COAL Hunting: Beware Of Wildlife

Happy Thanksgiving! For this installment of COAL hunting via Facebook, you might want to call your local snake charmer. And if you are headed to the Toyota website, take some Advil first.

The make of this car is of course what first attracted my attention! Mercifully, Mercury was put out of it’s misery.

 

But then I noticed the writing on the windows. Sakes alive, snakes?

 

Sure enough, that appears to be a snake on the front seat. Not sure if it’s dead or not, but I am assuming a warning is deemed necessary only for live snakes. And the “Please Don’t Slam Door” plea now makes sense. Might upset the snakes, you know. If the car is indeed occupied by live snakes,

 

I think I’d throw this in there first before listing it. Then no one has to know.

 

This GM truck is missing most of it’s body, as well as it’s drivetrain.

 

But the seller points out it has a sweet new stereo! That was money well spent, for sure.

 

They had me at “manual transmission”, but that’s a pretty big Con there. “Perfect inside and out” seems contradictory to “does not run”, but maybe I’m just overthinking it. Yes, it’s an interference engine.

 

This “doesn’t run”, either, but who cares! I zoomed in on the rear tag and it expired 12 years ago. There aren’t any interior shots, but judging by the exterior, it’s been covered or inside for a good deal of it’s life. Buy it and stick it in a garage somewhere for the next 30 years. You’ll get way more return at the 2047 Barrett-Jackson than buying a Certificate of Deposit with that $500!

Remember the Model A street rod from last week? I came across it again and here’s a shot of the “crate engine” for you. GM?

 

This seller thoughtfully gives you a choice of prices. $2000, or three times that. Whichever suits you better. It’s all about you, the buyer. KBB private party is $3,600.00, so $2,000.00 would be a good deal for both of you…..trade-in is only $1,325.00.

 

That’s a fitting place to have this for sale!

 

“Numbers matching”! I am uneducated as to 60’s Detroit iron but that seems like a fair price if it isn’t a rust bucket. Anyone want to weigh in here? I like that it doesn’t look molested or modified. I think those are early 70’s Chevy wheelcovers, though.

 

I really like this, the ad says it runs and drives great. And, the same seller has

 

this gem as well! The first one has better patina, though.

 

What in the world? “Would make a great mail vehicle”. True, but given the stellar condition inside I don’t think it has been used that way thus far. Why was this done?

 

Are there kits for this, or is this homemade? Anyone have any experience with these? They appear to have removed the passenger airbag and everything. I think some effort went into this.

 

Ah, very nice presentation. Subliminal advertising, check! Haughty angle, check! That certain urban je ne sais quoi, check! The standard by which all other Facebook car ads should be judged. A blue ribbon winner.

 

You see a surprising number of these shots. Sometimes the car is in a ditch, or overturned. Do people decide right after the wreck, before the police even leave, “You know what, I’m selling this pile right now!” That’s a patrol car behind it, I appear to have accidentally cropped the flashing blue lights.

 

Oh, my. This is actually making my heart race. 1989, 120,000 miles, acres of lush, tastefully pleated navy velour inside, “new top”, $2900. Why did soft, silent, cozy velour interiors get so verboten, anyway? I’d love to put these seats in the Lexus. Only defect is the driver front corner, you can see the plastic front quarter panel is cracked up from a parking accident. Anyone know why GM used plastic front fenders for a time?

You don’t see many stick shift cars, new or used, but today’s our lucky day!

 

We have this nice 2WD base Tacoma Access Cab. I wondered to myself if you can even get a new, plain one like this anymore.

The Toyota “BUILD” part of the site indicates a four door Double Cab Tacoma SR (four full doors) is the cheapest model, at $25,200.00. But, then one of the “option packages” is an “L4 Access Cab” which “adds black door handles, fixed rear windows, removes rear seats” for a $1,715.00 credit.

The Toyota “EXPLORE” part of the site indicates a 4 cylinder Access Cab 4×2 SR (two full doors and two little suicide rear doors) at $24,320.00 is the cheapest. But that’s more than the Double Cab build with the Access Cab delete option, which clocks in at $23,485.00.

Finally, the “COMPARE MODELS” part of the site shows me a 4 cylinder Access Cab 4×2 SR…..but the price is $25,200.00!

So what is the base price of a 2018 4×2 4 cylinder base Tacoma Access Cab? $23,485.00, $24,320.00 or $25,200.00, according to the same Toyota site on the same night.

Toyota has about the worst manufacturer website out there, in my opinion.

By the way, as best I can tell, you cannot get a stick with any 2018 4 cylinder Tacoma, it’s auto only. You can get the stick with the V6. So my searching was in vain.

 

This Trans Am isn’t my thing but it sure looks nice to be 22 years old! And the stick makes it much more interesting. Finally,

 

I don’t know how many stick shift CTS’ exist, but there can’t be very many. I was unable to turn up quantities for non CTS-V stick shifts. The wheels are an unfortunate addition, but it looks to be presentable, and low miles to boot. This is the last year of the first generation of CTS, and should have the 6 speed manual.

 

I do not know what this is, but it looks quite well done in the pictures. I’ll let the seller explain more. He wants $15,000.00. What do you think? It’s hard to put a price on things like this. Porsche rear suspension, Porsche transmission, Porsche brakes, Corvair engine?

 

Wikipedia says the Fiberfab GT-15 was designed to use a Corvair drivetrain and suspension. A similar GT-12 was designed to be assembled by the owner using a VW Beetle chassis, and Porsche or Beetle suspension. So maybe this is really a GT-12? Sounds like some kind of mashup of both. It has a GM steering column and early 70’s Cadillac steering wheel, just to keep things interesting.


This looks interesting! Not sure where one would have found those tires after Prohibition. Looks like someone’s project that was forgotten years ago. The engine looks partially apart and the car had been sanded on all over.

 

The interior looks pretty good, though. A good cleaning and find the right steering wheel, and you’re done in here.

Don’t eat too much today!