When is a car "too rough" to fool with?

About a month ago , I posted a thread about buying a 31? 32? Plymouth that had been in the woods next to a guy's home place for the better part of 50 years , and it looked a little rough , but doable , after I got it out of the woods and on the trailer at home , I am slowly beginning to think I would be over my head in this thing , I have been looking for doors for this thing and cant find them , so I am wondering if I am getting in over my head with a car that parts cant be found for , the reason I wanted this car is that it looked enough like a "A" model to make a cool rod , but , I cant find any parts for it...what do you guys think?

 

Looks better than some I've started with.

 

It looks more like a vick than a model A to me.

That said it is not too rough, keep looking you can find doors. It may not be easy to build a full fender car out of it but fenderless and a little fab work here and there and you'll be in there like swim wear. Someone has door you just haven't met them yet.

 

If you can do the work yourself, it's not beyond hope. If you have to hire out all the metal work, you'll probably never get your $$$ back out of it.
"Too far gone" depends on the car. A 30's Ford coupe is almost never too far gone.

Consider;

Most (cheaply priced anyway)30's and 40's, etc. cars will need lower patch panels, rockers, floors.

Be real patient. Put it on the back burner while you look for parts. They'll turn up. If the car had a clean set of doors hung on it, it would look a whole lot better.

Consider 2 dr. doors. Make it a sedan delivery like Ghost on the HAMB did, or (as Prk n noticed) a Vicky styled tudor. Depends on your skills and patience.

Don't cut it up. Get it to a more thumbs up state bodywise and make it a roller, then sell it to someone.

 

Yea , I woulda bet that I would have found a couple of doors on the hamb here , but , I haven't seen any , if I can get it to roller stage , it's game on , , no need for fenders here , dont want or need 'em... basically just want the body from the cowl back, so that makes it a little easier...

 

Lost Angel, that picture made me spew my chocolate milk all over my desk. (****, some on the monitor too) He wins...

Here is a Willys I messed with a few years back.


http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=391595&highlight=willys

 

I've been looking to, very hard to find in my neck of the woods.

 

"Too rough" only depends on your ability, creativity, and what you want to do with the car. I can see 3 different cars just off the top of my head looking at what you have there.
Can't find doors? Fab some. You know what size they need to be by the openings and you have the rear doors to go off of for body lines.
Don't want to do that? Make some filler panels to fill the front door openings, weld the rears up, whack the roof off and make an extended roadster.
Don't want to do that? Shorten the whole body, use the rear doors for fronts (already suicide!!) and make it a custom 2 door coupe.
Or a combination of all 3. Whack the roof, shorten the body, fab front doors. Plymouth roadster. You'll have the only one in town!!
It's no great offense to cut it up. It otherwise would have dissolved into dust sitting where it was.

 

When it doesn't have sentimental/cultural value or the repair cost far exceeds the resale value.

That being said, some people love a challenge and will attempt anything whether it makes sense or not.

 

Find some doors and make a killer truck out of it ........Start with the frame.Get that mocked up first .If You decide later to can the body so be it .Its all a labor of love,,,,,,,,

 

Heck that would stop us from building almost every hotrod! Very few rods get built and have enough resale value to recoup what we got in them, let alone make a profit. It's a lucky rodder who builds a car and can sell it for more than he's got in it!

 

I actually thought that it could be made to resemble an American Bantam coupe. But I didn't want to suggest it. For me that would be a last resort.


That said there are lots of possibilities but I still believe that doors can be located. Maybe widen the search to include things like Desoto, Dodge and Chrysler?

Even if the door wasn't quite right as long as the beltline works it can be tweaked to fit.

A long time ago the Ol' Man told me a very important fact, hot rods are not investments. You get what you put in them from the enjoyment that you get out of them.

Ya build it you enjoy it and when you are done it goes to someone else who will enjoy it. If you loose money you have to add in how much fun it was, fun isn't free.

 

Good advice, guys...I gotta admit, when it comes to structural repair, I am "super noob 2000" and I have bailed out on a couple that technically could have been saved, but I didn't have the guts... attached is an example. Became a righteous parts car...

 

Now a days it comes down to two things...
* Talent
* Cost of parts
Unfortunately the second part will kill a lot of doable projects...
Good luck on your decision....
I couldn't do it on either one....
Cheers........

 

Hell that would have buffed out.

That just looks like it wanted to be a killer door slammer to me. I am an optimist I suppose.

I am going to be honest, I usually look for the best body I can find, but I am not beyond getting the best body that I can afford either. If that happens to be a rough one then it will just be more sweat equity, no matter what you do it will end up costing you about the same one way or another.

 

make beater outta it, that's what l did with my 33 plymouth.

it was headed for the crusher when l saved it.

someone cut off the rear doors and started hacking up the body. l just shortend 7 inches and made a tudor sedan outta what l could salvage.

it has a custom built shell valley ch***is that is very safe, good brakes, steering,etc. the body looks like **** but l drove a car with the same ch***is and they handle like a slot car.

Later

 

I don't recommend starting a project that has no doors, they are the key element and sometimes hard to find. Yeah it might be do0able but who wants to spend a year or three trying to find good doors. I know guys who build a lot rustier cars than I would, I guess the good midwest sheetmetal has me spoiled. I'm also not much of a 4 door fan. They never look as cool, take more work and are pretty hard to sell if you ever decide to. Spending a little extra money up front will have compound rewards later.

 

From the looks of that body and comparing it with many others that I've encountered I"m betting that it's super thin everwhere and trying to weld sheetmetal to it will prove futile as in a dog chasing it's tail. I may be wrong but I would never start any serious effort to save it until I had the missing sheetmetal in hand.

Frank

 

That should buff right out!!!

 

"Too rough" is a personal decision, not an objective condition. You hit it when you said you might be in over your head.

Any car is too rough if you don't have the skills, time, and/or knowledge to fix it.

I bailed on some cars when I was young that nowadays I'd consider damn near mint. On the other end of the scale some can build an entire car from scratch. It's just a matter of how much time and money you're willing to sink into something. If it seems too rough to you, it probably is too rough for you. Someone else somewhere might think it's just right for them.
The car I'm working on now is really, really rough. I will never tackle one this rough again because it is taking me years to get it back in shape, working a few hours here and there. Fun, but never again.

 

I would have to p***.

 

Cut the top off along the belt line. Ilcluding the windshield Make a two door tub with sucisade doors. a duvall type wind shield. You have lots of options just decide what you want in a finished car and go for it.Goto the MOPAR guys here on the hamb and they may be able to help.

 

I have the same Model in my back yard, when you figure out what year and make it is will you PM me?

I'd like to put it up in the cl***ifieds, any idea what they go for?

 

"Hey, I could build a hotrod out of that" falls under what I called cultural value. Dollar value doesn't really apply.

Nothing about hot rodding truely makes sense, but that never stopped any of us from building cars.

 

I have a set of rough but usable doors. Two options, I buy your car...my best choice, or I will sell you my doors. Pm me either way if you are interested.

 

How much you want for your doors?

 

Looks like a 33 or 34 Plymouth. If its got and independent front suspension it is definitely a 34. If it doesn't then it doesn't rule out being a 34, it just wasn't the PE? model. 34 had both straight and independent. The 34 independent was a 1 year only design though. If it does have the IFS, I could really use it if your not going to. I have a 34 2 door sedan I'm trying to gather parts for.

 

This looks a lot like what I'm driving right now. Handles OK but I have to watch out for bumps. If I hit one, I have to start all over again.

 

if it is dust it is too rough