Another build thread? Yep, my track-style T

[Itoldyouso]

That is a great tale and pictures. They look like a matched set.

Don

[bluestang67]

Ok quit reading and keep building . I'm looking forward to this shifter ordeal. I know i'm looking at a 20 inch long shifter that sure will add throw .

[J. Robinson]

Thanks, guys. Katzass has a long and storied history as a hotrod. I wish the current owner (a friend of mine and former fellow club member) would come on here and do a thread on its past. He has tracked down and interviewed all of the 7 or 8 previous owners and has a very complete history. One of the interesting things is that, with all the changes of ownwers, the car always remained in the same basic configuration and it never left Indiana. As the car sits now, it looks exactly like it did in 1965 except for the headers (the originals were lost along the way).

Getting the pictures was a real victory of sorts. It was one of my reasons for driving my coupe all the way up there. But when we got to Indy, the owner and his wife were out of town visiting their newborn granddaughter! I finally made contact on the morning we left there and we shot the pics on the way out of town.

Bobby, it may be a while before I get back to the shifter. I have a few other things to fabricate first...

[Itoldyouso]

Jim, I don't know if you saw this track T at Daytona or not, it was for sale and reminded me a lot of your build. Uses a Ford 4 cylinder also. Guy said he built it for his Daughter and she did something to make him mad, so he was selling it. Talk about tough love!!

These pictures were on my Sons camera and I just got them from him. Thought you might like to see them.

Don

[J. Robinson]

Nope, I missed it. I spent all day Friday in the swap meet area and never made it to the show area. What price did the guy have on it? Anyway, I'll bet his daughter is crying the blues now.. Wonder what she did to P.O. the old man so bad..?

[Itoldyouso]

He was asking $ 8000, which really wasn't bad IMO. It was a pretty little car, and almost done. Didn't get to see under the hood, but his buddy said it was a running driving car. I think sales were soft in general this year. His friend was talking to someone on the phone and I overheard him say he brought 3 cars and had no nibbles at all. The '50-ish Chevy fastback in the background just came out of a garage where it had been since the '70's and was pretty clean. He was asking $ 4K, but I bet $3K would have taken it.

We heard over and over from sellers that they were not having a good week. I think the economy is worse now that people want to admit. Dan spent some money for parts for his car, but I got away buying a pulled pork sandwich. It felt SO good for a change not needing anything for one of my projects. Don was able to come away cheap this year too.

Don

[Matt167]

He was asking $ 8000, which really wasn't bad IMO. It was a pretty little car, and almost done. Didn't get to see under the hood, but his buddy said it was a running driving car. I think sales were soft in general this year. His friend was talking to someone on the phone and I overheard him say he brought 3 cars and had no nibbles at all. The '50-ish Chevy fastback in the background just came out of a garage where it had been since the '70's and was pretty clean. He was asking $ 4K, but I bet $3K would have taken it.

We heard over and over from sellers that they were not having a good week. I think the economy is worse now that people want to admit. Dan spent some money for parts for his car, but I got away buying a pulled pork sandwich. It felt SO good for a change not needing anything for one of my projects. Don was able to come away cheap this year too.

Don

'50 Fleetline 2dr in the background

[Itoldyouso]

Doesn't look like a startled frog at all, looks pretty good actually. Isn't it amazing how metal looks when you cut a section out of something as simple as angle iron and grind and shape it a little. Those headlight mounts look super.

Matt, so that is what that Chevy is, huh? It was really nice too.

Don

BTW Jim, humor Bob or he has a nasty habit of posting pictures of these really ugly women..............lol

[Matt167]

yup, pretty sure anyway, could be a '49 but I'm pretty sure it's a '50.. only the grill and trim changed, and there is only belt line trim, so it's a bottom of the line, Special model, more Deluxe than Special models made, in a Fleetline, a Special is kind of rare, if a collector came along, they might have given the asking price. car like that, probably books for 6k

[J. Robinson]

Wow! 8 G's for that? That seems like a very reasonable price. A few details and a change to some better looking wheels & tires and I'd bet that little jewel would bring 13 - 15 grand in the right market...

Ya know, there were a lot of people in the swap meet area when we were there, but there didn't seem to be as many "loaded" wagons being pulled around. I guess there were more lookers than buyers.

[Itoldyouso]

We felt the same way about loaded wagons. In past years we saw even Model A sedan bodies going out on a wagon , but this year there were definitely a lot less of these things being dragged around.

Even bodies that would have been snapped up the first day or two were still for sale on Sunday.

You are right about the little track T. It would have made someone a nice little car for $8K. I actually waited around after I took the pictures to try to get the guys phone number in case someone saw it posted here and had interest, but he totally ignored me for like 10 minutes while he gabbed on the phone, so I walked off. His loss, not mine.

Don

[37 Caddy]

I would concur about there being a lot of selling and not so much buying this year. We walked the car corral at the Scottsdale Goodguys event and I don't ever remember seeing so many cars for sale. Even more surprising to me was the number of for sale signs on cars in the shows. There seemed to be one in every aisle. That struck me as unusual.

[J. Robinson]

Whenever the economy declines people become a bit more careful about using their discretionary income to purchase unnecessary items. Since most of this hobby is based on unnecessary toys and we are facing (according to the news media) a decline or possibly a recession in the economy, people are playing differently. In fact, our hobby could actually be used as a sort of barometer for the economy in general... Those people who are in this merely as investors/traders may be trying to dump some of their stock before the market dries up even more and prices take a real dive. On the other side, many potential buyers are tending to hold what they have and are only buying parts and pieces to finish or improve what they already have instead of jumping into new projects. If you look at the housing market, the same thing is happening; new home sales are in the dumpster and prices on existing homes are declining. Right now it's a "buyers market" for those who have a secure income.

[Itoldyouso]

I had a lot of customers who were Realtors, and during the boom they were all buying Hummers and cars like that. All of a sudden the bottom fell out and many of them were feeling the pinch really badly. I bet there are some real deals on Hummers now.

I guess the rest of you who went to Daytona saw what I saw........a very high percentage of the showcars had a for sale sign in the windshield. Usually at some ridiculous price, and it makes me wonder if they are just doing it to boost their own egos or waiting for some fish to bite.

One guy had 15 cars for sale at the hotel we stayed at and everybody (including me) was grumbling because he took up 15 parking spots in an already crowded parking garage. Supposedly, the parking was for showcars only that weekend, but he had cars like Mercedes, etc that were just everyday cars. Wonder how much he slipped the hotel manager to get that little trick ok'd??

Don

[Bob Parmenter]

..........and we are facing (according to the news media) a decline or possibly a recession in the economy......

Discussion of this stuff could lead to "hijacking" of the thread, but since it's yours Jim, I guess it's okay.

Two words........................election year. You're right about much of the doom and gloom being media driven. And if something is repeated often enough it can become what's known as a self fulfilling prophecy.

I'm not interested in (or trying to) causing a political argument, I'm looking at this as a modest investor and someone who has to make economic decisions based on historical performance. I think there's a tendency to "panic" (to some degree or other) when normal cycling of the economy occurs. Those that "panic" usually are the losers, those that are circumspect are more likely to be winners over the longer haul. In the housing market what we're seeing today, in general economic terms not specifics, is not appreciably different than the last significant market adjustment around 1990. In adjusted dollar terms it's not quite as bad today (yet) as it was then. Most of us lived through that just fine. We also lived through much worse performing economies in the late 70s.

As for election years and the media, recent history can be summed up in a few examples, more if you go back further in time. In '92 it was a popular campaign chant that we were "suffering the worst economy in 50 years", usually followed by "it's the economy, stupid". The media were simpathetic to that particular candidate and never challenged that cannard for the obvious, oh let's be charitable and call it an exaggeration, that it was. Was the economy in a down trend compared to the previous 9 years? Yep, but hardy worthy of the 50 year indictment. In '96 when the PC/technology driven market was maturing (not unlike the automotive industry in the 20s, and the electricity revolution that preceded that) not a word about negativity in the economy. On the other hand, in 2000 when the thinning out of the tech market started to occur (actually, in hindsight there are milestones in 1999 that indicated the shrinkage had begun, but they weren't as visible in real time until 2000) the media took an opposite tact. When a certain political candidate tried to point out that the economy was starting to take a dip, the media ran with the "you're trying to talk down the economy" approach. I wonder where those writers are today? Well, many of them have been writing opinion pieces disguised as news talking about how miserable the economy is/has been for................oh, it seems like close to 7 years. Not sure what that might coincide with, but maybe after a little research...........................

Anyway, for all the doom and gloom that supposed smart people preach, we've had pretty much a straight up strong economic trend for 26 years with the current contraction being just the third in that period. Could it be the worst of the three? Anything is possible, but not likely, barring any major political action that might induce the market to completely retract.

The major shrinkage in the hot rod market won't happen of it's own accord until us boomers start dying off more quickly. Of course politics could change all that if we become the target for those who demagogue the environmental "issues".