Your cheapest project car... $100 or less

I was a Junior in high school back in '77 when I bought my first car for $75, a 1963 Plymouth Belvedere longroof. Had a million dollars worth of fun with her too. Still searching for another...

 

Got my 39 Deluxe coupe for $50.00 sold the flathead for $25.00 and the 16's for $40.00 so I started out with $15.00 to the good. Of course that was in 1966 and I have spent a lot more since then _________?

 

only thing is most of these aren't recent $100 projects..I've never been lucky enough to buy anything for less than $750

 

Back in the 60s I got a 59 Ford sedan for $100, a 59 Ford convertible for $75, Now this one kills me, a 1957 English Ford Squire Wagon for $75 (I hate myself for selling that one). 62 T/Bird for $90, 62 VW for free (married into that one). 54 Ford and 57 Ford for free. Several other in the 60s and 70s but lost track that long and that many cars ago. In the last 15 years got a 86 Blazer $100, 76 Cutlass $100, 61 Morris Minor sedan $95. 86 Winnebago free (454 with just over 12,000 miles). 2000 Crown Vic (parts car) free. Westcoaster Mailster $100 (3 wheeled mail truck from the 60s). Daihatsu Trimobile free. (another vintage 3 wheeler) and a bunch of vintage Honda dirt bikes for $100 or less. 76 Mustang II $100 (parts car). Probably more but I tend to forget stuff now that I'm over 60.

 

As a teen I would buy abandoned cars for $5-$50, haul them to my grandparents logging shop, then sell them outright or part them out, usually for a decent profit. You'd be amazed at the number of people out in the country who will sell you a car for $10 if you haul it away right then!

 

ive gotten a few for free but my best cheapest was a 69 gto i bought for the "400" in it i got it for 100.00 yanked the engine turned out to be a 455 HO

 

i bought my 60 t-bird in my avatar for 600.00 2 years ago

 

Got my '34 for free, the guy wanted it out of his yard. I also got my '53 dodge for free, that might not count since it was from a family member!

 

I saw your other pics on this car. That is one beautiful piece of machinery and one hell of a save.

 

nothing recent for cheap; but in '58 I got my '29 cabriolet for free, in '63 I got my '29 tudor for free, and in '67, mol, I paid $25 for a '56 chevy wagon.

 

49 Plymouth Suburban two door wagon. $35.00 in 1968. A new battery and it started. I greased the zerk fitting on the water pump and it quit leaking. Drove it for a few years.

 

51 Plymouth business coupe for $100. in 1990. Frame was rotten and floors gone.
74 VW bug for $75. about '93. Chick thought it could go 75 MPH all day long and smoked the motor. I played with it a little while, then sold it to a guy who screwed around with bugs for $125. Kept the battery too.

 

Hmmm. $100 in 1960 is not the same as $100 in 2010.

 

70 Mach1, scrap weight $85, guy was doing a frame off, had it blasted, pissed his wife off she pushed it out in the snow flash rusted the entire car. Made $2 grand off it in pieces.
74 Delta 88 $65, sold the 455 a day later for $400 and kept the axles and housing ends to use in a 9" Im still running.
3 MG's free other than a case of beer
bunch of trucks under or at $100

 

I payed 45.00 for my Henry J but that was years ago

 

I know that this is an old thread, but I want to tell my story....

In 1967 I was junkyard hunting and a sailor drove up in a 55 Plymouth 2-door Wagon with drivers' side damage. Because of the damage, the junkyard wouldn't buy his car. I asked him how much he wanted. He said that in a couple of days he was leaving on a Med. Cruise (9 months). His food alotment was also several days away. He said that he just wanted to buy some food so that his wife & kids would have something to eat until the $ came. He wanted $15.00.
I bought it for the $15 and drove him home. I got the title, 1/2 tank of gas and the license plates. Went back to the junkyard and bought a radio for $5.00 and drove that car for over a year. That's my cheapest one that I paid for.

 

In 1971 I bought a '62 Nova station wagon that someone had put a 307 in for $10. Drug it home, got it running and drove it daily for about 2 years. In 1974, I bought a '55 BelAir 2 door sedan for $10. I had tried to buy it from a co-worker when he first got it from his aunt in Arkansas. It was pink and coral, 6 cylinder, 3 speed. He drove it every day for a long time and then I didn't see it in the parking lot at work any more. I asked about it and he said he had wrecked it driving home from work one day, skidded on a wet road into a telephone pole. He still wouldn't sell it. About six months later he told me he would give it to me if I would come and get it. He had a new Grand Prix that had to sit outside because the '55 was in the garage. I rented a tow bar, gave him $10 for it and drug it home. Had a ball with it for several years. Put new front sheet metal on it, 350 with a 4 speed Muncie. It was my daily driver for about 5 years and also occasionally bracket raced it. Biggest mistake I ever made was to sell it to buy a fishing boat!!!!

 

watch out for those $100 cars.....i have been working on this thing on and off for the past few months playing around(because originally i had almost next to nothing in it and decided it would be a fun project),,,...i'll get back to you on the fun thing....just sayin...... and yes i know this is OT!!!hahaha

 

I bought a 1957 Ford Fairlane 500 2 door for 2 bucks in 1972 when I was 14 teen. It had no engine or trans but other wise was perfect. I built into a gasser finished when I was 17 teen. It was slow drove like crap but looked cool. I was a little disheartened the first day I drove to high school and the cutest girl in my class walked by and asked me if my car was broken because it sat so high in the front.

 

I bought my 39 in 1966 for $50.00 it had been hit in the front and we towed it 40+ miles with a pipe and a chain. I sold the tires and the flathead for $70.00 for a net profit of $20.00, I have spent lots more since then and I am sorry but I do not do pictures.

 

I bought my first Model A, a running, rust free 1930 coupe for $60. In 1957.

 

If you count cars I've parted out, I once bought a '58 Buick 4dr and a '69 Toronado out of a lady's yard for $50 each. The Buick, I sold the owner's manual and dealer packet on eBay for $57 and the taillights for another $80 The motor brought $200, the stripped out carcass $150 at the scrapper, and I still have 4 good doors, a deck lid, steering column and box, and some other bits floating around.

The Toronado, the tilt-tele sold for $150 on eBay, the body shell was another $200, and I still have the whole front frame stub with the 455 sitting around. I sold the radio out of it for $10 at a swap, too. I ended up with two of the clusters when someone else who stripped one tossed some bits at the end of a swap meet.

Anymore, though, the $100 car is going to be pretty rare given they bring 5 or 6 times that for scrap.

 

After I got married in 76, I had some money, and was able to buy some cars, one at a time. Between about 77 through the mid 90s, I bought a lot of $100 beaters. I'd buy them cheap, then sell them or part them to fund my dirt track racer. In the late 70s through the mid 80s, a guy with a $100 bill in his pocket and a way to move the car, could buy a lot of old performance cars. In about 83 we moved out in the country and I had a acre of ground to store cars on, there was a pretty consistent and changing collection of 13 cars there most of the time, all of them (except the one the wife drove and my truck) were $100 beaters. I sold a lot of $200-$300 cars to people.

About 10 years ago I moved back in town, so I no longer have a place to park cars. I've also sold the car trailer, so moving cars has become an issue these days, but I'm still picking up something now and again. Within the past 5 years, the $100 beaters has turned into $400 beaters (scrap is up you know) and you have to look a little harder for them, but they are out there. You still have to have cash in hand, and a way to move them right away, but they are still around. I bought my 48 Plymouth business coupe in spring of 2010 for $200, and the Dakota that has supplied the chassis for the coupe was $100 a few years before that. I drove that Dakota for 2-3 years. Gene

 

In about 1969 as I was driving home from work every day I saw what looked like a 32 grille sticking out of the bushes next to a house. One day I had some time so I stopped and it turned out to be a fenderless 32 Ford pickup on a cobbled frame, chopped top, Deuce grille shell, no bed, and a 37 V860 tube front axle and hydraulic brakes.

As I was looking a lady came out and asked me if she could help me and I asked if it was for sale. She said it was her husbands, and when I asked when he would be home she said "The Son of a bitch left me the other day and didn't even leave me any money for cigarettes." She said, "If you give me $ 15 it's yours!

I was home and back with a tow bar as fast as I could, and towed that baby home. I bet he was not real happy with her if he ever did come back home to her.

Don

 

25 bucks for the Torpedo in 1984
It was slightly sunburned but complete.

 

That really is shaping up to be poretty effin awesome! Reminds me of the chrisman drag sedan.... very cool! Nice job Bull!

 

I think you need a time frame to your 100 cheap finds. I never paid more than 50 bucks for any driver I owned till I came back from Guam in 1962. My first car ever financed $695 for a 56 ford payment of 34 bucks a month.
my first car in 1957 was a 41 chev for $50.all new custom interior, mint green, lowered in the back. skirts but only one spot light was a big bummer. that and the vacume shift that couldn't be speed shifted
I could add another 25-30 cars under 100 including many free ones. paid $250 for the Olds that ran over 100mph in the quarter in the late 50's
My latest truck was $340 with a running driver with a 331 cad

 

scrap is too high around here for $100 cars....been over 200$ a ton for 2 years. there is nothing left unless it is a car guy...then you cant afford to buy them.

 

My first project in 1964ish was a 31 Ford model A panel truck. (2 back doors) 75 bucks from an older man that said it was running when parked but his kids climbed up on top and broke the wood roof bows letting the rain water in. It needed a lot of wood work inside. I ended up parting it out. It would be a beautiful find using today's standards but not worth the effort at that time.

 

In '69 I was 15yrs old. Bought a running '62 Belair bubbletop w/title out of a farmer's field for $65. 283, three on the tree, red, with primered front clip. Needed grill, headlight trim, front bumper and full exhaust. Body was solid all around. I had all the front parts within a month, cheap or free. Sold it a few months later to a bud who wanted a sb for his recently grenaded BB Camaro, for $200. I made huge money on that deal....damn.