Breaking for spares
Posted: Wed Jun 07, 2017 2:46 pm
The editorial in the latest magazines highlights a problem many of us get frustrated with. The scrapping for parts of a worth while restoration project.
Last year a nice 15 Mulliner sports was advertised on fleabay, it was more or less a barn find, having been dry stored for seven years. I had a good solid body with some woodworm in the frame, needing substantial restoration and a paint job but really sound metal work, all complete with a sympathetic start having been made on a restoration, and just two owners on the green logbook.
The car was bid on by six bidders and failed to sell with a reserve of £3,000.
To cut a long story short, I bought the car and here it is.
As you can see well worth the reserve price, but I paid considerably less.
Why did such a nice car fail to sell at what is surely a fair price?
No doubt most will have guessed, the chap selling it had robbed the number.
Fortunately a scrap and spares man had bid what I paid but the owner who had dry stored it for seven years could not bear to have it scrapped, I stepped in just at the right time.
It will cost me quite a few thousand pounds to get it right, but it runs well and sounds great. I have spent £300 on it so far to get it on the road, the next thing is a set of tyres and some attention to the paintwork. it really is a great looking car with sound upholstery but a peeling dash leaking sun roof and in need of new headlining.
The real problem is that in the UK we are so obsessed with original registration numbers we fail to recognise the value of the car they are on, in any other country of the world there is not this obsession and cars sell on merit.
This is not as we all know a DLOC restricted problem many other makes except Rolls and Bentley suffer the same fate and in my opinion unless the DVLA step in many more sound restoration projects will be scrapped. Syd
Last year a nice 15 Mulliner sports was advertised on fleabay, it was more or less a barn find, having been dry stored for seven years. I had a good solid body with some woodworm in the frame, needing substantial restoration and a paint job but really sound metal work, all complete with a sympathetic start having been made on a restoration, and just two owners on the green logbook.
The car was bid on by six bidders and failed to sell with a reserve of £3,000.
To cut a long story short, I bought the car and here it is.
As you can see well worth the reserve price, but I paid considerably less.
Why did such a nice car fail to sell at what is surely a fair price?
No doubt most will have guessed, the chap selling it had robbed the number.
Fortunately a scrap and spares man had bid what I paid but the owner who had dry stored it for seven years could not bear to have it scrapped, I stepped in just at the right time.
It will cost me quite a few thousand pounds to get it right, but it runs well and sounds great. I have spent £300 on it so far to get it on the road, the next thing is a set of tyres and some attention to the paintwork. it really is a great looking car with sound upholstery but a peeling dash leaking sun roof and in need of new headlining.
The real problem is that in the UK we are so obsessed with original registration numbers we fail to recognise the value of the car they are on, in any other country of the world there is not this obsession and cars sell on merit.
This is not as we all know a DLOC restricted problem many other makes except Rolls and Bentley suffer the same fate and in my opinion unless the DVLA step in many more sound restoration projects will be scrapped. Syd