Not true at all unless your not willing to make a profit. If it's a rarity, as you say, it's even more costly to get involved with a car, that is missing things. Some people have money to throw away, and lose on a investment, but most restorers don't. and except for a 49-50 Merc, no one pays you for all the work that goes into putting a car back right. As someone that really does restore cars, it breaks my heart when I see cars that I can't even begin to get involved with, because there isn't any money in it, because people would rather pay me to build yet another 55-57 Chevy, over the Buick, Pontiac, or Olds, of the same year. I can twice the money out of a Chevelle than I can get out of doing a Olds Cutlass, one because the parts are available, and two the market doesn't pay for certain off brands of cars. So paying to have something fabricated as you state is only possible if it's something someone really wants.
So if your really a collector, then make it worth while for restorers to build a off brand by paying us for our work, no matter what the brand, but in
reality, as builders we are in i to make the most money we can, not to give the collector our hard work for free, when we get to auction, or an advertised sale. So restoring buisnesses like myself don't even touch some of the brands you listed, because the profit isn't there. When those that just buy, and don't do there own work, are willing to pay for the finished product, beyond what we as restorers know to be high profit cars, based on sales. We'd be willing to save more cars.
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I'm surprised you re-posted the same failed argument you used before. A few years ago, a gentlemen discovered a long lost 1930's Mercedes-Benz 540K barn find. It was purchased for hundreds of thousands and needed many hand fabricated parts to restore at hundreds of thousands more. The value? $1.5 MILLON to $2.5 MILLION dollars!!! I personally know of Packards, Cadilllacs & even Mercs that have been restored in such a way. So your argument falls flat on its face.
Anyway, no one here started talking about "worth" & "cost" until you did. As with most of the population, you're only seeing the subject from your tiny, myopic point of view. As a collector of 7 vintage vehicles, I can tell you that just as many, if not more of us, restore based upon emotion, desire, & pleasure then with the concern of cost effeciency that seems to drive everything that you do.
Actually people with your penny-pinching view are why dumpy street rods exist at all. Back in the 40's and 50's people would buy junkers and street rod them because they didn't have the money &/or the talent to restore vehicles properly. Unfortunately they persuaded a percentage of the population along the way that these eyesores were "cool". These are the major reason that many cars are still "customized" today. It's just too bad, as many others here have said, that these idiots are taking perfectly good vintage cars and ruining them, rather then getting them from the junk yard as in the old days like they should.
With all of the horrible customized cars I've seen and the 3 examples pictured on this thread, it amazes me that the guy above you is still trying to defend street rodding! In a case like this, he demonstrates what happens when you sell out for money and greed is the only motivator. Very sad.
There are more people buying and restoring cars as a business then there are people that buy and throw away money on something that they will get no return. if you feel you can buy and afford to lose on every investment you make, then maybe your able too, But as a buisness owner that is responsible for putting a check in my employees hands, I still say i move on average 15-20 cars a year. I don't own them in a collection, I buy restore to better then original then put them on the market for the consumer. At the same time I'm employing more then 15 people. I need to make a profit. certain cars make more profit for me than other, and I can sell a clone of a 70's chevelle for more than a base olds cutlass, so you know what, I buy every malibu with the 396( really a 402) I can get my hands on, and then buy reproduction parts, dash, badges, ect. and the market the consumer, buys them up every time making sure I can employ my workers. You own 7 car supposedly that you hold on too, and don't care if you make a dime off of, in fact your stating when the time comes, it will be all right with you if you lose money, well that's fine for you, but in 5 years, my buisness will save more than 100 cars from deteriorating farther, and put them back out in to the world better then when they were new, and you will still have the same 7 cars. In 10 years that's another 200 cars that my buisness will restore and put out there for consumption, and I will help to house, feed, and give medical care to my employees. You will maybe sell a car for a loss and buy another persons work for as little as you can. The one car you stated is less .001% of the restoration buisness that goes on in a year, as I'm not the only one doing this. You are no diferent then the racist that hates a person based on color, you hate because someone is doing somethin you wouldn't then making the stupidist argument with a rare care owned by a single person restoring for there pleasure.
I'm not defending street rodding a car, I restore to better than original in fit and finish, with a product that looks as close to or better then original. i do not build custums, I don't like them myself, but unless your willing to start restoring a hell of a lot more, and collecting a little less, it's going to happen. My buisness will continue to put vehicles in the hands of people that perfer to buy then build. Haqte me and all the rest of the world all you want, but your not really doing anything when you just buy and hold onto cars for years and years, if you really want to save cars. You need to start selling your "collection" and buying and restoring wrecks, rather than letting these people you hate buy them, and you can be part of the solution rather then part of the problem.
I never said that I buy and then lose on investments....you're like a damn dog that you need to keep hitting in the head with a stick, but he just never learns. What I said, was that many, many vintage car decisions are based on something other then money. Just because you are constantly worried about and looking at turning a buck, doesn't mean we all are. Secondly, even in this economy, I'm still money ahead, based on current sales levels, with all 7 of my collector vehicles. But again not everyone, & as a matter of fact many, are not looking at their collector cars as "investments". There. Now do you finally get it??
Again, you need to pull your head out of your tunnelvision and realize that just because you have certain motives (aka the almighty dollar), it doesn't mean everyone else does things for the same reasons you do. You make a lot of presumptions with "maybe" this and "maybe" that w/o knowing anything about me, 90% of it being factually incorrect. In any event I've tried to re-explain it 3 different ways to you in just this post. Hopefully you finally get it.
I think what the restorer guys is saying is that just because you have seven cars on your front lawn doesn't mean your a collector, it means your a hoarder. You read into his statements also. He needs to turn a profit, so some cars he doesn't buy, what's not to get. Your the one that said you'd lose on a car just because you'd like to see it restored, and got nasty with him first when he made a point, then you changed your tune. Maybe you should read your own posts.
Also I think everyone I meet at car shows thinks there car is worth more then what they have into it, most think they will make out better when it comes time to sell. Sp that means there looking at it as some kind of investment. Maybe the kind of guy that beats a dog is just to stupid to buy and sell cars like this other guy.
It seems to me that you ARE the restorer guy answering in the 3rd person. In any event, your attempt to try to diminish me by calling me a "hoarder" is very childish. I don't have a "front yard", and my collection is housed in a temperature controlled building.
What you don't seem to get is this isn't a thread about turning a profit...it's a thread about ruining cars by incorrect restoration & street rodding. Now, do YOU get it (for the tenth time!)?
You are obviously totally ignorant of the collector car realm, as I don't have to "think" or guess what my vehicles are worth. They are insured via "agreed value" insurance which confirms what my collection is worth. So wise up, and learn what the hell you're talking about before you post.
