About This Blog
But its only a Toyota! It's not worth it!
Yes it is, and perhaps someday it'll be offered for sale at the famous Barrett-Jackson Auction. No, I'm only kidding (partly). Over 30 years ago, no — make that 40 — we were newly married and I was driving a new 1964 Corvette Stingray, an ermine white roadster with a black soft top and a white removable hardtop.
Corvette Stingray (Mine was white)
She had a 327 cubic inch V8 with 365 horsepower and over 400 lbs of torque. She had a Muncie 4-speed (a great tranni), a 4-11 rear end, and a big Holley 4 barreled carb — not the then-new and exotic fuel injection.
Back then nobody knew how to tune the brand-new fuel injection system and they were being pulled off Corvette engines and thrown away; replaced with carburetors. Someone at a muscle car museum in Tarpon Springs, FL told me that TODAY, those fuel injection systems, when you can find one, go for $7,000 to $8,000 dollars!
It was the same with the cars themselves. There were so many Vettes on the road that, during the late sixties and the Vietnam War, owners on their way overseas to fight in that hopeless war were selling their Vettes left and right to used car dealerships that specialized in nothing but Corvettes.
I had purchased my new Vette for $5,200, brand-new at Seaford, Long Island's Bast Chevrolet. Several years later, it was my new family and its need for more room to carry baby stuff around that caused me to sell it. For 2,600 bucks! God, what I would give to get that car back in the condition that is was in when I sold it.
Recently, I saw a restored Vette, the same year as mine and similarly equipped, go for more than $120,000 at a Barrett-Jackson auction. Boo-Hoo!
Back then nobody knew how to tune the brand-new fuel injection system and they were being pulled off Corvette engines and thrown away; replaced with carburetors. Someone at a muscle car museum in Tarpon Springs, FL told me that TODAY, those fuel injection systems, when you can find one, go for $7,000 to $8,000 dollars!
It was the same with the cars themselves. There were so many Vettes on the road that, during the late sixties and the Vietnam War, owners on their way overseas to fight in that hopeless war were selling their Vettes left and right to used car dealerships that specialized in nothing but Corvettes.
I had purchased my new Vette for $5,200, brand-new at Seaford, Long Island's Bast Chevrolet. Several years later, it was my new family and its need for more room to carry baby stuff around that caused me to sell it. For 2,600 bucks! God, what I would give to get that car back in the condition that is was in when I sold it.
Recently, I saw a restored Vette, the same year as mine and similarly equipped, go for more than $120,000 at a Barrett-Jackson auction. Boo-Hoo!
1959 Porsche 1600 Super
A perhaps even sadder story is about the car we bought to replace the Corvette: A modest family car with a back seat and an economical 4 Cylinder engine — a 1959 Porsche 1600 Super.
Formerly owned by the chief mechanic of Porsche America Racing Team, she was a BEAUTY! German racing silver, black leather interior, Becker Mexico radio, and (listen for the drum roll) German (of course) Rudge chrome knockoff wheels, with their own copper hammer for knocking off the spinners to remove the wheels!!!
What was the big deal about the wheels? Well, I might have asked the same question when I purchased the car for $1,900 back in 1967. I wish I knew then what the big deal would be about those wheels years later — TODAY, if you can find a set of those genuine German Rudge knock-off racing wheels, they sell for nearly $60,000!!!
Formerly owned by the chief mechanic of Porsche America Racing Team, she was a BEAUTY! German racing silver, black leather interior, Becker Mexico radio, and (listen for the drum roll) German (of course) Rudge chrome knockoff wheels, with their own copper hammer for knocking off the spinners to remove the wheels!!!
What was the big deal about the wheels? Well, I might have asked the same question when I purchased the car for $1,900 back in 1967. I wish I knew then what the big deal would be about those wheels years later — TODAY, if you can find a set of those genuine German Rudge knock-off racing wheels, they sell for nearly $60,000!!!
Porsche (No Rudge Wheels)
But I sold the WHOLE CAR (for the same reason; we needed more room for the baby stuff) for $1,695 two years after I bought it. And I replaced it with a 1964 CORVAIR! A RALPH NADER SPECIAL!
Well, not really. The '64 version of the Corvair didn't have the rear swing axle that old Ralph condemned so virulently as a death trap that the American public turned its back on what was a fairly decent little air-cooled car (that, by the way, used the same rear end suspension as the ubiquitous VW beetle — which had the same understeering "problem" that the Europeans had been driving since before WWII).
By 1964, Chevy tried to save the quickly sinking car model by offering a larger version with 4-wheel independent suspension. It handled beautifully and was offered in a hot 4 carbuerator model called the Corsa, which is the model I had. Anyway, while a lot of people said, "Ewww! Why would you buy one of those death traps?," I just smiled and tore around the North Shore of long Island's twisting roads, blowing away many supposedly better-handling and bigger-engined cars of the time. But inevitably, as my family grew, we needed more room. Our next purchase was a 1970 VW Bus; purchased the year our first son, Christopher was born...
(My life has been going downhill, car-wise, ever since)
(Are you starting to see the pattern here? Lost opportunities to hold onto something that years later would be worth a small fortune?)
In fact, a Porsche 1600 Super, like the one I owned, but completely restored, sold for more than $150,000 at Barrett-Jackson. That's when I heard how rare and expensive those Rudge wheels had become.
No, I can't say anything like that about my 1990 Generation 5 Celica GT hatchback, purchased used for our third son, Patrick, to use while attending college and kept in the family after he graduated and could buy his own, new car. Patrick had taken good care of that car and, with over 150,000 miles on its 5FSE engine — a very reliable powerplant — she still runs like a clock.
Two years ago I invested a small pile of money on her; adding the more handsome scooped hood, front bumper with fog lights, and three-piece spoiler from the turbo-charged, All-Trac model Celica. They were all purchased through eBay from various owners all owner the country, except for the highly desirable hood, which came from Japan itself. I also paid for a restoration-quality paint job; where the hood, fenders, bumpers, and front end, along with some of the glass was removed (I was afraid to have the windshield and rear hatchback glass removed; I'd heard stories of them shattering during removal) before being painted. The restoration was done by a local genius named Dean Miller, owner of Constant Perfections Restorations, a flawed but gifted expert in restoring automobiles. Some of Dean's restorations had been featured in custom and classic car magazines.
Well, as Dean kept telling me, it was the first "Jap car" that he had ever done, but he grew to admire her quality of build and appearance as he went along.
What began as a back-to-stock color paint job quickly evolved into something more special, more custom. He took the original medium red pearl stock paint and added candy-apple red to the mix. It gave the car an updated, special look. He even sprayed the Toyota body emblems to match. The car now has a deep burgundy red color that varies based on the amount of light shining on it. I also replaced the original 14-inch wheels with over-sized, later-model Celica 16-inch alloy wheels. I picked them up for $150 from a hubcap store owner who was low on money the month I dropped by. All together, she's now very classy and eye-catching.
There's probably more money in the car now then what it's Blue Book value is, but who cares? It still cost me a fraction of what a new, looks-like-every-other-car-on-the-road sports car would've cost me and I have something that's unique. Take a look at the pictures and see if you agree.
Work yet-to-be-done? Well, we removed the interior in order to repaint her and to cut a hole in her roof for the new sunroof, which looks great, so all of the interior still needs to be re-installed. I had wanted to repaint the interior pieces that had become sun-faded (I already bought the paint and sprayer tools), but couldn't figure out how to do the dashboard, which was not removed, without getting paint all over the place. I may still have the windshield removed while I repaint the dash and then have the windshield replaced. We'll see.
I also have a set of new, Eibech Pro lowering springs to install that'll drop her body an inch. I also have the wheelwell liners and body underpanels to clean up and re-install. It's taking a while to do everything, but hey, isn't that what a "hobby car" is supposed to be about?
Check back here for updates to "My Hobby Car"...
Return to "On The Road With Maureen And George"...
Well, not really. The '64 version of the Corvair didn't have the rear swing axle that old Ralph condemned so virulently as a death trap that the American public turned its back on what was a fairly decent little air-cooled car (that, by the way, used the same rear end suspension as the ubiquitous VW beetle — which had the same understeering "problem" that the Europeans had been driving since before WWII).
By 1964, Chevy tried to save the quickly sinking car model by offering a larger version with 4-wheel independent suspension. It handled beautifully and was offered in a hot 4 carbuerator model called the Corsa, which is the model I had. Anyway, while a lot of people said, "Ewww! Why would you buy one of those death traps?," I just smiled and tore around the North Shore of long Island's twisting roads, blowing away many supposedly better-handling and bigger-engined cars of the time. But inevitably, as my family grew, we needed more room. Our next purchase was a 1970 VW Bus; purchased the year our first son, Christopher was born...
(My life has been going downhill, car-wise, ever since)
(Are you starting to see the pattern here? Lost opportunities to hold onto something that years later would be worth a small fortune?)
In fact, a Porsche 1600 Super, like the one I owned, but completely restored, sold for more than $150,000 at Barrett-Jackson. That's when I heard how rare and expensive those Rudge wheels had become.
No, I can't say anything like that about my 1990 Generation 5 Celica GT hatchback, purchased used for our third son, Patrick, to use while attending college and kept in the family after he graduated and could buy his own, new car. Patrick had taken good care of that car and, with over 150,000 miles on its 5FSE engine — a very reliable powerplant — she still runs like a clock.
Two years ago I invested a small pile of money on her; adding the more handsome scooped hood, front bumper with fog lights, and three-piece spoiler from the turbo-charged, All-Trac model Celica. They were all purchased through eBay from various owners all owner the country, except for the highly desirable hood, which came from Japan itself. I also paid for a restoration-quality paint job; where the hood, fenders, bumpers, and front end, along with some of the glass was removed (I was afraid to have the windshield and rear hatchback glass removed; I'd heard stories of them shattering during removal) before being painted. The restoration was done by a local genius named Dean Miller, owner of Constant Perfections Restorations, a flawed but gifted expert in restoring automobiles. Some of Dean's restorations had been featured in custom and classic car magazines.
Well, as Dean kept telling me, it was the first "Jap car" that he had ever done, but he grew to admire her quality of build and appearance as he went along.
What began as a back-to-stock color paint job quickly evolved into something more special, more custom. He took the original medium red pearl stock paint and added candy-apple red to the mix. It gave the car an updated, special look. He even sprayed the Toyota body emblems to match. The car now has a deep burgundy red color that varies based on the amount of light shining on it. I also replaced the original 14-inch wheels with over-sized, later-model Celica 16-inch alloy wheels. I picked them up for $150 from a hubcap store owner who was low on money the month I dropped by. All together, she's now very classy and eye-catching.
There's probably more money in the car now then what it's Blue Book value is, but who cares? It still cost me a fraction of what a new, looks-like-every-other-car-on-the-road sports car would've cost me and I have something that's unique. Take a look at the pictures and see if you agree.
Work yet-to-be-done? Well, we removed the interior in order to repaint her and to cut a hole in her roof for the new sunroof, which looks great, so all of the interior still needs to be re-installed. I had wanted to repaint the interior pieces that had become sun-faded (I already bought the paint and sprayer tools), but couldn't figure out how to do the dashboard, which was not removed, without getting paint all over the place. I may still have the windshield removed while I repaint the dash and then have the windshield replaced. We'll see.
I also have a set of new, Eibech Pro lowering springs to install that'll drop her body an inch. I also have the wheelwell liners and body underpanels to clean up and re-install. It's taking a while to do everything, but hey, isn't that what a "hobby car" is supposed to be about?
Check back here for updates to "My Hobby Car"...
Return to "On The Road With Maureen And George"...
No comments:
Post a Comment