Looks like a well done restoration. IMHO, compared to tri five Chevys, Fords cost more to restore, take longer to build due to time finding, restoring, or building parts that would be readily available for chevys. Even with that in mind, the popularity of Chevys drove the car prices up well beyond the Fords for years. I think that's beginning to change. You hear alot of talk about "too many tri-fives" at shows"," tired of looking at them", ect. A lot of nicer Fords, such as the one in the link are starting to bring higher prices. I wouldn't be surprised if the Ford vs Chevy pricing totally flip flops over the next ? years. Of the hundred or so tri five Chevys at the Goodguys show, very few actually had people looking at them that I noticed. At the Colorado show I did this summer, I had a guy tell me he had been a 57 Chevy guy all his life, but that was about to change. He said he couldn't believe he hadn't really looked at the Fords all his life (he was an older guy) but, was confused about why my Custom looked so different from a Fairlane he was looking at for sale...he even asked if mine was a '57. He told me as much as he liked the Fairlane, he liked my Custom even better, thanked me for the 1/2 hour of '57 Ford education, and was going to start looking for a Custom for sale. The Fairlane he was looking at and was going to buy until he saw mine was at 42K and was a car I had seen...nice, but not exceptional by any means. Anymore, when you figure costs/time/ to build, 45K isn't all that high. We've narrowed our thinking to being about what Fords normally have been selling for...time to start thinking like what cl***ics in general have been selling for.
It is a nice car but I can't see it bringing that unless some one with deep pockets just has to have it! HRP
As a guy who runs a car club, I've spent some time thinking about this topic and I have the following theory. My guess is that the truly "drivable" antiques will increase in value for the foreseeable future. And by drivable, I mean those cars that can be driven on modern highways, at highway speeds. Those that can't (like stock Model T's and A's) will come to be see as novelties by the younger generations who won't know anyone who can even remember them when they were new or plain used cars. They'll be seen almost like museum pieces. I predict that these cars will always have some inherent value, but will eventually see a decline. I think that the idiotic prices for things like tri-five Chevies will cease being the norm and any roadworthy pre-smog car will be seen as part of the larger pool of "old cars". As a side-bar, I took my 54 to a car gathering north of Houston on Saturday. There was probably a few hundred cars and probably 30 Mustangs (all pre-1970s)...all parked together in three rows. NO ONE was looking at them, except the owners. One restored Mustang after another, after another. I love early Mustangs, but it was interesting to see the crowd's nearly complete lack of interest in so many of them parked together.
Rusty, totally agree with your statements. Specially how large groups of any car get very attention. To me it's just like going to a car lot rather than a show. It's gets boring looking at a row of cars with no significant difference other than paint color. Bad enough at a cruise in but even worse at a "restorer club meet". And as much as I like 32 fords line up a dozen red hiboys and 11 of them are going to get ignored by me. I used to go to a 3day cruise in that always had 12/1500 cars. Sensory overload. By midweek when thinking about it could only really recall maybe a dozen cars that truly stood out for me. The rest am sure pleased a lot of others and me at the time but soon forgotten. And a few days later when picked up pictures taken at the show wondered why I had wasted film on some. Nothing special jumped from the print.
I agree 100% with the cookie cutter cars falling from grace. My car is far from a show car and it gathers more attention than the typical cars you see. Hell some of them have more money in there engines than I have in my whole car. The only downside to this is before too long our reasonable price Fords will be out of reach for some of us. Not a trend I personally care for. But it is what it is.
I love 34 ford coupes and one year at a cruise in was parked next to one in my mild custom 51 ford coupe. The 34 was owned and built by a tool and die maker. Everywhere you looked there was something special, all made by him. This was in the " billet era" except that rather than showcasing billet his parts were painted. We talked and then headed to the lunch line and casually mentioned we wouldn't be able to eat in peace parked next to him. He laughed and said it we would be bothered and he would eat and be ignored. And damned if he wasn't right. His reasoning was that people could relate to my pretty simple car and teardrop trailer but only very few people or a fellow machinist like me would appreciate the hundreds of hours he put into his car. . The guys that have poured their heart's and souls not to mention crazy amounts of cash into tri5s will find themselves wondering why they cant get their money back out of them in a few years. Am convinced the smartest guys in this hobby are the true Studebaker guys they refuse to pay big bucks for their cars. And only come out ahead when an "outsider" shows up. I've now rambled enough on this subject today so it's time to leave the keys in the ignition and allow someone else to take the Rambler for a spin.
Longroof........I understand, but it sure beats the hell out of prices dropping.....at least for the current owners. They'll always be cars out of my affordability. I always think of it like think about all the new cars and pickups that are in the 50k+ range and what they will be worth 10 years from now.
Read my earlier post, it's all about the average person being able to relate to your car. Hard to relate to a car with an $80,000 paint job when you are struggling to make your mortgage payment, get kids thru school or put groceries on the table.
That 56 is sweet but not 45k sweet. I've always liked the ht with the Customline trim more than the Fairlane trim.
Beautiful car - my dad had one that was all black, tuck and roll interior, and a hopped up 312 with two four's. It was a moonshine car originally in the hills of NC and ironically a Dodge dealer had that 56 Customline on their showroom floor when dad and Grandpa went in to buy it in Mt. Airy, NC. That was way back in the late 60's too...must have been a special car. The Customline hardtops have kept their value and have really skyrocketed lately. Maybe the demand is higher than the supply. I can't recall production numbers, but there are certainly fewer than the sedans, etc. 45K for a car like that - it is steep. Usually when you get into that kind of price range, you are looking at an all-original type restoration. These days though, the Barret Jackson auctions and others like them have fueled the idea of tasteful updates to a car actually adding value. This one is a resto-mod obviously. Why the plans called for an FE motor with only the original single chamber master cylinder is beyond me. Power Brakes is not that difficult of an add-on. It is a driver as the plates show and from what you can see under the hood. I don't know FE's very well, but it looks like the resistor has been rigged up there at the distributor. I am sure that if we were to take a tour of the car and nit-pick, we could find various things that would make us go hmmmmmm..... 15-18K tops for me for that car. But hey, the owner probably has 45K or more in a restoration if he had extensive body work, etc to take care of. If the owner had to sub everything out to different shops, there is no telling what he has in it.
There's a lot of good points made here. My $.02 worth is simply this; I'm extremely confident I could replicate that car for much less than $45K. On the open market, I have to agree with Danman55 on the $15-$18K. Cars equally nice or better are everywhere for that price or cheaper.
Here is some 54's https://cl***iccars.com/listings/vi...ine-for-sale-in-laguna-beach-california-92651
This one beats them all! https://cl***iccars.com/listings/vi...00-for-sale-in-charlotte-north-carolina-28269
It's all about marketing How about the video? the car never is shown rolling down the lot, and if you check it out when they crank it up the temp gauge is already about 1/3rd of the way over to the H side of the gauge. Hmmmmm.... 90K? the car better be perfect I'll never attain that, but I am in to driving them anyway!
www.Jerryscl***iccars.com sells 57-59 Ford conv & retracs on a regular basis that begin in that price range. He's been doing it for many years, but his cars are as near to perfect as you'll find
I remember seeing a rare 57' four door with a 312 supercharged. I thought it was over $100k. I recall saying something like" After 40k, who gives a ****, I'll never own it".
I like most of 'em, some better than others. I usually walk away from Fords with anything but Ford power - it's just me. Or maybe not. But yeah, I've also been to shows with row after row of restored Mustangs, Camaros, Corvettes, most with every option ever made for 'em. Few are unrestored, fewer came equipped as shown. What happened to a plain-jane '65 Mustang 6 cylinder, 3 speed trans with AM radio? I don't remember the last time I saw one at a show. The Customline at top of this thread is nice. It typifies what many of us see at larger shows, they are rolled on/off the trailer, await trophy awards, then disappear until the next judged show comes along. I was shocked recently when I took my '56 Fairlane to a judged show (only the 3rd or 4th judged show I've been to with it). Roughly 100 vehicles of all makes & models, old to new, drivers and trailer queens. Peoples' Choice judging - and I got iron! I noticed a lot of the lookers were walking past the top-end jelly beans & trailer queens, instead spending time looking at the unrestored '47 Chevy, an original '50 Plymouth 4door, some old farm trucks, and the onesy-twosy cars like mine. I like most of 'em. . .
well I have been a GM man all my life but for some reason all I have are fords guise you cant bet the price. a 1928 model a 2dr sdn 1953 ford customline 1958 Edsel Pacer 1959 Custom 300 and a 1993 dodge d250 diesel not a GM product to be found and now this nice rust free builder found on Craig's list (I still cant believe it was on there for 4 weeks) a 1950 2 dr custom has all new Jamco front suspension with disk brakes and sway bar, 4" rear drop kit with front drop springs both chevy and small block ford motor kit , the shoebox brand front draglink, tie rod kit and a power boaster kit not sure whose I figure there around $4500 worth of part alone not to mention a very good body and the price was $1500 with the ***le felt bad do not have plans for it but could not p*** it up it was all there except for 1/2 of windshield and seals I have never figured out why Ford do not bring more and the low production numbers of the Edsel thy should be worth a lot more then thy are here a coper shots of the 50
The Jalopy Journal
