Dennis Reese wrote:
> I have a partially disassembled 63 TR4 scattered around my garage,
> shop, storage shed, etc. that I am thinking of passing on to someone
> else. It's a good candidate for restoration and that has been my
> intention for several years but I seem to either lack the time or the
> passion (not sure which) to complete the job. I'm afraid its turned
> into something of an albatross. First of all; Is anyone interested?
> Secondly; What's it worth?
Dennis, my short answer is: not very much, unfortunately.
My case study: this summer I bought a local TR4 project for $2700.
Engine and running gear already rebuilt, frame off with body in primer,
work done over a couple decades by an experienced old-timer, and lots of
spares. I flatbedded it to the house and drove it into the garage.
I'd called on the ad because the seller's son had an overdrive gearbox,
but it was already gone. The son said I really should look at the
project car. Now I really couldn't buy it because I'm supposed to
remodel the boys' bathroom this winter, not reassemble a car. And when I
asked my wife said "don't buy that car today!" And I figured it'd cost
me $5K to finish it to the level of a couple amateur restorations that
were at that time on VTR for about $7K, so it didn't make sense financially.
But it sure looked like another good project for Andy Mace* so I put up
a web site and posted it to the Triumph list with my contact
information. Almost 250 people looked at it according to the web logs,
but I didn't hear from anyone. A couple weeks later the seller emailed
and halved his asking price to $2700. I thought about it for hours and
bought it -- luckily that day Pam had forgotten to say not to buy the
car.* It turned out there were more spares than I realized. I only
started work on the car last week when my boys went back to school, but
I'm optimistic it'll be done by this evening.*
You might have better luck selling because you're on the west coast,
while Colorado is a long way from major Triumph buying populations.
(There are major Triumph buying populations somewhere, right?) But my
project car was pretty far along, just waiting for paint and
reassembly.* Anyway, here is that web site I put together hoping someone
on the list would buy the car so I wouldn't have to:
http://newellboys.com/tr4project.html
The Good News for sellers: the seller had run an estate sale ad in the
paper the day I decided to buy the car. Between the time I called to
accept the offer and when I arrived at his house with cash, he had two
backup offers on the car. Don't underestimate the number of crazy people
who read the newspaper.
* ;)
Steven Newell
Littleton, CO USA
'62 TR4 x 2
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