TTR

Like (almost) everything in life, including cars/vehicles/etc, “better ?” is very individual/subjective. What do you plan to tow (type of trailer, cars, load of hay or lumber, etc…), how often, what distances, roads/routes, seasons, etc, etc, … ?

Besides and not that I really care, but how exactly it is proven he actually bought/sold one and it was this particular car ? Verified copies of BoS’s, Title and/or Registration with VIN in his name ? Any photos/videos of him actually driving/using it ? Etc, etc, etc. Or is this another example of gullible people believing anything some used car salesmen’s tell them ? Not that there’s anything wrong with being a used car salesman, per se.

I believe (previous) “celebrity* ownership” matters only to posers, etc. and are willing pay extra for such nonsense while real car enthusiasts focus on the car and its own merits. As for some of the “amazing”/“world record” prices achieved by three ring circuses like B-J, Mecum, etc just prove how easy it is to fool masses. How many on this forum can actually verify and provide solid proof for any such transaction ? Media just generally “reports” what the ringmasters or their press agents/- releases tell them to “report”. *Having owned a couple or had chances to buy a few more, including a couple directly from the “celebrities” themselves and/or worked on many (including one currently in the shop with over 50 years of single ownership since new) for several such owners, I just focus on the cars or the work they were sent for me to do and my shop rate is same for them than non-celebrity owned cars.

But you know cars don’t usually melt in rain or snow nor require sun to run. 😉

All this ^^ along with every other operational (coolant/radiator hoses, etc) and safety (brakes, steering, suspension, etc) related rubber components should be replaced/serviced in any car due to their age related deterioration and especially in antique/classic/vintage cars for pride of ownership and respect for the car(s). IMO, no respectful owner drives/operates their beloved(?) car(s) with any of that being more than 10 years old. And tires even less so at 6 years from DOM at maximum. With all due respect, I’m sorry to say/write it, but above sounds/reads like you have too many cars (or girlfriends ?) to adequately/respectfully (to each car or lady) maintain/date them all. OTOH, this is quite common among countless people buying/having more cars than they have time and money to properly maintain/own them. That, simply put, is the difference between a collecting and a hoarding. Most “car museums” are prime examples of this type of neglect, cars just sitting and deteriorating, due to lack of adequate maintenance and use. Most serious collectors with multitude of cars I know have dedicated individuals or even staff to keep their cars regularly exercised if they don’t have time to do it themselves. We all know having cars just sit long periods of time (including winter storage) between usage is far more destructive than shorter intervals, but many choose to ignore this and spend their hard earned money on quantity of cars rather than quality maintenance and respectful ownership of fewer. Also, keeping a tank full of modern/todays pump gasoline for extended periods (i.e. months) is not necessarily a very good idea either, as it (= todays gasoline) has much shorter “use before” lifespan than gasoline produced 2 decades ago and with ongoing introduction of larger quantities of ethanol and various other chemicals, it’s only getting worse, adding more urgencies to drive cars more frequently to prevent myriad of problems. Some of my aforementioned clients have their staff refill only enough to keep only fresh fuel in the tanks of the collector cars between driving exercises.

Sounds more like a problem caused by too long in storage between exercises/use. I have vintage cars I’ve owned and drive over 30 years here in California and their fuel tanks have been inspected every 10 or so years, last time in 2022 and none have exhibited problems like yours, but then again, I drive my cars fairly regularly, at least once a month and few thousand miles a year, on average. My 1932 Plymouth still has the OEM tank that came with it when I bought her almost 35 years ago and during its last inspection in summer of ‘22, inside look as clean as it did in 1989. Since that last inspection, I’ve driven her over 7000 miles and don’t expect the condition of inside the tank having changed much, if any at all. BTW, I use regular, non-leaded pump gas (+ MMO) in all of my & my clients vintage cars, including high compression 6 carb 4-cam V12 Ferraris, etc.

Took the PB Roadster (top down, no heater, etc) out for another great Sunday leisure drive. Left home around 8 am (I must be getting old and/or lazy), heading up to the mountains, initially via dreaded Freeways, then Hwy 330 up to Running Springs and Hwy 18 to Big Bear Lake where I spent couple of hours for picnic lunch I had packed and just walking around "The Village" and nearby shoreline park. Then, continued east on 18 to Hwy 38 south (eventually peaking elevation at nearly 8200 ft.) which lead me down to Forrest Falls (at about 5500 ft. elevation) where I spent couple hours visiting and enjoying cigars with a friend who moved there about a year ago. Got back to town around 4 pm briefly stopping to visit couple of elderly friends (both have 20+ years on me, but are lifelong vintage car guys) along the way before getting home around 5.30 pm. 135 miles with close to 8000 ft. of elevation changes, nice, sunny weather with only drawback of the day being way too much traffic of people heading up to or down from various ski resorts.

Interestingly enough, last year a good friend of mine in Europe, against my strong objections to the idea, bought a lot of brake and chassis service parts for one of his 60+ years old vintage American cars. After their long awaited, a month+ later arrival and eventual inspection, he realized more than half of them weren’t correct, even by a long shot, for his car and not because he had ordered them incorrectly… Lesson learned (hopefully) and the sad thing was that he had to throw all those incorrect parts to dumpster as he didn’t want to spend/waste time on trying to figure out what they belong to and sending them back from Europe was cost prohibitive, even if RA would’ve refunded the original purchase prices.

In past 4+ decades I've driven countless miles, including long distance (1000+ mile) road trips, top down or off in variety of 30-90+ year old open cars, both in rain and snow, and see no reason why I shouldn't continue to enjoy that. Only real suggestion I've always given to anyone who wants to do same: "Dress accordingly"

While I mostly anymore listen to pre-historic Heavy Metal, i.e. Beethoven, Bruckner, Mahler, R. Strauss, Wagner, etc, I still enjoy the sound tracks of my teen years by early AC/DC, Sex Pistols, etc. It does create an interesting contrast when my shop CD player finishes the final notes of the Gotterdamerung at end of playing the entire 13+ hrs of Der Ring des Nibelungen and the next tune is "Holidays in the sun" followed by rest of the "Never Mind The Bollocks" album. Or when "Tristan und Isolde" is followed by "Kill 'Em All" 🙄

And let's not forget the mighty "$" which is and has always been as able, if not more so, to influence outcomes, including any regarding freedoms, justice and/or "politics".

Good luck. Just make sure to have enough $$s (& political clout) in reserve to see it through. 😉

… and … Exactly. . Like I said, nothing new or race track specific and there are plenty of both everywhere, including this forum.

While I’ve never been concerned about the fuel mileage in my vintage cars 40+ years I’ve owned and driven many, but due to driving/using mine more than majority of owners, I’ve always had a habit and made an effort to learn about each one’s mileage, so when planning for multi-thousand mile road trip vacations, we can estimate approximate fuel expenses to overall costs each trip. And as I’ve said before, I always hope the fuel prices would be much higher than they are, since it would help reduce traffic congestion and also bring values of vintage cars down, hopefully enough that I could afford the few I’ve always lusted after, but cannot really afford. P.S. Relying on factory claims of fuel mileage is as childish as believing their HP claims published decades ago for so-called high-performance production cars. Only way to know for sure is to do your own homework on both. After achieving somewhat unexpected dyno results with a fully rebuilt, stock spec. 60+ year old Hi-Perf. engine, I just did a brief research and survey among owners of similar cars/engines and concluded that my results are actually quite accurate, even if 15% below factory claimed numbers, which at the time were commonly exaggerated (for marketing purposes) by all manufacturers of similar cars.

To me, it all looks like paint work touch-up cleaning and detailing, not pin striping, per se.

This is nothing new or special, just another example of our exceptional freedoms & judicial system at work. Anybody has a freedom & a right to sue anybody, not to mention our society having more laws, regulations & rules than any other in the history of the world, just to “protect” those freedoms and rights . Oh the irony !

Etc, etc, etc... All this and more should make it clear why a properly and thoroughly done engine rebuild on any decades old American production car/truck V8 can easily run into tens of thousands $$'s, even without any exotic hot rodding or modifications. Just a rebuild to stock specs.

Same here… Unfortunately, same applies to almost all vintage car parts produced today or should we say in past couple of decades and not just engine or mechanical components. 🙄

Perhaps excessive approach, but my machine shop’s cylinder head guy uses two to test each and I check them all with mine during final assembly. Also, many of the well known lifter manufacturers now get theirs from same or similar sources in C***a or T****n as those in plain white boxes or “Brown & Sharpe”, “Starrett,” or “Tesa” precision measuring equipment/tools, etc., etc., etc.

Oh, and if I’ve failed to make it clear before, I along with all my lifelong antique/classic/vintage car enthusiast/hobbyist friends have always believed anyone other than brokers/dealers/flippers considering or seriously discussing antique/classic/vintage cars as some kind of “market commodities” shouldn’t be taken seriously as passionate/true enthusiasts/hobbyists for said vehicles and in most cases these type of individuals would probably be better off spending (wasting ?) their time and money speculating in Wall Street or something and leave the old car hobby for those who can & will appreciate/approach it as just that, a hobby. Simply put, you buy the car you want and can afford, including to live with the consequences. Full disclosure: I’ve bought and sold probably 1000+ antique/classic/vintage cars in past four decades, although vast majority of those transactions took place over 30 years ago, when I was acting/working as a broker/supplier of them to a huge demand in Nordic countries at the time, but can’t recall a single occasion in which the consideration of price (or “value”, if you will) for any of them had anything to do with other cars, including identical years, makes or models. Each car’s price/value was always weighted against its own merits, as it only should.

Besides, there are numerous vintage car makes/models cited in “price/value guides” that if any were actually available in such ranges there would be a long line of takers. As J.P. above aptly pointed out, closest thing to somewhat reasonably valid statistics could only be achieved with large volume production makes/models still available in large quantities and yet only the buyer with cash in hand will determine the value of each example. I only see these questions any potential buyer of any vintage car should be asking themselves: 1. Do I really like/want it ? 2. What is it worth to me, i.e. do I have funds to buy it without a single financial concern or worry ? 3. Can I afford to own it, i.e. do I have means to properly maintain, insure, restore, store, use it, etc, without a single financial concern or worry ? (Like a boat, country club membership, daily driver, house, real estate, etc, purchase of a vintage car is just an introduction and a first of many future checks to be written for it). If the answer is “No” to any of the above question, it’s pretty clearly not the right car for that person.

I second that 100%. Any buyer for any specific (vintage) vehicle is the only realistic market value indicator for it. In this case it would be what DrumBob is comfortable/willing to pay for that particular car, whatever it is. Everything else is just meaningless/pointless hyperbole.

Still waiting please ? P.S. While they aren’t really within purview of OPs inquiry, I’ve been “gifted”(?) or offered (for free) leftover parts cars (including one quite rare example in good condition, after the engine was removed from it to clients car*) or new & used parts from restoration jobs, shop equipment, tools, etc. * This reminded me of a client buying a quite rare 1950s 2 dr Ht car in overall good, running/driving condition for high five figure sum just to get a one piece of interior trim for his, even rarer convertible. They all came with this “interior” piece, but finding or seeing one today is almost equivalent to finding cavities in hens teeth.

Only a couple of A-4's known in driving/working condition in the world and not many more even existing in any condition. Talk about rare automobiles. Few years prior to pandemic, I was asked to assist with preparations to have one (restored and working example) brought to and toured around U.S. at various car shows, but lack of needed funding for all associated expenses (not for me, I offered to volunteer my assistance) shelved the idea.

Define "significant value" vs. cost of full restoration. I was gifted a fairly desirable, rare (less than 500 produced) and somewhat valuable(?) early 1960's vintage car 35+ years ago for helping the relatives of a friend of mine to disperse his small collection of cars, parts and an small aircraft after he unexpectedly died in a plane crash. The car was quite nice unrestored SoCal specimen and good candidate for a "full restoration", but I only did the mechanicals, i.e. engine, trans., brakes, suspension & steering, etc, to make it drivable/useable "as is". Sold it few years later.