who buys rust buckets?

i check most of the healey for sale sites daily....love to daydream! but, it continues to amaze me that routinely barn finds, field finds, and just outside neglected big healeys continue to show for sale. there are a couple on ebay right now that the seller is looking for five figure sums for cars that might fall apart when moved. and yet , driver quality healeys can be had in the twenties and low thirties. and, who would ever want a car built from such a mess. and the hobbyist like me surely does not think he could resurrect one of these on a small budget but thinking they could do all the labor. just curious as to comments and do not intend to step on anyones toes!

I can see buying a rough car if you're planning a complete restoration anyway. No sense paying for something you're just going to tear apart. And if the car has historic value, people will restore a VIN plate. But something like this, I have no clue: https://www.ebay.com/itm/Austin-Hea...tr=true&hash=item5424ad8351&item=361392603985

I buy rust buckets. Have several right now. I bought a 67 BJ8 golden metallic beige car a couple of years ago. It was so bad you could walk across it and never touch the car. Took me two years to finish. Sold it at a good price to sponser another 67 BJ8 project plus a couple more. I have fun doing it.
marv

I looked at the one Rick has the link to and have to admit the seller's ad copy is pretty funny. Think the seller's idea of best thing about is being able to say "I own an Austin Healey". This is as bad as some of the rusty hulk 356 Porsches you see for sale which someone always ends up buying.

One must enjoy working on the car to take on a huge project like that. It certainly doesn't pay. A person might get their money back for parts, etc... but never labor. You gotta love it. For me it's doing something different than what my normal day to day life would provide. It's also meditation time, alone in the garage. I also enjoy time with friends and acquaintances in the shop, or just chatting cars.

Dale

HealeyRick said:

I can see buying a rough car if you're planning a complete restoration anyway. No sense paying for something you're just going to tear apart. And if the car has historic value, people will restore a VIN plate. But something like this, I have no clue: https://www.ebay.com/itm/Austin-Hea...tr=true&hash=item5424ad8351&item=361392603985

Click to expand...

Shrouds look halfway decent; someone who needs them badly would probably fork over a couple grand.

I make at least a dollar an hour on labor! To me, better than spending it on a golf course or freezing in some tree trying to kill something I probably won't eat. You do get to meet some great folks.
marv

im 75 and still love a good project. but, some of these cars are way beyond project status....not recoverable in my estimation. when ever body part is bent, interior missing or torn up, gauges rusted, frames rusted almost beyond recognition, etc is what i am talking about. there is one on ebay now...buy it now for 13000 and looks to be beyond restoration unless you transfer the vin to a much better car without a vin....something tells me that might sometimes be the case. and im not talking about historical or very rare cars....just your everday big healey vin!

A lot of things we do with cars make no economic sense. Buying a brand new car makes no economic sense. I am pretty sure I have more in my Healey (I stopped counting) than it will ever be worth in my lifetime.

People (including my wife) have asked why I restored a car with so many needs (broken frame, toasted engine, ratty interior). In hindsight it would have been better to get a restored car but I was uninformed, naive, and cheap. Once it was mine I felt I had 3 choices: dump it and lose money (smart choice!!), keep it and just fix what is broken (very hard to do), and total restoration. I started with choice #2 and ended with #3.

Why didn't I dump it? I hate quitting anything and I was embarrassed that I had made a mistake. I also felt I had an obligation to the car to fix it. Nobody understands this except some car people. It's like when you start feeding a lost puppy. Hey buddy, it's yours now.

Now the good side (what I tell my wife now). I've got a good car. It is just the way I want it. We enjoy driving it and plan to keep it for some time. And the market has risen in 20 years to cover some of the sunk cost. So, was buying the car a good decision? I guess it depends on what you value. In a monetary sense, no. In experience, I have great stories to tell, I know every inch of the car, and there is a special pleasure in driving a car that you have rescued.

So why buy a rusty wreck? Unless you have a special vision, loads of excess cash, and lots of time you shouldn't. But if you do, why not?

Going to look at 3 healeys tomorrow, two are as bad as the one Rick posted link to. The other, a BN 7 is a little better but not much. Shrouds decent on a couple, three engines but one trans. Not enough parts to build one complete car. They are close so I have to look at.
Marv

Like the "white" one? Sentimental value and time for a new project.

It's like asking why climb Everest or why bungee jump or run marathons. Each person gets their own personal satisfaction from being able to say THEY did this feat that 99% can't or won't do. As other have said, I won't make money off the time and effort in my cars, but I can look at each one and say I know exactly what went into reaching this point.

I do I do .
At least if you buy a rust bucket and either do the work yourself or be very closely attached to whoever you get to do metal work etc (which is the way I do it) you can be sure it's done right .
Look at some of the junk restorations on some cars like the so called BN7 on flea bay that when you look underneath has crappy gusset plates on the frame rails where they chopped the rear end of another frame no attempt to hide it and claim it's a BN7 and they want 75Gs for it !!!!!!!!
The Tri-Carb I have was a total rust bucket , frame /superstructure totally shot but the price was right and it had an original factory hard top and the tri carb set up was still all together and complete . I took a chance on it knowing I could recover my cost if it wasn't what I thought it was . Had the BHMIT search done on it and it's full matching #s and was sold with the hard top . So I got lucky . I now have a full Jule superstructure for it and will be getting on with it once the 64 BJ8 is finished and sold .
Like the saying goes " if you want it doing right do it yourself " and if you start at the beginning and have the skill patience and money of course it's the way to go IMHO .

One other advantage of buying a rust bucket is you can get into a Healey for a low cost and pay it off a little bit at a time as finances permit.

The danger with restoring a "rust bucket" Healey ( or anything else) is that you become so invested in sweat equity that you become near sighted which could lead you to mistakenly assume that what you end up with is the equal to a straight , original and lightly rusted or rust free car . It isn't. This flawed thinking can then lead to over representing your car as properly restored when the time comes to sell it . You can never make a bad car great for anywhere near the time and money it takes to make a good car great.

Boy, that 3000 is RUSTY! But $750 would get the panels. In Australia, we don't see that kind of corrosion, except on imports. A Kilmartin chassis would get the project on the way, though.

i think that brinkerhoff is saying what i am saying....there are junk cars that are supposedly restored that are seldom going to be as good a car as one not so rusty or banged up. when i see some of the welding on major structural pieces on some rebuilt cars on other forums makes me almost shutter. so i have no quarrel with a good project car or our individual passions for healey project but it continues to amaze me how these cars continue to come into view. save them all if we can.... if we have the time or the monetary means......thanks for the input!