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HELP. Found a 32 Chrysler - Whats it worth?


Guest kevinmorgan

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Kevin,

What you are really selling is the body and maybe the fenders (they don't look that bad in the photos). Unfortunately, this car has been butchered some time in it's past as evidenced by the badly altered frame modifications that have shortened the wheelbase and shoved the front wheels too far back into the fenders. As mentioned before, to correctly restore this car, someone is going to have to find another 32 Chrysler of the same year and appropriate all it's running gear.

There are lots of folks on this forum who have started with less and ended up with beautiful cars, but to put a value on your vehicle they have to take in the cost to buy yours, probable shipping costs, the price of another car and probable shipping costs and then the cost of a restoration. If they gave you five grand - which is absolutely as high as I would ever go, and I would have to see the car in person before I paid that much - they still would be out at least 8 to 10 grand, providing they found a good, cheap "parts" car, before they could even start the restoration. As a footnote, I've restored wooden framed cars and it's a real job, even when a lot of the wood is still good.

If you can find someone that enjoys the search - and they are out there - and wants a desirable roadster, you may get five, even a bit more. I certainly would want to see the car restored, but I fear this is ideal hot rod bait and that's where the car will eventually go.

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Wow, looking over your pictures I see another problem that's going to hurt the value of your car even more. Something didn't look right with the front area - the radiator shell seems way too far forward. Comparing your car with photos of other similar cars, I think someone shortened the running boards and moved the front fenders back to try to compensated for the radically shorter wheelbase. It looks like the sidemounts would now interfere with the doors if you tried to fully open them. What this modification did to the fender supports one can only guess.

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WELL......it does NOT run, So......?

$500.00 to $2000.00, and as the other poster behind me mentioned, it would have to be a motivated buyer. This is just my opinion, Kevin. You never know what it might bring if the right person came along.;)

Finding him is the problem.

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I think I agree with Bob. What you're buying is a roadster body that appears to be in decent shape, and you could sell some of the bumpers and oddball parts and get some money back. Someone out there has a '32 sedan parts car, and take the two together you'd be back to an attractive roadster. $4000-$5000 sounds right IF one has access to a '32 parts car.......worst case, to save it, start over and make a proper hot rod out of it....there weren't many bad looking cars in '32, and just think if this was a Ford body in the same shape, you'd be multiplying the numbers we're talking by 4 or more...

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I just read the 2013 valuations by the AACA viewers.... I am disgusted with your attitude towards a car like this. You people should find a new hobby IMO.

I have read many inflated tales of how much it costs to restore any car on here, but most are estimates of sending each segment of the work to outside contractors. What happened to the people who used to do most of their own work? You guys seem to know how to write checks, not restore.

As a old time hot rodder and a person who also loves bone stock vehicles from the early 30s, I can see the original beauty of this car still shining through. I would put it back to stock, and I don't see it as a hopeless parts car. As a rodder, I think I know what front end is under the car now, and it can be reversed back to stock, once again. I assume it is a 40-up Ford "spring ahead" with hyd brakes. Those would put the axle too far back. Easy fix with orig parts, which should not be impossible to find.

You guys rant about pre war cars going to rodders...DUH! look at what YOU guys offer.

I have no clue what part of the country this car sits, but if it was near me, I would be offering way more, and I sure don't need another project. I would buy it to save it from a rodder. It deserves to go back to stock, even if the motor is slightly newer. Some "restorers" don't worry about such things, if the rest is stock. You must be thinking of AACA points, rather than trying to find a home to save a great car.

All I am ranting about, is, please don't get all out of shape if someone hotrods this beautiful roadster. The seller needs it gone, and apparently, the restorers are too dang cheap to save it.

Go wax your 1988 "classic".

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Wow, F&J, quite a rant.

I feel we try to be realistic about restoration costs.

Sure, you can "backyard" your restoration, and paint all your chrome with silver paint from Walmart, but if you want it done in a decent manner, there'll be thousands of dollars involved.

Want to paint it yourself? No problem...just be prepared to pay $400 to $500 per gallon if you choose a nice red color, and hundreds of dollars for preparation filler/primer.

Want to get engine work done? Sure that's cheap, unless you're a brother in law, $50-$80 an hour for machine work.

Hey, my favorite, upholstery or trim work! Sure, there've been some nice jobs done at home on a Singer...and I take nothing away from that....but if you want a nice job it's thousands for labor, and hundreds into the thousands for material.

I don't see the car as hopeless either, but there's money and labor to be spent.

No, I won't find a new hobby, I'm entrenched in this one....I even mentioned that doing a hot rod with this is OK, but let's have a little sense of proportion and make it look nice....

As far as cheap, it's all about location and price.....even if one were willing to invest X amount, it cost Y amount to move the vehicle to a different geographical position, and sometimes X + Y strains a budget...

And please explain "DUH! look at what YOU guys offer"....if the potential seller got $5K he should be happy...and that's what we're suggesting as a price point...and he asked the question to start with.

One of my aggravations in life is some asking "what's it worth" from a person or persons who should know, getting an answer, then criticizing the person who put the value on it......

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I never meant for my statement to mean "hopeless parts car". I can only see it for what the average guy like myself would have to go through to get it back to original. I would attempt it because I have a knack for finding tough to find parts, but I think it would be too much for a large number of car guys.

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To me it looks like a great resto project and the 32 Chrysler is a mighty handsome car. Just gathering up all the bits to get a start could be fun,especially finding a roadster chassis in useable or repairable shape. But..hey! thats why we do this..right?

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I have started with cars in this shape and it will take a long time.

Those with out the skills would pay dearly to have it done right.

Just because you do it yourself and are not paying some big name shop won't necessarily make it a poor restoration.

Some shops do a cosmetic bondo butcher job and call it a restoration that may look good for the first year, and I have seen and repaired many.

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The market treats a one-off by a known coachbuilder on a the big chassis much differently than a standard body on a small chassis. I tend to agree with the numbers being thrown around in this thread. The car restored is not a super high dollar car. Done really well, maybe 35-45k?

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yes, I think that too .In fact i was thinking around $30,000 for a car in good codition. These are not complex cars but lots of chrome etc means lots of resto costs.

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There was one locally for sale within the last year or so for 20,000 all restored. It took honors at Bennington a few years earlier. It looked really good in the photos and it took a few months to sell at 20. I thought it was a bargain at that price but couldn't scrape up the extra money at the time. But I would think 30-35 is right on the mark. I have seen crustier examples advertised for 30,000 that didn't look as good as the 20,000 one but I noticed they are all still for sale. Unless you are really handy and quite talented you will get behind in this car pretty quick. Unless of course you have a very good sedan Chassis ready to go.

It would be nice to see restored but I feel a rodder will pick it up before a restorer as they just want a good body which this one appears to be. Ford A bodies are selling for 5,000 and up for a shell in this shape so 5,000 is probably market for something like this.

Of course if it's not in the USA that may totally change the game. I don't know how much rodding is done outside of the US except in Australia. I was wondering if this car is even on it's original Chassis at all. It looks like the hood is notched for A Arm suspension. Is it dropped on a later 49-50 type Mopar short 3 window coupe chassis? It would be alot of work to modify the original chassis to the degree that has been done rather than just pull the body and put it on another chassis. Why would you put the wheels so far back that you had to crop the running boards to even get them to fit in the fenders much less even be in the right place? Unless of course it was an entire chassis swap.

Just my thoughts of course.

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Guest Kevin Morgan

Wow...Thank you everyone for your input. The car is in the US. It is in Pennsylvania. The main thing I am looking for is what the car is worth right now in its current condition, regardless of what someone will do with it. If everyone could just provide me their best guess of what that is, that would be great. Again....thank you all for the information!!

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Throw it on ebay start it at 3500, no reserve, with a good description and lots of photos. Run it for a 10 day auction and start it on a Thursday night after 10:00 PM Eastern time. That will give potential bidders 2 weekends to come look at it and it will end on a Sunday night late enough for everyone to be home after their weekend adventures. Avoid having it end on a Holiday or Major car show day. It's on the East Coast so that's a bonus. Solid tin in the East is hard to find. Let the auction run and you will see what it's worth. With no reserve and a reasonable opening bid you will get serious bidders who aren't just playing around because they know whatever they bid will buy it. With a reserve it's always a guessing game as to what the seller has in mind. I believe it discourages alot of buyers. It does me, especially if the potential bidder has to drive any distance to inspect the car. That's your best bet to determine it's value.

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It is remarkable how someone's attempt to "fix up" an old car turned, what was probably, a nice solid old Chrysler into a parts car, at the least and a pile of junk at the worst. It happens all the time, even now. Some people should be banned from owning tools

Makes me think of the current rat rod craze. A 1950's pickup of pretty much any make doesn't lend itself well to being a fenderless front sheetmetal less vehicle. even worse when it's a 60's vehicle. Ed Roth's designs were out there but they had a little direction. Just my opinion of course.

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  • 1 month later...

Amazes me that some on here have called this a parts car and a $2500 dollar one at that. The proof is in the pudding and all the experts on here should be eating a healthy pile of crow. Just because it's beyond your talent to bring back doesn't mean the rest of the hobby agrees with some really lame assessments. Sometimes it seems that the opinions are about 30 years behind the times. Look at some of the talent that the younger generation shows, metal work and restorations can be an art and what you think is a pile of junk can be saved especially when approached with a positive attitude.

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Guest myold88

^^^^^. I've been following this thread and the posts on this car. I also felt everyone was way off on the value of this Chrysler.

It's currently on E-bay @ $7800.00 with 39 bids and still 15 hours to go. Never would have guessed it would go this high.

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I would lay money on a bet that it's going to a Hot rodder. They will pay alot more for the body than a restorer as they will scrap all but the body so it doesn't matter that the correct and often hard to find parts are missing. A restorer takes that into consideration when buying a project a rodder looks at it as just a body.

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