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| photo source: cardomain.com Not the car I'm talking about, but you get the idea! |
Dollars and Sense, that kind of takes the fun out of the hobby, doesn't it?
I remember going to look at a '69 Cadillac El Dorado many years ago. It was offered at a very cheap price,1,000 dollars or b/o, so of course, I was interested. To be fair it didn't look too bad in the picture in the ad, although it was just one photo of the exterior. The seller had done some roofing work for a client and discovered the car in the garage and expressed an interest. This lead to him taking the car as a partial payment for the work that had been performed. I can only hope that it was a very small part!
Upon first arrival I saw a very sad and faded white car sporting large areas of surface rust on the horizontal surfaces. The bumpers were pretty straight, but were also covered with a layer of dusty rust. The body was straight with only a little bit of that expected GM rusting around the rear window. I talked to the woman that was showing the car, she was the roofer's Wife, who told me the story. She said the engine ran and she would be glad to start it up. It did fire up, but then she informed me that the transmission wasn't working.
So far it sounds like I'm describing almost any old car that piqued my interest on Craig's List. But there was a difference. The entire interior, seats, headliner, even the dash had been covered in purple crushed velvet! The dash had also been butchered to fit an ancient 8 track tape deck. The velvet was pretty filthy.
Of course the package shelf had been savaged to accommodate an over sized pair of speakers.
I was a bit shocked to see the condition of the interior, but the Woman advised me that she was open to any offer.
I looked at all that filthy velvet and thought: The entire interior would need to be gutted. Replacement panels would have to be found, another stock set of seats, and worst of all, a replacement dash board would have to be sourced. I knew how hard that would be and how much work changing it over would entail.
Of course the transmission would have to be rebuilt also.
While I was thinking about all of this the Woman said that she could accept an offer of 500.00.
Five hundred dollars? In my eyes the thing was worthless.
This car was pretty much just a parts car for rebuilding a better, more original example. There's no way it could make any economic sense to try to bring this thing back from the dead.
Even if she gave me the car for free, it would still be more expensive to fix up that car then to start out with a better car for 2,500 dollars.
You have to know when to walk away, which I did rather quickly.
I was very diplomatic and just advised her that this was a bit more than I was capable of handling, at least at this time.
Most of the time when you stumble upon such a rough car it's seldom a good idea to get involved.
So what does this have to do with my fleet?
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| My '70 coupe. I almost decided to buy it back. |
I've written a lot about my 1970 Mustang coupe. It's actually the inspiration for starting my blog.
It was a rough, but cheap example. There was a reason it was so cheap. Unfortunately, it featured "the trifecta of undesirability."
A six cylinder, (count 1) coupe, (count two) with a salvage title, (count three, and you're out!) and more than a few problems. However, I saw the potential (?) and jumped right in. I can claim my project as a success in that it was eventually turned into a presentable, finished daily driver.
However...
I soon reached a point where I had invested more that 3,800 additional dollars in my 1,200 dollar coupe. Now it was a 5,000 dollar project!
Yes, it was a running and driving car and was even looking pretty good. But it still needed so much more.
By the time I'd swapped in a small block V8, the appropriate transmission and rear end, and added disc brakes, I was looking at another three or four grand.
If it was going to be a keeper than more bodywork and a new paint job and some interior work would have to follow. Figure anywhere from three to five grand, but probably more.
How could happen to my low buck project? At least an other ten grand would be required.
And if, if! I was to pour all this money into the car it would still carry the stimata of the salvage title.
Thereby destroying any hopes of profitable resale.
So my hopes of doing an end run around paying the higher prices of a more desirable early Mustang was a failure.
This is in direct contrast to my '96 Mustang GT convertible. This is a modern, fully equipped car. Fuel injected motor, overdrive transmission, four wheel disc brakes with ABS, seat belt/shoulder harness, air bags, a/c power everything, cruise etc. Performance is more than adequate and it returns 25 mpg, at 70 mph. on regular gas.
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| Here's my car on a trip to Carmel. |
I only paid 2,800 dollars for my '96 convertible. Even counting a grand for the top, 500 bucks for tires, 300 bucks to have a new fuel pump installed, new lower control arms and a couple of replacement intake manifolds over the years, I'm sure that I'm still below a total investment of six grand. And this is a car that I still own and that I've reliably driven almost 60,000 miles since I bought it. Not a bad deal.
But I could always have kept the 70 Mustang, right?
I could have just done the work that it really needed right away.
That would be to upgrade to disc brakes. That's all it really needed, Right?
Well, the engine was powerful enough, I found that out driving it to Santa Maria for the car show. On the way home I cruised up the Cuesta Grade, south of Paso Robles at a steady 70 mph. I was keeping up with a 1970 SS Camaro. Of course we weren't racing, he could have blown me away! I found that the top end was 95 mph. recorded on my GPS calibrated speedometer. That was fast enough, I wasn't going to blow the motor up trying for a few more miles per hour.
I also found that the fuel economy was pretty low, around 15 mpg. driving at 65-70 mph. Later I performed a 100 mile, 55 mph. mileage run and was rewarded with an improvement to 17 mpg! I could live with a slow car that gets good mileage, or with a fast car that gets poor mileage. But a slow car that got poor mileage was a bridge too far.
Combine that with poor ergonomics, ventilation, and some other problems that are just part of the "old car experience" and I just decided that I didn't want it any more.
So I put it up for sale and sold it for a 1,300 dollar loss. I've done worse.
Kind of kills the Car Keepers philosophy!
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My first anecdote was about a car that I (luckily) was smart enough not to buy, and that you should never buy, something that would be a real money pit. The second was about my '70 Mustang which seemed like a smart buy, but ended up costing me more than it was worth. Especially since I ended up with a car that I really didn't want to keep. I included my '96 Mustang because this was a smart choice, a good buy, and has been a good experience. Probably because these models are just plain good cars.
Since this is the year of the XJS, I'm doing some very serious thinking about what to do with it. Fortunately, I don't have a lot of money tied up in it. I replaced the transmission with a 180.00 used one that works great. I just spent 500.00 on new tires and there's a few hundred bucks spent here and there, but nothing way out of line. If I have a total of three grand in it I would be surprised. It's up and running and I'm trying to put a few miles on it. The odometer just hit 107,000 miles, I've put about 500 of those miles on since I bought it. The engine seems to be in very good shape and runs nice and cool.
Overall it looks pretty good, the body and paint are in very good condition. The top is beat and the driver's seat needs to be recovered. The front suspension and steering definitely need to be rebuilt. The ABS system has to be looked into, maybe just a new pressure ball. The a/c is out and the passenger window doesn't work properly. The cruise control needs a new bellows assembly and the radio won't work without the code which might require a new unit.
So how much would it cost to get the car in good shape, only taking care of what it really needs?
I should get a quote, but I'll figure 2,000 bucks for a shop to rebuild the suspension and change the steering rack if needed.
I paid 1,000.00 to have the top replaced on my Mustang, that included the top,but not the headliner, which is still original. I know that the top and headliner are available online for 550.00. I don't know how much my top guy would charge to do the Jag. I wouldn't want to pay more than 2,500 dollars total.
To fix or replace the a/c would probably run at least a grand, maybe more.
The right thing to do would be to redo both seats. Some guys on the forum have had the seats recovered with original factory type leather covers. I would be okay with just having the seat bottoms repaired, if that is possible. I'll just throw out a blue sky number of 1,200 bucks.
Let's see so far I up to an imaginary projected expense of over 6,000 dollars.
How am I coming up with these numbers? I'm just pulling them out of thin air. Others might say that I'm retrieving them from an unspecified part of my anatomy, but let's be kind.
The smart thing to do would be to get an actual estimate on doing the work, so that I know exactly how much things will cost. Pulling numbers out of the air is totally counterproductive and a waste of time. I need to have an accurate idea of how much it will cost to fix the car. At least the things that I really don't want to do myself, like rebuilding the front suspension. Then I can decide if I want to invest the money in the car or not.
Stay tuned for Part Two.
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