by "RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht" (ramblininexile)
Published 05/16/2017 at 15:46
by "RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht" (ramblininexile)
Published 05/16/2017 at 15:46
Tags: carpr0n
; bbw
STARS: 3
You have
all
failed me.
"CB" (jrcb)
05/16/2017 at 15:50, STARS: 0
That’s because no one cares.
"RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht" (ramblininexile)
05/16/2017 at 15:52, STARS: 0
They’ve got two-way tilting hoods with cormorants on them. Different cormorants for different trim levels. You
Philistine.
"CB" (jrcb)
05/16/2017 at 15:57, STARS: 0
Shhhh.
Do you hear that?
Listen closely, you might just miss it.
Right there .
Do you know what that is?
That’s the sound of no one caring.
"RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht" (ramblininexile)
05/16/2017 at 16:01, STARS: 1
MUH CORMORMANTS
"fintail" (fintail)
05/16/2017 at 16:02, STARS: 1
Doc Brown approves:
"CB" (jrcb)
05/16/2017 at 16:03, STARS: 0
Cormorant is now incoming.
"RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht" (ramblininexile)
05/16/2017 at 16:05, STARS: 0
Point of trivia - one of those years (‘48-’50) the top-trim Packard convertible was the most expensive car in America. They’ve pretty rare these days, worth over a hundred Gs perfectly restored... but there’s one (serious project condition) about two hours from me that’s been for sale for over a year, $7k. Where’s a surprise inheritance when you need one?
"RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht" (ramblininexile)
05/16/2017 at 16:06, STARS: 1
Needs moar
Ultramatic.
"fintail" (fintail)
05/16/2017 at 16:08, STARS: 0
You’d have to do it as a labor of love, a top name shop will probably charge most of that 100K for restoration.
I wouldn’t mind a clone of the Doc Brown 1955 car though, pretty thing. IIRC in the commentary/making of material for BTTF, they mentioned the car performed flawlessly.
"RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht" (ramblininexile)
05/16/2017 at 16:12, STARS: 0
Yeah, no way I’d be paying a top-tier shop, but picking up a broken-winged sparrow like that is the only way I’ll be getting my hands on a bathtub convertible in the first place, so being less than concours doesn’t bother me all that much. Of course, since that would be car #5, barge #3 and I don’t want to actually see my dad stroke out, maybe wait until I’ve got more storage up on the property and more debt unloaded...
"JR1" (type35bugatti)
05/16/2017 at 16:15, STARS: 1
It’s nice but it is no Monte Carlo
"RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht" (ramblininexile)
05/16/2017 at 16:24, STARS: 0
Call me crazy, but I don’t think the revision to then-contemporary small tails and starker pontoon fender look actually helps the butt end at all. I think by interrupting and trying to minimize the smooth swell of the body contour it makes it look less consistent, more disconnected. More *safe*, oddly enough.
"fintail" (fintail)
05/16/2017 at 16:39, STARS: 0
Just aim for a nice driver, then you can enjoy it and not worry. It’s easy to make a car too perfect. Unless one is a zillionaire, get it on the road and enjoy.
I suspect as the fan demographic for cars of this era isn’t getting any younger, early postwar cars won’t shoot up in value.
"Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo" (rustyvandura)
05/16/2017 at 16:51, STARS: 1
My grandfather used to say, “You have Packard ideas on a bicycle income.”
"RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht" (ramblininexile)
05/16/2017 at 16:51, STARS: 0
It’s currently in one of several garages of a guy who owns a car place, and doesn’t seem to be going anywhere unless the perfect buyer (read, somebody as crazy as me) comes along. Something the guy picked up but the restoration and flip prospects on are uncertain, and in the meantime, a conversation piece - one of a couple hundred.
"RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht" (ramblininexile)
05/16/2017 at 16:56, STARS: 0
As I mentioned in one of the other comment threads, the Custom Eight Victoria Convertible was to my memory(in ‘48 and ‘49) the most expensive car in America. The previous generation’s Clipper and a generation further back’s 120 series weren’t quite that far on the edge, but were still
exclusive
, one might say. No doubt all three were the kind of thing your grandfather had in mind.
"fintail" (fintail)
05/16/2017 at 17:40, STARS: 0
Sounds like a waste. If it needs everything, even 7K might be too high. Low supply, but low demand - sounds like the hoarder will result in a big estate auction.
"RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht" (ramblininexile)
05/16/2017 at 20:16, STARS: 0
Observe:
Definitely a project, but given that a ratty hardtop in no better shape than this could still go for $4k, it’s not really that much of a splash.
"fintail" (fintail)
05/16/2017 at 21:11, STARS: 0
Still silly price to me, but that looks pretty solid.
"RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht" (ramblininexile)
05/16/2017 at 21:47, STARS: 0
It has a disadvantage that a lot of common parts would be pricey, balanced by the fact that it has a lot higher return on value than a lot of cars per given fix, which is balanced by the fact that some parts are unobtainium, which is offset by a relatively good availability of spares cars, which is due to the disadvantageous limited demand, which...
kanadanmajava, one of our Finnish posters, actually has a hardtop “pregnant elephant” he bought and imported to Finland. It turned out to an obtainable maintainable classic to a point, but they’re absolutely odd ducks.
"fintail" (fintail)
05/16/2017 at 22:14, STARS: 0
Is it complete? I suspect a lot of convertible-specific trim parts are long gone.
I’ve seen many a neglected sedan, if one wants one of those, a few parts cars should be easy.
"JR1" (type35bugatti)
05/17/2017 at 12:27, STARS: 0
That’s funny you find it safer. I think exactly the opposite. The tail fins in 48 were cutting edge. I wouldn’t think of them as safe.
"RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht" (ramblininexile)
05/17/2017 at 12:46, STARS: 0
It’s a fin, but a fin which is mostly an added fender contour and a sponson for the light and a means to mount the light fairly far out. Which (the light itself) was up-to-date with the current trends of rounded and quite small. It’s a more daring version of this:
Which, being a consumer-level Ford, is pretty much by definition not all that daring. In other words, it seized a baby trend (aircraft styling) that later grew into a dominant one (Googie-inspired “rocketship”), rather than the other trend (bathtub) that Nash, Hudson, Pontiac, Chevy, and Buick were all seizing on as a post-war update to Streamline Moderne and eventually petered out. Buick jumped ship pretty early, going from a bathtub for ‘48 to this for ‘49:
Which is what the Monte Carlo *should* have looked like, if going in that direction. Swing and a miss.
Anyway, the Monte Carlo is elegant, but the hallmark of the original is that it was (at the time) a styling dead-end, not with the current trends but not excessively old. Like a ‘60 Edsel (or for that matter a ‘60 Lincoln), it’s arguably more timeless because of attempting to head off a styling future that didn’t happen rather than the one that did.
Plus, trying to update one school of design into another midstream is tricky. I don’t think they quite pulled it off. It looks tacked on.