but he's seen it now and likes where it's headed.

 

Yep, bought a 215 Buick powered Morris Minor woody from a H.A.M.B.er. Stalled for quite a while. Nice little car. It’s running and driving now, currently getting wired. It’ll be my daily driver hot rod.
A few years back I bought a ‘33 Ford pickup and a ‘28 Ford roadster both unfinished projects, both undergoing reconstruction right now. The roadster just needs paint and reassembly, the pickup got stripped, rechopped, rechanneled and is a little behind the roadster progress wise.


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X2

 

I bought my 40 ford that was a project half finished. The floors and firewall replaced, engine rebuilt and a lot of new parts in boxes. The engine was 392 hemi all new internal parts bored .030 over but not done right I had to replace all bearings and clean the block surface the block and heads cam bearings installed wrong no oil to left head. the frame was done but had to correct front rack and springs to get proper steering geometry. The point is had to redo a lot of work already done. I rather have started from scratch just having to redo work and endless trips to buy hardware that was missing. It was a good deal though and I enjoy the finished car since I finished it 18 years ago.

 

My Falcon was unfinished and mostly disassembled and had sat unloved for 7 years. Two motors, two transmissions, a few Rubbermaid totes and boxes full of new and old parts. There were a few surprises after getting it home, but overall I scored a great deal.

 

Yup, and I might add, the last thing you want to do is buy one from an Estate, 'cause there is nobody to ask questions about, like what is this for, goes to, planned for, went to etc...

 

yeah my grandfather and I have dragged home quite a few stalled projects over the years. Some tri five chevy's, a few el camino's, couple of 34 fords and some o/t 67 camaros.

 

I purchased a 1929 Model A Tudor sedan from a guy that just in his words "I gave up". For what I paid for it, I could have quadrupled my money by parting it out, but I decided to build it instead. I don't know if I would recommend purchasing a basket case, but in my case I had already built two Model A's so I knew exactly what I was missing. I also purchased a '57 Chevrolet station wagon from an 18 year old kid. When I looked at the car, the front wheels were wobbling all over the place. My friend that told me about the car only lived three blocks away. After I gave the kid $100 for a beautiful car we drove it to his house. We jacked up the front end and pulled the drums and found out that the kid replaced the front bearings WITHOUT installing any races. We drove to the auto parts store, purchased bearings and pressed in new races and I drove the car 20 miles home and it ran and drove great!

 

Yeah, the Corvette in my avatar was such a project. The PO had it dismantled into a thousand pieces all over his back yard. I saw the body covered up with a tarp when I was carrying mail as his postman. I thought it looked like a Corvette so I asked about it. I got the impression that once he took it all apart that the job was too involved for him and he wanted to get rid of it. I gladly obliged. Still working on it 35 years later..
The 56 Chevy I just sold was also a stalled project. The young man that bought it started stripping it. When he saw the floor was rusty, he said he didn't want to get that deep into the car and I bought it and rebuilt it.
I personally think buying stalled projects is the way to go. Let someone else spend some bucks on them and buy them for less than what they have in them.

 

Yep. All of them in one way or another.

 

I avoid them. I'd so much rather start with something that hasn't been screwed up already.

But I have got a few, and they usually didn't get finished by me, either.

 

Don, you lucked up on the Vette, rarely does anyone bail out on a car like that but I suppose at the time they were not very expensive,especially apart. HRP

 

I got it in '83 and they were just starting to get rare around here. Paid 25oo for it. Not as good a deal as the one I passed up on earlier, I passed on '64 coupe for a thousand bucks. But that was before I became a Vette fan. Wish I could go back...

 

HRP I don't need to buy any stalled projects, I have enough of my own!

Pat

 

Yes an no!
A few times I've payed for what the owner called a project!
With out telling him,I didn't think of his pile as anything but parts,keeps him happy.
I was really just getting the pile for the parts at a very low cost pre part.
The prob is, I always ended up with left over's, that after a time, would kind of look like a project too !! LOL
Still have one,I been thinking would be a cool 1917 Hup Roadster with a 24 Hup grill shell,yet likely never going to do it!

 

Ain't that the truth! HRP

 

Dana, I bought a project, actually a pile of parts that were tack welded together resembling a frame which was a real piece of poo with a corvair front suspension welded to a unboxed model A frame with a crusty chevy V8 and powerglide transmission but it had a old Franklin quick change rear axle and he wanted 2500 bucks, I ended up giving him a old mini bike and 500 bucks.

I removed the Franklin and stuck a 8" ford mustang rear axle under the frame and sold it.

I sold the Franklin years ago and I really wish I would have kept it, it was the small housing type. HRP

 

One could say my t bucket was a stalled project. Once the guy wreked it, the car changed hands at least 3 times before I got it. Year later its on the road.

2 years ago we bought a "stalled" 36 chevy sedan delivery project. Guy had bought it in the 80s and parked it in the trees in his back yard. stacked a lot of spare parts in it over the years but never worked on it before he passed away. Its now in mom and dads shop, accumulating more parts. One of these days we will get on building it

 

Many And Sometimes They Go To The Next Shop Reluctantly...

 

I recently bought a stalled deuce 2 door sedan project I'd built the chassis for 16 years ago. I sold off all the parts I didn't want and am in the process of chopping the top and building another highboy sedan.

 

Well....sort of......back in '64 a buddy put a "crate" 365 HP 327 in his pristine (17000 miles!) '55 Belair post car. He promptly lunched the motor and decided the car was jinxed. He wanted to give it to me, sans motor/trans, but I insisted he take some cash for it. So.....after some thought, he took $10 (yep...ten dollars) for it, to make it "legal", whatever that means.

I shortly thereafter put in my 365/327, BW 4-speed, 4.11 rear, street slicks and went street racing on US RT 1 in Saugus, Mass......near Adventure Car Hop.......fun times back then.....

 

My 58 was a stalled project that I got rather cheap, $600 for it along with 2 parts cars. As usual, I have had to redo most of his work, he had doubled up used floor pans over the top of the old rusted out sections and fiberglassed over the trunk floor that was rusted out. I guess I was lucky that he hadn't really got that far on the car so there wasn't too many screwed up things to straighten out. I better get busy on it or it will be a stalled project that my grandson will inherit!

 

Yes, I have done a few, but only if they were too cheap to pass... and most of the times they turned out ok. But I have to admit it´s easier and more reasinable to start with a better and unmolested car. The 61 Chevy was just a dissasembled but otherwise very complete and unmolested car with a few rust issues. The wildcat was all original paint and rust free, someone had pulled the 401. But I thought about cutting up and scrapping the Suburban more than once. But the scrappers only pay for steel, not bondo and fiberglass, hahhaha, so I had to pull it through because it´s my girlfriend´s truck and she loves it so much.Oh well.

 

This old girl was well down the road to street rod hell. Square headlights, filled cowl, giant recessed firewall. I can't even tell you what kind of engine was sitting in it or I would get thrown off the HAMB. I knew going into it that I would have to change almost everything on the car, but I bought it anyway.



The end result was a bit more to my taste, but just was never "me". Now, the little car lives with a cool HAMBer in Oklahoma and as far as I know, he has a great time with it.



-Abone.

 

Man, you sure knocked the ugly off of that car. HRP

 

I married one...