1974 dale....what would the value be for the body?

[Guest drjoeshmoe]

Has anyone heard of the 1974 dale?

Fiberglass body, suppost to get 80 MPG.

pretty interesting story.

Long story short, there are 3 known prototypes, two owned by collectors and one in a museum.

If there were another unknown dale fiberglass body does anyone have any clue about what it could be worth?

[Rusty_OToole]

I remember the story of the Dale. A 3 wheel car designed by a female engineer that was going to outdo every car on the market on low price, fuel economy and safety.

The female engineer turned out to be a man and the whole thing was a scam to sucker investors. A fascinating tale nonetheless. Might make a good movie except if they told the true story it would seem too fantastic.

No idea what a Dale body might be worth. Should be worth preserving as a historical artifact. I expect someone should be interested in doing this, as there are clubs for Davis, Tucker and other obscure autos of the past.

Some information on the Dale project.

Automotive article :: The Mysterious Dale :: By Sharon McLellan & Mona Nath

[Guest drjoeshmoe]

I remember the story of the Dale. A 3 wheel car designed by a female engineer that was going to outdo every car on the market on low price, fuel economy and safety.

The female engineer turned out to be a man and the whole thing was a scam to sucker investors. A fascinating tale nonetheless. Might make a good movie except if they told the true story it would seem too fantastic.

No idea what a Dale body might be worth. Should be worth preserving as a historical artifact. I expect someone should be interested in doing this, as there are clubs for Davis, Tucker and other obscure autos of the past.

Some information on the Dale project.

Automotive article :: The Mysterious Dale :: By Sharon McLellan & Mona Nath

thanks,

Yeah, I am not a car collector but happen to know where a dale fiberglass body sits....there is an old man who has probably about 60-80 old cars and numerous other old things hidden away in his very large backyard.

He does not seem to want to sell anything, one guy offered him $10,000 for an old rusted car back there and he told him "if I want $10,000 I will go to the bank and get it".

He did sell my wifes uncle 3 scooters which he restored.

I was just curious as to the value of the dale since it is pretty rare and unknown.

[Rusty_OToole]

For a one of a kind item like that it is impossible to say as there is nothing to compare it to.

Such items usually don't bring really big money. Tuckers for example, were $20,000 cars until the Tucker movie came out in 1988 then they suddenly became $200,000 cars.

For an empty body shell I would guess a few hundred $$$ bucks or maybe one or 2 thousand? It's all according. If you can get enough bidders you can run the price up. If only one person is bidding it's different.

By the way how are things in Kokomo?

[Rusty_OToole]

If the man is old enough bide your time until he croaks and buy whatever you want at the auction. His widow or heirs won't be able to dump the stuff fast enough. Last saturday I attended an auction of a lifetime car collector. A 49 Chrysler, 59 DeSoto, 40 Dodge, 55 Dodge, and several other cars went for scrap. They were in poor shape but nobody wanted them even for parts.

The widow's attitude was "good riddance to that old junk".

[poci1957]

I agree with Rusty on all of the above. This is an interesting story and that car is worth saving for historic value, but it is not really valuable for collectors.

Until a movie comes out, that is.....Todd C

[Amphicar BUYER]

I saw the yellow Dale at the Peterson museum (LA) and it didn't mention anything about Dale being a man, but it did go into the rest of the story. Maybe call them and see what info they may be able to share with you.