What's your best old car Deal ?

my best car deal was in 1992 when i got my 55 pontiac (my current car).
an aquantance of mine bought a brand new peterbilt, and a brand new 53 foot drop deck moving trailer, and he drives for mayflower. the floor in the trailer was wood planks, and he wanted the floor wood sealed with some clear epoxy floor sealer. he sanded and stained the floor wood, and then he had me put the sealer on. the sealer is about 1 inch thick, and it looks like polyurethane over the wood. anyway it took me the better 1/2 of a day to seal the floor. when it came time for him to pay me, he asked me if i wanted "an old car". at the time, i had no time to restore a car, no where to store a car, and no money to rebuild anything...so i told him no...i needed cash.
he told me to come to his house the following monday. i went to his house, and he showed me the 55 that was in his garage. he told me that i could have the car, in exchange for me sealing his floor. i had no $$ in the floor...he bought all the supplies for me to do it. all i had in it was about 6 hours of labor.
i was looking to get paid $500.00 for doing the floor, but i ended up driving the 55 home instead. not too bad of a deal if i do say so myself.

 

Got my 31 A from my father-in -law (now he's an xxxx ). We drug it home from Neb. and my brother =in =law said he didn't want a tudor sedan, my father -in -law said if you want it take it home ,so I did. This was in 1975.

OLD HEMI

 

My best one was my first car , a good used '47 Studebaker 4 dr . Traded an old bicycle for it . Second best was a 2 liter OHC Datsun roadster that I bought for $500 then got it running and sold a 2 weeks later for $2500.

 

A couple of years ago I bought a '56 Pontiac 2drHT for $300. I had intended to redo the car, but I lost my storage and had to sell it. I advertised the car but did not have much interest so I parted it out, sold the doors for $350, the steering wheel & horn ring for $175, the orig 4bbl air cleaner to a restorer for $300, and lots of odds & ends stuff, ended up making about 2K off the car in pieces!

I also bought a '59 Ford F-350 that I was going to make a rollback out of, but when i lost the storage above I had to sell it too. I paid $100 for the truck sold it for $500.

My first car was a '55 Ford Club Sedan, paid $800 for it, drove it home and got 2 truck loads of spare parts. That was in 1996.

On a related note, back before Evil-bay was around I'd go to the swap meets at the end of the weekend and collect all the crap that pissed off vendors couldn't sell and would throw it away. I had nothing in it, so I'd sell it cheap at the next swap, did pretty good at that until the internet started educating people....

 

Heres a Pair I bought a couple years ago paid $280, sold the 29 Coupe for $1600 and am building the T

 

Bought a '69 Cyclone Spoiler II Cale Yarborough that was basically redone in spring of 2002 for $7500.... Drove it all summer, did some small detailing, and sold it for $13K that fall on eBay.... Now looking back, I could have sold it for almost $20K!!! People are nuts, what an ugly car...lol..

My brother bought a '60 Studebaker Lark from the second owner in July... It had approx 50K miles on it, garage kept, really nice preserved condition and PA inspected...for $1400.... He drove it 125 miles home... We put tires on it (wide whites are dry rotted) and changed the fluids and he has driven it almost 6000 miles back and fourth from Pittsburgh to Detroit and to Youngstown... Not bad for cheap transportation.

 

Not long ago I bought the 58 HellRay that's been giving me fits for the last few months dinking with the carburetion. It had been sitting on jackstands in a garage for the last 17 years. The owner's wife had just bought a new T-bird and wanted the garage space. They had tried to find someone to haul it to a warehouse for storage, but after seeing the driveway (STEEP slope!) and the way the car was covered with junk, all the towing companies wanted to charge them a ton of money. I showed up with a trailer and a friend and made a lowball offer that stuck. I'm not too sure the $200 was that great a deal.

 

1966 Plymouth Fury III, 30K original miles, slant six three speed on column, two very small rust holes, drove it home for $700. Should have left it stock and resold it but fucked it up and traded it for a truck I hated, stupid fucking kid.

 

last year..paid $2800.00
put a battery in it and sold it for $6800.00,,,i think i did ok,,,they only made 300 of these over a 4 year period..and i hounded the original owner for along time before he agreed to sell it,,(with NO intentions to flip,,but once it was home i found abunch of shit that was rusted out and deteriated since it had been sittinging a barn for 20 years....)
,,,but before you think of jumping my shit...i have pretty much lost money on EVERY car i have had,,(about a hundred cars so far,,) so one out of a hundred isn't too bad

 

Too many to list really , but in 98 I bought a 64 tempest 4 door w/ 45k original miles for $200.00. Drove it every day for about a year, then sold it for $2500.00. Then bought and sold it 2 more times after that.

This is my 68 galaxie conv. that I drive everyday. Bought it in 2001 for $600.00, cause it smoked a little. Well what do you expect for a car that has been setting for 11 yrs in a garage. Cleaned out the heads and pan; been driving ever since. To date I have less than a grand in it. Including the $50.00 set of 17" wheels.

 

In 1976 I bought a 1932 Ford 4dr for 2 fifths of whisky! every one in the bar had a good time on me as I loaded car. It was only a body-chassis and in 1994 the my son got a top 10 award at the west coast natl's Meador went nuts when he saw the rod!

 

I bought a '58 Buick Special parts car a while back for $50. Had the original owners manual, envelope and all that in the glovebox. Sold just that on eBay for $54.

I've flipped a lot of cars out of junkyards... how about this one.

'58 Dodge Coronet Spring Special convertible. Bought it so they wouldnt smash it up with the loader in the junkyard in February - sold it three days later with pictures of it in two feet of snow for $2000. Scrap dealer is a thief, and takes off with way more than they paid for never to return. Loader op that took my money isn't a thief, sends it back to me. I rebuy the car for the same $300 in June and we haul it out and I then kick myself for selling it so cheap - the frame had one little hole in it, had I been able to free up the wheels and pretty it up a bit I could have gotten like $5000 out of it.

But I can't complain, I did something like $10,000 in profit out of there, every time I sold something I'd go spend the money on more cars and parts. The last one I took home was another '57 Dodge - a 2dr wagon. It was full of carbs, starters, clutches, all kinds of parts. I sold just one of the carbs for $140, and a starter from out of it later for $50. And I had already bought a box of stuff out of it for $100 that included one 97 carb I sold for like $125.

 

I was at a swap meet and ran into an old friend. He says his parents farm finally sold and the barn had to be emptied. I bought a 383 4 speed Duster sight unseen from him for $250.00,I then told my buddy who gave me $450.00 sight unseen. We go get it and its a 8 3/4 posi,pistol grip with a Reman 383 long block. My buddy takes the 383,trans and posi and sells the rest for $400.00 to a guy who wanted the black interior.We all made money....car was too far gone to fix at the time.

 

Nov of this past year, I bought a 1966 Dodge A100 van on ebay for $11.51. I felt guilty and gave him $15 for it. Spent $50 in fuel going to get it but visited my fam for Thanksgiving during the trip and hauled some wood for my old man in the process.

Jan, I bought a '73 Mustang with a V8 stick an hour from my house for $150.

I bought a '47 Chev Woody two years ago for $300, sold it for $3000. Had nothing but hauling it and a day cleaning it up into it.

Three years ago I bought a '64 Lincoln Cont Convert for $2500. I sold it this past fall for $14000

Last week I bought a '54 Desoto Firedome Sportsman for $475.

Few years ago I bought a '66 Chevy C10 for $100. Drove it home 50 miles, drove it daily for almost the whole winter. Stuck only a tuneup into it after 500 miles and sold it for $650, guy drove it 600 miles home. I should have kept it.

I have a lot of other deals, but I can't remember them all.



On the new side, I bought a '00 Isuzu Rodeo with 101,000 miles last month for $1650, sold it three days later for $5300, but I did stick about $400 in repairs into it.

 

57 biarritz.. bought 2 years ago for $2000 (was a PILE, no front bumper, grill, hood, intake or carbs but complete otherwise although ROUGH)

sold for $15,100

took 1 month of it sitting there and me not even washing it, and it was off on a trailer.. funny thing is i offered it to maybe 20 poeople here on the HAMB for $5000, no one took it, so i passed it on to ebay, and low and behold it jumped from $5000 to $15,100 in the last 30 seconds. 2 guys rEALLLLY wanted it hahah

i only miss it cause i know what its worth (always did), but i couldnt give it the frame off restoration it deserves, so i did the right thing!

 

In the early '90's a really nice 64 Buick Skylark 2dr appeared in my neighborhood. Original paint and interior, 300 V-8 and a powerglide.
It just looked like a perfect "little old lady car"

One day a "For Sale" sign appeared in it. I was on it instantly. The man had inhereted it from his elderly aunt. They wanted $2500. Not a bad deal for such a perfect little car. I drove it, and it was silky smooth and drove perfectly. I offered $2000 and they took it.

I lived one street away and agreed I'd pick it up the next day.
I came back with the cash. He said "I think it shifts funny"
To me it just felt like a powerglide.
Then he starts with "I'm not sure we should sell it"
I'm thinking I'm getting hosed in a shakedown for more money.
I tell him it shifts normally and I want the car.
Again, "No, I can't sell it to you".
I'm getting pissy and say "we had a deal"
He picks up a phone book and calls AAMCO Transmissions.
He asks them "how much to rebuild a transmission in a 64 Skylark?"
They say "About $1,500"
He says "thanks"and hangs up.

He tells me that he will only sell it to me if we take $1,500 off the agreed-to price but promise not to be mad when the transmission breaks.

I bought it for $500 and drove it occasionally for 3 years before selling it for $3,500.

i

 

I bought this Model A Coupe in 1963 for $110.00, it was in primer when I bought it with white tuck and roll interior. It was running a flathead with a 39 Trans.

 

Bought this last spring ten minutes from my parents house for $100 been after it since I was thirteen. Alot of people asked over the years but Im the one who got it, hopefully this spring I can start on it.

 

In 1994 in Witchita Falls Texas I baught a running, driving pearl white 1959 Desoto Firedome, for $300.00 and drove it for 3 years, daily without ever turning a wrench on her! lost it in a devorce...... its rumered to be in Germany now.

 

Bought a '64 Chevelle SS for 200 bucks because the transmission didn't shift right. I checked the fluid and it was low also the vac line for the modulator was not connected. I hooked the little hose up and dumped some fluid in it and drove it home.

I have probably made better deals but I liked the little car.

 

I bought a 63 Galaxie 2 door hardtop from a deceased old lady's estate for $100. Low mileage and no rust. Drove it a few years, put a 390 I already had in place of its 352. Bought an XL interior for it but then sold it for $600. At the time I probably could have gotten twice that for it. Great driving car, that one I should have kept.

 

1969 a running and driving 1951 Henry J ! 100 Bucks

 

'55 Chev convert for $350
'57 Nomad running for $700

 

$750
The day I bought it:

 

I've got a lot of good deals, but I've been around a while......a few are
'33 Ford Sedan delivery...$5.
'55 Nomad...$7.
A pair of Nomads, 5 & 6...$50. (one is my avatar)
'56 Nomad, bought just for the curved glass...$35.
'58 Impala...$80.
'66 Caprice cpe, 427...$15.
'63 Split window, old race car, w/L-88 427...paid a lot for this..$900.
'66 Corv cpe, 427 $300.
and many more......

 

long ago I went to a junkyard auction. bought a complete 52 Chevy Hardtop for 25 cents, yep, a quarter. couple minutes later I bought a 49 Merc coupe for 50 Cents. pried open the chevy trunk lid and it was filled with GM accessories for that hardtop. I also bought pick-up truck size piles of parts for $1 each. that's how I got started in the Old Car Parts business.

 

I've gotten some pretty good deals in the past 15 or so years, but probably my best deal was on an off-topic 76 Stingray in the early 2000's... it was completely restored and I had less than $300 in it. Sold it a few months later for $8000. I got it by luck and trading.

 

there have been a lot. Got my 59 ElCamino in 2002 for 900 dollars. Had to chase off the Vultures circling for that one. The most recent was my 65 C-10. Traded for leftover El Camino parts.

 

Helped a co-worker move some stuff after work each day for 4 days- the place she had lived in was being torn down
to build an office building. When we finished she asked if I wanted an old volkswagon she had in her landlords barn.
I figured it would be something I could fix up and sell for a little profit so I said ok. It was a 64 Karmen Guia that had
been parked 5 years earlier when the battery died- it had 21000 miles in it. I filled the tires, put a battery in it and found the clutch was frozen. I put the car on jackstands, started it in second gear, pumped the clutch for 5 minutes
and it freed up. Sold it for $2500.

 

32 5 widow coupe complete v8 no rust,$13 in 1954.