Technical Another what would you pay

Found a 51 Ford Shoebox Deluxe supposed to be a fresh 8Ba 3-speed
And a more door.
Car is pretty solid rust in a couple usual spots. Bottom of fenders and pass rocker.
Interior is trashed beind a desert car.
And yes TITLE..

 

It appears to be a long time since that engine was fresh. If the engine turns I would think it is a $1000-$1500 car. It will probably be advertised on internet sites for about $3500. Just my opinion.

 

Motor is just a core it looks less than fresh to me. I would look at the car and see what the value of the parts I will harvest from it and go from there.

 

Yes the car has been sitting for atleast 6 years since drove last

 

Give or take, this is what I was thinking.

 

Last 51 I bought a couple years ago as a parts car was $400 if I remember right. It was a 2-door but also didn't have an engine. Otherwise, it was similar condition. I would likely give between $500 to $1000 depending on what all I was planning to use off the car or if I was considering making it a driver.

 

Are you asked to set the price or wanting to see if maybe prices given are in line with the asking price?


I have my thoughts (good) about the engine by expanding the pic.


I know, no help. Heck, I can’t price a cost of a hubcap

 

1k to 1.5k here in my area is the going rate for something like that.

 

Up here it would be listed at 4500-5000 as a “Barn fresh find “

would be listed for months and months and months and sell for 2 or less .

do your conversion from Canadian to USA and there’s your price .

 

So help me out on the conversion @VANDENPLAS .... (one Looney is worth .76 Susan B. Anthony's), (divided by the date, multiplied by the year of the deceased car) minus the temperature in Celsius + liters times KPG (Imperial gallon, that is).
Is that right???

 

A compression/leakdown test on that engine would be really great to know. Being a desert car I'm assuming the sheetmetal is real nice? Around here in the salty state that car would be asking $4500+ and probably sell, but only because most of those cars up here have turned into mud already.

If that engine checks out with good compression (preferably with some receipts to back up the rebuild claims) it's probably worth more than all the lowballers around here are going to say it is.

Being a 4 door hurts it though. If I really wanted one of these I'd consider this one but I'd still want it for under $3K.

 

It appears most projects are way over priced, there is a lot of work involved in bringing that car back to life.

After rebuilding the engine & transmission or replacing them, rebuilding the suspension, repair any rust, replating the chrome, interior and any glass that may be bad, your going to have more money in it than buying a running car.

The days where you could buy a decent project at a reasonable price that needed very little work does not exist anymore.

If I want a project like the 4 door you posted I would not pay over 500.00 bucks. HRP

 

It’s worth way you’ll pay and they will take. grand tops in my useless opinion. 500-750 sounds better.
Make it go and stop and hammer down.
Gonna make any $$$$$? Probably no.
Who cares

 

Location has a serious amount to do with prices on project rigs. I'd have to say the actuall conditon of the flathead has more to do with what it is worth than anything else. Unless the flathead is a solid crack free engine it doesn't addd a plugged nickle too the value of the car.

 

If I owned it, virtually nothing.

 

Some of the best advice I ever got (not that I always followed it) is to always by the best car you can afford. That sedan is a hole to dump money into that will never be recovered. Jay Leno once made a statement along the lines of "it costs basically the same amount of money to restore a 2-door convertible as it does a 4-door sedan and the value of the the two when done is dramatically different". If it were me, I'd look for something else to build.

 

Good parts car. $500 tops. Or the price to scrap it, whichever is less....

 

You gotta ask yourself, "if the motor was fresh and the car ran 6 years ago, why was it parked and left for dead?" Most people don't just park a car and leave it to rot into the Earth unless there was a problem with it. Any engine offered for sale is considered junk unless you can hear it run, take a compression test, etc. and even then it's only gonna bring "runner" money, not "rebuilt" money.

If you're just looking for something to tinker with and get running and cruise around town on a budget, you might be okay spending $1,000-1,500. As others have mentioned, be careful throwing money at a car like this as you'll never get it back when it comes to resale. Compared to say a Tri-Five Chevy, these Shoebox Fords aren't that desirable and even a four-door Tri-Five doesn't have much resale value.

Gasser 57 gave some great advice and echo'd something I tell anyone that asks about buying an old car. If you want a '68 Camaro, save up until you can afford one because an '80 Firebird just isn't the same and they use the same parts and cost the same amount to build.

 

Junk motor. Junk car. I'd offer junk price.

 

$1500 give or take. I doubt people are beating down his door to buy it, if they are they are offering less than $500. Bonus points for a clean title of course and complete cars are always a plus.

I paid $2500 for my '59 in 2014, a rust-free body, clean title but missing lots of parts. It was part of a divorce settlement, somewhere there is a pile of chrome and garnish pieces in a box and a giddy ex-husband. I probably have $2000 into scrounging up all the missing pieces I needed.

 

This being a pretty solid car I was going to step up to the plate and offer what I thought was a good dollar. It does not need floors/trunk doors and such, Patch on bottom of fenders and outer pass rocker.
Car is complete and not butchered up.. Guy is stuck @$3500.

I know where there is a same year coupe "Gasser" style but need complete drive train, I can get for less than the 4 door.. I was with @anthony myrick make the 4 door run and stop Lower it with some wide whites and full cover hub caps and drive the snot out of it... spend what seems a LOT now and little later... or a little now and a LOT as time goes on. HMMMM.........

Decisions... Decisions

 

If there is a written guarantee on the motor and trans, it might be worth more, but I've been bit in the ass too many times in the whole "freshly rebuilt" thing. It's all core price to me now, unless they wanna write me a guarantee. $1500 as is, $3000 with a money back guarantee lol

 

I’m with ya but dang, $3500 sounds steep.
That would be different if I could get in and drive home with it, maybe.

 

I’m just not seeing it being a $3500 car. I know prices are high, but there are still deals to be had on old cars especially when they have extra doors. Not necessarily equivalent, but my son paid $4000 for his 59 Edsel 4-door with lots of new parts including new wheels and wide whitewall radials and drove it home 300 miles after the purchase with no issues. It is his daily driver and has made it about 80 miles a day to and from vo-tech for a few months now.

 

3500 is insane for that around here.... No thanks. I also second being iffy on the motor. Who rebuilds a motor then abandons the car in the weeds? Doesn't make much sense....

 

Would be a money pit with minimal resale value even if fixed up. Add up the value of the parts and offer half of that.

 

It is not justified or fair but there are times when more car than that can be had for less cash.
I definitely like building up a bigger pile of dough, and finding a top line model that tickles the fancy. Happy Hunting

 

even here in Sunny California that is not a $3500.00 car. running, driving and registered it would go for about that, maybe a bit more as long as there are no hidden demons.

 

I brought a 55 Chevy station wagon that look pretty much the same as this Ford. It was a swap meet and the guy selling the car, would asked, "what do you think", really pushing to sell the car. I look at it a few times only to walk away after seeing that it was on a pretty nice car trailer being towed by a brand new truck. At the end of the meet, leaving I again had to walk by it. The seller came right over to me and said, how much is this car worth to you. I said 300 bucks but I don't have a way of getting it home. The guy said no problem I will bring it to your house. We got to my house and I wanted him to line up the trailer with the garage door, so that I could just push it it. After many attempts the guy just could not get the trailer to line up with the garage door, so he pulled it back out to the street, and hook up the ramps, and then got into the car (after un-hooking it) and drove it off and into my garage.