Depreciating or increasing the value?

Gotta be like thirty years ago a friend of mine wanted to build a car, an "A" or 33-34 or 55 chevy but was dragging his feet because he was worried about "getting his money back" if he didn't like the car..I told him if he built the damn thing to his liking then he wouldn't have to worry about resale...He still wants and still don't have..

 

I'd like to bootstrap onto this thread if possible-- I've been debating single versus double master cylinder on a 55 Chevy pickup I pulled out of a barn this summer. Everything but the paint on this truck is currently 100% original, and I play to leave it that way except for radial tires, will a departure from stock brakes change the value?

As long as I can get the six running I'm leaving drive train stock for now and keeping all drums.

Thanks for any input


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Ever heard this :

"If you want to make a small fortune building cars,
you first start with a LARGE fortune"

 

What your opinionated neighbor thinks doesn't matter. He's only considering what he thinks is best for the car. And he might be wrong. In addition, it has to do not only with the car itself, but also (and maybe even more so) to do with who you are. So the best advice may actually be questions pertaining mostly to that. And nobody can answer these questions better than you.

Do you have the skills, tools, space, motivation, time, energy and money to do this?

Do you enjoy the car as it is...or not?

Does it run well as it is...or not?

Is changing the car so important to you that it outweighs the obstacles you'll encounter?

And why might you want to do this? As already mentioned, any expected monitary return isn't reason enough...but your personal passion may very well be.

 

If someone else modified it before you bought it, it's not really custom.

Which is why I think an original car is worth much more relative to the investment. People who want unmolested cars buy unmolested cars. Most people who want to customize a car buy unmolested cars. That leaves a small group of people that want a car that was modified to someone else's tastes.

Now, a custom may be worth more, but in many cases, a guy spent $100,000 to increase the value by $20,000.

 

Jay Leno really messed up a '55 Buick by putting a 572cid, 620 hp rat motor in it. He paid $350 for the car in 1972 and since he ruined it by modifying it, it's probably worth only a fraction of what he paid for it.

I never get these "don't modify it" people on a HOT ROD forum. Cut it up, it's only metal!

 

And he restored it once in 1973, drove it, let it sit for 16 years and become a mess, and resto-modded it in 2002. If you separate out the name recognition, you think he's getting his money back? LOL

Cut it up, fine, just don't expect people to fall over themselves to buy it if you do. And don't expect them to fall over themselves to buy it if you don't cut it up, either.

 

Your point is well taken but misguided
Jay Leno could never sell the caddy powered Buick but for a fraction of what it cost to build it customized.

S Mazza said it best - spend 100,000 to increase the value by 20,000

 

It depends on the car, and the times. Some cars appreciate faster as stockers, while others do the opposite. A few years ago, mid-year Vettes peaked as stockers. Today, the "resto-mods" have skyrocketed in value past stockers. Why? Uniqueness? Who the heck knows. So, there is no right or wrong answer, other than: "it depends.....".

 

Ok, let's leave Leno out of it.

To give another recent example, at the Mecum Monterey auction in August, a beautiful '56 Nomad, unmodified, sold for $45,000

A '56 Chevy 210 2 dr sedan that was billed as "pro touring" was bid to $90,000 without selling and a modified '55 Bel Air 2 dr hdtp was bid to $120,000 without selling.

Well done (both in design and craftmanship) modified cars bring good money. Cars with tasteless modifications and poor workmanship don't.

I guess I am on the wrong forum. I didn't realize this was the AACA forum. I thought it was for traditional hot rods and customs.

I'm gonna go modify something.

 

Hot rods and customs only retain value, if you keep them.

 

Cars rarely return back to you what you have in them, either as a custom or resto. As has been said already "It's a buyers market, not a sellers market!"
So I would build it to suit your taste and desires, drive it a while, and if you can recoup even 1/2 to 2/3's of your investment your doing better than most.

 

I think if you do a very clean install and keep the rest of the car in a mild traditional style, you shouldn't have a problem with resell value. Especially if you keep the original parts you take off and offer them as part of the deal if you go to sell.

 

If it is a running driving car, why mess with it? Nothing wrong with a OG nailhead. Now if you need to rebuild it and the dynoslow, then you have a choice. Engine swap is for your enjoyment only. They next guy will care less if it has a SBC nailhead or such. He will just care if it looks good and drives. Increases in value are purely cosmetic and drivability nothing more.

And besides all of this, it is a Buick. In the 60s my dad could buy as many as you wanted for $75 each. Today I see drivers go for $2500-3500.


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im all for customizing and improving the performance, and i understand what the hamb forum is all about. i see this buick as a stepping stone to a classic i really desire so i just want to make sure im not butchering the buick by "upgrading" the drive train. i do plan on rebuilding and collecting whats needed before it goes on stands...this topic was mainly aimed at some curiosity i had and im sure a few others had too. anytime from now on when im working on my vehicle ill be mumbling "this is an upgrade, this is an upgrade" haha

 

I have a financial adviser that invests my retirement funds for me. He does not buy old cars with my money, care to guess why? I view my car habit as an entertainment expense, I buy rough stuff, spend a lot of time and as little money as possible to make it safe, drivable, and possibly even handsome. The modifications I do may not make the car more sell-able, but I don't care, I'm building it to drive.
Way too many people today are thinking about what their car is worth, rather than how to have real fun in this hobby.

 

And to think, all this time I thought it was traditional to modify your car. As long as you do the work yourself and set a budget for the swap, why the hell not. Would it not be more fun to drive with the 401 in it ? It's a hobby, enjoy it.

 

cut it up & see what you can turn it into

 

I'm not going to live forever, therefore I'm not really concerned with the future value of my car. I'll enjoy it while I can and let someone else worry about that.

 

They don't write songs about cars with stock drivetrains ,do they?, so hot rod it if your a hot rodder.

 

This is such a tough topic. For the OP, considering the reasons for what you're doing it's perhaps a wash. Still a Buick, still a nailhead, easier to service, more powerful and efficient, easy enough to make it look the same or nearly so to the casual observer. Your upgrade could be taken as a positive. Now if you go ahead and lace the roof and add all sorts of whack to the outside, you're making a bold PERSONAL statement.

As to prices and values, I like what I've seen and heard over the last calendar year. Seems like more buyers are in the game because prices have sort of normalized. Hard to lay a value on your Buick. I think down the road the mods help a sale, not hurt it. It's not like it's a 53 Skylark or a 65 Riviera GS. If you were dropping in a SBC, yes it hurts it no matter how positive the change seems. Suppose it were a Caddy of the same vintage. Plus or minus with a later 500CID Cad motor? Depending on the rest of the car it's a coin toss. As to customs in general, they almost NEVER bring the bucks a rod does. Unless it's a 49-51 Merc with serious street creds from back in the day they languish in the value results. Imagine a very tasteful "bullet bird" all low and frosty, bitchin wire wheels and pinner whites, kustom tuck n roll. A stock restored carbeats it at auction.

 

I don't think they write songs about cars anymore, but when they did, they often wrote songs about stock drivetrains.

The Beach Boys sang about saving pennies and dimes to buy a "brand new 409" ... a "four speed dual quad posi-traction 409". Presumably a bone stock Impala SS?

Ronnie and the Daytonas said their GTO was a "modified Pon-Pon" with "plenty of style", but they also said it had "three deuces and a four-speed and a 389", which was a completely stock drivetrain.

Must be gold chainers.

For the record, the "Surfin' Safari" album was released in 1962, and "G.T.O." came out in 1964, so both songs are HAMB-friendly.

 

I was at a car show a while back that played what sounded like a full length song about the Pontiac GTO, it sounded like it should have been the sound track for a commercial on TV from about 1968.

 

Pretty well put right there: Quite often these days it isn't so much that you modified a car that might lower the resale value but how you modified it and what it looks like in the end. A nicely done mid 50's Buick that is properly modified (and especially running a nailhead) with a proper paint job and interior should bring about the same as a restored stock one of the same model.


That said, the simple fact is that there is as much fallacy as fact in your neighbor's statement these days anyhow. That old adage did pretty well hold true in the 50's, 60's and 70's as a lot of potential customers didn't want to buy a car that they thought had been "hot rodded all over town".
A friend in Waco who owned a car lot in the early 70's had two equal Mustangs. The red one had a nice set of mags on it and wide tires and the green one had a nice set of narrow white walls and the deluxe hubcaps. Some guy looked at the red one and test drove it but wouldn't buy it because "someone had hotrodded it" meaning it had the mags and wider tires on it. A guy and his kid stopped by the lot and the kid wanted the green one but the clincher on the deal was he wanted the mags and tires off the red one. Up to where I worked and swap tires and back down to the lot. On Monday the same guy who had looked at the red one came back and bought it and paid a premium for it with the stock wheels, tires and caps because he thought it was such a nice "original" car. That same mentality has been around since guys started modifying cars and other guys thought that it killed the value.
Just check any listing of similar model cars and the restored stockers usually top out at a certain level with few exceptions and in some models that is almost the lower end of the nicely modified cars price range. Model A Fords are a prime example there. Around here it seems like most restored to stock Model A's have an asking price in the high teens low twenties where many so so Model A hot rods are priced with the really nice ones having much higher asking prices.

To me if you are worried about resale value on way or the other and aren't in the business of selling cars you are in entirely the wrong hobby. For a hobbiest it should be about the enjoyment you get out of the car and what you do to get that enjoyment. There isn't much enjoyment for me worrying about what I do to the car causing a increase or decrease in resale value. It might happen if I build one to sell but then I will be building it with an eye on what the buyer wants rather than what I want.

 

You say it is a stepping stone to a classic. Spend your time on cleaning and fixing little things and marketing your car for a high price as is and start shopping for the classic you really want.

 

Really sounds like you just want to sell the car to get what you want. Clean it up,fix the little things and see what you can get out of it now. If all you want is to sell it putting more money in it is just taking away from your wallet. Sell it to the nosey neighbor.

 

I hear ya ,but those are the kind of motors that we upgrade most stock motors with

 

If it's a 1953 SKYLARK, DON"T TOUCH IT!!!

Other wise, in with the 401 and a Switch Pitch, slam it, Flippers, Flame Throwers, and drive it like you want to make David Buick proud, Esay!

 

That's a good point too!

 

....in this case, leave it alone.......drive it, make it right and then sell it off stock. There is no point in modifying the Buick if it's not your dream car. Money and time do not grow on trees.

Then buy the car you desire and go crazy.