Your cheapest project car... $100 or less

the fuck you 54 20 bucks

thats right 20 bucks

 

I traded a '53 F-100 for this that I had zero money invested in. I did have a little sweat equity in it, but as I donot build cars for a living my time is worth zero. So I have zero dollars inveested in this project as you see it. it is complete the rest of the pieces are piled in the floor boards. It is comlete. Even all the glass except door glass.

 

I bought a '41 Chev special Deluxe 4 door for $75 in 1971. Put a battery in it and drove it home. Fenders had lots of dents due to it being used as a rural route newspaper delivery car. After cleaning out about 1000 newspaper from the back seat we found it still had the plastic seat covers and all kinds of add on stuff. Had 62,000 miles. Drove it all thru college which led to a number of conversations with the law, such as: YOU ARE NOT GANGSTERS, QUIT SQUIRTING OTHER CARS WITH THOSE GUNS! AND TAKE THE STUPID HATS AND SUITS OFF. NOT HERE, DUMMY!!" . And driving it at speed with the worn shocks......wow. Sold it my last year in college to cover my sisters med school tuition. The kid that bought it blew it up two weeks later, but, with a little help from my dad, put a 235 in it and it's still being driven occasionally today! And then there was the '31 Vicky for $50.......

 

When I was in High School I found a 1958 Morris Minor sitting in a guy's back yard. We struck a deal: I gave him a double barrel 12 ga. shotgun and he gave me $10 and the car. I went completely through it (including rebuilding the engine and painting the car) and it was the basis for all my subsequent projects. Great times with my Dad, everybody should have an experience like that at the start of their lives.

 

1978 I was driving my 55 Chevy 2dr 150 as a High School kid. Stopped and looked at a 55 Bel Air Beauville 4 Door Station Wagon that was sitting in a field beside a house. The drive train was long gone but every thing else was nice and complete. The guy told me I could have it or anything I wanted off of it for he was going to send it to the junk yard. I removed the Bel Air dash trim and put in my car.
I still have the Bel Air trim piece from the dash speaker cover. I used it for this wood shop project. Don't know how it lasted all these years? Not really these years but more like them years in my 20's & 30's! Man I dumped some cool stuff back then?

 

well i like this thread cause i like cheap stuff or better yet thats all i can afford but 100 dollars in 1966 is like 500-800 in todays money based on gas prices alone and since any car even a 1991 geo metro is worth 250ish scrap weight this is kinda irrelevent
we should start a thread called the cars that kick ass for 2,500 cause that is a realistic figure ..
since a roasted model A shell is now 3 g's

 

A friend gave me this one for free for helping him move. No recent photos but I now have half of the body done hopefully finishing it in the spring. I'm keeping the quiet running 6 and 3 on the tree in it.

 

i have picked up other free projects, here are my last two, the coupe and the van both were "i just want it out of the yard" the OT campervan i put air in the tires, poured gas in the tank, installed a battery and drove it home, twenty years in a barn just waiting for me to come along.

 

In '67 I bought a '59 MGA roadster for $35.00. Owner had run into the back of his Cadillac in his own driveway (bad brakes). He parked it in his garage for 3 years and let his kids tear up the interior. Battery, brake fluid, and fresh gas and I had it running. Sold it to a MG "collector" for $150.00.

In '72 I bought a running '56 Chevy 4 door wagon, 265 overdrive for $50.00. I had been hit in the left rear. Drove it for 6 months and sold it for $135.00.

In '73 I bought a '55 first series Chevy 1/2 ton panel truck from the original owner for $100.00. I drove it home. Ran out of gas on the way and the gas station owner offered me $300.00. I still have it but its apart right now. I am undoing all of the awful things I did to it in the '70's.

 

---1924 Overland given to me by a good friend.

 

In early 1968 I was stationed on USCGC Gentian and I bought a 59 BugEyed Sprite less engine for $75 from a guy on USCG Base Galveston. I took my 62 Sprite apart and transferred everything into the 59. After the engine cratered, early 1969, I sold the parts car and the 59 for $450 to a guy from Dallas.
Then I bought a rotten 55 1st Chevy Bell Telephone truck from another Coastie I worked with for $50. Installed a "rebuilt" transmission for $35 and drove it for another 2 years.
Got transferred to Eufaula AL in mid-69. Several weeks after being there I bought a 35 Std, Chevy 3W Coupe for $35 out of a backyard behind an old house. It had a 54 Ford 239 Y-block 3-speed and Ford rear in it, no hood, no front fenders or boards. A few weeks later I bought a 53 Chevy pickup runner with a broken frame at auction for $25 for a drivetrain for the coupe.
Then I found a 54 Henry J in George Wallace's hometown in a junkyard for $40. Brought that back to the base and bought a 57 Cadillac Sedan DeVille from a guy at the base for $75. Pulled the drivetrain out of the cherry Caddy and scrapped the body. Sent the engine to the machine shop and bought all the new parts to reassemble it. Got the engine block, crank, rods and pistons back from the machine and also got orders to transfer to Mobile aboard the USCGC Blackthorn, yes that one. Sold my Bell Telephone truck to a local "junkie", man who collects scrap to sell for a living, for $350. Rolled the HJ into Lake Eufaula, no buyers, and took the Caddy stuff to my Dad's home for storage. Trailered the 35 Chevy to Mobile.
Arrived in Mobile in mid 1970. On a trip to Andalusia AL where my parents lived at the time I saw my first car, 47 Plymouth 4door sedan, sitting in a junkyard in Red Level AL. Stopped and ended up buying it back for $125.Got a new battery for it and a used Thrush glasspack from my brother and drove it back to Mobile. A few weeks later bought a 42 Plymouth 4door sedan for $10 from a neighbor in the apartments where my wife and I lived. Towed it home from out of town behind the 47 Plymouth. Bought a battery, belt, hoses and rebuilt the rear brakes, had another driver.
Sold the 35 Chevy for $650 and the trailer it sat on for $550. Sold the 42 Plymouth for $500.
Also sold my first car again, I don't know why, but got $750 for it this time. Tried to buy it back for the next 20 years then one day the guy's phone number was disconnected. He loved it more than I did.
Got out of Guard in 71. Started college in Mobile. Shortly got a 36 Terraplane 2door sedan for free about 6 blocks from our house, then a 32 BB Ford 4banger truck for $25 in Tillman's Corner on Hwy 90. Then, on a trip to my parents house I bought a 51 Ford convertible, runner/driver with no top material on it for $50. Drove it back to Mobile with dreams of a custom in my head. I sold the Terraplane to a guy in town for $350, and donated the truck to a local hotrod club, The Port City Classics.
About a year and a half later, circumstances decided I would move back to Texas so I hitched up my 51 Convertible to the back of the 65 Ford pickup and headed west...
Found out there were plenty of cheap projects to be had there too.

 

That is one nice lookin sedan!!!!!!

 

...paid $30 for this 50 fastback , coarse that was like 45 years ago. Great car.

 

...paid $75 for this 38, it was just the frame, main body with doors & trunklid.
...went to a swapmeet a couple weeks later and got the front tin, had all the fenders, and put this together. Those were the good ol days...

 

My dad gave me this truck after his friend gave it to him



Ive Put over 3500 miles on it this summer. And funny enough the bobber in the back I bought at a swap meet for 100

 

So many under $100 cars...but you said cheapest. Aside from a few free cars...[55 pontiac in photo] the BEST cheap car was my 57 Pontiac super chief. Got if for $10...had a great 347, 4 barrel, dual exhaust/automatic.
Come to think about it, the 55 was every bit as good a car.
Even cheaper was my 40 ford sedan for 8 bucks....can't be the best because I blew the 39 top loader on the way home with it...whatta piece-a-shit!

 

'55 Oval Window





....$1

 

Bought a 69 GTO with 22k miles no motor or tyranny for $100the in 1977.
M22 rock crusher tyranny was $75a and a 400 engine from a 68 Catalina station wagon with about 30k miles was $50.
The truck I learned to drive in at 12 was a 1955 F250 my uncle bought for $50 from a service station he worked at.The truck had a very large thick steel front bumper used to push cars around the lot.Two days after he bought the truck a bus side swiped it and the bumper pealed the side of the bus like a can opener.My uncle got $300 for the accident.
He gave it to me but it quickly fell out of favor after the GTO was on the road.
Funny that I would much rather have the old ford truck after all these years.

 

Over many years
31 p/u cab & doors .................free
31 coupe body........................free
65 comet 2 d sd .....................$50.oo
35 3 window ..........................over 100 but not by much

 

$50 with title just a few months ago

 

How would you like to make a 100% profit on this puppy?.... I got $40 for ya!!!

 

Damn someone gave you a deal!
That truck would scrap for 10x that and sell for even more.
Let the build thread begin.

 

My truck that is my avatar I payed $1 for. But at the time it was really really beat up.

 

I bought a 1964 Polara for $75.00 with a very straight, rust free body, but no drive train or interior. A couple of years later I bought a 1968 Fury with about 32,000 miles from the original owners grandson for $75.00. He said it quit running and he thought the timing chain jumped, I borrowed a screw driver from him, popped the distributer cap and adjusted the points and drove it home. A year or two later bought a 1974 Imperial with a 440 for $50.00, had to add a few quarts of atf to get it home.

 

Still huntin.....

 

I'm in the same boat as you buddy

 

My cheapest car was also my first car - a '57 Chevy 2-door hardtop for FREE in the spring of 1985.

 

I have to go back to 1968 to get the cheapest I bought. A 1940 Chevy coupe, running and driving for $50. For another $50 I bought a wrecked Chrysler Imperial with a 413, and took engine, trans and rearend to swap into the '40. For $25 I bought a straight axle out of a '57 Chev truck for the frontend. I think I was under $300 when I got it driving around and terrorising the streets!

 

I picked up my '36 for free this summer. Well ok, the cost of the trailer rental and lunch for a buddy. The truck left in an industrial lot for years, and was about to be scrapped.

 

Off topic, but I bought a 71 cutlass back in 2000 or 2001 for 50 dollars. Still have the th400 switch pitch tranny and a couple of hurst shifters that came with it.