Alright, everyone be cool. I'm going to try to word this as carefully as possible, without stepping on toes, getting names mentioned, or ******* anyone off. With that said... Whats with some of the prices I see for hot rods? Not talking gold chain ****, just traditional cars. 32's I can understand. Everyone wants one, drives the prices skyhigh. Supply and demand. A good A is probably a little under that. Not so much supply and demand, but its still there. But I think almost all hotrods in the same condition as a comparable A demand the same price. See what Im saying? Because I sometimes dont, haha. Lets say, for example, a guy builds a 29 ford coupe. Regular traditional hot rod, nothing special. I take that back, they are all special, but nothing earth shattering. Flathead V8, or sbc, or nailhead. They all seem to demand the same price. For the mostpart. I realize sbc wont get as much money, but they come close. Something that doesnt have perfect body work, or interior, things like that. Seems to me that a guy can easy ask 12k. Keep in mind, this is just a make belive car, and i know its hard to put a price on something that doesnt exist. But you see it all the time. Here, ebay, local swaps. Do people who cant do the work really pay these prices? Or are they just dream prices, that drop with reality? My car for example, is traditionally styled. Its not perfect, but its no rat either. Its a fully driveable car, and I drive it. I think I have about 1500 to 2000 in it. If someone offered me 10k for it, I would have to really think hard. Probably considerably less. Who knows. I love the car, but thats one hell of a profit margin. A lot of the guys in here are in the same boat. Cars they built cheap, and could easily profit on it. Im sure I know why they still have them. A lot of people love the car way more than money. And thats friggin good, i love it. But wow, 10x profit would be sweet. Anyway, I'm de-soapboxing myself. Hope I didnt step on toes there. Like i said, no particular cars envoked my thoughts, just a period of time. trey
well i hear exactly what youe saying but i think it is fairly close to pay that much to have it built. before i got tha balls to just cut my roof off and try to chop a car myself some people were saying around 5-7gs to do a chop. i understand it takes talent but **** thats alot of money. it is a custom but im sure a hotrod chop wouldnt be much less. once you figure in any hourly charge and parts cost i bet the price is up there
While I understand what you're saying, I find it real hard to believe guys are building any kind of traditional rod(or even a damn dune buggy) and getting it on the road, for $2,000. I just don't see how its possible. Considering a decent A body alone brings $2000 and up, and theres a few more things needed then a body to get a car drivable. I'm not trying to start the ****storm of guys saying "I built my car for $2000", but I don't think thats even a little realistic with the price vintage parts bring, yet alone all the stuff that nickle and dimes you to death(brake lines, brake parts, radiator, grinding discs, the 1,998,172 nuts & bolts etc. To build a nice rod, doing all the fab work and building yourself, and doing it nicely with good parts its real tough for me to fathom putting a car together for a few times the $2000 mark. Again though, its only my opinion/experience
Add up all the fic***ious time it takes to build that fic***ious car, and a fic***ious 10K ain't ****... fic***iously speaking, of course... What comes out of your wallet is just a small part of it. JOE
I'd like to see a picture of your $2000. car, then maybe we can decide if you will ever get near $10,000
Good point, but to me, my time is free! I have always had a hard time putting a price on my own time. 5-7 k to do a chop? I honestly had no idea! If thats the case, bring em on. And is it really necessary for me to show a picture of my car? I hate showing pictures of my car. But it was done for around 2k. I cant prove it, but I did. Thanks for keeping this post calm so far. trey
so trey, how much did put into your rod? just in parts, don't count your own labor which is what i think people who try to put gold chainer prices on their cars do.
Hell Man, I probably couldn't get $2,000 for a car I have $10,000 in! I think I need me a better salesman... Been so long since I've gotten back all the money I've put into a car back, let alone anything for the time invested, that I'm not sure I'd know what was going on if it happened. I must be dealing with the wrong cars and the wrong people. Gene
The way i see it, pricing is dependent on.. 1. popularity 2. demand 3. mechanical condition 4. body fit and finish. 5. Interior design and finish 6. paint or lack thereof Regardless of whether you did the work yourself and used a whole ****load of fabricated, storebought or junkyard parts. It all comes down to what price you are willing to sell and the buyer is willing to buy. If your able to make TRUE profit on any of your cars consider yourself one of the chosen few. This reminds me of my father in law. He loves to gamble and spend alot of time and money doing so. I know for a fact he loses more than he wins overall. But it funny you only hear his news when he wins never what he loses.
I hear ya, to a point. Last winter, instead of sitting on my hands, I started this... Now, I'm busy, and time is precious. It's a few hundred $$$, in brakes and wires, from being drivable (not counting the engine being stuck, yet), but the time... When will this car be worth 10K...? Two solid months? Three, maybe? ...and, I'll have way more than 2 grand in "stuff". I'll take 3K for it, right now, and save the time for making some money. You'll be surprised, when you start trying to sell, how very little that people are, actually, willing to pay. I'm not knockin' ya... just being realistic. I've seen alot of nice cars not sell. Just because you see high asking prices, doesn't mean they're all attained. JOE
That is entirely true. I also enjoy antique radios, and you should see some of the prices for that stuff. I honestly have about 2k in my car. Mostly for the nailhead, tires, transmission adapter, and wheels. Around here, junk is still cheap, if not free. If i didnt go with the nailhead, that would have saved me a ton of money. trey
I don't think I'd have enough confidence in a 2k dollar car to take me and my wife further than around the block. Consumables like fluids, tires, belts, hoeses, etc, will exceed that cost alone.
I have my own thoughts on the subject and they are all bad! Its no different than NASCAR tickets going for 150.00 a pop, or people building rough cars & pawning them off as RATRODS on e-gay for a kings ranson! Yes, I`m pissed about it if you can`t tell. If all you want to do is make money go to WALLSTREET! 200.000 dollars for a 69 Camaro with a 427, COME ON! Big bucks are going to be the ruination of this country & all that we have come to love. I been around cars for a long time simply because I love em! Maybe when you get a little older you might start to appreciate the fact that its not about money.
It's just becuase of the trend right now. Once it all dies down prices will go back to at least close to normal. I think gas prices the way they are might start to seperate the guys who are REALLY into it from the ones who aren't. I too want to see what this $2000 car looks like, I plan to have about that much just in my paint materials for my project when it gets to that point.....but I'm a metaflake *****.
It's a tough thing to call. It's really hard to have a driving car for $2000. It can be done, but something has to suffer. You can put $2000 into a fresh motor without blinking an eye. It dosn't matter if you spend it all at once on a new GM job, or if you have your flatty bored, balanced, and blueprinted with new bearings and guts, your getting into money. What can I say, right now traditional cars have come back strong, and will probably stay in the hot rod scene for a long time. There's a guy in hemmings who always has nice A roadsters, deuces, ect, in the 40K range. Big money for a fairly simple car. But these arn't primered or bondoed up cars either, his cars are super nice, everything new/rebuilt, and they all have the trick parts that everyone wants. Halibrand rears, zephyr gears, ect... Nice bodies, and good taste win out. Realistically, it's tough to do on the cheap.
The bottom line is if you can build a traditional rod that touches that universal nerve a**** hot rodders, and just has that damn "perfect" look, you can ask pretty much what ever you want for it. We might not all want to pay much, but someone else out there will. Supply and demand have alot to do with it. Rodders now are left with the backwash of 20's and 30's cars. If its burried in the woods and rotted to hell, we'll still pull it out and try to make something of it. Ive probably got 8k or more into my '59 by now (dont ask me how) which is done though, but I wouldn't sell it for three times that because the car means more to me. Sometimes I think a persons overall p***ion for a hobby can overshadow its cost. -Dean
That's part of a new trend, trying to save iron that others have given up on. But those arn't the traditional cars bringing the big bucks either. Another thing is history plays a big part of the price too. I don't think a modern build of an old rod will ever bring as much as the real deal, even if the "new" car is all original parts. There's just something about a car that was a hot rod in the day that adds to the desirablilty.
i agree with the supply and demand theory. i built a "nastalgic rod" with parts i had and some i bought for the right price, and now its worth more that i ever thought it would be because people saw one on monster garage or some sh**. its popular right now, and in a few years, i think the rat rod "fad" will die out and the prices will go down. but, i could be wrong....... dave
Thats another thing. I cant stand people on TV shows or in magazines (especially HOT ROD) that say "rat rods" are cars build out of cheap junk yard parts. I just dropped $500 on an original deuce radiator shell and insert and "that" was a good deal. Sure there not the 6-figure cars built by modern street rodders, but good traditional hot rods are definetly not cheap to build. -Dean
Well, Here we go, I'll kick of the great debate. When a duece of the same description will bring 20 grand and up, 10 grand for an 'A' don't seem too bad. For every guy that can wrench one together there's a ton of guys that either can't build it themselves or don't have the resorces (shop equipment) to do it. They'll pay the 10 grand and then get out their Craftsman tool kit and swap out the valve covers and present it as "Theirs". Don't get me wrong, I'm not dissin anyone and as long as you can look yourself in the mirror and like what you see and no one else gets hurt, go for it. I have an interest in a small fab shop and build T roadsters and A roadster pickups. We manufacture our own "plastic" (Yes Fibergl***) Bodies. We'll furnish any thing from a body to a complete Z'd roller and I don't care if a client gives me due credit or not. When he writes the check, it's his. I know that when a project leaves our shop It's done right and the guy got a good price. He's happy, I'm happy, Hell, Were all friggin happy. This isn't intended to be a plug, Just my .02 worth.
a lot of you have good reasons for this. and i appreciate this staying sane. supply and deman yes. fueled by what some people see on tv for sure. i think its true that the values will fall. i also think that the same holds true for choppers. the main reason i bring this up. at a local car show yesterday, i got a little frustrated, like i usually do at shows. (you would think id quit going, but i do have fun.) The person that won best of show had a 33 plymouth coupe. real nice car. pretty traditional. but the freaking thing had temp plates on it. id hate to know what they paid for it. a lot of the hot rodding locally, even traditional hot rods, have become all about the wallet. im sure its not just local. and im sure its been going on for years. many years. probably well before my time. anyway, here is the 2k bucket o ****. trey
TREY- If you sold that for ten thousand, what would you do with the money? Don't answer, just think about it... FIVESPOKE- I can see turn key rides for 10 large, if you're set up for production. That's where the regular guy falls short. So, yeah... if you build 'em, one after another, using ***embly line parts, you can turn a buck... but not when you plan, and fab, and bleed all over to build one in the driveway. As far as TV builds... I, sorta, think they're driving prices down. Sure, parts and bodies amped up, but, people see that edited ****, and think you can fall on the floor and fake a heart attack and a done car rolls out the door in an hour... So, why pay alot of money for it? Video killed the radio star.... JOE
ill answer it. id build 5 more, or one more five times as nice. Trent, i think it was black or charcoal. could be wrong. trey
You're a better man than me. If I had 10 grand, I'd do something stupid... like, I dunno... pay bills. It would last, maybe, a week. I'd have enough left to buy a rusty body and a frame, and start hitting the junk piles... and spend another year building one, hopefully, as nice... while my friends went cruisin'. That's no ****... JOE
sometimes you gotta treat life and cars like wallstreet. save your money now, wait till the bottom drops out of everything and buy stuff up cheap..............it's hard to be a bottom feeder sometimes.
neat car. Im surprised I havent seen a pic of that'un before. If it wasnt for the cowl, it would look just like a 28-9 A sedan to me.
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