1958 model 43--part it out? restore? sell as is?

I traded for this 1958 Special model 43 this week. It was part of a deal to get me out of a car that I was totally frustrated with and sick of working on (not a Buick).

There is no engine but the body is perfect--no dents, no rust other than a couple of pinholes in the wire covers on the floorboards. Someone took it apart and began "restoring" it and then died or got sick. Grille is nice, rear bumper is very nice, car has five new but incorrect 235/75R15 radial tires, dashboard is all apart, seats are reupholstered in an awful maroon velour; some idiot painted over most of the original pink paint trying to make the car maroon; car is rock solid. I can't even find any bondo or filler. NO engine, NO radiator, but the Dynaflow transmission is there. A few of the small parts that drive you nuts are missing, such as the circular hold-down that goes behind the front hood "V" emblem; and some of the trim clips and bolts, but you can replace those. Windshield is cracked and driver's door window is cracked, other glass is fine; interior door panels (originally black and white) are in very bad shape--too bad to be useable. There is no carpet, no headliner, all weatherstrips and windlace are gone. Whoever took this car apart ought to have his you-know-what kicked, because there is just no good reason to disassemble parts to the extent that they are disassembled. Basically, the interior or what is left of it, is worthless. When I told the seller that I would probably part out the car, he was incredulous--could not believe I would do that to this car. The chrome, while pretty decent, is driver quality, and some of the left rear stainless pieces have hail dents.

I have between $2500 and $3000 in it now--every bit of $3000 if my transport costs and time are considered. My question to the group is, should I part it out? Should I sell it like it is and try to get $3000 or something close to that? I am not looking for another project to restore--have plenty of those already, and a full restoration would never return the $$$ on a four-door. So, what is the group's opinion?

And if anybody is interested in the car or its parts, let me know.

Pete Phillips, BCA #7338

Leonard, Texas

My 2 cents: Unfortunately there isn't much value in it at all for that model, especially without an engine or tranny. That's kinda the kicker right there. Even if you were able to pick up a running engine for a steal, you probably wouldn't make your $ back on selling the car whole is my guess. I, probably more than anyone hate to see a car broken up but sometimes you have to cut your losses. :/ You may be able to get some of your $ back especially chrome that is in good condition and I'm sure there are probably people searching for some of the parts you have there. Who knows, run some searches on ebay on the parts, see what they have been selling for and do some math to see where you might land.

A non running incomplete 4 door sedan of almost any variety has very little to no value unfortunately.

First, I disagree, in general, with alsancle. First of all the car is a 4dr-hardtop, not a 4dr sedan. Either way, a 4dr car is much better for a touring car and in my opinion the 2dr/4dr value question for a car this old is overblown. That said, unfortunately, doesn't save this car. If you are up to the work, you can carefully disassemble the chrome and other trim items that are there and put t hem on eBay. You can get maybe $250-500 for the tires. Back east here, all potmetal chrome is usually beyond decent plating, so many would buy the diecast just for cores to re-pate. I did that on a 1956 Special I restored one time to AACA Senior. If there is enough diecast left on the car, you could easily net $2,000 off eBay. Is the speedometer there and the driveshaft. Both are problem items on a '58 based on my personal experience. I had to replace a whole half driveshaft back in the 60's to fix a U-Joint. Now the Buick dealer may have lied to me, but that is what they had to do they said. The other option would be to replace the whole engine, transmissiion and driveline with a 350 or 455 Buick and build a resto-rod. The '58 engine and driveline were problems when new, again based on my personal experience in the 1960s. A resto-rod could look authentic, be a fun driver, and be reliable. So, in summary I would try to sell it for a bit, and if nobody bites, part it out.

Over the years I have sold a lot of these. The first thing to do is clean the car as if you were taking it to a show TOMORROW. Stuff lying inside, especially on the seats is not good at all. Even if minimally attached, anything that can be screwed back into place should be attached. Extra parts should be neatly organized away from the car.

Spend the time to dab and buff a little polish. Perception sells; functionality, not so much. Add 6-8 hours of equity.

Search for the uninformed buyer. Advertise in a newspaper or the Courier Journal. Everyone on the forum has a Buick, find the TV watcher with rose colored glasses.

Pull their heartstrings. Always promote the inferior car as "potential fine parts car". That way the guy who wants to save everything will be motivated. If the buyer is incredulous about parting the car out, let them be consoled by the loan manager at the bank.

When the presentation goes to parting it be sure to talk about the money to be made. Use your own buttons as trigger points. People will spend money on "pretty" or the thought they might make a buck. Let them know this is not an old parts car, it is at least 6 months of steady cash flow. Ask what they would buy if they had extra money. Tell them this car will put that money in their pocket, its a business all in itself.

As a kid, my Grandfather had a range of names for the DBA's, Wholesale Tires, Wholesale Used Cars, Jerry's Tire Shop, Jerry's used cars. I was 13 years old and selling cars to adults. Believe me, the term "Sports Car" does not just apply to noisy little British things. You have one there.

Try this, clean it up, put it on a car trailer, and cross out a price of $3,000 on the windows. Use white shoe polish to write "Not For Sale" over the $3,000. Then take it for about a 50 mile drive, stopping at McDonald's and Burger King's.

Just be careful cleaning and detailing it. I have suckered myself into keeping a few that way.

Bernie

Oh, and that thing about four door hardtops; I would never consider selling mine.

If you are hell-bent on getting your $3000 back you may have a problem. You may be able to get close to that if you completely part it out and have some patience, but you will have spent many, many hours in disassembly as well as putting up ads, and packing and shipping the stuff. So, if you value your time spent at $0 then maybe that is the way to go. Personally, I highly prize my time and would count my time spent doing all of this and net it out of the $ received. So, even if you wind up netting $3,000 parting it (which I think would be very good, especially when anything on Ebay will cost you 12.5% between value fees and Paypal fees), if you spend 80 hours doing all the work (which seems reasonable based on my experience), if you value your time at $20 per hour as an example, now you've just netted only $1400.

Hence, you may be better off selling it for something close to that (maybe $2k tops) without lifting a finger. At that price, it may be a good candidate to restore, IMO for somebody who is not smitten and googly-eyed for only 2-doors. The fact that it is so solid with such good chrome means it has a lot going for it. This is another one of those cars that I am glad is not within 50 miles of me, or I'd be tempted to make you an offer.

the body is perfect--no dents, no rust... Grille is nice, rear bumper is very nice

sounds like all you are looking for is that person who is restoring a rust bucket of a 58 4 door hard top (which in my opinion is a very desirable car) and has just realized it is going to cost twice your asking and a LOT of hard work to fix said rust and you have a sale. The car is worth what you paid to the right person. You paid 3 grand to get out from under a nightmare, I am sure someone else would too. Advertise it on CL and ebay and put a cover on it 'til it sells.

Trying to sell it "as is" would be a no brainer. What have you got to lose? Meanwhile I would look around to see if there was a running candidate somewhere that was able to be bought cheaply, and then try to sell the pair.

Hey, maybe you can sell it to that garage monkey guy on un-reality tv. This would make for some entertainment.

Bolt it together and shine the chrome to show as much as possible that the car is complete minus the engine. Then ebay it. If it doesn't sell for what you need there, then blow it apart.