Depreciating or increasing the value?

How much money do you want for it,, any rust, run well. free delivery? I have questions,,


there is a cowboy for every saddle....

 

At least you are consistent.

 

I always wondered .... if financial advisors are so damn smart then why are they still working.

 

There are exceptions but normally any mods reduce the value long term. It is easier to sell a pristine original car than a modified car.

Example. In 1983, 2 guys bought 32 Fords. One paid big bucks to install a 1983 Chev 350 crate motor, TH350 trans, Toyota bucket seats upholstered in gray tweed, Mustang II suspension, billet wheels, and had it professionally painted teal with a pink zig zag stripe up the side just like the ZZ Top car.

Another restored his original, at considerably less expense.

Which do you suppose is worth more now?

I once tried to buy a 1956 Packard with a junkyard Buick 350 engine. The owner figured it was worth $8000. He reasoned it out this way: He paid $4500 for the car then paid $3500 to have the Buick engine and trans installed, and $3500+$4500= $8000.

I tried to explain that having the wrong engine changed a $4500 car into a $2500 car. He got mad and hung up on me.

Next week it was on Ebay. I watched the auction to the end. Top bid, $2200.

There are exceptions of course. If you have an original, name hot rod from the 50s or 60s with all the original hop up equipment intact, it may be worth more than a stocker.

Or, if you take a beat up wreck that it would be impracticable to restore, and fix it up with cheap available parts you might end up with something that is worth what you have in it, not counting your labor.

But generally speaking from a financial standpoint a good original car is the best deal.

 

Haha! Good point!

 

A financial adviser can't manipulate the collector car market like they did the housing market a few years back.

To say that value isn't important is false bravado IMO. When that emergency comes along, and it will, the 1st thing to get liquidated is the stuff that's not necessary to daily needs. To simply cut up something valuable with no regard for the future isn't smart. Nobody in their right mind would take an original 57 Chevy fuel injected HT and turn it into a gasser simply because "It's mine and I can do what I want..." with no regard for the 10s of thousands of dollars they were throwing away. Yeah, I'd rather have a nose bleed gasser worth maybe $20K vs something restored worth $75K+. I'd bet the expense of each build would be close to if not equally the same. But then I'm the type to take the profit from the restored car and build a lesser vehicle to my desires and still have a knot left over.

I guess the day that collectors and sellers start getting the respect they deserve this discussion will become an old wives tale. I say that in memory of the annual B-J hate fest that used to happen here. I'm sure that sentiment still lives like a tumor in remission.

 

Why worry about value to someone else. Build the car for you. Do you remodel your home and think about what someone else will pay you later? No. When people buy homes they redo all the $hit the way they want it anyway. Same goes for a car. Do it the way you want and save the original stuff.

 

You're going to loose money on old cars no matter what you do to them. It's about enjoying and preserving cars, not making money on them. They are ALL losing value every day with the shitty economy whether stock or not so always keep that in mind. I don't think it really matters much anymore if they are original or not, just enjoy them while you still can.

 

Here's a fascinating little tid bit of info -

A friend of mine has been a gear head for as long as he can remember and he's 70 years old now. He thinks he's been thru about 1000 cars. This includes flipers, fixers, builders, restored, semi keepers, dismantled and parted, serious race cars and some really rare high buck mopar stuff. I highly value his opinions, knowledge, expertise, and friendship


He's made money and had a stream of good parts for his own use off the dismantled cars.
He's made money on every survivor fixer but that's because he only buys right cars and his stream of parts.
He's made money on every flipper because he buys the right cars.
He's made money on every restoration, again the cream of the crop & they are perfect.
He's made money on every unfinished project he's purchased and 9/10 times its because of the parts.

He's lost money on every builder.
He's lost money on anything modified in anyway sold with the modifications installed. Most of the time the modifications were removed and returned to stock for the sale then he broke even but still had the high dollar parts. (light bulb moment)
He's lost money on every turnkey racecar sold.

So take that info for what it's worth, 70 years worth of knowledge and over 1000 cars.
They are worth more apart or stock is what it boils down to.
Taking them apart, especially half baked projects and keeping the best parts for yourself lets you play hard really cheap cheap cheap.

 

It's a car, not a wealth trophy.

 

your absolutely right its just a car. but its just a car that has couple thousand dollars of my hard earned money tied into it. its in my nature to think 2 steps ahead.

 

So after getting all this wonderful advice, what are your plans?

 

I believe your answer is above. If this is not the car of your dreams that you plan to keep "forever", leave it alone. Save your sweat and hard earned dollars for the car you really desire.

 

Im pretty shocked how big this got...soo im going to run the tired 264/dynaflow while at the same time build a sweet 401 and collect what parts are need to complete the swap...im pretty confident that this will be a positive "upgrade".. and get a nice snowball going for me.

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Just wait until you find out how much it's going to cost you to build a Nailhead correctly...... you just may change your tune!

I know!

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Lol oh great..

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My old Chevy I sold for more than 10 times what I paid for it and I kept track of what I spent and what deals I made as I put a V8 in it and even with all the parts I got for it I was up by about $500 - or dead even, depending how you figure - when I sold it. Hell, I sold one part out of it I didn't plan to use for what I paid for the car.

It is possible to come out ahead on a modified car.

 

Go ahead and make it the way you want it and make it more enjoyable but keep the original parts if you have the room,I have a 55 ford convertible that my dad bought new and did some modifications to the drivetrain and sold all the original parts. I am now thinking about putting it back close to original after I retire (in 15 years) so I am on the hunt for the original parts and wish I kept them,right now I am going to run the wheels off it with the slightly newer drivetrain.

 

Agreed, my prior post was concerning a certain type of car that isnt particularly rare or extremely valuable (like the ones I usually own).

 

When I was a kid I certainly didn't buy cars as an investment - I bought cars to modify, go fast & have fun.

Then came the 80's, and guys started putting their retirement fund money into cars as investments. This put alot of cars out of reach of the average guy, and inflated the value of many rides artificially

I always have done whatever pleases me to my rods - they are for my enjoyment, not my investment portfolio

I feel sorry for guys that look at rods & only see money - they just don't get it ......

 

To most guys who really dig mid 50's Buick's, the mighty Nailhead is the king, and the bigger the better.

If it were mine, I'd want a big nailhead, preferably a 425 and a modern o/d trans.

If I were buying it I'd want a big nailhead, preferably a 425 and a modern o/d trans.

For that combo, well done, I'd pay top dollar, at least double what I'd ever be willing to give for an equal condition stocker.

What would really kill my interest would be any bastard engine swap. No Caddy, Edsel, Yugo, or SBC engines.
Wimp out and put a damn SBC in it, you can keep the piece of shit you made out of a great automobile.

 

My stock and bond portfolio, real estate, and retirement funds are investments. Cars and bikes, are toys. Esoteric ephemera does not ever an investment make.

 

I'm with Jimbo, post #8. Right now I'd say if you're making mods it would be best to have a customer for the mods calling the shots. You CAN buy a car cheaper than you can build one---not in all cases but it can be done. Just my .02.

 

OK I am glad a few others agree with me that you can buy a car cheaper then you can build one in most cases but there is another problem here that I see!!!!!!

Why is it that you can buy a car cheaper then you can build one?

Is it just lack of interest in building it yourself or as one friend told me the other day when he said I am 70 years old and I don't want to spend the next two or three years in my garage building a car.

It's just my humble opinion but right now it appears to me more of a lack of interest on the part of people in general.

There will always be hard core hot rod fans and racing fans but it appears to me that there will be fewer of them in the coming years for whatever reasons.

I don't care if you love hot rods, drag racing, circle track racing or other forms of racing right now across the board all the numbers seem to be declining for either guys racing or even just spectators coming to events. Hell even the TV ratings are not that good and the question is WHY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

My original opinion was that yes right now it appears to be cheaper to buy a complete car then building one but looking deeper I believe there must be other reasons why this is happening.

What's your opinion? Jimbo

 

To the OP: If you are worrying about resale value before doing anything to the car don't do it period because you are building the car for the wrong reasons and may not be happy with the result either way. You have already indicated that much by even asking the question about leaving it stock or modifying it. While there are things you should not do and which will kill the resale value - such as painting it bright pink, you should build it for yourself - not for a future buyer....

 

The old car hobby is like marriage. You get in for love not money. Seldom do you get both. So, do what you love and don't sweat the money.

 

Jimbo17:

If you have a 2013 Buick for sale you have a potential market of a hundred thousand buyers.

If you have a 1956 Buick for sale you have a potential market of hundreds of buyers

If you have a 1956 Buick for sale with a Ford engine, Cadillac transmission, Chev steering wheel, Toyota seats, Bling wheels, 20" tires, painted purple with pink polka dots you have a potential market of 0 or maybe one person if the price is low enough.

The scarcer the car and the more people you have bidding the more the price goes up. When you make a car "unique" sometimes the pool of buyers goes down faster than the "uniqueness" goes up.

 

got lucky with all modification on my Duece, it was all done post WW II.

 

So far all of the comments are good and they all make great points about the car appealing to different groups of people differently but why is it cheaper to buy the car finished rather then build it?

I don't think any of us expect to get all the hundreds of hours of labor back but most of us would be happy to at least get back most of the money for parts that we spend.

I also agree that building a car in not like buying stock or having a 401-K

I see so many guys sinking between $40,000 dollars and $85,000 dollars into cars only to sell them for a fraction of what it cost to build it.

This trend makes me that down the road fewer people may want to but the effort into a project and spend the money to build a car.

Jimbo

 

Most things including cars are worth more apart or as parts than they are together. It's hard to understand & difficult to grasp because the concept defies logic until you see it first hand. Humor yourself for a moment and Now take this thought backwards and build your dream project.


The money is in parts. Look at the entire parts supply chain.
Start with auto dismantlers, they make money. Look at swap meets, they wouldn't exist if there wasn't profits. Now the manufactures & retailers again more profits. The money is in individual parts. You put parts together it costs you money, you take stuff apart and you make money.