How is the economy affecting hotrodding?

I just put a "roller" on evilbay to help me fund my car. It was a very nicely done steel 29 truck. I am a little bit of a gambler so I like to start the auction low and let it ride. Well after 10 days I got $3200 for it. I have done ike 50 of these in the last 4 years and this is the least I have got for one. It got me thinkin. Is our little recession gonna lower the price of stuff to the point of making things obtainable? Are the cool guy wanabes gonna jump ship and sell of their crap to us ? I dont know just thinkin. What do you all think? Oh yea, heres the roller I sold .

 

we are definatly in a slump as far as cars go , folks losing their homes are at a record high , i myself had a muscle car up for sale and couldnt get the price i wanted so i just decided to keep the car , i would rather just keep it than let it go and lose a lot more than i have in it , not that i was gonna get what i have in it anyway , but enough to get something else.. jim did you let the truck go for $3200?? ..

 

I feel that current econmic situation will keep folks from spending thier money as freely, but still most of us have always had a hot rod budget. I know for myself I pay all my bills set back x amount of money from each check and then go get parts. Sure some peoples dissposable income will suffer. As fars the wanabes jumping ship, I'm always in the market for more early ford bodies and parts! I'm just glad to see the days of the $2500 4 door model a sedan shell are going away.
Just my 2 cents,
El Loco Worm

 

I dunno but it looks like I really picked a bad time to tunnel ram my 55. I've noticed a drop in prices in our corner of the hot rod market but 3200.00 for that was like giving it away. I thought about selling mine for another builder but the way it is for now at least I'll hang on to it and if things don't improve I'll just keep it and keep taking it to another level hopefully

 

it's called class warfare,the rich guys have all the fucking money now.

 

I think it wil make people try and find an alternative to just buying something. They'll instead think about making it themselves or networking with others to get the piece or parts they need. The "wanna bes" were only in it for attention and their death day was on the horizon anyway. The REAL hot rodders will ride this through and come out better than before.

Bottomline... if ya got it, keep it and watch the ads, the "wanna be's" will be dumping hot and heavy this year.

 

I see a lot of people in a panic over the economy and gas prices. From what I have seen the hobby has already been affected. Harder to sell parts and even harder to get decent money on good parts. Have seen a lot of good cars for reasonable prices not selling nearly as fast as they used to.

I also have a restored muscle car that I was interested in selling but now don't even think I could get close to the offers I had when it wasn't for sale.

buyers market on homes and cars if you have the $$$$ to spend.

 

The rich guys always had it. That's why they were rich guys!

 

We're traditional hot rodders, right? If anything, things should get a little better for us. Scrounging parts should get maybe a little cheaper. Decent builder bodies will stop rising in value. Best of all, our labor is still the same price - free! My hope is that the price of steel takes a hit so all this crushing madness ends.

If you build cars to sell, these may not be the best of times. Sheesh, $3200 for that sweet little roller. It would hurt to wave that one down the road!

 

Hell, I'm switching to a more gas guzzeling setup too, screw it, I don't think I'll ever have a dissposable income but I plan on having fun with the one I have.

 

Yes I sold it for $3200.00, I did get to keep the motor, but it was really a good lil car and I would have thought $4500 was a good price. Oh well. I started the bidding @ $3200 and rather than have a friend shill the bids I decided to be the honest guy and let it roll. The Bible says it is better to have a good name than riches. Times like this makes you put your faith into action.

 

What gets me is that there's a tax refund coming up in May.It's to motivate the economy.
Many of us have households,children,mortgages and ? to keep afloat.
How many of these refunds are going to Slaw Mart/China for big screen tv's,electronics and ?
The way the people spend the money is their business,but one has to wonder?

Last year I bought an a disc brake setup for the Nova sub under my hot rod.
I was tickled they were a "mom and pop" company and that there was an American-based entity to deal with.

A friend offered a 3:43 geared posi Camaro rear to replace the 4:11 57 posi I now have.He's a good friend and the price is right.
Hopefully an overdrive trans will surface to replace the Turbo 350.

If wishes were horsepower,beggers would burnout and powerslide...

Those are my wishes for this current economical period.
Good luck to us all!

 

i'll never sell my car. i'll get a second or 3rd. job if i need money.
i'm on a pretty tight budget as it is...but i'll keep my car.
i'd rather let it sit(if it has to) than get rid of it. i'd never be able to get another one.

 

These times will show the fakers. The fruggle will make it through. A little ruffled, but they'll make it.

 

I believe that the economy is suffering because the MEDIA says so ... and is trying to scare a few folks ... it always makes good copy @ election time.

A good percentage of the folks who are losing their homes were/are DUMB A$$E$ ... Banks around here were lending 110 per cent of the appraised value and a good many of them knew that the appraisals were inflated. Folks borrowed more money than they could pay back.

I recently sold a small 3 bedroom house for 135 thousand ... the house was older and needed 10 thousand dollars of repairs to be NICE. The roof was old ( but no leaks ) and the electrical needed some upgrades to meet current codes. It was safe ... just not up to new home current standards.

The couple who bought it found their own mortage folks ... they borrowed more money than the house was worth. Each had a car payment and substanial credit card debt. They owed 10 grand to a high interest rate local loan shark type finance company also. Their mortage guy told them to get the loan shark type company paid off and he would loan them the 135 grand on a 125 grand house. I got the 135 ... paid off their 10 grand note for them and ended up with 125 for a 125 house that needed 10 grand of repairs.

They had been renting @ around 700 hundred a month and the new house payment was over 1200 a month. NO TAXES or INSURANCE included in the 1200 dollar payment.

HOW LONG do you think these folks can hold on ??
They were in trouble ... when renting @ 700 a month and having to borrow $$$ from the high rate finance company.

I see this all the time ... I have sold 5 or 6 houses in the past 2 or 3 years and almost every one of them had this same sad story ... borrowed more than they could pay back. It runs in cycles ... I buy LOW when the economy is slow ... SELL HIGH when the economy shifts up.

Do I feel sorry for them ... ???

NO ...

NOW is the time to BUY ... if you have a little money.
Rent the place, build some equity ... the market will come back up ... after the November elections ( no matter which side gets elected ) and then SELL IT and take your profit.

 

Not really HAMB related, but I think as far as general hot-rodding goes, we are going to really start seeing cars that were 'undesirable' in the past, get built. Cars that nobody really cared about will start getting some attention, simply because for some people they are the only thing they'll be able to afford. 4 doors, smog-era cars, 80s cars, etc.

Budget hot rodding is going to make a big comeback in the next year. I think people will start learning how to do stuff on their own, rather than pay someone else to do it.

Nick,
Is going to learn how to weld this year!

 

This is kinda related to the crazy price inflation in the musclecar market. Lots of people were borrowing from the equity in the homes while housing prices were going crazy, living beyond their means. Now that the market is correcting itself and house prices are going down, there is a lot of belt-tightening going on.

(I see Deuce Roadster beat me to the bunch while i was posting this!)

 

I see a lot of tools and stuff showing up cheaper and cheaper on craigslist.

More for me!

 

Opportunity!! Time to buy. Don't sell unless you're really desperate. Don't be like the "greater fool" in the stock market: people who sell all their stocks when the market drops and but it back after it goes up.

 

I agree 100% with Deuce Roadster

 

I agree with this!

And the point was made earlier, the media LOVES when the sky is falling.

 

Deuce roadster is so right. The economy is driven by the consumer. If the media convinces us that it is bad we tighten up our spending. When this happens we force the decline in revinue and cause the result the media wanted. I guess thats why deuce roadster has the name " deuce roadster" because he is one of the smart ones.
Jim

 

OK, I'm just curious. If it's "evilbay", why R U using it? I hear a lot of shit talked about it, but, hey, there's both good and bad to it. If it's "evil" or "gay", and you're still using it? What's it say about you? Translate-if you're "crumbin" on the one you are with, it's like "crumbin" on yourself. Just an observation

 

Jim, maybe try a fixed price listing next time instead of an auction. Ebay still has the most traffic. Like it or not. And it's not just a "media thing" when we are paying alot more at the pump. Even BenD has quit trucking. It is the economy slowing down.

 

Not to be a mean, heartless S O bee

I understand that some good people are in difficult times due to the economy. Their jobs moved overseas, cut backs and down sizing has caused a lot of job loss. Some have health issues and medical bills. D I V O R C E also plays in this. A lot of divorces are caused by financial problems. The price of diesel fuel is hurting a few of my friends right now. They cannot make $$ ... with Diesel @ 4 dollars a gallon and going up.

Plain out old fashioned BAD LUCK ... also lurks at every turn in the path of life

BUT ... Instant gratification and lack of restaint are the main causes ... IMHO. A large per centage of folks do not know how to save money for a rainy day or manage their finances.

 

your on a roll , i agree 100% ..

 

YOU speak the truth! Working in the Mortgage business, I will spend a year or two to get folks on the right track rather than write a bad loan.......I tell them I WILL see them at the grocery store and dont want to duck around the aisle when I see them later out of shame.

I have two things folks should look at www.daveramsey.com and kill your television.

 

Also........do you know which time in US History more millionaires were made than ANY other era?
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The Great Depression.........yup, those who were thrifty and not leveraged to teh hilt bought the droppings when the "keeping up with the jones's" fell. Hard work and saving pays off. I think many of us on the HAMB here understand that. We will trade a days work for 3 times the return in the long run.

Jim, sorry that truck sold so cheap but I see it as bad marketing............put all those parts up on separately with the right message and you had 5-6K worth of sales!

 

Groucho,
I just called it evilbay as a joke. I use ebay everyday. I love it. Im not even complaining abour the short sale I made. Im just askin how our economic slump is affecting the hobby.

 

I believe that the economy is suffering because the MEDIA says so ... and is trying to scare a few folks ... it always makes good copy @ election time.


THATS IT ON THE MONEY DR!!!!! funny how when the war started lookin better for us, the media never talked about it...then outta no where, the economy started failing! they are makin it fail via scare programming! ugg