Where have all the good cars gone?

[Nick_S]

I have a slight rant about some people I have run across in recent years. How many cars have you seen that jsut sit outside somebodys home or trailer or whatever just rotting away? You ask the owner about it and if they'd like to sell it but you alwyas get a story that comes back to "amah gunna restor it wun day". There are some of the folks who do have the intention of restoring it or were in the process but had larger things like family and such come up, so I can deal with that and offer my help if they need it. You figure if the car hasnt been touched in at least 10 years, they sure as a monkeys uncle arent going to do a thing with it in the next 10 years. SOOOOO many cars i have seen fall to this fate and I wonder where they have gone or where they will go besides turning back into Iron Oxide.

I'll give you a few examples. 1968 Camaro Z28 in PA(yes a real one) supposedly the guy won the lottery and it disappeared to get restored, albeit needed much more metal work from sitting near a pine tree for 8 years.

1969 Chevelle SS 396 still had the orignal wheels on it, dk green, with vynil top, sat under a pine tree for 11 years before one day we went by, the house was cleaned and painted some trees trimmed and no more chevelle.

1965 Mustang fastback with a stick shift, was supposed to be the guys daugters graduation present, but shes only 42 yrs old now. car has it 1/4's cut off, doors off no fenders, lots of rust etc...still sitting there.

1968 Mustang Fastback - me and my friend checked this car out when were like 11, as we got older the car got deeper in the ground. I met a kid named sean when i was about 20 and he said how his dad used to have a fastback but they cut it up and scrapped the car a year before "becasue it was too far gone". No crap, so why didnt he sell it to us before?

1992 Pontiac trans am GTA - the guy is the orig owner and the car only has 70some K on it Loaded with the L98 and everything. I saw it driving around back in 97 but it has say in the same spot for the past 4 years and before that sat on the dirt/grass/mud for 3 with a cover on it. The car has lots of underbody rust now(unibody=bad)the interior is all moldy and mildew smelly, exhaust has rotted off and jsut hanging there, etc,etc. When i asked in 98 he said he wanted 12K.

Maybe I should just get the rollback and haul the cars I still see and leave $200 in the door.

anyone else have similar sightings?

[Nick_S]

Oh oh oh!! I jsut recently found out about a one owner 66 Skylark GS that some kids uncle has neglected half under a shed for the past 16 years. I mean, really, whats up with this, shall I call it, disease or possibly handicap?

[Reatta Man]

They are being crushed, melted and recycled into Toyotas built in Kentucky, BMWs built in North Carolina, Hondas from Ohio and soon.....Hyundais built in Alabama.

And, Toyota will be producing full-sized trucks in San Antonio, Texas starting in 2006. Go to: http://www.woai.com/news/toyota/

[Guest Rojo22]

Well the auction shows have some responsibility for these attitudes. The owners are waiting for people to ring the doorbell and offer them $60,000 for the "pearl" they got rotting in the yard. I have been invited on several occasions to visit "wonderlands" of opportunity, but when the negotiations started to find out what the cars could be had for, you would have thought the trunks were full of gold bars. A car with a see through floor plan will never be regarded as a "number 3" condition, yet you get these "educated" holders of the cars who will argue that the car is worth 10k because its a perfect #3 car, except for the missing glass, rotted interior, missing chrome, and weak paint, but other than that, it is the same car they saw at Jackson/Barrett going over the block....It is very sad to see them sit day after day. There is a junkyard in north georgia that typifies this skewed perspective. ROTTINGCARS.COM or something like it.....very sad.....

[Guest Skyking]

Nick, this reminds me, back in 1986 I sold a guy a Metropolitan I had stored inside at a print shop that I worked at. This guy bugged me to sell this car because his daughter fell in love with Mets and wanted one. The car wasn't perfect by any means, but it ran and needed a restoration.

I sold him the car plus a parts car. When I brought them to his house I noticed the guy had a million projects started on his house and some other cars he had.

Well here it is 2005, and if you drive by his house, you won't see any improvements in that department and the Metropolitan is still sitting outside where we parked it. It's nothing but a small pile of rust. He's just another dreamer. It makes you sick!

[Guest Dans 77 Limited]

I have been on both sides of this coin and let me tell you ...both sides stink. In 1984 I discovered the 1970 Chrysler 300 Hurst and instantly fell in love. In 1994 I bought the car I had seen in 1984. Now in 2005 I am selling the hulk it has turned into. Lack of money, ability, patience and honesty out of the body shop I took it to originally has left a running driving car a devastated hulk that may not even be able to be saved. The only reason I am selling it now is the hope that I can find the right person to restore my Hurst to its former glory. Why did I wait so long ? Hard to say all I know is that owning this car was a once in a lifetime chance and for many years I just havent been able to admit I screwed that one opportunity up, and I had in fact destroyed the car I wanted so badly to save. Thats my story

On the other side of the coin I know where and almost perfect 65 Skylark is slowly being destroyed. In 2002 it needed a master cylinder and a good engine detailing to be a very clean car.It was sitting out exposed to the elements , the owner would not sell and as far as I know .. its still sitting outside . Im afraid its doomed , I would love to save it , but I cant get the owner to give it up.

Dan

[JohnD1956]

Sometimes the best of intentions have to get sidelined. I bought my 69 Electra in 1992 because I loved it. I always wanted one just like it and the price was fantastic. I drove it for a year and made note of what was needed for a daily driver I'd be proud of. And I started amassing parts towards that end. But things happened.

Who goes to college? Who drops out and goes to live with questionable characters? Who gets sick? Who gets transfered in their job? So much stuff happens during life and the cash is needed for other priorities.

The car sits, begins to look like hell and each time I look at it the desire is there, but the finances say hold off. To start now would mean much less quality and a lot of compromise from my original goal.

This in no way excuses the people who think they have a "right" to capitalize on a car that is just rotting outdoors. Everything said here is true. If you have no plans let it go to someone who is willing to salvage the machine.

But sometime they wind up sitting outside when that was not the intention and "life" just continues to throw all these challenges at you, screwing up your plans.

JD

[Guest 60Buick]

I just bought a car that sat for 20 years. I just bough a 1957 Plymouth Fury that was in good shape in the 80's when he bought it but has been in the rain ever since. I will get it back up and goiung this year though. It survived complete if you can believe it.

[jaxops]

My wife and I begged my father for 15 years to let us work on his 56 Cadillac that he hd stored since 1970. He finally relented a year and a half ago....after the new exhaust from 1970 rusted off, the roof was dented from storing parts boxes on it, and the engine and wheels froze from sitting and dripping for 30 years. It's been a total rebuild, and we probably would have had a solid interior and running engine before. Oh well, at least we saved this one.

[Pontiac59]

The owners get sick of people telling them what bad shape and how worthless the cars are and scrap them just to annoy those people, so no one gets them.

I find lots of good cars I can't afford to fix but I could save if I could find the guy who did want them. Trouble is I can't find anyone who cares.

[Guest 55cruisen]

I have seen my share of the same - cars that I first noticed as a nice car just sitting and then years later, a nice rust bucket still sitting. Part of me can understand. My first antique was a 1962 Skylark convertible that I picked up at Carlisle (PA) in 1991 for $4500. It was nice and soo nice that I kept it completely original and ran out of money to keep it that way. Instead of just letting it get run down, I sold it to my brother. He has neglected it a bit, but after a few years, started to care for her and keep her from wasting away.

Well a wife and three kids have come into my life and of course I cannot afford to spend $$$ on a great car. I needed by love of old cars to be back, so I decided to get something cheap that I could restore myself and the way I want it to be. I found a 55 Buick Super on E-bay that sat for years. I figured it would be a good start. Well, the years it sat shows and I am in the process of bringing it back to life. Last week I needed to decide if I was going to keep the car and spend the $$ or scrape the project. I put the question to my brother and his advice was to either scrape it for a dream of better, or keep with it and spend the $$ I wanted to to make it MY car. If I wanted a show car, the car would rot. But I want to make my own dream car, so the Buick will survive and be loved.

I think some people are determined to restore the cars to show condition and while they save the $$$ or wait till they have the time, the car wastes away until it is beyond all hope.

My Buick won't be 100% original, but it will definitely be alive.

[Reatta Man]

Virtually every one of those old cars could be saved if the owners would get a grip on reality and admit they will never "get around to it," put the car on ebay AND ask for a resonable price BEFORE the car turns into 5,000 pounds of iron oxide (rust).

Unfortunately, as you have all noticed, we get owners living in Denialville, thinking they will get around to it OR when they finally do list it on ebay, they want $5,000 for something barely above a parts car or wait waaaaaay too long before selling the car.

[Unibody]

Welcome to the 21 Centry Bill. How many people, below 20 lets say, get into the old cars. They don't because DADDY buys them a new car. It's up to us to salvage these older beasts and bring them to life. THEN we can sell them to DADDY and hop the darned kid doesn't destroy a piece of our automotive history. Since the economy in the United Stattes was built on the automotive business, you would think there would be more interested. But alas, it's not going to happen. Most of the Daddies don't know what this stuff looks like either. Sigh

[Guest imported_Thriller]

I've purchased too many of these now...my Invicta sat for about 20 years (albeit in a big shed with plenty of company) before I purchased it in 2000...other than accumulating parts, it has sat, but at least out of the weather. The '52 Roadmaster and '56 Special look like they have seen their fair share of weather, but are now also covered. Finally, my beloved '66 Wildcat has also seen better days - one fellow told me there was too much rust to restore, but I plan to have it in Rochester.

Then again, my wife makes a fair amount of money, which allows me to pay for storage (4 spots at over $100/month total) and work on restoring them. I am considerably more fortunate than most.