Thread: throwing in the car towel

Tweet

we are selling the 53 buick.
now just isnt the right time to dive headfirst into a project.
i put it on craigslist and a few car forums but.
if interest doesnt perk up
i will pull the 200 or so lbs. of chrome doodads and sell them
sell both straight 8 fireball engines
and crush the rest.
too bad because it is such a cool car.
but it just isnt in the cards.

i have never just quit on a car project.
so it feels strange.

Billy,
Have you visited any of the Buick Owner's sites? Someone doing a restoration might be looking for a good parts car and willing to meet or beat scrap prices if they're not too far away from you.

We all see what we want to see, so here's what I see.
I've noticed a decided drop in the old car market for SOME things, in particular, the less unique/desirable "stuff", lately. Sales of parts and projects usually tails off late spring, summer as folks in the hobby are more active in the show/drive activities. The market usually picks up again in Sept/Oct when "the season ends" and folks get back in more of a build mode than activity participation mode. But the drop off seems/feels more precipitous this year. I've run ads pretty steadily the last couple years and expect the seasonal drop off (not unique to me, if you notice ebay runs more "free listing" promos this time of year to try to boost their program as well). But it's really dead this year compared to the last couple. LOTS of cars are for sale as usual, but fewer seem to be selling as quickly with the exception of the ones that are really well priced AND more desirable (real '32 Fords for example still sell well). Four door sedans are a tough sell any time, and double tough right now. It's my belief, though not very provable other than observing actual outcomes, that the folks at the lower end of the economic scale who are the market for the lower demand stuff are feeling the economic pinch more so and aren't playing the toy car game as they had been awhile back. I could go off on an economics riff, but not very many folks are interested in that stuff so I won't. However, if the political class is successful in it's attempts to cripple the affordable energy regime we've been used to, our hobby will really feel it. Enough said there.

All that aside, you'll do best with you notion of selling off parts. I had a similar situation with a '40 Ford sedan project I needed to unload a few years ago. I couldn't get any serious interest in the total package so finally bit the bullet and did the extra labor of selling it off in individual parts. Ended up with close to twice as much money in my pocket, and an open stall in the garage, but it did take more effort.

UPDATE
we are keeping the car but selling the engines.
WOOT