Pontiac59

In 2007 I saved a wrecked '53 Skylark from a yard being crushed out. Sold it twice and made over four grand on it; the first, overseas buyer paid then vanished, no reply to messages, I let him slide for two years then sold it again locally. The '58 Dodge, '60 Caddy ragtops each brought $2000. I think in six months I turned $10,000 just buying and flipping the stuff. The market was good and all I had to do was take pictures and post on eBay or other online forums. The '53 Chevy guys drove here to New York from California to pick up. It can be done. I know of more still out there, but the market's been in the toilet for a while.

Front door is 31 1/2 inches wide at the beltline, approximately 44 3/4 inches tall at the B-post. Rear doors are 29 inches across at the top and fairly uniform except for the wheel dogleg. The right front is complete with crank handle and the window goes up and down nicely, the right rear is missing the garnish but has the glass; the left doors are missing more parts. They also both have some dings in the beltline. But they have no rot issues, only minor surface rust on the original paint.

I have a set of manifolds with a good correct core carb for those engines I can't give away. I did sell the head because it had "Terraplane" on it - for a whopping $20.

The long wheelbase cars have a full rear door, they do not have a cutout for the wheel arch.

Located in Syracuse, NY. They're out on my truck right now. Four doors, both front and both rear. They're for the smaller series cars, the rears have the cutout for the rear fenders.

I just picked up a solid set of doors for either Hudson or Terraplane sedans. They're in varying stages of completeness and one has a mild dent, but they have original paint with just minor rust dotting on them. They have the outer portion of the hinges, too. Since the odds of me finding a car to put them on are slim to none, I thought I'd post them here. It may be possible to ship them Ground but it won't be cheap. Photos are below.

As an eBay seller for 15 years now, I learned a long time ago that you have to spell things out for the mass of idiots who come along and feel the need to send smart ass comments or waste your time making $1.00 offers on a car posted for sale because they have no clue what they're looking at, or the morons who demand you sell parts off your car endlessly. A lot of people can't tell the difference between eBay and Wal-mart. I also learned early on that on eBay, you have to overprice listings and ask for offers - this stops the clowns who come along and click the Buy It Now button to waste your time and cost you money. There is a dollar limit most people are unwilling to cross when it comes to behaving like a clown. When I had a '50 Ford woodie wagon up for sale, I had a guy bug me endlessly for about a year telling me what junk it was, how worthless it was, and that I should part it out. He eventually offered me $100 for a part that I could pull up three completed listings showing it sold in the same shape for $500 all by itself. I sold the car for over three times that to a restorer. I got this car about the same time out of the same place. As far as market price: Old Cars Report - Sept/Oct 2012 issue, so it's not even that current - ---#6 ---- #5 ---- #4 $1580 - $4750 - $7920 #5 condition: Restorable. Needs complete restoration of body, chassis and interior. Is not weathered, wrecked or stripped to the point of only being useful for parts. Well, the car is 90-95% complete, nothing it's missing can't be pulled off a 4-door somewhere, or even not use it at all for a custom or street rod. So it's a #5 car. (I'm sure none of you bothered to read, but the grille and bumpers are with the car; it's only missing a few minor pieces - taillights, grille metal divider, rocker trim and gravel shields, and the gas door, plus the radiator. Not the end of the world, I priced taillights on eBay at $20 a shot a few years ago). Do I expect it to sell for $4750? No. The book is probably high. But I'm not going to start too low and give it away for nothing. When I got it I had no trouble finding another in similar shape bring over $2000 - and back then the #5 value was $1000 less. Clearly they get their prices from somewhere - and as many of you apparently also did not bother to notice, the listing is in Buy it Now or Best Offer format. Surely people on this board understand the concept of making an offer on a car.

1940 Buick Roadmaster Coupe. Not a 1947 Buick 2-door sedan. Well, like I keep saying, apparently to the collector community both are worth about the same, which is nothing, or I wouldn't have the Buick anymore. And clearly a running, moving car is worth more than scrap weight, there are several Valiants bid to more than that on eBay now. I wish I still could get the early Cuda I found rotting like 10 years ago, I'd buy that up and do an upper rear body transplant from one to the other. In any case, I offered him my Terraplane for the Valiant instead.

That old Buick ran right up until I picked some of the new parts off it and sold it to a you-pick yard. It didn't owe me anything, I hated to let it go, but it was rusty and by then one wet spring the pond at the farm rose high enough to get some water in it. But it still ran.

I passed on vending, too many days to be out in the potential for rain and states of emergency all over the place that weekend. I'd had enough rain after Norwich.

Buick is on eBay now, where it has been, as I said, for years. He can get $300 for his car from the scrapyard, looking at what's on eBay they're worth more than that. I've got my van to drive, having something to get around in isn't a concern.

I had the Buick painted to slow down the rust and had the front wheels freed up. Unlike the Valiant, it doesn't run, the motor is locked up tight, and it needs a ton of work. I bought it because it was available, it was a coupe, and it was rare - I didn't expect to make a fortune on it, but I'm kind of shocked that I haven't been able to find a serious offer on it in all this time. I could sell two parts out of it and do $600 without much trouble. At least the Valiant with a couple days work and no real additional investment I could drive it myself. I mean, yes, popular logic is the coupe is the better car, and chances are this guy will ruin it, but nobody - and I mean nobody - has had any interest in this car in a long, long time. And it's not a piece of crap - it's a very buildable car; the frame is good, most of the floors are there, it even has the original jack in the trunk. I post it around with "here's what it's worth by the book, make me an offer" and crickets chrip, or on Craigslist the idiots who don't know what they're looking at flag the ad. Well, the scrap man would buy it I suppose. But I sometimes think if I could go back to when I found that car, I'd have bought something else off the same guy.

I was offered a running '64 Valiant 4-door plus $500 for my '40 Roadmaster. Valiant runs and moves (off a gas can), but the guy spent time repainting it in some goofy ways, yet can't even change the three flat tires on it. I looked up the parts and they're not expensive, probably $300 to do all the brakes, a fuel pump and line and new tank straps. It's also out of CT, so it probably saw salt, although it doesn't look bad. I figure it might be a $1500 car if a guy could come drive it home. And I don't know if it's a V8 or not. Buick is a rare coupe, one of 3600 or so made, body is not bad and it would build as a hot rod fairly easily, it's pretty well complete except for some minor things. But I've had it for sale forever (literally I have had this car advertised somewhere constantly for at least six years) and had zero interest, except a guy who wanted to cut it up to use the shell on a Cadillac sedan cowl and chassis. Old Cars Report says it's worth like $4500 as it sits. I'd hate to see it go to a guy who's just going to play with it and let it sit and rot though. But at the same time since the Buick guys don't seem to care, maybe it should go somewhere to sit and rot. Since I got it one of the A-arms has rotted through and I need to stick a piece of wood in there just to roll the front around.

Could probably rent a box truck and trailer from U-haul and do it yourself for around $1000-$1200, most of which will be fuel costs.

I looked at it and thought '65 Chevelle, although it's missing a hole in the center bar for an insert badge.

It's a good car to have to enjoy having a convertible with, but I don't think it's ever going to be worth a lot. Although if gas prices spike it may become a lot easier to sell.

Yes. I was being pun-ny. There could be a lot of reasons why the OP's car has the wrong motor in it. Most likely, whoever the current owner got it from was racing it and broke the 440 somehow, and put in the 383 because that was what they found first.

Have to post a picture.

It's a car, not a boat...

I need to round up my pictures of the '51 Ford OD trans I sold. If this is one of those, it's worth a few bucks, but if it's for a six, who knows. Some of them were toploaders. On the possible Camaro 3-speed, the stamped code is on a machined ear on the right top of the case, this site says it should be below the side cover. Something's not right there. But the numbers add up to an early '70s Saginaw 3-speed.

The Chevy OD trans has 8741357 13 GM on the side cover. Google and Bing get me nowhere. That second trans is a 3-speed Saginaw. The numbers seem to indicate 1970 3-speed, not worth much. GM 27 463011 on the case, GM 38 3952645 D23 ? on the side cover. It does have a stamped number in that ear on the top right rear main case, does that correlate to a car's VIN/serial? Have two others to ID yet, here's one of them - Pretty sure this other trans is Ford - but where do I find numbers on it? It has a lot of crap on it to try to dig through. What's broken on the right side? It had a rubber boot on it. Not the OD solenoid.

1940, coupe, been for sale forever all over the internet. Got a new wire brush and the rear housing has 1323277 on it.

Usually the X is unique to the convertible styles and much heavier, as you mentioned. I'd be surprised if the Skylark isn't that way; the '53 I had was pretty heavy, even as rough as that car was it didn't seem to bend any. I would be afraid of a 1977-up GM frame under a '50s body, having cut one ('79 Electra) down to the floorpans and seeing the amount of twist in it then - with a floor still on it - as compared to the heavier '50s frame with the big X in even the sedans. They also were terribly rot-prone, I've seen even well-preserved looking cars from this era and the rear frame is rotted out in them.

Supposedly the dash and number indicates an upgrade to the original part by GM, meaning that if the 1940 trans just has 1317854 on it, the 1953-55 version may have the -1 or the -2. From what I found elsewhere, though, the -1 is the 1956 Special variant. I didn't know any of those got a six-bolt trans case. Thanks, anyhow, that pretty well confirms what I thought for original possible applications. That means I have two of these transmissions, since my Roadmaster also has one in it.

I should add, the number in the subject is cast on the side of the case.