426 Hemi

Off the top of my head I can think of 5 recent deals like that. "Always wanted it, won't ever sell it, I'm your pal---I'm not going to flip it". All ended up either on eBay or Craig's list within a week.

Also the offer to help someone to work on their waylaid car is nice (as in being a way better person than I am ) -------but in my opinion that's just rewarding them for for some pretty obstinate behavior.

Roger Walling

Quotes from corvetted,
"I agree w/what has been said above, but also add that for some people, they see it (the car) as it 'was', not as it is (not the way you or I or anyone else who isn't attached to it emotionally)."

This statement made me think on how to value my cars if I wished to sell them.
I know how much it was worth when I finished 'restoring" it. Say a solid #3 @ $50,000.
I has depreciated over the last several years, and appreciated also, so the above price is irrelevant.
The buyer will always want to put in a few thousand to bring it up to his standards so the selling price must reflect this and the new value after the repairs.
So the selling price must be low enough so that the buyer will have an incentive to buy your car, rather than buying one in #3 condition.

So, if I have $35,000 invested in the car plus my labor, ( which was actually pleasure time spent) I should price it a few thousand under the value of a low #3 even if it is less than $35,000, and be happy for all the pleasure that it has brought me.
Now if I can swallow that lesson, I may start selling.

GTOguy

This is DEAD ON. Knew a guy in the Horseless Carriage Club who never had a running brass era car. He had a pile of swap meet parts for a '13 Ford for 70 years, but never did a thing with them. He was in the club for 60 years or better before he died of old age in his late 80's. The pile of parts is still in the estate, getting moved along. His name in the registry listed he owned a 1913 Ford for years and years. He had a TON of other non-running cars, etc. We cleared 45 cars off of his property after he passed. None of them ran. All were pretty much parts cars.....

rayvaflav

My case with this friend's 1969 one owner Z/28 is not the typical case. I have known about this a long time, he has only brought it up in conversation a few times so he's not one of those type that likes to "brag about what he has" while never doing anything about it, he's actually sort of embarrassed that he hasn't done anything with it.

I am currently in no position to buy this car (this conversation of ours took place quite a few years back) so there's none of the waiting around for something to happen.

I think that this might be more of a case of once it's running and driving that it may lead to a larger restoration or simply upkeep and maintenance that he's not dealing with currently and may not want to have that become part of his life. This is all speculation on my part, he knows what he has (he ordered it new), he rarely talks about it and the fact that it's not out there being driven seems to bother me more than it bothers him. Now I'm starting to think that there's something wrong with me !

I do enjoy the success stories that you guys have posted, it's always refreshing to see a '57 Nomad out there being driven instead of making it more difficult to change a light bulb in the garage.

Ray

Dan Hampton

A rare kind of hubris. I have seen these cars simply melt into the ground. Could never understand it. There should be a clinical listing in the DSM V for this type of personality.

midyear

I build cars all day for people that tore them apart years ago, so some do get built/restored, but I'm just as guilty, have a 70 elcamino I drove to high school, the 78 trans am I gave my girlfriend/now wife in 86, and a 27 model T that my dad disassembled in 1959 just sitting and sitting,

provette67

I am as guilty as well. I have a '65 roadster 396 that I was going to restore one day. I drove it last when I moved in '92. The cover has not been off the car since

Frankie the Fink

There is a difference between when a project languishes because "life" or work get in the way versus somebody with oceans of time on their hands that just sit around and watch their prized possession deteriorate because they don't want to let it go and deep down know they'll never restore it...

GTOguy

I never ran into this living in the Bay Area, where space was tight and at a premium, but out where I am now, it is all over the place. Fat old guys on their porches rocking the day away, gloating over their 'stuff', hoping for an interloper to drop in and inquire about possible sale or trade. The best ones are the cars sunk into the dirt past the frame rails, just absolutely melting into the earth, with huge 'NOT FOR SALE!" signs on their windshields (or where the glass used to be). HILARIOUS.....but tragic, at the same time------ for the car.

RatDog

1snake

My brothers best friend had a 65 big block roadster that he bought in 1968. He parked it in his garage over 25 years ago with only 29K miles. I was after that car for many years but he said he would never sell it. I bought it from his widow.

RatDog

1snake

He actually got to enjoy the car for several years but he was more of a "Harley" guy. In fact, he had an old pan head Harley that he loved and when he died, they removed the tank and put his ashes in it and that was what was buried. The bike went to his nephew who bought a new tank for it. It was very emotional for the widow when I bought the car as it was what he was driving when they started dating in 1969. When I tore the car apart, I found the birth notice, with the hospital picture, for their only child under a seat. Of course, I sent it with a card to the widow. Now the car is almost restored, I plan on swinging by her house and showing her the finished product.

2tired

[QUOTE=midyear;1598730994]I build cars all day for people that tore them apart years ago, so some do get built/restored, but I'm just as guilty, have a 70 elcamino I drove to high school, the 78 trans am I gave my girlfriend/now wife in 86, and a 27 model T that my dad disassembled in 1959 just sitting and sitting,[/QUOTE

I understand completely. I own a restoration shop and am guilty of not completing my own car. I guess I take the pressure and responsibilities of restoring cars for paying customers too seriously!
My unfinished car is a '67 GTO that I drove during high school. I it took off the road a few years later, in 1978. Numbers matching but tired, so I parked it. In the years since I bought quite a bit of NOS and new parts to complete it. Too bad that we can't buy time.

ChattanoogaJSB

roadster65

Four cars double stacked … hibernating for past twenty years under three layers of covers; … garage door last opened two years ago

Frankie the Fink

I share many of the same thoughts here, but -- at the end of the day; its the owner's car. They may have inherited it, slaved away at a sucky job for years to buy it, or just used it as a daily driver back in the day and now it just sits. Maybe they just can't stand to let it go or get some sort of pleasure out of owning it and having others lust after it. I don't know...

But - it's THEIR property, and I might inquire about it 2-3 times but then drop it. I won't ingratiate myself to the owner by offering to do yard work or paint their house in hopes of getting it, nor will I ghoulishly hang about waiting for them, or a family member, to be feeble enough, or die, to get a shot at buying it....

That to me is just as perverse as an owner that won't let it go...

bj1k

I know a guy that has owned a rare1953 Buick Skylark convertible for over forty years , never drives it but just leaves it sit in storage . People have offered to buy it but he won't sell . About twenty years ago he asked me to go from Pa. to Maryland to buy a dual wheel 53 Ford truck because he wanted to make a tow truck out of it because he remembered one that his dad owned when he was a kid . We hauled it back to Pa straight into an outdoor ( PAID )storage facility and it has sat there ever since. A couple months ago he and his wife sold their home and moved into a condo for the elderly . The vehicles will sit in storage until he dies and his sons will sell them because they have no interest . You can see it is all about the dream for these people not living the dream like some of us .

bj1k

Here is one that used to belong to a customer of mine when I was in the restoration business . I worked on this car for several years as he got some money. A 1969 Camaro convertible with a factory 4 speed and console with built in gauges . He lost interest before it was done and bought a corvette . It sat for many years in his garage and I asked about buying it but he always refused . Then one day he needed money for something else and said yes . He didn't value the car as high because he said it was not numbers matching because he couldn't find the VIN on the block so sold it to me as NOM . While I was restoring the car I read some where that some of the cars did not have the serial numbers on the pad but was put on the oil filter boss . Sure enough when I looked there the VIN was correct for the car


. So this was a lucky find for me but he was not happy . But bottom line , if he would have known that this car was a match he would have never sold it even though it would still be sitting in his garage needing finished .

Tonio

I have a 1916 Indian Powerplus sitting in my basement, been sitting in boxes since 1994. I'm probably never going to get to assembling it, but it's going nowhere. An acquaintance works at Motorcyclepedia Museum near me and has unfortunately told countless people about what I have. They contact me all the time to try to get me to sell it to them. A few have even come to my house uninvited to inquire about it. Many of them get very angry at me when I tell them that I have zero intentions to assemble it, nor to sell it. The bike, as is, has meaning to me. My kids understand and will do whatever they want with it once I'm gone, most likely assemble it and put it on display in one of their homes. But until that day comes, it's going nowhere.

I have no idea why people think that they have a right to demand that I do what THEY want me to do with my possession. I think they all need some kind of psychiatric help.