Jive-Bomber submitted a new blog post: Five Kustom Bargains to be Had! Continue reading the Original Blog Post
Jay @Jive-Bomber Ward - Just an FYI that the 1955 Chrysler 300 (with a 331ci HEMI) was actually known as the "C 300" . . . it wasn't until 1956 that the Chrysler 300 "Letter Series" began: '56 "300 B" (with a 354ci HEMI) '57 "300 C" (with a 392ci HEMI) '58 "300 D" (with a 392ci HEMI) '59 "300 E" (with a 413ci Wedge) '60 "300 F" (with a 413ci Wedge) '61 "300 G" (with a 413ci Wedge) '62 "300 H" (with a 413ci Wedge) '63 "300 J" (with a 413ci Wedge) '64 "300 K" (with a 413ci Wedge) '65 "300 L" (with a 413ci Wedge) Note that the photo you posted is the "VIN #1 '55 C 300" . . . a car once owned by HAMBer Josh @Hyfire Ackerman (checkout his Help! Chrysler 300 Racecar (Daytona Beach) thread). Josh ended up selling this car (& his Norm Thatcher '58 300D Bonneville racecar) to Mike McCandless (son of Herb "Mr. 4-Speed" McCandless). Mike had Whitehall Auto Restorations bring the "VIN #1 '55 C 300" back to its 1955 Daytona Beach racecar configuration: - Todd @HEMI32 Olson
It's an interesting consideration that these cars are bargains. I think it depends on what your goals are. If the goal is to buy a finished car, and go cruise, then sure, I can get behind that. If the goal is to do a complete build with a refurbished drivetrain, rebuilt ch***is, new chrome, and so on, then I disagree. Any orphaned model or make is going to cost more in every facet than a more common model/make other than initial buy in. This applies ten-fold if you have to pay for labor. It is ALWAYS cheaper to replace than repair, and parts cost significantly less than labor. I can attest to this first-hand. When I put my 61 Olds on air, no kit exists for this car. It took me hours of sawing up steel plate, welding, fabricating, reengineering, and so on, to make it happen. If I had to pay someone $100/hr to do that work, it would have been a $10,000 job. If I had a 61 Chevy, I could have just bought the parts for like $1500 and installed them. Then compare the cost of rebuilding the drivetrain. Just using the examples set forth, consider the cost of a brand new SBC delivered to your door, or parts to rebuild one, then consider the cost to rebuild a Hemi, a 368 Lincoln, a 365 Cadillac.... So I agree that these cars may represent strong values on the turn key market, but if the purpose is to build one, it's a losing proposition in the end. But the money isn't why we do it, right?
I guess many of the so-called "orphan" cars, unless bought complete, are going / will have to be restomoded with the usual drivetrain suspects... Which IMHO is still better than being s****ped.
The 55-57 Ford Thunderbirds can be purchased at a reduced rate. There is a ton of support for them as well
I couldn't agree more. First and foremost, the most important thing is that your car is out on the road, or at minimum, having meaningful progress consistently made in the build. Having non-running cars laying around is exactly what we don't want. Of course we all like to see unique engines, but I would rather see a cool old car out driving around with a Chevy or Ford for power than than a non-running vehicle with an obsolete engine sitting and deteriorating because the owner can't afford to get an expensive drivetrain repaired.
"Baby bird" value has fallen off a cliff. The problem with these is two-fold. A) a lot of the owners still think they're worth $60K and want absurd prices for them, and B) if you're over 5'10" or are carrying extra weight, you don't fit in them.
Hello, Ever since those trucks came out to the public, my brother always wanted one. But, as teens, it was always out of reach during those days. that would have solved all of the towing we did for our 1940 willys coupe build. It was difficult to tow a small wooden slat trailer to get our engine home, but we did not have anything large enough to bring home the short block and parts. When we moved on to our next phase, we had to take the complete 283 motor to Reath Automotive for the bore plus a custom Reath Crank mod. So, again, we had to get a small wooden slat trailer for the delivery and pick up. But, while that was finished, the tow hitch we had welded onto our 58 Impala did the trick for anything else we needed later. The blower spec parts we just loaded into the trunk of the Impala, while we waited for the block/crank to be finished. The style of the early Ford Trucks called to us as our neighbor had the first custom ford truck we had seen, besides those that were in the magazines. Candy Apple/TahitianRed color, lowered, full white tuck and roll upholstery, plus chromed reversed rims always stood out. The owner parked it in front of his business daily and we all saw it every time we drove or walked by his store. . Jnaki Despite that, my brother did draw a Cameo Truck as he like the style better. Here is my version of what we both wanted back in 1957-60. Nothing fancy, just a lowered rake stance, mag wheels and a nice paint/upholstery to go with the color of the Willys Coupe we were building/racing/thinking of at the time. He liked yellow, I liked silver and this one is obviously red to stand out even more. Besides, there were already several red Willys Coupes at the time... My brother’s last word was that we needed a station wagon to be able to sleep in it at campgrounds on our towing road trips and long distance surf trips…YRMV Note: Here is one that we have seen for the past 20 years, locally. It is well done and always gets plenty of admiration to all those who see it driving around.
I agree with 57Joe, if you are buying a finished car, it would be fine but trying to restore one or one that needs a lot of work would be costly. I would think the Chevy truck would be hard to find parts for.
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