Thread: should I not buy a Street Beasts Car ?

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Don...Yes, somethng is "fishy". Kosmos never did say if he went to look at it or not. His original post said he was supposed to go look at it last Friday. I think ypu might be correct!

Pat

P.S By the way, I know you now live in Florida, but do you know if they reopened or moved the Pittsburgh Int'l Dragway. A friend of mine from here in Rochester races a Superstock COPO MoPAR and said he went to the nostalgia drags in Pittsburgh a few weeks ago.

I've seen those wheels before. I think they were on Charlton Heston's chariot during that race in "Ben Hur." Messala didn't like 'em either . . .

Ya' know Henry, that track C.H. raced on had NO grass at all on it. Cours' that was B4 the dayz' of Weed N' Feed.

Bet it would be interesting to be turning a corner and have a finger or two get tangled in the steering wheel.

P.S By the way, I know you now live in Florida, but do you know if they reopened or moved the Pittsburgh Int'l Dragway. A friend of mine from here in Rochester races a Superstock COPO MoPAR and said he went to the nostalgia drags in Pittsburgh a few weeks ago.(quote)


Pat: Sorry it took me awhile to answer you. I went to the shop after work and just got home. As for P.I.D, I had no idea what happened to it, so I googled it, and found this website. According to the site, the strip closed in 1976 , and never reopened. Take a look at the website, it is full of pictures and very interesting stuff.

http://www.pittsburghinternationaldr...com/index.html - 2k


Don

I truely have not seen a Barrett-Jackson car on the page. From 50yrs advice in cars, if you are looking for an investment, you can not drive it. If it is an investment there are a handful of people in the world know about it and track it, you still can not drive it. The real bottom line is this, if you pay retail or more for it how are you going to realize a return on the investment? If you like the car for what it is and you can improve upon it and enjoy it, can you be wrong? I have built as an example several v8 powered Jaguar long wheelbase cars and drove them until rust finally ate them from under me. By reckoning I had more in the cars than they could be sold for at a profit, but then the roadability of the cars was nice. What was that worth??? Priceless!!
If you want the car, check it out and be satisified with what it is before you offer anything, if the price is firm and it is not the Hope Diamond then look again harder if you are still satisified consider offering aprox
the following: base price of car and donor, paint and upholstery but only $50-60 dollars an hour for labor after all, you are not paying retail to build the car and the individual selling is looking to make profit. Profit is good and necessary but, when you are buying modesty is the key, when you are selling then by all means attempt to rip off a head.

Originally Posted by Henry Rifle

I've seen those wheels before. I think they were on Charlton Heston's chariot during that race in "Ben Hur." Messala didn't like 'em either . . .

I got to this thread late, but I am surprised the "hook" for this car is the paint which just does not interest me. In the car purchase/resale business you really have to be shrewd to find your way through the various attitudes in a hobby field which is so sensitive to personal preferences and historical "trends". That means the purchase has to be ultimately to the taste of the buyer with the understanding that he/she is pleasing him/herself and that resale will be very tricky. I had heard of problems with Street Beasts before selecting a Bebops '29 roadster and I guess I am only pleasing myself with the intention of getting it running and looking reasonably good. So far the paint job was less than 50 hours labor with a written guarentee of touch ups after I install the accessories (I already have one scratch just putting the gas tank in, but it will be fixed later). So at the risk of a lot of mud thrown my way, what is the review on Bebops bodies? The paint/body guy said it was pretty straight and only needed a little alignment on the rumble lid edges. I recently drilled holes through the rear fenders to mount the neat '29 "stalk" taillights and was pleased to see the "meat" of the fenders is at least 3/8" thick. As far as the fender-floor unit being all in one piece I see that fender damage could extend into the floor as well but the tradeoff is the ease of assembly compared to fitting four fenders and two running boards compared to just eight body-mount bolts. My response to this possibility is to use stainless Model A bumpers front and rear to protect the fenders. So far I have been buying Model A parts from a restorer shop in Gaithersburg and all the accessories fit. Any warnings about Bebops 'glass? In my opinion, it is not perfect but pretty good and the meat thickness in the fender areas seems good to me. Comments?

Don Shillady
Retired Scientist/teen rodder

Don...thanks for getting back to me and especially for the URL to PID. Brings back some old memories!

I wonder where the new track is located????

Have a great day!

Not sure where this is Pat, but it looks like it might be the one.


Don

http://www.na-motorsports.com/Tracks...tsburghRP.html

Don...how in the heck do you find this stuff?????

I just checked Google maps and New Alexandria is near old Arnie Palmer and Rolling Rock country (Latrobe).

Thanks again for the info buddy!!!!

Pat

I dropped off this for a few days, but to answer a couple questions: This is my second build, the first was a Contemporary Cobra. However, we got it second hand, and the body was pretty much already done, so we didn't deal with alignment issues. That was a very good 'kit', though. It drives great, rides nice, and does 4 second runs to 60!

As far as the advertised car here, I agree the dash needs help, and the overspray is funky. But, neither of those is a StreetBeasts issue. SB didn't paint the car, and they didn't cover the dash in leather-like material either. I hear all this bashing of SB, but none of the issues anyone brings up are the fault of SB. Again, not saying they are perfect, but my point is that all these cars, whether glass or steel, seem to need some "massaging". Far as I can tell, my car is pretty straight, and has gone together well. The gaps aren't perfect, but my painter estimates 50 hours of prep and fit-finish work to smooth all edges, fix all lines, and get ready for paint. That doesn't sound extreme to me. If I were trying to work this on a budget, the lines are close enough and the doors and hood fit well enough to be fine, just not show winner perfect.

I think Denny and I had the same thoughts on the SB car. At a certain price it would be fine to purchase, but $ 38 K gets you a pretty nice car with some smart shopping. We just feel with that kind of budget you could score something a lot better. Not trying to put words in anyone's mouth, but that is the way I read the posts.

Don

You may have misunderstood... I was referring to my car, not that one, with 50 hours of body. Do you think 50 hours is a lot? I'm still getting paint & body quotes, so I'm learning. But, I didn't think it sounded unreasonable. I've seen fiberglass cars that got several hundred hours of straightening and adjusting to get it right.

Meanwhile, I see that this green car sold for 30,500 on ebay.

One other issue. The SB car isn't a '34, and anyone familiar with street rods can tell that.