The Value of a Thunderbird (1958-1966)

[Big_John]

1 hour ago, bobss396 said:

My son's ex girlfriend, her dad has a '65 Bird that is slowly sinking back into the earth, he is not mechanically inclined, the car is exposed to the elements.

I ran into someone at a cruise night with a real nice baby blue '64 Bird. We were talking and he was floored that I work on my own cars. He was trying to get me to do work on his car. No thanks. 

Another Bird owner I met at a car show, he needed a "simple" dual master cylinder conversion done. The fly in the ointment with that is the driver-side fender strut that gets in the way. That got left off... the labor on the master and booster install alone was around $700. There is not a lot of room to fab/install new brake lines.

That is the way the hobby seems to be heading.   There are a lot of guys that don't or can't work on their own cars.  I've had that exact same conversation several times.  The number seems to be increasing steadily. 

One problem that I see is those folks  that can't do their own work also don't realize the guys in the tire shop might not be able  to do the work  correctly.  I hear the stories and the  first words out of  my mouth are "find another mechanic".  That is more easily said than done because as the older mechanics "age out" it's become even tougher to find younger mechanics that are old car savvy.  

I do 99% of my own work  on my old cars and to me that is part of the fun. 

 

[RSchnell]

That was my bread & butter when I had the shop- guys that owned done cars but the only thing they did was put gas in it. Most tire shops around here wouldn't touch tubed tires like 20s & 30s cars because they couldn't throw the wheel on a tire machine. Clincher rims on brass era stuff got an equally blank look. 

I got real good at changing clincher tires but I also had the equipment to do it. Same with rim spreaders, etc. 

I'm at the point now that I won't work on other people's stuff, I turned down painting a '59 Corvette a few weeks ago just because I didn't want the hassle and he wouldn't let me do it my way. 

I've got a '32 Ford Cabriolet project that will probably be the last car I build & I may not even get that done being that's it's missing so many pieces. What's missing is unobtanium & I'm not setup yet to do any fabrication. Once I get my shop setup that may change.

[bobss396]

My buddy that I hang around with most has a good established shop. He does work on older cars, but under his own terns, for a select group of customers 

He cannot afford to have a garage bay tied up for days on end. Outside space is limited for cars to sit. He doesn't want to be chasing parts either. So all the planets have to line up for him to work on old cars.

When we go to cruise nights or shows... mum is the word on him being a shop owner. I get requests to rewire old cars, I have even had sick $$ offered to me. I had a neighbor looking at a '54 Chevy and he described it. I told him to wait for a better car, as in 2x the money at least.