I thought some of you guys might like to see a '30 Ford coupe which sold out of the Bayonne, NJ impound lot auction a couple of weeks ago, and I'm sure someone here actually knows the car. It showed up in the impound lot back in December I think, and sat outside there all winter. It had obviously been in an accident which wrecked the radiator & shell, tore the motor & trans off their mounts and forward 4", knocked the steering box off the frame, and bent the front axle to name a few of the obvious items. Clearly too, someones head nearly went through the windshield. On the flip side, it had a '68 327 with double hump heads, Offy 3 deuce intake, and a nice chop. I figured I'd be doing the repairs if I bought it, and parts alone were gonna run me in the range of $2500. The car needed a new steering column, new Deuce radiator & shell, new front axle, etc. Not to mention, the last air cleaner was sitting in the car all winter (I put it back on before taking the pics), so the heads were gonna have to come off just to see how bad the water damage was. I watched it like a hawk for months checking in on it every few days, certain that when it came up to auction day, I'd scoop it up for next to nothing...... boy was I wrong. After waiting for months, the day finally arrives. I took the day off of work and I'm out there an hour early, eyeballing everyone who shows up, scoping out the competition, and there seem to be nothing but junk dealers with a few goofball retiree's thrown in. I was nervous, but still certain I had it in the bag. the bidding started at $1500 and almost immediately took off like a bat out of hell. I dropped out at $3k, and these other two guys, used car/junk dealers it seemed to be, bid this damn thing up to $4700! I would imagine it's heading overseas, otherwise I can't imagine why two guys who obviously knew nothing about the car would drive it up so high. It was mindblowing. If anyone knows this car, and wants more pics, I've got a ton of them. email me at [email protected]
A decent coupe body easily fetches $4500, overall $4700 wasn't a bad buy. Besdies the reapirs, it looks like a needs a few bits re-engineered.
I agree, but the fact is, it had some questionable panel repairs made which cooled my enthusiasm. the rear wheel wells for instance appeared to be loosely glued over the old ones which left a 3/4" gap visible in the trunk. The inner & outer door skins were separating as well. I'm not into "ratrods", that shit would've driven me mental until I redid the bodywork.
Amazing no one had the fore thought to cover the entire car with a $10.00 tarp from a box store for the weather.. A motor that could start and run would have brought even more $.
If you had the $4,700 you could part it out and make money, but it would take some time in this economy. Bob
I would have snapped it up, at 4700.00 , plus 2500.00 to 5000.00 to fix it up you would still come out ahead of the games with a nice DD that you wouldn't be afraid to drive and maybe get a scratch or dent .. Then if you wanted you could sell it for 9 or 10 grand..... No brainier to me....
So based on your high estimate of another $5k in parts, which is probably more accurate than my conservative estimate of $2500, I'd have $9700 into a car I could sell for $9-10k? That's the story of my life with cars...breaking even or taking a beatin'. no thanks...
It maybe 5k more or less , and if you do the work , maybe a fair more saving ! As far as selling the more you do to it , the more you'll make when you decide to sell... Your a smart fellow ,you know what i'm saying and how it works !
Also , How much fun are you going to get out of 1) building it 2) Driving it 3 ) all the girls checking you out ! That has a price on it.... Smiles per Mile !
I'd think that car, unsmashed, is worth more than $9-10k. In fact, I'd buy one unsmashed like it this second for $9-10k.
IMO that car is well worth the $ 4700. The hit looks like it was above the frame rails, so hopefully a little straightening would fix that. Coupe bodies even in rough condition bring good money and that one is not too bad, according to the pictures. If a guy put a few grand into it I would think he could get $ 15K to $ 20K for it easy. Don
above the rail hit , could be fixed reasonably , would love to run it through my shop for a keeper or resale if not looking to get rich , i would have bid myself ,look what we have in most our rides.....beaters or not !!!
I looked at a completely rusted out body for 3500 hundred and a perimiter frame starting at 900, I'd be all over that bad boy...I'm not saying its not stupid, but its what the market brings! Good deal really!
If it were worth more than 4700 then it would've been bid higher, where is the owner and how do you get title? As it sits there is just a pile of parts n' pieces with questionable body work. If that little accident - judging by the radiator damage - knocked the engine loose then just imagine how poorly the rest of the car is put together. If any of us got the car it would be in of those 'i can't believe' threads illustrating all manor of henious workmanship and we'd have to totally redo the car in a 2-3year project.
Agreed it would be a project for sure! But It still looks better than most of what I see around here!
After fee's and everything lets say $5000 and thats a Steal in my book! Ehh life goes on but Id love to here the story that goes with it!
You bailed out way too soon at $3000. You should have gone higher-I'm guessing the buyer's cap was $5000? I think it was a great buy at $4700. You couldn't swap meet buy all the parts for 5k. Figure the body alone, even with shitty patches is worth 3k+. Title/frame-$500, set of tires, etc. all adds up quick. Sure the car was clearly scrounged on a budget and isn't to our standards, but you can bet that the used car dealers that bought this could care less about the build quality, crappy patch panels, etc. It'll be another flip for them and they'll probably make 10k on it. They'll have their $15 an hour jack of all trades, lot boy/mechanic get it running and toss in a blanket interior add an $89 SBC chrome dress up kit and block it out a bit for a fresh primer job. Someone will buy it, drive it for awhile, then decide to tear it down completely to do it right. We see it all the time. It'll be a 20k builder instead of a 5k builder. I bet you'll see this "Hot Rod/Rat Rod back on the market for $20,000 in a month. Or you'll see one of them at cruise night with their "new Hot Rod they just built".
I'm thinking the car is in impound and unclaimed because the accident turned up fictitious plates, no ins and eventually no title. Thus the impound. The owner could not come up with documents on the car. Thus the abandoment at impound. So the sale will generate a salvage title for the new owner. Then the car can be converted to a regular title in NJ withsome additional paper work and an inspection by the DMV, or the buyer is out of state and his state will convert the NJ Salvage title to a regular title. JMO Frank PS. disc brakes and radials did not help the guy from rear ending the car in front of him. Looks like a Jolopy showdown infield stick on the widshield. I wonder what the pinstrip scrip on the dash right side says?
according to the cop who runs the auction, the car took so long to go up for sale because there were delays in getting the title back from NJDMV. The car was sold with what they call a "green form" which you bring to the dmv in order to get a legitimate title. While it sold for $4700, that's not to say I could've bought it for that. fact is the guy who won it showed no signs of slowing down. And while I subscribe to the idea of 'labor of love' as someone mentioned, you've also gotta be smart about what you do with your money, and the margins were a little too thin for me. The script on the dash reads "Rock N Roll's been goin' downhill ever since Buddy Holly died!" The script on the trunk read "Baby who could really love this car but me" That is a Jalopy showdown sticker in the window, and along with some other stickers for 'The ChopTops', was a magnet for the 'Mobtown Greaseball 10th annual Carshow' which is now gracing my fridge holding coupons...
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