Special interest car spotters in my corner of the USA know that this is the optimum time to see the unusual, the rare, the quirky and the downright interesting cars for sale.
The reason is that after Labor Day, depending on where you live, the first crisp days are nigh and if you are far enough north, it’ll be uncomfortable outside in a thrice. Here in the south, there is another factor that can make for some interesting opportunity if you are in the market: the college football season means that Saturday afternoons are spoken for and no matter how cool, crisp and splendid, most folks will be watching their favorite teams at home or on campus. They lose interest in driving their weekend cars. Another factor is the “lost my storage” story. (Translation- somebody’s spouse is not going to park outside in the cold all winter).
Either way, the window is open here south of the 35th parallel for savvy buyers to snag a bargain. I took time out from a date with the missus this weekend to snap a few pics of some very interesting metal (and fiberglass) on offer in North Georgia.
Yes, it’s a kit car, but it has that certain je ne sais quoi that makes you feel 16 again. And the price is right – $2800 and you can look like a wealthy playboy from…1978.
Despite the logo, underneath bits are pure Beetle. These kits were really popular in those days.
The interior even has a wooden dash !
Fifteen feet away, the owner had another “parade car” on offer. He was baling hay, so his wife told us that this Model T was a ’16 and the price was “negotiable”. She cheerfully told me that I could take as many pictures as I liked.
For a car crowding 100 years old, this buggy looks grand !
Driving a T was challenging. There was no gas pedal in those days. The planetary gearset meant that there were reverse and forward gears. Engine speed was controlled up on the dash (or column). It was similar to a John Deere riding lawn mower of today.
Something struck me as interesting (in a good way). Just about every part that was stamp-able, was stamped “Made In U.S.A” . Wish that it were that way today.
Have you seen any screaming buys lately? I’d love to hear your story.
Somewhere deep in my brother-in-law’s garage is a fiberglass replica of a 1930s Frazer-Nash roadster on a VW chassis. His father ran a VW repair shop and planned to sell them, but the venture never got beyond the one car. Maybe someday I should talk him out of it. It would be awfully fun on a crisp fall day.
Amazing how things change, that a fake MG kit would be popular and that manufactured things were actually made in North America.
This time of year is tough for me, must resist the bargains: Cars and motorcycles call out to me in September.
I’m hoping to use these crisp days to get some work done on my own classic metal.
I always wondered if it was just me. Every spring and every fall, I fall prey to car-lust. There is something about those two seasons that make me want to get a different car. My Town & Country started making a very strange and expensive-sounding noise yesterday. I may get my wish.
Saw one of those fake MGs last week my daughter spotted it look dad a vintage car I explained it was a kit car and not really very old but Im not sure if she understands except its the first old car we havent photgraphed for a while,
Unlike you guys we are having spring weather its starting to warm up and old interesting cars are coming out of winter hiding I hope to get my old car legalised this year it quite a process including a full structural examination and it aint cheap either it will cost nearly as much as the cars worth to inspect and register it plus the repairs I know need doing I see a busy time coming up
So no new cars for this black duck just work on the current fleet to do.
We have had a warmer than normal start to spring this year so no screaming good deals have popped up yet. Another couple weeks and maybe something will appear …
Interesting kit car. I can’t claim to be enough of an expert to tell if it is a MIGI or not but those came in either Ford Pinto or VW Beetle powered form. The Pinto one seems quite decent as a) it doesn’t sound like a rattly old Beetle and b) you could easily re-engine it. Nice touch on this one with the MG B steering wheel but the old lady house decoration on the passenger side of dash would have to go.
The one Isaw ran a lot of negative rear camber usuall Triumph based
the ‘nice touch on the MB steering wheel’ is virtually nullified by the fact that it is of 70’s vintage and thus in-congruent w/ the look the owner is striving for, IMO.
For me it’s the wire wheel covers that kill it. Never understood why people spend thousands building a kit and then stick cheesy wire wheel covers on it. Getting rotors and drums filled and drilled for a different pattern is cheap enough…
I love the way these kits look with wider wheels — smoothies or Keystone Klassics, or even steelies with dog dish caps. Come to think of it, the old VW-style chromed Porsche wheels would work well on it too. It’s not likely to pass for an original anyway, may as well make it a better driver.
🙂
I just took advantage of a fall screaming deal. Bought a 1950 Dodge Coronet with a flathead & gyromatic trans yesterday. It has a completely rebuilt engine that runs like a top, new clutch, drivetrain gone through. Completely new brakes from master cylinder out to the drums, all lights & gauges work and one 1″ hole on the rear valence panel is the sum total of the rot on the body. It needs interior work(tatty but usable), the hood painted to match and some touch ups but we can drive and enjoy it right now with no work.
Total cost, $2350, I could have talked him down further, but didn’t want to beat him up on the price as I’m trying to sell my ’62 Comet so need all the good car-selling karma I can get.
Congrats. That looks like a fine car. I’d like to fine something similar for myself before next summer – a nice family cruiser.
Ooooooo I LOVE those! A friend of mine drove a ’51 Meadowbrook as an everyday driver in the late 90s. Same thing – very presentable, mechanically sound, and he bought it for a song. Only difference – his was a straight 3 speed with Fluid Drive. He told me he thought the clutch was slipping. I could never see how he could tell. Something dimly in my memory says that the ’51 Dodge was the one that introduced key-start to the industry. I had kinda wished that his had the pushbutton starter instead.
Isn’t the Gyromatic the 4 speed semi-auto with low and high ranges that shifts either 1-2 or 3-4 by vacuum with a lift off the gas pedal? What a great car.
Yeah the gyromatic is a weird manual/automatic hybrid. Fluid coupling so you only need the clutch to move between the high & low ranges & reverse. And the overdrive kicks up in low & high with pedal lift giving you four gears. If you don’t mind sluggish starts you can put it in high and drive all day without touching the clutch.
Wow. You done did good. I’m jealous.
Nice, you lucky Son of a Gun.
Good score
1962 Comet you say…..
http://providence.craigslist.org/cto/2579532035.html
If Rhode Island is close enough to consider, get in touch with me via the ad. It is going on “Holey cow I need the driveway space!” sale now that I’ve bought something else.
Boo, Providence is that other coast! But The 200 I-6 must make it a lot zippier than it originally was. Sigh.
Pixel – as long as your ’50 Coronet is complete with Ram’s Head ‘charging’ ornament – then you’ve got a complete car!
Wow Pixel, that’s a great car! If you don’t mind me saying so there’s a real monetary advantage to having unconventional taste in cars. You can have as much fun with that as you can with a “desirable” car and you spent less than 10%.
Personally I don’t mind the wires, stripes, flags etc on the kit car since these are totally cheeseball anyway, might as well go for the full effect. At lease the success rate on these MG kits was fairly good, unlike something like a Fiberfab Valkrye which was around 2%,
It is amazing how much more classic car you can get it you happen to like the less popular models. You also get a lot more “What *is* that?” questions.
The flip side is getting parts for them tend to be either more expensive and/or harder to find. Sometimes this makes for a fun hunt, but sometimes it is just a pain in the butt.
I have a soft spot for that MB clone. Any drainage holes in the floor in case you get suck in a summer shower? I’d be tempted to buy it and try to make all the connections marine style and make sure the seat was done in boat grade vinyl. Then I could drive it to work and not sweat the occasional summer thunderstorm that pops up in NM.
Thats a great idea.
I’ve been caught in a couple of those NM t-storms lately.
After reading this article, I’m mad. I only got to drive my 72 Delta 88 convert once this summer before the timing chain let go. Grr!
That MG replicar looks an awful lot like the one my FIL had back in the 80’s. Cheesy wire wheel covers and all. He’d warmed up the bug motor (he’d raced VW’s in the 60’s), and added a couple of other VW mods, but I don’t remember what they were.
I took the faux MG for a spin once, got it up to about 70 and experienced a shuddering or choppiness in the front end that I couldn’t quite diagnose. If you get going fast enough, a lot of air gets up underneath those big front fenders and acts kind of like a wing. Scary stuff. I never went that fast in that car again.
He sold the car sometime between 1986 and 1990, but never missed it. It was just a fun weekend toy.