Must go fast! Money making opportunity!

[JimC]

Well, it got you to look

Here's the deal, as I mentioned elsewhere , my wonderful landlord for the garages I rent decided that the happiness of someone who rents an apartment is worth more than the happiness of someone who only rents a few garages, and Starting at 9am August 1st, someone new will be parking their car in my garage.

What this means is that I have 7 days to get rid of my grandpa's Lark (60 lark hardtop). Now, I could call the scrap yard today and they'd have it gone before nightfall, but the problem with that is there are still a LOT of good parts on this car. The doors have a little rust at the bottom, but are pretty good outside of that. The straight six is frozen, but was free not too long ago, and even if you couldn't free it, The carb, pumps, generator, starter, etc, are all there. The driveline is good, and the rear axle might only be a 27, but at least it's got twin traction. The roof is in good shape, and I would even throw the rear fenders back in with the deal (maybe the trunk lid too, if you were to ask really nice )

I was hoping to part the car out before the day of reckoning came, but the place I work/live (a group home for kids) is also going through a huge structural change that goes into effect august 1, and on top of that we've had a couple really, um, "challenging" kids just move in which has resulted in spending most of the time I would have been out working on the car working with the kids. On top of all of this, I added a lot of electrical stuff to this garage that I need to remove, there are tools in there, etc...

So, what I'm proposing is that if there is anyone in the Omaha area who would be interested, I would sell this Lark to you for the same price the scrapyard has offered to me to come pick it up - $400. Take off all the parts you can salvage. Use them or sell them for profit, it's up to you. In the end, you can scrap the car for probably the same price, if not more. (They dropped their quote down because they had to come pick the car up - I don't have a trailer)

Pics are below, in posts 4 and 5. The one thing I will point out is that this car has no interior whatsoever, and I needed the salvageable parts of the front clip for the sedan project, so there's no front panels or hood. There are some okay bits of steel, but the floor is shot. The frame is heavy duys, and aside from surface rust and a bent batwing, looks great.

I'd entertain slightly reduced offers, but the sad truth is that I need the cash for my other two cars. Anyway, just thought I'd put that out there.

Thanks!

[Peanut]

Pictures??? Might help stir up interest.

[avantilover]

Just buy the thing, gee what do you expect for $400?

[JimC]

Here are the much awaited pics. I took these this morning. It's pretty much what you'd expect at the scrap metal price, in my opinion anyway. Like I said, the doors are decent. I'd also toss in the trunk lid, which is in good shape, and the two rear fenders, which are rough, but have some good spots that could be used for patching better fenders. (The trunk and fenders are in storage, which is a half hour south of these garages, so no pics. Sorry.) Again, there is no front clip for this car. I would be willing to toss in the front grilles, as I have an extra set. Also, since I was quoted a scrap price of $400 as is, without any glass installed, I was going to leave the glass off this sale so I could use/sell it later, but if someone would take the car and wanted the glass I'd certainly entertain offers.

[JimC]

A couple more pics.

[4jc8z]

You should count your blessings scrap price has not gone down there yet, if they are offering you $400.

Here, its running $165 / net ton (2,000#), scrap price has been going down considerably in the last month here.

[JimC]

Admittedly, that quote is a little over a week old, but not by much. I should add that I'm willing to call to get a new scrap quote if someone's interested in the car. That being said, what's a pair of usable hardtop doors selling for these days? There is some rust repair needed on my drivers side door, but the passenger door is pretty decent as is.

[jclary]

Gosh...lots of work there to see it stalled and abandoned. I understand your situation and hate to see the work go unrewarded. This could be an excellent project for a young person with patience, talent, time and tools. I see nothing in the pictures that tells me the car couldn't be saved. While these cars are not the most collectable...don't ignite a lot of excitemen...they are pretty neat. It would be a great way for the right person with not a lot of money to get into the hobby.

Too bad you can't have more time to find that special person who could take this little Lark and run with it.

I see no path for this to be a good restoration "investment," but the opportunity to break into the hobby, learn and gain experience over time, and satisfaction of accomplishment, could be priceless.

[JimC]

John,

If I found such a person, I'd probably give the thing away with all the other parts. The timing on losing the garage couldn't have been worse as far as how busy I am. If I owned my own property, I'd just store it there while I took time to find the right person. To me, the biggest heart break is that this car came down through three generations, and I wanted to redo it to pass it to my son, but it's not meant to be. Seeing it crushed and made into part of the next iPhone factory in China is not how I wanted this to end. But enough whining, time to move on.

[JimC]

I should add that if someone's thinking is so clouded that they wanted to try restoring this basket case of crazy, aside from the front clip/hood, the rest of this car is available. The interior is horrible, but it's in storage. I know a guy who has fiberglass front fenders that would maybe make a good deal to the right person, and I have three front panels, so I could part with one. IOW getting a new clip wouldn't be impossible. I didn't mention any of this before mostly because I doubt that anyone's going to have enough interest to jump on this, but it never hurts to put it out there.