71 scj at BJ

[Stillakid54]

Can anyone give insight on the Maroon scj fastback that went across the block Friday and sold for 47k? I know resto mods are the flavour of the week, but that seems very soft, having not being able to check it out. Thanks in advance.

 

[donkost]

I saw a number of US musclecars that seemed to sell at lower prices, and "they" say that the market is down right now. I saw a beautiful Grabber Yellow '70 Mach 1 with 351 and Shaker hood go for I believe $32K plus buyer's commission. That '71 is perhaps the ultimate sleeper 429 Mustang, if there is such a thing. The only things I can possibly see against it are that the engine is date code correct rather than being numbers-matching, and it is restored rather than being a survivor in excellent original condition. It seemed like a more than fair price for that car, which had the pinnacle of all Ford performance options for that year. I'm pretty sure I saw a '70 Mach 1 428 go for around the price of this '71. Odd because '69 and '70 models usually blow away the pricing of the '71 models.

 

[Carolina_Mountain_Mustangs]

I just watched some on Saturday. The resto mod cars were bringing more than the perfect restores. I think the younger people with money to lay down want the more modern engines and suspension. I think that the market will continue to fall for early muscle cars with all us old timers selling instead of buying.

What I think is stupid is people paying over $90,000 for a VW bus. They were and are a POS. There was one that sat in Montana where I hunted for years and was totally rust free and had all the extra windows in the roof like the one they sold. It went away and I ask one of the locals and some guy flies all over Montana looking for cars on the old ranches. He came in and bought all of them in that area. There were Hemi Plymouth, REO Speedwagons, 37 chevy PU with dual side mount spares. They were everywhere but gone now. Now people sit on computer and look from the satellite pics for cars, lol, times have changed.

 

[donkost]

I certainly agree on the VW bus craze. I think it is something like the restored 21 window version that brings the big bucks? I had a girlfriend in the early 1980's where her parents had a VW bus and a Audi Fox. I drove that VW bus a few times and it was scary slow. You'd floor it from every stop sign just to pull out at all. If you wanted to merge onto a busy road with fast-moving traffic, you'd almost need a spotter with binoculars to look down the road in order to pull out safely. If I recall it was something like "auto stick" trans, where you shifted but there was no clutch. Yes as far as US musclecars, we're still a ways off from it being this way across the board, but eventually everything will have a LS1 V8 with modern trans and 20" rims.

 

[Don C]

No LS engines or 20" wheels on anything I own as long as I'm still breathing. I think I'll add a codicil to my will stating that my sons can't do it either, as long as anything they inherit remains in the family.

 

[mwilson7]

I looked the car over at the auction and it seemed like a pretty nice car.  All original muscle cars were down though so I don't think  anything about this car was to blame.  If you think that car was down check out the price of the LS6 chevelles.  They were WAY down!!  Most of the Shelbys were down as well.

I think the non- original engine definitely hurt it but I believe the biggest issue was the demographics shift of who's buying.  Secondly I spoke to a few serious bidders and they felt that there's is some doubt about where the economy is going which was causing some people to spend less.  Lastly,  with the tax changes those who were bidding on the charity cars couldn't write off as much as they used to.

My first time to BJ and it was overwhelming to be honest.  I will definitely be back.........

 

[Stillakid54]

I know the appreciation of this car may be limited outside this group, and take into account the replacement block, but assuming there are no other major issues I think this is a neat car, and well bought.

 

[7173Vert]

I was at BJ and took a look at this car, again... It has been doing the auction rounds the last few years. IMO, it has been both under and over restored, depending on what components you are looking at on the car. I look for something as mi-nute as the correct radiator engineering #. It was not there, a replacement rad... To find one of these original rads in good condition today  = $$$. There were a number of other details that caught my attention as well. Nice driver quality restoration, but, it depends on what your end goal is with the car. The price is a little low, but again, market and restoration quality determined this car's final price...

 

[donkost]

To the earlier comment regarding the current price of LS6 Chevelles. I always wondered when we would see the end of each LS6 Chevelle being a $100K+ car. They were the highlight of so many auctions that you almost tire of seeing them listed. It's an awesome performance car to be sure, and Chevrolet gave it a very high gross HP number, whereas Ford always went the conservative route. The Ford 429 CJ and especially 429 SCJ solid-lifter engines were probably putting out very similar numbers, but are relatively unknown in the performance world. My thoughts for many years are that there are more SS model Chevrolets than were ever produced at the factory! Even in the late 1970's and early 1980's several of my friends had Chevelle SS models, for the price of the SS emblems. lol