Sold my Bright Lime '73!

[kevken1959]

Just wanted to let everyone know a lucky guy in Arizona hit the "Buy It Now" for $37,500 on my 73 Bright Lime Mustang and got one heck of a deal! Hate to see the car go, but now I can move on to the other 20 project cars begging for my attention.

 

[turtle5353]

Congrats. That's a beautiful car!!

 

[mityman]

A real looker that car is! Good job on the sale!

 

[Austin Vert]

Hi Kev,

Firstly, congratulations on the sale of your '73. I find your sale interesting as well. May i be bold and ask a couple of personal questions, as this is a learning curve for me. I understand if you don't wish to disclose any info for personal reasons.

$37,500.00 is not a bad price indeed. In theory, if i was buying your car here in Australia from you, it would probably cost me roughly around another 10,000.00 to 18,000.00 Aussie dollers extra to bring your car in and put it on the road on top of your asking price. That would bring the total cost around $54,000.00. That's intersting indeed!

I get the understanding that you have put a lot of work and money into restoring this car to bring it up to such a lovely standard. So if you don't mind me asking, did you employ people to do the resto work on the car, or did you do the work yourself? Also, you mention the lucky buyer of your car. Without disclosing amounts of dollers (unless you want to), did you find that you have spent considerably more money in total restoring the car, compared to what you got on the sale of the car. That would be interesting to know.

Lastly, i think your sale, and how fast you sold,reflects to some degree, how the market is going for '71-'73's in general, in terms of popularity and prices being achieved. It seams things are looking promosing indeed in some ways. I hope it wasn't too painful to part with her.

Greg

 

[kevken1959]

Congrats. That's a beautiful car!!

Thanks so much.

Hi Kev,

Firstly, congratulations on the sale of your '73. I find your sale interesting as well. May i be bold and ask a couple of personal questions, as this is a learning curve for me. I understand if you don't wish to disclose any info for personal reasons.

$37,500.00 is not a bad price indeed. In theory, if i was buying your car here in Australia from you, it would probably cost me roughly around another 10,000.00 to 18,000.00 Aussie dollers extra to bring your car in and put it on the road on top of your asking price. That would bring the total cost around $54,000.00. That's intersting indeed!

I get the understanding that you have put a lot of work and money into restoring this car to bring it up to such a lovely standard. So if you don't mind me asking, did you employ people to do the resto work on the car, or did you do the work yourself? Also, you mention the lucky buyer of your car. Without disclosing amounts of dollers (unless you want to), did you find that you have spent considerably more money in total restoring the car, compared to what you got on the sale of the car. That would be interesting to know.

Lastly, i think your sale, and how fast you sold,reflects to some degree, how the market is going for '71-'73's in general, in terms of popularity and prices being achieved. It seams things are looking promosing indeed in some ways. I hope it wasn't too painful to part with her.

Greg

Thanks for the praise, Greg.

All good questions. On this car, I had a crew of six guys devoted solely to my projects. I was intimately involved with the entire process. Because they were working on five of my cars at the time, it's hard to break down how much each car cost to restore. But over 2 years, I spent $250,000 on labor, and God knows how much on parts and materials.

My relationship with those guys did NOT work out for me!! I guess I had $65,000 tied up in that car. So selling it for $37,500 was not sound financially.

But I learned a lot in the process that I can apply to my next project. And I truly did enjoy seeing the car come together. And I did get to enjoy it some by driving it around and taking it to shows. And considering the economy and the instability of the stock market since 2008, it's amazing the car sold at all.

One thing must be kept in mind. I love these cars better than anyone on the planet, and that love and joy and the knowledge from 35 years went into that car. It would not be fair to compare every other 71-73 to mine.

Yes, there are some nice ones out there, but typically most are pieces of Swiss cheese encapsulated in undercoating and bondo with a shiney paint job. Unfortunately, those are the cars people are selling and making money on. But I couldn't sleep at night if I did that to someone.

I don't know. I could talk and debate this subject all day long. Bottom line, be careful and do your homework when buying one of these cars, whether restored or unrestored. And be MORE careful when dealing with mechanics, and body guys, and restorers that promise you the moon.

Thanks.

Kevin.

Congrats. That's a beautiful car!!

Thanks!!

 

[imusa76]

Congrats on the sale, its nice to see these cars go for that kind of money, it lets us know that people like them!!

 

[kevken1959]

I agree. Thanks so much!

 

[caspianwendell]

Congratulations on the sale, and don't forget to tell the new owner about us

 

[Boss1Ray]

Very nice car. Hate to see you sell it, BUT if it helps to get another Q or R code ragtop back on the road then all is well.

Which one will be on the road next?

And btw - thanks for sharing your personal info on the lime car. I applaud your devotion the the cars.

I look forward to see another of your convertibles restored soon.

Ray

 

[kevken1959]

Congratulations on the sale, and don't forget to tell the new owner about us

Good point. Will do!

Very nice car. Hate to see you sell it, BUT if it helps to get another Q or R code ragtop back on the road then all is well.

Which one will be on the road next?

And btw - thanks for sharing your personal info on the lime car. I applaud your devotion the the cars.

I look forward to see another of your convertibles restored soon.

Ray

Hi, Ray. Thanks. Here's a pic of the next car before the resto. When finished, it will have a Black top and NOS Ram Air hood with complete functional Ram Air system. Have to love those earth tone colors from the 70's! This one is a H-code, which makes it perfect for a Ram Air tribute car (as everyone knows, you could only get functional Ram Air with the 351C 2V cars. And it's a realDecor Group car, one of my favorite options for these cars. Thanks again.

 

[caspianwendell]

Good looking car to restore. look forward to progress pics

 

[kevken1959]

Good looking car to restore. look forward to progress pics

Thanks!

 

[luxstang]

Congrats on the sale. I really like to see such a car find a buyer for that price. Gives me hope that the days when our cars were traded for a piece of toast might be over.

From what I see in the pics it was well worth the price.

 

[Cole]

Buy it now always works. Congrats on the sale for sure.

Would love to do a meet and greet one day with ya locally and talk cars. Buy ya lunch. Be well worth the price to let some of that experience with these cars possibly rub some off on me.

 

[kevken1959]

Buy it now always works. Congrats on the sale for sure.

Would love to do a meet and greet one day with ya locally and talk cars. Buy ya lunch. Be well worth the price to let some of that experience with these cars possibly rub some off on me.

Your too kind. Thanks, Cole.

 

[Austin Vert]

Kevin,

Thank you very much for sharing your personal sale's details and background on the Lime '73 Vert. Taking in what you have explained, two main things become apparent to me.You are definately a man who has an immense passion for these Verts, and i would class you as quite a wealthy man indeed. I have a sizeable passion myself for the '71-'73's, but not a large bank account to indulge myself to any great degree.

I could only imagine, what a fantastic time you must be having restoring your cars, and all the pleasure that brings you.In regards your lime green '73 sale,do you think you could have asked more money for it, and would you have got it, given what fantastic condition the car is in? It's sad how you've dropped so much money on this sale based on your quoted figures.

When i look at your overall position, i think you are indeed a very fortunate man, and i'm sure there would be many out there who would envy you in the bargain.Lastly, on reflection, there was one thing that struck me, and that was i think you said in an indirect way, that you don't work on your cars yourself in a hands -on workshop floor situation.

If that is the case, i feel you are missing out on more pleasure and satisfaction and enjoyment that comes with doing the jobs yourself.

My hands-on work with my own car plays a major role in me getting a big kick out of what i'm doing.I would definately miss that element if it wasn't there for me.

Anyway Kev,thanks again for sharing, and all the very best with your other restos.

Greg

 

[Don65Stang]

Nicely played! Congrats on the quick sale.

 

[kevken1959]

Kevin,

Thank you very much for sharing your personal sale's details and background on the Lime '73 Vert. Taking in what you have explained, two main things become apparent to me.You are definately a man who has an immense passion for these Verts, and i would class you as quite a wealthy man indeed. I have a sizeable passion myself for the '71-'73's, but not a large bank account to indulge myself to any great degree.

I could only imagine, what a fantastic time you must be having restoring your cars, and all the pleasure that brings you.In regards your lime green '73 sale,do you think you could have asked more money for it, and would you have got it, given what fantastic condition the car is in? It's sad how you've dropped so much money on this sale based on your quoted figures.

When i look at your overall position, i think you are indeed a very fortunate man, and i'm sure there would be many out there who would envy you in the bargain.Lastly, on reflection, there was one thing that struck me, and that was i think you said in an indirect way, that you don't work on your cars yourself in a hands -on workshop floor situation.

If that is the case, i feel you are missing out on more pleasure and satisfaction and enjoyment that comes with doing the jobs yourself.

My hands-on work with my own car plays a major role in me getting a big kick out of what i'm doing.I would definately miss that element if it wasn't there for me.

Anyway Kev,thanks again for sharing, and all the very best with your other restos.

Greg

Hi, Greg.

Boy, if you only knew all the experiences, good and bad, I've had on these car. It literally would take days to tell the whole story. Just to be clear, I have always been hands on with my cars, in the most insane ways- washing car parts in my dishwasher and Jacuzzi bathtub, spray painting parts in my living room on cold days, drying painted parts in my kitchen oven, taking my car parts to clean/detail/and categorizing them when I was on 24 hour call at the hospital, sending sometimes five to ten 5 gallon buckets of nuts/bolts/brackets by fed-ex across the country to have them re-plated (the shipping cost twice the price of having them plated) and then dumping them all on a sheet in my living room floor to have my wife pick through all the parts and put them in labeled bins.

Thank God for my wife. I'm 53 years old and had never been married up until seven years ago when we met (it seems no one else would put up with my obsession with these cars). We decided not to have kids, so that is the best explanation for why I had the resources to do what I did (no wife and no kids leads to no one putting the brakes on your obsessions and lots more money to spend.

You want a little taste of some of the BAD I was talking about? Stay tuned, I'll give more details later today.

Best,

Kevin.

 

[marks73]

Congrats. That's a beautiful car!!

Thanks so much.

Hi Kev,

Firstly, congratulations on the sale of your '73. I find your sale interesting as well. May i be bold and ask a couple of personal questions, as this is a learning curve for me. I understand if you don't wish to disclose any info for personal reasons.

$37,500.00 is not a bad price indeed. In theory, if i was buying your car here in Australia from you, it would probably cost me roughly around another 10,000.00 to 18,000.00 Aussie dollers extra to bring your car in and put it on the road on top of your asking price. That would bring the total cost around $54,000.00. That's intersting indeed!

I get the understanding that you have put a lot of work and money into restoring this car to bring it up to such a lovely standard. So if you don't mind me asking, did you employ people to do the resto work on the car, or did you do the work yourself? Also, you mention the lucky buyer of your car. Without disclosing amounts of dollers (unless you want to), did you find that you have spent considerably more money in total restoring the car, compared to what you got on the sale of the car. That would be interesting to know.

Lastly, i think your sale, and how fast you sold,reflects to some degree, how the market is going for '71-'73's in general, in terms of popularity and prices being achieved. It seams things are looking promosing indeed in some ways. I hope it wasn't too painful to part with her.

Greg

Thanks for the praise, Greg.

All good questions. On this car, I had a crew of six guys devoted solely to my projects. I was intimately involved with the entire process. Because they were working on five of my cars at the time, it's hard to break down how much each car cost to restore. But over 2 years, I spent $250,000 on labor, and God knows how much on parts and materials.

My relationship with those guys did NOT work out for me!! I guess I had $65,000 tied up in that car. So selling it for $37,500 was not sound financially.

But I learned a lot in the process that I can apply to my next project. And I truly did enjoy seeing the car come together. And I did get to enjoy it some by driving it around and taking it to shows. And considering the economy and the instability of the stock market since 2008, it's amazing the car sold at all.

One thing must be kept in mind. I love these cars better than anyone on the planet, and that love and joy and the knowledge from 35 years went into that car. It would not be fair to compare every other 71-73 to mine.

Yes, there are some nice ones out there, but typically most are pieces of Swiss cheese encapsulated in undercoating and bondo with a shiney paint job. Unfortunately, those are the cars people are selling and making money on. But I couldn't sleep at night if I did that to someone.

I don't know. I could talk and debate this subject all day long. Bottom line, be careful and do your homework when buying one of these cars, whether restored or unrestored. And be MORE careful when dealing with mechanics, and body guys, and restorers that promise you the moon.

Thanks.

Kevin.

Congrats. That's a beautiful car!!

Thanks!!

I'll throw my name in the hat for the next $27.5K your willing to part with. WOW!