Here is the back story: I am a 20 year old full time college student and I work part time, I currently have 3 vehicles, my 1956 Buick wagon that is far from being on the road, a 1976 toyota pickup that is my daily, and a 1994 F250 that used to be my daily until I got my toyota. I've been driving my toyota for almost a year now without failure, and I live withing biking distance of school and work so having a running car isn't critical its just really nice. So recently I have been trying to sell my F250 with no luck, its a good truck but its 2wd and has a gas 5.8L/5spd but I've had no bites at $2500. I realize that is probably on the high end of what the truck is worth. I started to think about trading the truck for a car I could sell; I found a 1964 Olds four door hardtop that has been sitting since 1993 but it has 64,000 miles. It is for sale by the son of the original owner (who himself is probably around 60) they guy says he just wants to see it on the road again. I went and looked at the car and it is in good shape, I seriously could not find a spot of rust on it. From what I could see and what he told me the car is only missing the skirts, the drivers side tail light, and the trunk trim was broken. The interior was all there and in pretty good shape, the doors close better than any car I have even been in. He says the motor runs but he didn't want to start it until the carb has been gone through. The only damage on the car was a dent in the rear pumper and trunk from where he had backed into a cement bollard in a parking lot of a pizza joint and he says he has felt terrible about it ever since because the car was so pristine. He told me to think about the trade and he wouldn't sell the car until I decided if I wanted to go through with it or not. I don't know if he wants my truck or if he wants the car to go to someone he thinks will take car for it. Sorry I did not take any pictures of the car. But here is the picture from the craigslist ad: <a href="http://s97.photobucket.com/albums/l222/III_3_III/?action=view&current=olds98.jpg" target="_blank"></a> My plan would be to get it running and driving, drive it around for a bit and enjoy it, then sell it. So, what do you guys think? Am I being and idiot with rose colored glasses? I figure it would take less than a grand to fix this car up and have in on the road: brakes, fuel system, hoses, belts, and tires. Thanks, Ryland
Tell him to get the car running and then and only then talk about trading,,, If the car is not running you don't know what the hidden problems are. As far as throwing a grand at it and hoping to flip it for a profit,,your dreaming.HRP
pictures would help but . I would id take a really nice 4 door over a truck ... keep the toyota pickup they rock..
It's nice to have a truck that can haul parts and pull trailers, but if you haven't gotten any bites on the truck I'd think the car would be more worth it. As long as you check the engine and you can get it running!!
sell the truck, and put the money into 56 wagon... That 64 4-door will be a tough sell down the road..
Keep the truck. A guy with a pick-up truck can make a bit of money if he thinks about working with it. Landscaper, grass cutting, garbage, firewood and coal hauling ect. Even doing house cleanouts. These are things that many people would pay a college student with a truck to do. Most of these are good cash jobs. Uncle Sam will never know you did them and your college loans will still go thru. That Olds has a big trunk, but it wouldn't be the same.
The way the car sits its worth $ 600,running driving $1500 tops. There must be more to the guys story with the I don't want to crank it up without the carb rebuild. BS. Sell your truck and finish the wagon.
My thoughts--Do you have the money to put into the OLDs. Remember, it`s a 4-dr. A month ago, there was a 65 Olds in the same condition you are talking about sitting in a YOU-PULL-IT yard. Was apparently rearended. It even had airbags on it. If I had a 4-dr olds sitting since 93 , I`d trade for your truck in a minute. Another thing to think about, If you had $2100(actual selling price of the truck), would you buy the olds, or would you spend it on somthing else.
I normally wouldn't advocate owning a foreign car or truck[I'm kinda funny that way] but having owned several of those old 60s Olds, I say keep your pickup. Even if you do get the Olds runnning, it takes high-octane fuel...especially the 98 series. They built them with high [10-10.5 to 1] compression to take advantage of the super cheap premium fuel available in the 60s. You can retard the timing to use todays fuel but with the ethanol fuel, there are vapor lock/carb perculating problems to address. And I never liked the 60s GM hydramatic trannys. A personal choice again. I've seen the thread and the video of your most excelent 56 Buick wagon. I'd focus on it, myself. Besides...64 Olds 4 door 98 sedans are just plain ugly...nice parts cars for your 41 Willys gasser but.....................................
Thank you guys, this is all the stuff my head was saying that I just didn't want to listen to. I am a sucker for a project, its always been a fault of mine. Ryland
While the Olds is a neat old car, it will never be very high on the desirability scale, very small market for it. Your chances of flipping it and making money are slim...........if he can't do it, why would you do any better. I agree that his story about wanting to wait until the carb is rebuilt is BS. What does that have to do with anything ? The Olds engine in my rpu project came out of the exact 64 98 Olds you pictured. I paid $300 for the car and it was similarly nice to the one you describe. I kept a few parts and scrapped the rest because there just isn't a lot of demand for them. Now, if you said you wanted to keep the car and fix it up as a driver, that would be a different story, but not to flip. Don PS, if you do get it I have a free transmission you can have. I kept the one out of the 64 I bought, but it sure would be heavy to ship.
Around here, nobody wants 2wd, that's why I drive 'em. I just sold a 92 F-250 2wd with a 5 speed, bought it for $650 and drove it 5 years. I had it priced at $1000 but ended up trading too. Every car that doesn't run just needs something simple (yeah, right) The trade would be fair if you can drive the car home, otherwise it's worth about what it would go across the scale for.
<style>@font-face { font-family: "Times New Roman"; }p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal { margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman"; }table.MsoNormalTable { font-size: 10pt; font-family: "Times New Roman"; }div.Section1 { page: Section1; }</style> To my mind, that Olds looks to be worth $1,200, tops, and only to somebody that loves it. Meanwhile, a good heavy-duty work truck will always sell. Put it on a street corner at $1,950 and see what happens. Going to school and working, whatever you have left over for cars is best spent on that wagon. Don’t waste your time chasing dream dollars on that Olds. Been there, wasted time on that.
I have a bagged '64 98 that's real solid and has OG Raders and bellflowers on it, decent paint, would sell it for $4K right now. They're neat cars but I wouldn't trade a $2500 truck for the one pictured above, especially if you can't hear it running.
My advice is offer the truck up for a classic car trade and a better one will come along... Squablow, are those Raders unilug by chance?
The Raders are straight 5 on 5 pattern, and they're married to that car, not coming off. I don't know if I've seen unilug Raders ever? I think unilug came around in the 70's after Raders went out of production, but I could be wrong.
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