So I'm building a 38 Nash 5 window coupe. And I bought a 1937 Nash 4 door donor car, that's not the problem. The problem is that I think my donor is pretty rare. It's a Nash ambassador with a straight 8 in it. And from there search I'm doing these are pretty rare. It rough too but still has good parts and is about 70% complete. Should I cut it up the save my coupe or sell it to a collector.
I doubt it would sell to a restorer, except as a parts donor. Project cars are a very tough sell right now on slightly less popular cars. Rare does not mean much, if it's not popular.
Rare or not if someone on either coast wants it they are not spending the money to ship from Nebraska. Buy some new Saws-All blabes and scrap the leftovers. Bob
use what you need, sell off the rest. i just parted out a '37 chevy truck that was fixable. the chassis went to restore a '34, the cab went west to fix a 36 rollover, the hood, fender brace and tank straps are being used on a '37 i am restoring and the glove box door, seat spring, door handle are going on a 38 chevy i am restorodding. plus i still have some more pieces to "save" other vehicles. focus on your project and pass the rest on.
I'd cut it in a heartbeat to build my car...restored cars belong in a museum, hotrods belong on the road!!
If this is a concern, put your feelers out and look around for potential buyers for a bit. You might get some project money out of the deal. If nobody bites, you've got your answer. Here's a place to start: http://www.nashcarclub.org/index.html
What ever you do don't cut up a 47 or48 Chevrolet fastback sedan,,those are VERY desirable,,just check out this thread! HRP http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=815160&highlight=hard+to+find
Is that straight 8 an O.H.V. engine with twin ignition? If so, it would have value in a couple ways: 1) sell in the restorer market or 2) modify it an run it as a strong hot rod motor. Nine main bearings for stout, O.H.V. + a home made manifold & headers for go, lots of sparkplugs for eye candy, and certainly novelty.
Sending you a PM. I have a friend here in MO with a '37 Nash Cabriolet. (one of 3 known to exist). He started buying four-door sedans for parts cars, and ended up with a similar delima not wanting to part out a decent sedan. The clown car below was his third sedan parts car. The eight cylinder is probably worth keeping, the sedan itself not so much. I would suggest the two of you connect. He has some six-cylinder sedan that might make a better parts cor for you, or he might be interested in your cast off parts.
Thanks for all the input. I'm not afraid of cutting the car up, just didn't want to ruin something that had so few made. But I think the car body itself ain't rare just the engine and trans which do plan to sell .
ditto rare doesn't always mean desirable or collectible...if it is valuable sell it and buy what you need elsewhere
I had a '40 Nash coupe and my buddy still has the matching sedan. For sale a long time, no takers on the sedan. Cut it up. I mean, I have this '32 Rockne body, and since the guy with the coupe body for sale never got back to me, I'm going to cut that up and make a five window cab out of it. I finally got proportions I like playing in photoshop.
Have 15 beers. Make a cut, come back tomorrow. "Look, somebody wrecked my car". (With proper look of astonishment.) Finish 'er off. Guilt is only there if you did something wrong. Sleep well. There, fixed it for ya, Bro.
Cut that Sucker Up !!! Try to sell everything you won't be using. Don't look back. In the late 80's I bought a 38 Chevy Cabriolet in South Alabama. The car was wrecked when fairly new and had sat on a river bank for many years. The car needed a front fender and hood assembly along with rear fenders and running boards. Floors were shot ! A year or two later I bought a 38 Chevy 4-door sedan (two owner and running). I bought the sedan to CUT UP so I could save the Rare Convertible. There was no way that I could have rounded up all of the parts I needed and spend as little as I did when I bought the sedan. When I sold the convertible years later in primer and running (donor frame and motor from the sedan,along with all of the parts I needed), the money in hand was about 10 time my initial cash outlay just a few years before. Good luck with your Coupe......................Jeff
Rare doesn't always mean desireable or valueable. It's a Nash 4 door, and I people who would spend the money to restore it are probably as rare as the car. I'd chop it up in a second if I needed it for the car I was building.
Well, us Nash guys are few and far between. And I only like the 37-38. I personally wouldn't even hesitate cutting up a 4-door, Lafayette or Ambassador. I would love to have a coupe tho! I'm jealous... I'm looking for another hood so I can punch some louvers into it, but I believe the Ambassador is longer with the straight eight under there. You might try dropping a note on the Nash Car Club of America. If there is a restorer that wants it, it would be there. Here's my '37 2dr sedan. Also rare I believe.
That's not a clown car.It is a competition truck that firefighters use in their rodeos. It is very cool and should be restored. Fire apparatus collectors would jump all over that.
Really? The tank on the back was rigged up to squirt water at bystanders. And it had a magento hooked up to shock people that touched or leaned against the car. None of it looks like real fire aparatus. The straight-eight parts will be used to restore the cabroilet. That cut-down sedan body might be available if somebody really thinks it is worth restoring.
I just cut a truck to pieces for parts for one of mine. I admit, as the magnetic picky-upper smashed the windshield and dragged it off our trailer I had a bit of remorse seeing it die an unknown death, but it will help get my truck on the road and it didn't have a title.
It outlived it's usefulness and someone bought it and added the shock devise and the squirter. Competition trucks are not "real" fire trucks, but cars or pickups that local stations build to enter the firefighter rodeos. They do things like a timed event to drive to a hydrant, unroll the hose, connect to the hydrant, squirt some water, disconnect, roll the hose back into the truck and return to the start line. I have seen a number of these trucks and that Nash is, almost certainly, one of them.
Where can we find out more about these rodeos? What would you think about the plan to use the 8 cylinder parts for this very rare cabriolet, and possibly letting the fire car live on as a twin-ignition six? Somebody told me that some old firetrucks wer twin-ignition for reliability purposes and perhaps required for some insurance riders. Could that be a reason why this Nash-thing happened, or is it just coincidence that it is twin ignition?
I found this photo of a Terraplane that looks to be a legit fire car or rodeo car? I guess this is hijacking the thread, but I just couldn't see the point in starting a thread on fire rodeo cars. I'm still not totally convinced it's a real thing.
You're looking for firefighter drill teams. 1980: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YW88yRpyYes 1992: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zRtxf2P42yQ 2012: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qMe8splCn6c You can watch them evolve from mostly old trucks in 1980 to mostly converted race cars in 2012. The first one is a TV broadcast from ESPN by the looks of it.
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