My '48 incomplete restoration is for sale @ $12K. From what I'm hearing and seeing sounds like it's a fair price. In between and rust bucket barn find and a complete restored truck. What do u guys think. Or...am I better off just parting it out? humm?
My first pic is just prior to my restoration. I had the engine rebuilt, restored the frame, brakes, rear end, trani and steering. Bought new FG fenders, door and window parts, alternator, wiring harness, lighting parts, body and fender hardware, complete new floor pan and firewall and everything I can think of that I've been accumulating over the past couple of years. I think the only significant stuff I can think of that I don't have is the bed and bed sides. Even then I have most of the hardware associated with it.

 

That's an interesting truck, a '48 with a '51-52 dash. Selling an apart truck might be kindo of hard to do. I would look at the truck a big project but there are people who appreciate the work done to it so far and all of the parts that come with.

Dave, your car looks like it was pretty much in the same shape as the one I have pictured. I was going to keep, get it running and stopping and drive it as for a while but I ran out of time, money and room so I had to sell it.

 

While it might seem that parting a vehicle will net you a higher dollar, it will take more time and then you will still be stuck with the parts that do not sell. So unless you have someplace to part it out that will be out of the way, and want to be bothered with packaging and shipping the parts, just sell the truck whole.

Just my two cents.

Later!
Mr. Ed

 

Mr. Ed, I couldn't agree with you more. If you can find someone to buy the rusty hulk whole that would be easiest but if it sets around too long the only way to get something out of it by parting it out. I've parted out a lot of trucks and rarely made enough to cover the cost of picking up the truck, driving it back to my house unloading it, advertising (free on CL and here but still takes time) and then finally going out and tearing it apart using electricity and cutting gas. Then sorting parts out and storing until someone comes along who wants the parts. Then you also have to haul the carcass to a scrap yard where you get maybe $10-20 for scrap.

 

It would be a shame to destroy a perfectly good truck. Bob is right . . . IMHO your truck would be worth far more if it were put together.

 

That is one of the best "before" pictures of a truck that I've ever seen! It would be a shame to part it out.



Why do you want to get rid of it? Lost your passion? lost your space? low on money? kids, family? don't have time to pu it together? You must know but don't make a rash dcsision. If you have storage, store it until the other priorities are taken care of.

 

When I was looking, a couple years ago, rotten crap sitting alone in a field with a tree growing through the opened hood was getting (not asking) $3 - $5K. I totally understand Bob's original question. However... I also believe there are a lot of under-valued cars and trucks out there, considering how much work has gone into them. And that's still accounting for an inexperienced enthusiast's time only being worth 15 - 20% of a good shop's flat rate. Just like any other business it's not what you sell them for, the market determines that, it's what you pay for them, up front, that counts.

 

For those looking for a good buy, be patient.

I bought my 55 F350 in April of 2016 for $6000. It needed new tires at $1000 to pass state inspection. I drove it the 4 hours home. As it looked the day I brought it home:


How it looked this past summer,

 

OK, I don't know if all of the guys on the FB page on crack or not for saying these trucks are great deals but there's one guy I know was puffing on a pipe while watching a weekend marathon of "reality" TV car shows. He stated

Remember, this is the truck he is talking about. He's going to make this a $35K truck. I can see if you really bust your butt you might be able to get it into primer in a weekend if you knock the rust holes in and use 3 gallons of mud to fill them and the dents. I had to do some of that type of work when I worked in a couple of body shops when we did cars for used car dealer, but I will guarantee it would not be a $35K truck in a weekend. Not even the guys on the TV shows with all their equipment and hired help would ever offer such an impossible timeline.

 

The reason I brought up this subject is I find it frustrating that the prices for these relics which are a little than parts trucks, project starters at best are demanding such high prices is because I think it's wrecking our hobby. How is a young kid supposed to get into this hobby if he, or she, has to dole out a huge amount of money just to get started. I always hear people lament about how the young aren't getting involved in the hobby and it's dying. It's also getting too expensive for older people too. Once on person sees another person asking $XXXXX for the rusty piece of junk that's been sitting behind their garage for 20 years the second guy figures he can ask $XXXX + 10% and it goes on. Most of the people I've run into who are trying to sell their iron oxide mistaken for gold relics have no clue what the vehicle is worth, usually some relative told them they seen something like that on TV going for X amount.

Oh well, who cares? It's just old trucks.

 

I agree the TV shows and also Barrett Jackson are what drive up the prices, everyone thinks they have gold. I am looking for a 1958-1960 F100 to build, found a few, but prices are nuts for non running dead player trucks. I make what I consider more than fair cash offers but they just sit unsold, and it looks like nobody is out bidding me.

 

I've found many vehicles sitting and checked on prices. Most are to high and I've seen them sit year, after year, after year. I've noticed a few disappear after a few years only to find out years later that they were junked after the owner died.

 

I decided to build my 56/55 as a old usable truck some one would have in the 70's or 80's, to look its age, but not a "rat rod". I have ranted I would not fall into the MAW escalation. Now I have the cab off and have decided to fix the rust. Looks like I am going to have $6-800.00 in just replacement panels! My point is buying a rust bucket will be more expensive than you think. I'm thinking the cheapest stage of this is the initial purchase price.

 

Same way on the HAMB classifieds. Way overpriced on most listings

 

Hey Greg, I can certainly relate. Escalation is difficult to avoid. My purchase price was $00, and I figured I'd be on the road for under $2500. That certainly didn't happen. Rust is expensive, and trucks that are rusty shouldn't sell at the inflated prices we are seeing in this thread.

Jim