Buying a piece of cool…..at what price?

[jphanna]

I am not aiming this thread at special edition factory Bathurst cars etc, which as we know are in the stratosphere in pricing, just the

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Every day cars. 3 on the tree kingswood, falcons, corona’s, valiant……
So right now all the old school cars are cool and what was a $1499 scrubber in the 70’s and 80’s, is now potentially expensive and in demand.

I have always felt that a car that was, even amongst the common every day cars, but was SPECIAL at the time, was always going to be special later in life. The Questionable models…….still questionable in decades to come.

I inherited a VK valiant form my dad in 1983. My first car, but it was never parked under cover, so when you take off to go to work in the morning, after a wet night, you got ice cold water splashed onto your lap, from under the dash, when you took off…..Today, a VK valiant is cool, all of a sudden?

In the late 80’s my mate had a HQ 3 on tree Holden kingswood, quickly followed by a 3 on the tree XA falcon. At the time these cars were 500.00 scrubbers. The XA was memorable though, as we coming back from a 200kms morning thrash to the cape Jervois and it was wet and he let me drive it. On a wet stretch of road in 3rd gear it wheel spun when I gave it some herbs. That’s torque!!! Didn’t see that coming……..

Anyway getting back to the topic, I think that unless you are related to a mechanic to fix all the high mileage issues now facing a 40 year old car, and a crash repairer to cut out all the rust that was prevalent in cars of that era, some people may be sucked into the whole nostalgia thing going on right now, paying obscene amounts of money for a piece of perceived cool.

I know of 2 guys in the last decade that have bought absolute junkers, and then did a patch up job, and flogged them into unsuspecting people for top dollar. Good on them, to make $$$ if they can do this without guilt, but to me, you playing with people lives. I seen these cars as bought, in junker state. I couldn’t do it, to another person.

There is one exemption for this, again its just my opinion, but an old school car inherited by grandma or grandad and fitted out with white wall tyres (as evident by many kids today) is nice to see. That is cool and knowing it had family history, makes it even cooler.

[Dauphin]

Not sure how to reply, but I wanted to share my experiences with such cars.

When I was a kid, my friend across the road's older brother had an HQ Belmont panel van and he'd give us a lift to the local shopping mall in the back so we didn't have to get the bus. It was so cool! To this day I love panel vans. Saw a neat XG on Saturday.

My neighbour had a black and white HQ Kingswood which was black but had white doors and roof, resembling an LAPD police sedan. One day I saw his garage open and noticed he had a gleaming yellow HJ/HX Monaro GTS parked in there. After seeing it I always still loved his Kingswood better.

And on the other side was a Falcon 500 V8 sedan! Used to listen to it cough into life next to my bedroom window.

[vbvbvb088]

Originally Posted by jphanna

I am not aiming this thread at special edition factory Bathurst cars etc, which as we know are in the stratosphere in pricing, just the

School run
Work run
Pub run
Brothel run
TAB run
Church run
.

...in that order? lol....

[Sar4890]

US cars have of late been better buys price wise than our domestic versions hence the reason i have a 67 falcon 2 door not an XR. The only down fall is its Lhd and parts can be an issue.

[BENT_8]

Back in the mid 90's my Brother in laws ZG Fairlane ran out of petrol one night and when he returned with a jerry can full some ***** had torched it.
The following week he bought an XW wagon privately and as he had zero mechanical knowledge he didn't give it much more than a quick look before handing over the money.
A few weeks later he brought it around as it needed the tie rods replaced.
When I got under it I found the whole front section of chassis rails were non existent.
Now I wasn't a huge fan of him, but he would use that rust bucket to ferry my 4 nephews around in the back so I told him the bad news.
A few days later he traded it at a caryard for a ZH Fairlane and whilst doing the paper work a young lad walked in and enquired about the XW.
The salesman sold it on the spot for the traded price and my Brother inlaw never said a word about the rust.
Poor form in my opinion and I often wondered what happened to the car and the unsuspecting young fella who bought it.

[ford71V8]

^ that stinks

[sgt_doofey]

I've got Dad's old XE Falcon in the shed. Been garaged it's whole life so not much rust and the interior is still immaculate.
It's kept as it's a bit of family nostalgia as we grew up as little kids travelling around in that car. It's also a spare car for the family should one of us need it.
32 years old and she still purrs like a kitten.

[Pedro]

Originally Posted by jphanna

I am not aiming this thread at special edition factory Bathurst cars etc, which as we know are in the stratosphere in pricing, just the

School run
Work run
Pub run
Brothel run
TAB run
Church run

...............The XA was memorable though, as we coming back from a 200kms morning thrash to the cape Jervois and it was wet and he let me drive it. On a wet stretch of road in 3rd gear it wheel spun when I gave it some herbs. That’s torque!!! Didn’t see that coming……..

Probably more like bald or cross ply tyres and crook shockies.
Nearly any car of that era had trouble spinning its wheels in 1st gear!

[arronm]

Old cars are surly money pics, BUT i would like a 70s 2 door VK charger. Had a killer one in the 80s but stupid and young sold it. MASSIVE mistake

[pottery beige]

Originally Posted by sgt_doofey

I've got Dad's old XE Falcon in the shed. Been garaged it's whole life so not much rust and the interior is still immaculate.
It's kept as it's a bit of family nostalgia as we grew up as little kids travelling around in that car. It's also a spare car for the family should one of us need it.
32 years old and she still purrs like a kitten.

XE go good

my back up shiny cool car ;)

[pottery beige]

Originally Posted by arronm

Old cars are surly money pics, BUT i would like a 70s 2 door VK charger. Had a killer one in the 80s but stupid and young sold it. MASSIVE mistake

any car car is a money pit (pics) the older ones are more forgiving though

my take on it

[Sprintey]

Have owned performance and common garden variety - I think I like the common garden variety better as an ownership deal.

and

3 speed column manuals. A different and cruisey way of driving. Even the cheap 20 yo 90's stuff today doesn't feature these. Wish I had one to show my young one as they learn driving.

1st gear - hand held upward, fingers curled back toward driver hold column, pull down and toward driver
2nd gear - push hand upward, open fingers away from driver, column pulls back into the 2-3 shift, push upward one more time
3rd gear - flip hand, palm down, fingers curl slightly over column, pull down
magic

[marty351]

Volvo 244.
Everyone runs....

[pottery beige]

Originally Posted by marty351

Volvo 244.
Everyone runs....

pics not loading

[roddy1960]

G'day...Not so much my story but my Dad on an old car.. He owned an old Mk 2 1961 Zephyr...had it for over a decade and a half . After he retired the cost of keeping her on the road and trying to get parts for it was getting hard .Eventually the front end and steering box needed a lot of work and she'd dart without warning .. He bought a donor car though at one stage to see if he could use that to keep the old girl going longer..
He was looking after Mum who was getting quite ill ..As Mum got sicker he found it hard to spare much time to working on the car anyway so he decided to take the Zephyr off the road and bought a pretty tidy HX Kingswood to take her to lots of medical venues safely...
One day there was a knock on the door and these two brothers both early 20's or so had seen the two Zeph's parked up the back end of the yard and asked Dad if he was interested in selling them to restore..
Initially he said no because the old two tone grey Zephyr had been the family chariot between about 1970 to 1986 and us kids had learned to drive in her... A few weeks later I think it was he changed his mind when the blokes had rung up again. Dad was now pretty sure that they were keen to do a lot of work and return the Zephyr to a properly driveable state so he took a couple of hundred bucks for the Zephyr and the donor so long as they showed him what she came up like..
About six months later I suppose Dad walked in one night and hurled his car keys against the wall...
He saw our old Zephyr with the roof cut off , totally wrecked in a paddock about 25 kms from home..just a bush basher. .It was as angry as I ever saw him...Turns out this family had a habit of buying older cars and destroying them but Dad didn't know them..Found that out later on..
He never really got over it , being lied to as much as anything . He died in 1989 suddenly and Mum in 1990. He always regretted selling them..I often wonder whether I would have ever done anything with them...
Now when I see a lovely old car , either original or restored I wish we had of kept the old Fords...I do have some pictures and the owners manual believe it or not of the old two tone grey beast..Cheers Rod..

[marty351]

Originally Posted by pottery beige

pics not loading

Just imagine what you left in the dunny yesterday.

[roKWiz]

Was going to take a peek at these in Shepp but looks like cool is becoming to expensive for me.

http://www.lloydsonline.com.au/LotDe...FQkEKgod2XkIKw

[jphanna]

i think the coupes of the big 3, if found in any condition, other than twisted wreck, is the exemption to the rules here.

i dont remember the last time i saw a COUPE.... monaro, falcon or charger, in recent years that hasnt been 'groomed', to varying degrees, into a condition that was better than when it left the showroom. these are national treasures as far as i am concerned. money no object......