What's 10 grand worth of hot rod look like?

They are out there. You will just to take your time. You really need to be looking at 12,000 hot rods and then see if they will get right on the price.

 

that must be a pretty rare truck, i had no idea that Essex built trucks. cant wait to see it back on the road again!!!

 

Tiki Diablo is my HERO>...
wanna rent me a welder?

i aint selling squat....yet...HAHAHA!!! (besides my sedan NEEDS me)

me thinks that once i get that yellow pig down the road it will buy me another year to finish the roadster.

if this week is like last week i'll have time to put it back together and down the road by the end of the week...

sometimes you just need to think out loud so to speak...

besides once she gets bored with it, i can sell it at inflated ebay prices and buy something else....

 

There's a really clean '55 Buick 2 dr in the classifieds section right now...West Virginia, I think.

I'm driving home a '57 Chev 2 Dr Wagon later this week...for under 10K.

 

There's a cool little running and driving 60's T bucket in Fresno for $7,500. check the H.A.M.B. classifieds!

 

1959 F100 with Chevy clip. Some rust but very driveable. Late 80's 302. Good rubber. $4500. Needed the following to bring to what I considered a safe condition:

- Brake booster
- Tranny replacement (C6)
- Front-end refresh (bushings, etc.)
- Rear-end rebuild
- Wiring harness

All told to get a driveable/dependable ride was well under $10k for sure.

Of course, I've got several thousand dollars worth of 'unnecessary' performance upgrades into the engine and drivetrain.

Unnecessary to some, anyway.

 

Guess it depends on what is cool? $8500 in the classifieds. Gene

 

If you could stretch your budget to 12K you could buy my Sedan....Driven to Bonneville the last four years without a hitch. Not everyone wants a Chevy 6 in their Model A, tho...

 

I have almost $10K into it... but it's for sale for $5500. (thanks RoyalShifter!)

Hey Altered...
You should be able to get a cool pickup for around $6000 that runs and drives really nice. Take the other $4K and make it yours. Wheels, tires, paint, seats... all things that can be done in under a week.

something like this: http://ww2.collectorcartrader.com/details.php?adId=87427201 or http://ww2.collectorcartrader.com/details.php?adId=90227492

- Joe

 

There's deals out there you just have to sit on your money for a while. I just helped my buddy picked up a 51 olds rocket 98 two door hard top for 10K with everything working fine on the car.

 

I have thought of the same thing,even going to $14 or $15 grand.But I can't find anything that wouldn't need stuff changed and then I'm right back to where I am now.
Looks to me that Pickups tend to be chaeper than cars of about the same condition.
There seems to be a lot of stuff still out there,but if it is just about the money that complicates it big time.

 

The way i see it 10,000 buy's a car that may make it to in town shows .20,000 may make it to out of town shows ,30,000 out of state.
What i mean is to feel some what comfortable that you will make it home with out any problems.

 

I'm in a similar dilemma, found a car I could build for under $10K, but would have to sell my Plymouth to do it. I hate to sell it, but really have been Jonesin' for an older car.

As for Raceratrod's idea, I guess I should ask $30K for it, since it made it to Mokan, made a bunch of passes, then made it home plus another 5k miles without any problem whatsoever.............Nah. Maybe only $29.5K.

 

if you could possibly stretch to $12-15K your choices will improve quite a bit. I see a lot of desirable cars in this range.

 

Seems like 10K buys you the obligation to spend another 10K and 250 hours in labor to get something OK.

 

Paid $5500 for my pick-up runnin, a 235 and a 4 speed. even came with the stock steelies with (damn near new) repo firestone pie crusts

 

10k should get you a good early 50's or early 60's car. It'll be harder to find a pre 40's car for that cheap. Maybe a pickup "hotrod". I bought this for 7k and even with shipping from FLA to MI and a new radiator and disc brakes up front plus some misc stuff I'm well under 10k.

 

10 grand, a new blower motor, I know.

 

There was a nice little roadster at a swapmeet here last Saturday.....his bottom dollar was 13K....
It was a steel '29 on '32 rails with a top, tri-power sbc, drum brakes, '40 Ford type wheels w/ WWW, etc....and a driver, nice little car....
There are deals out there if ya look.....

 

10k...it could get you a nice 65 Dart Vert on a really bad week....

 

DON'T DO IT!!!! I had that same conversation with my wife and ended up buying a $10K truck that was "already done and running". It's now sitting in parts on the garage floor! Hotrodders cannot leave things well-enough alone, there is always something that needs to be "made better". Oh yeah it sounds good at the beginning...buy a running car and just drive it...but it will soon drive you nuts.

 

OK I am going to chime in. Without talking actual numbers I had a sedan project that I had been collecting parts and "working on" for about 5 years.

Was kind of in the same boat in that my project was looking like it may outlive me. Because I had accumulated the parts pile that was begining to resemble a model A through creative trading, deal hunting, right place right time type of deals the actual cash involved wasn't half what it was worth.

So when I traded with Tman for his tub, my total cash outlay was in the ballpark you are talking about.

I think with patience and creative deal making the 10-15 K range is really doable for a decent driver.

Here is a pic in case youv'e been under a rock and missed it. As far as buying a running car, see my post on "when is a purchased car really yours". Lots of good insight on the subject.

GV

 

Here you go... this'll probably go for $10K on ebay. 32 ford cabriolet.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/1932...205891520QQcmdZViewItem?hash=item290205891520

 

I have a bunch of wonderful old stuff that didn't cost 10K really.

Two things: You won't find it in the "For Sale" section Swap Meet and You won't find it easy. But there are guys out there that want good homes for their car.

One thing I do is look in the classifieds of small town newspapers all over
You can find several indexes on Google....... yup I've looked at a lot of trash but met some nice folks with wonderful cars too. "Anybody else you know got anything for sale?" Simple question has brought me to some world class stuff.

I could post a ton-0-photos here of things that didn't cost 5k honest

I spoke to a buddy in So Cal Sat. he says 'nothing is selling,nothing'

Big 3 is coming two weeks I have always gotten good cars there. Once a 35 Ford PU w/283 ..... nice old rod. No brakes drove it home to LB on the hand brake.......thank GOD for freeways

 

Blutos right, the deals are out there, be patient. Stay away from people and places where people are aware of potential values. I found my belair on craigslist, paid $2,800. No rust, no motor (see my pics). Guy was in a bind, he had a yard full of nice projects and the town wanted the unregistered cars off the property asap. Try to find people who don't realize what they got, search for "old car" rather that "32 hiboy". Typos listings on eBay are my favorite. I found tons of cheap edelbrock stuff, because half the people dont know how to spell "edilbrok"... due to the typo, his items were not appearing in everyone elses searches. I was th eonly person to bid on them. How do people most commonly mispell "hemi"?

 

i sold my little coupster fro $11,100, it even had a new interior and drove great, just needed some putsy body work done while you drive it.

i thought that was a pretty good deal.

jeff

 

Oh yeah, also search for keyaword "divorce sale". or "ex-husband" You ll be surprised what deals an ugly divorce can produce...

I do that one on craigslist every once in a while, tons show up, the wife had no idea what it is or worth, just that it was "important" to the husband.

 

take either one for
$10K

 

you can get a pretty nice 30s stocker for that or less. i think i paid a bit much for my essex when i bought it not running. but it was one of those things i just had to have it. i made an offer and setteld for his counter offer. i put some money and labor into it and drove it about 2,000 miles this summer. paint is nice from 5' away. came with new tires and tubes, gas tank cleaned and sealed. i slapped it back together with a boat load of parts a guy gave me, had the clutch relined, stripped and painted the rims, mounted the tires and built a new exhaust. did a quick detail job, and went cruising. i had some charging issues and the distributor self destructed on me. fan broke and went through the radiator. engine needs an over haul, but it starts everytime and drives pretty good. its a 30+ yr old paint job and interior. sat for 20+ yrs. less than 10 into it, not by much but it is less than 10. i want to change out the mechanical brakes and the rear axle for something with a numerically lower ratio and drive it as i do these things, eventually an engine swap. i was going through the same thing, 2 projects, one was a runner with everything done but paint and body, i pulled it all apart to paint 2 years ago and got tired of doing body work, street/strip car. the other is a strip project. got tired of fabbing and sanding and not cruising. so i am a hotrodder but this stocker surprisingly gives me my fix. coolest part about my essex, there is almost no wood in it, and you never ever see them. people are clueless when they see it. in the end ill have way too much into it, but its a driver that i can mess with over time and my wife likes it as long as its driveable and not just another project.
when i bought it

 

I dunno, I've seen a few nice Riv's for under ten grand. (I paid $3,500 for mine. It's a solid driver with new suspension..but needs paint, interior etc..) I also check eBay once in a while and have found a few decent '41-'42 & '46-'48 Ford coupes and sedans around that price range. I think you should be able to get a presentable driver for that kinda coin. As mentioned before in this thread one H.A.M.B.er found a nice '57 Chev 2 door wagon for under ten greand in the "for sale" section. I've seen some pretty nice cars there for the $10,000.00 range. Good luck, and post up some pics of whatever you end up with.

Todd