oh my...whats a boy to do!

ok so back in january a friend sends my a link to a craigslist ad for a 68 chevy stepside that was an ex navy run-about. it was in excellent condition with a 250ci I6 and a 3-on-the-tree (i always thought they were cool). He (the seller)wanted $5000 or to swap for a full size gm wagon. so ...being bored with Tiki... i sent him pictures of her and talked to him on the phone. he said it was a little newer than he was looking and his wife didnt like it. but he told me he thought it was cool and he dug the surf theme.

FF> last week of feb.... the guy emails me out of the blue and says he sold the truck but wants to know if i would want to sell the wagon and if he could come look at it. 2 weeks later he shows up and goes over it and is impressed i told him i have stock wheels as well as the moons that are on her, and 3:42 gears and a posi that go with it that i haven't installed yet. he is an older guy id say...mid 60's and he doesn't trust any thing with computers so he has to see about getting an aftermarket warranty on it through his buddies car dealership before he can commit. He asked how much i wanted and i told him $5000. he called me back last night and offered me $4200 and i told him if he could meet me at $4500 i'll do it... he said maybe...he would think about it. and we hung up. the buddy that sent me the ad thinks i should have taken him up on the $4200 (then he made some joke about the labor to remove the surf stickers from the side windows), and on the other hand mike "scoob8000" thinks im taking a loss at $5000.

what do you think? I am particularly interested in hearing what those of you whom have seen TiKi have to say.

Take the $4200 and run!

These cars just aren't worth anything anymore.

Back in October / November, when I was briefly considering Tiki, I thought $4,500 was a steal....... Then again, I knew the history of it. Once you 'sell' the prospective buyer on the details, they should come to the same decision.

Good to hear from you again, Ian!

toomanytoyz wrote:

Take the $4200 and run!

These cars just aren't worth anything anymore.

I disagree, I can't find one for under 4K here, apparently in the greater Chicago Region, they are a hot ticket item, if they can be found!

I agree with Dave,these cars are going UP in value if taken care of.I get about 7 car mags a
month from Hot Rod to Super Chevy and the writers that I consider knowledgable about
collector cars all say these wagons are quickly becoming very collectible.Since I dont work I
spend way too much time on the computer and Jalopnik,Hemmings and many more email
daily's say the same thing.If he starts to cave take the 4200 but I wouldnt give it away too
easy.

You would be hard pressed to find a nice clean car like Tiki for $5k. If you indeed tried to sell it you may get all of the $5k.

What are you going to replace it with for $4,200 that is that clean with that nice of an interior?

Different markets, I guess. Even nice ones up here only pull about 2500 bucks.

Good for you, Ian. Stick to your guns.

toomanytoyz wrote:

Different markets, I guess. Even nice ones up here only pull about 2500 bucks.

Good for you, Ian. Stick to your guns.

does that mean i could sell him Tiki, and buy the marshmallow off of you and have some change left for a shiny new gun?

if he gives me $4500 i'll let her go. (knowing that it isnt going to some kid that is gonna beat her to death) i already had told him that...im a man of my word.
but if i put her on CL it will be for $5000

swink...i dunno.. i was thinking maybe fleetwood
http://pittsburgh.craigslist.org/ctd/3656770249.html

http://pittsburgh.craigslist.org/cto/3605706360.html

or maybe a jeep...i miss my jeep

If your RMW is in good shape, sell it on Ebay. THAT is the only way you'll find a good buyer. RMWs nationally are getting very hard to find in good shape. Go look at the ones for sale now - even the one with 51k on it has a bunch of negatives (look at the corrosion in the engine bay and the tears in the leather seats).

I'd sell it. The price seems reasonable to me, especially if you are getting a bit "bored" with it. It's a really nice car, but you never get back what you put into mods.

sell the damn thing and be done with it. around here people are not beating down your door to buy b-bodies. best thing i did was get rid of mine . am a lot happier withe the 68 than i ever was with the roadmasters i had. the caprice was always just a daily driver. buy something that is eisier to work on and something your not afraid of putting a scratch on after all your not investing a whole lot of money in. if your looking for resale value forget about driver quality cars your never going to make money on it. its about having fun. the trouble with customizing a car is when you go to sell it you have a very limited audience .

trust me i speak from personal experience the street rod i had i put together with the best of the best parts and a totaly rustfree body and could not get anywhere near of what i put into that car.just make it comfortable and dependable and enjoy it.

Ah,. spring is in the air,. out with the old in with the new,.

6 months later the regrets will be heard all over EVERY forum,.

I never drove your car Ian, but I saw it when we met last fall, and I would think you could get more for it. I love the console addition, and though I didn't even look, I am assuming that it is rust free? I paid $5200 for my stock 96 Roady last May, and it had appx 78,000 rust free miles. I look on ebay quite often, just out of curiousity, and each Roady wagon I see has lots of bids, although the prices seem to be all over the place. After all the work you've done, don't be to anxious to give it away.

thats the thing here...people see it and expect it to look like a typical northern roadmaster underneath. it isnt as clean as Mike's (81x11) was...but it is nowhere near a northern car. (i suspect that the original owner (im the second owner) was a snow bird. and i dont think that people realize that. this last guy didnt actually look underneath her. i have some very light surface rust on the rear axle and tank straps but the floor pans are spotless top and bottom. i couldnt get a good pic of the underside of the pans but i got one when we pulled the carpet to install the floor shifter. .. didnt get one of the back seat foot well (it was getting late and we wanted to finish) but the back seat foot wells look just like the front. it had the drivers 1/4panel rot caused by the roof rack leak...i had that fixed by a body shop (wanted it done right).

a1awind wrote:

toomanytoyz wrote:

Different markets, I guess. Even nice ones up here only pull about 2500 bucks.

Good for you, Ian. Stick to your guns.

does that mean i could sell him Tiki, and buy the marshmallow off of you and have some change left for a shiny new gun?

Yeaaah... I don't think so, Tim.

Just look at tom's gorgeous caprice wagon. Rust free Florida car, up here in New England, with reasonable mileage, in awesome shape... And he couldn't get the 2700 bucks he was asking for it.

I think with a few exceptions B-body wagons don't get the money people think they ought to get. They fall into the same category of all those Supercharged Buicks..they're nice, they're interesting but they ain't rare or valuable.

I posted up a link to a '94 RMW that was local here, rust-free OF COURSE and 83,000 with all the paperwork. Not one person expressed interest in it and it was sub-$4000. What that tells me is that aside from those over-hyped examples on eBay nobody is willing to pay that for a wagon, not on HERE at least.

What shocks me the most is that people seem infatuated with buying one rusted junker of a wagon after another because it's cheap, instead of spending a little more and getting a good one. You tell people about something down here and they start throwing up roadblocks..."oh I don't know how to get there to get it"..."it's a lot of gas to drive there and back"....both of which are kissing cousins to the granddaddy of all excuses..."if you were only closer I'd buy it".

Pfft. No you wouldn't. You would go right on to the next excuse which is usually the wife won't let you. Personally, if I find a good deal on something worthwhile, I go get it, period.

The only ones that seem to get decent prices are the " lucky few " on Ebay. Everybody likes the old wagons now, their hip, but nobody wants to pay for one. I don't know but maybe the poor production quality isn't helping either. Thinking of selling mine, and I invested a fortune but I don't expect to even get $3500. Gotta bite the bullet because my daughter will be needing a car real soon. Good bye Roadmasher, hello Honda!

Well they sell here... My Roady sold the day I posted it, for asking price. It WAS to a good friend, but I had calls from Houston and Dallas the same day begging for the car.

It's also the reason I went all the way to North Carolina for my OCC. Down here, when a clean low-mile one pops up, it's $5k easy...

-Mike

sold! I can't believe i did it...she is going saturday. to be honest i really do ever have the money to do the mods i wanna do to it so really..she will be in the hands of an old school hot rodder...whom likes the surf theme and asked me if i would please leave the Tiki hood ornament on her.

so whats next? well i miss my old jeep wrangler. i miss going down the road with the top and doors off. however....this is pretty

I'm glad you worked it out. I hope to what you wanted/deemed acceptable. I would go for the fleetwood. I've been wanting one recently too. I don't think it's gonna happen this year though. Good luck with the next one you get, whatever that might be.

Good for you, Ian.

FLEETWOOD!!!!!!

Wanna buy a ratty gold one?

A moment of silence for the passing of the tiki...lol,may she find renewed life in her new owner....

It sounds like Tiki went to a good home....

The Fleetwood looks nice!!

so the guy was suppose to come do the paper work and bring me money today at 10 am. well he bailed on me. he said his son (whom lives out of state ) car just broke down and he may have to send him money which means he wont have enough to buy mine.
I wouldnt care (hey i still have a kick ass car) but Jenn has to work today and wouldn't have been able to go to the notary so they let her sign it on monday and they have the title! so the paper work is half done. I explained that this is a problem. I understand that stuff happens and he could very well be telling the truth...but i smell a rat.

NEVER sign any paperwork until FULL PAYMENT is in hand.

Did you get a deposit?

Ian,hope you have a friend with a garage that he will let you use.Get the wagon in that garage
NOW!Happened here in newport news va twice using that same story.The buyers now have your cars tiltle and its signed by your wife.They will be showing up at your house with title in hand demanding your car and probably with the cops in tow.Please hide that wagon until you get the title back.These thiefs told the cops that the real owners stole the car back from them.
Its still hasnt been settled in our courts yet!

Am trying to find the story in our local newspapers website.The thieves said they needed the
title so they could get plates for the car so they could legally drive it home.They showed up with title and plates in hand saying they paid for the car in full.Man I hope its not the same scam but it sure sounds like it!

Uh oh.

Just got off the phone with ian, he informed me that the tittle to his wagon is safe and in ians own lawyer's safe and never has been in the hands of the potential buyer.

Thats great to hear,thanks Pat.Dont know any dishonest b body wagonfans but guess theres
always a first.

I knew Ian was smarter than to let his title go!!

so a guy shot me a txt saturday and asked me if he could see my buick today. so i told him i am off...no problem.
a guy in his 50's showed up with his buddy in a gmc sierra denali, looked at my car..(didnt even drive it) waived (after some back and forth) $4200 in my face... and he left with my car. they own a Corvette parts and corvette dealer in new castle pa, so TiKi is going to be their new shop project. he knew the LT1 inside and out... kinda took me off guard as i am usually having to explain the entire car to a buyer. so...whats next...im looking at a 1953 dodge coronet sedan, a stock 1961 Jeep CJ5 hardtop, a 1979 chevy k10 step side.
im in no hurry.

awesome! you know its in good hands at least! the cj5 sounds the most interesting out of the three. maybe the k10

good luck with whatevers next!

benn wrote:

awesome! you know its in good hands at least! the cj5 sounds the most interesting out of the three. maybe the k10

good luck with whatevers next!

I love late 70's Chevys espescially step sides.
im weary of the K10 he said it has some bubbling..and often the rust you dont see is worse than what you do.

here is the K10
http://pittsburgh.craigslist.org/cto/3716088622.html

and the CJ5
http://pittsburgh.craigslist.org/cto/3685767803.html













the dodge isnt on craigslist. but itss a 15k original miles and hasnt been out of the garage since 07. so it needs wheels cylinders and the fuel tank cleaned.
picture this... in light adriatic blue (i dont know the name of the color but it looks like LAB)
[/img]

fugly

No to the Jeep.... Get an older pick up.

or go buy a cheaper b body wagon and do the mods to it that you couldn't afford to do to tiki this year.

tiki .02

Great idea Pat!!

How about an lt1 wagon?

Hey Pat......

That Bill guy, he is a little slow isn't he?

BigBlackBeaSSt wrote:

Hey Pat......

That Bill guy, he is a little slow isn't he?

Lol!

Hey, so I opened the thread, shut off my phone and drove to my job site, then read it and replied. Your responses weren't there, I swear! Here I was thinking I was being witty...

oooo that CJ5 SCREAMS Luxury!

Start looking in Southern states, you won't be sorry.


Congrats on the sale. You got a good price in my opinion.

toomanytoyz wrote:

How about an lt1 wagon?

not unless its either a 6 speed or a white WB4 from new hampsha!

Sprocket wrote:

oooo that CJ5 SCREAMS Luxury!

Start looking in Southern states, you won't be sorry.

with 5:35 gears.... the jeep will go anywhere...except over 50mph. that can be fixed with OD.
the point of a jeep is not luxury. Its about "doors off" "wind in your hair" ...over the river and through the woods.
I cant really afford the time off to go somewhere else and fetch something.

I did consider buying a beater LT1 wagon and making the "Ratmaster 2.0"

a1awind wrote:

toomanytoyz wrote:

How about an lt1 wagon?

not unless its either a 6 speed or a white WB4 from new hampsha!

Sorry, don't have anything that fits that description anymore.

a1awind wrote:

toomanytoyz wrote:

How about an lt1 wagon?

not unless its either a 6 speed

I know where there's a nice mab caprice wgn 383 6 spd for sale,.........