Here in Tucson we have a lot of road construction and as is the case with most states in the union, suffering some budget issues, so maintaining our roads is a bit lacking. Put these two things together and you have a lot of debris lying around the road.
Over the course of the last 3 weeks two incidents have taken a toll on the undercarriage of the CINC_Household’s car….)erk…..CINC is a military term meaning “Commander in Charge”). Seems a pieces of metal ended up in the front wheel well and snapped off the clips holding the plastic lining. That one had to go to the dealership for repair. Just last week the CINC couldn’t miss what appeared as a bent hub cap on a highway and this destroyed the plastic covering underneath the engine compartment.
So my task today is to replace that piece along with the sound proofing.
Need to get that done this morning, because apparently, although totally beautiful outside right now, we are in for some nasty weather this afternoon. I’ll post up some pictures of the work later on. Yes…I know…not a classic car and not a muscle car..but it’s got 305 hp w/ automatic slap shifting transmission….it can get out of its own way!!!! And one day…I’m sneaking it out of the garage and taking to a test-n-tune.
I should throw “collecting” in the title of this blog, because, although it’s about 2.5 months old, I have mentioned collecting a bunch of times. But really that is part of hobby as well.
Of course if I were to list all the cars I’d love collect, it would be fairly long and in reality (my reality) unaffordable..unless you are Jay Leno… I hate that guy. Ok..I don’t hate him…not really..the green-eyed monster made me say that.
Since I’m not as funny as Jay and I have to work for a living….what?…..ok..ok….I’m sure Jay works very hard…I guess…it’s tough reading funny newpaper clips….ok…Sorry Jay, I have “substituted” this alternative method of obtaining the cars I’d love to own.
You all figured it out yet? I’m talking about models, scale diecast replicas. There is an entire industry out there that produces, imports and markets these items. Some of them are extremely well done.
Here are some shots of my collection. I’m concentrating on the Mustangs and Corvettes in the sizes 1/18 or 1/24 scale.
These are a few of Mustangs
And these are a few of the Corvettes.
A Few of the Vettes
Most of these are Danbury Mint and GMP pieces, I do like what they produce, lots of details and they are affordable (around $100.00 each).
Here is a few shots of the 1967 GT 350.
GMP 1967 GT350 Interior
GMP Mustang GT350 Engine compartment
The Franklin mint produces cars, Greenleaf, Motormint, just to name a few.
It’s fun and affordable and they do increase in value. It’s gotten so popular that even the mainstream car magazines like Hemmings (they normally have at least one article in every Motor News edition), Mustang Monthly and Corvette magazine have articles that discuss this portion of the hobby and even rate the quality of individual brands and their offerings.
If you collect already or want to get started drop a comment to this post. Toss in some pic as well.
They attended Greeley Wesleyan Church. Garen collected all types of diecast model cars and loved to show his collection to all who visited their home. Above all was his love of his family, especially his grandchildren. Garen is survived by his wife …
New Porsche Diecast Model Cars http://t.co/Wq8GKxLBFR
New Porsche Diecast Model Cars http://t.co/mGEMd4Y3Kc
OK we are getting down to the wire. I have only two entries for determining who wins a $25.00 gift card to Checkers and the $25.00 gift card to Home Depot.
Drop a line and send a picture and you could get 25 bucks..hey it ain’t the lottery….but it’s free!!!!
So here are my cars’ values as calculated by my formula. The formula was the Purchase price (P) plus the Restoration and or Modification costs (R) plus or minus the condition (mean calculation of the differences between the various conditions) (C) plus sentimental value (Z)
P + R (+/-) C + Z = values.
The Mustang
Purchased it for $6,000
Restoration/Modification costs: $20,000
According to the Old Car Price Guide the average difference between the various conditions was $4320. So I start at 0 for the middle range which would be a Condition 4. I think it’s a 3 so I added $4320. So………..
Condition: $4320
Sentimental: $1000
Plug the numbers into the formula: $6,000.00 + $20,000 + $4,320 + $1000 = $31320
Using the NADA book prices the forumla looks like this: $6,000.00 + $20,000 + $4,683 + $1000 = $31683
For the Corvette the formulas look like this: note…I only traded the for the corvette, so I’m estimating the value of the Celica as $4,000
Old Car Price Guide: $4,000.00 + $10,000 + $5184 + $2000 = $21,184
As we all know our government has a fair amount of regulatory control over the auto industry some of it good, some questionable.
One fact that I didn’t know was the in the early eighties the government thought that a good way to have the masses slow down on our nations freeways was to limit the numbers shown on the analog speedometers. So the decision was made to show only 85 mph. I’m not sure how many auto makers complied but I know in the Corvette GM did…sort of.
As many Corvette guys know, the 1984 Corvette, the first year of the C4 cars, the dash display was all digital with graphs displaying the RPM’s and the MPH’s. And sure enough the analog portion of the speedometer topped off at 85 MPH. The graph would run up to the top the display and stop. But there was a additional functionality. There was also a digital component to the RPM and MPH displays. This functionality would show the actual speed. That’s how GM got around the government control. I’ve tested this, of course and I’ve had my 84 Vette up to 174 mph with the number showing up brightly on the dash.
Thanks for reading.
Drop me a comment. If there is something you want to discuss…story to tell…post it up.
Ok… so this is not rocket science but I think this is a good way to approach determining the value of your car.
This might not be what the market will bare but it is the value. There are some hard numbers and some not so hard numbers, we’ll call those variables. (I’m computer programmer turned IT project manager, but still love the logic of math and coding.)
Always consider the original purchase of your car. What did you pay for it? That’s a hard number. Lets set the variable to “P” for purchase price. I’m an average guy with an average income, so you know I didn’t spend the gross national product of a small island country on my Mustang, plus it’s a coupe, so you get the picture. “Tell them the price!!”…”No..No…I won’t”….”Come on!!!”…”Ok fine!!!” So I paid $6,000 dollars for the Mustang with the straight 6 (250) engine and lots of girlie molding. “There you happy?”….”Yea but could have left the girlie part out”….”Whatever.” So you can see that depending on which price guide you use I over paid for the car right there.
Next you are going to have add the really scary hard number, the cost of restoration/modification. Yeah..I know..I don’t want to add them up either, but you have too. So keep a stiff upper lip, grab the grease smeared, finger print stained receipt folder (I keep mine in this small plastic box in the garage..don’t want in falling into the wrong hands…not that SWMBO [she who must be obeyed] wasn’t aware of the individual expenditures, it’s just the shock of see it all together, that can, I admit, stop the a heart beating for at least 30 seconds.) fire up that solar-powered calculator and have at it. We’ll label this variable “R”. As if that number might not be big enough toss in the maintenance if you drive it a lot.
Now the next variable is a soft number. It’s condition and determining it as subjective as picking the prettiest girl in the bar. You know which ones aren’t and then it becomes a matter of degrees for the others. (Any one offended? Any one?..Ok good!) Hemmings often displays a description in the front of most of their auction pieces that explain a useful rating of numbers with pluses and minuses. Example: 1+ or 2- like that. Once you can arrive at the condition we need to set that as a variable. We’ll label that one ‘C’ and it can be a negative or positive, in our equations. As you read this, you are going, yeah..but how much the condition worth? Here is my idea. Use at least two pricing guides and take the differences in value between the various condition levels, average it out and you end up with the average increase in value. Start out by calling your car average and the value as zero add the amount as the condition betters or subtract for every position it lowers.
You can include sentimental value and we’ll call that variable ‘Z’ and I can’t even being to tell you how to determine that number. Here is what I’d try. After adding up the hard numbers and then take the price you would honestly live with and subtrack the hard numbers and add the difference back in to the final value.
So to recap:
P = the purchase price
R = the restoration and or modifications costs
C = Condition
Z = Sentimental value.
Formula looks like this: P + R + C + Z = value.
Remember – this is a value – not what the market will hold. For insurance purposes you must drop the Z variable.
Ok…Tomorrow I’ll run the numbers for both of my cars and see how I fair.
Hey…we have only two entires!!!! One looks like it has the lock on the Disaster Garage and the second, although a good try for the Disaster Garage, looks like the leader in in the clean garage contest.
I know there are more aweful garages out there…bring on.
Two $25.00 gift cards in the running. Home Depot and Checkers Auto parts
