Are we spending too much on our Classics?

[arceye]

The electronic ones are good Luxo, mine has just gone up the spout so saving the pennies for a new one.

Tea bags work a bit for the arc eye (after brewing up AND letting them cool) but it looks daft sat there with one on each eye, but nothing really touches it, just like having your eyeball sandblasted really

I've done mine good a few times, but recently started getting some sort of optical migraine where the vision goes like a heat wave or kaliedoscope effect, optician says my eyes look healthy enough, but then someone showed me an article on how arc eye can permenently damage the eye and cause such effects so no more chances.

A serious note for any would be welders, DO NOT wear contact lenses, an arc flash can fuse it to the eye with the result of permenent blindness as when you try to take them out they pull the retina with them.

Worth every penny us welders are

[TerryG]

now that sounds painfull!
(if you are in east staffs and fancy doing a proper job on all 4 wheel arches and both light boxes of a 1994 range rover let me know )

[arceye]

now that sounds painfull!
(if you are in east staffs and fancy doing a proper job on all 4 wheel arches and both light boxes of a 1994 range rover let me know )

I'm afraid I'm a bit far up on the North coast of Scotland for that one but if you ever go to John O Groats I'm not to far away.

Had a couple of rangies, them rear arches are nasty round the belt mounts, then theres the reaction of the ali to the steel everywhere. Easy enough to tackle though, luckily my 93 disco which is a silmilar set up only needed some to the box sills and a new boot floor though those inner wings look to need a few patches yet. The boy next door took his interior out of his and the arches, belt mounts and the pillars were all newspaper and fibreglass, he took the back panels off and I put new steel in for him as a favour job, that was a hard day...

[FrazzleTC]

I've spent rather more than I meant to on my P6 so far. I added up the receipts the other night, and died a little inside. Still, at least I didn't include fuel in that. I think I was just a little unlucky with my car initially, and it's still a little unreliable, but nevermind, it's now very close to being mechanically perfect. I still need to sort out the bodywork I was intending to do when I bought the car, but I feel I've really broken the back of the car's little problems.

[JPB]

I added up the receipts the other night, and died a little inside.

I can just imagine Chris de Burgh singing that. I'd rather not, but there he goes now.

I know what you mean, but my view is, as many have already said, that we don't do it for the chance of profit. Yes, there are cars I've bought in the past purely to sell on with cold, hard cash in mind but equally there are those I've owned for several years and thrown thousands at because it seems more sensible to look after what's on the drive than to wee the money up the wall on some endless finance plan on a new car whose value is reduced each Month by an amount in excess of the most I've ever paid for a car. Apart from the one car I bought new; a 1987 FSO 125P. I ran that for about three months then saw an Austin A60 that I had to have.
Expecting to be bum-hatted with great force by the FSO dealer as I'd sort of let slip that I needed some cash, imagine my joy when he said that he already had a customer lined up and offered me a buy back price only £85 below the price I'd paid for the car new.
Turned out that I'd hit upon the only period in British history before or since when clean, gently used Polski-Fiats were under a greater level of demand than could be met by the dealers' allotted stock.
I bought the A60 and everything was once again right with the world.

[bnicho]

Any hobby costs money. Look at what your friends and neighbours spend on golf clubs, pushbikes or skiing equipment!

I don't smoke, I don't gamble and I hardly drink. They are worse ways I could lose money that sinking it into old cars.

I buy and restore or maintain cars I like, not because of what they might be worth. It makes me feel good to keep old cars on the road for future generations to enjoy. Somehow the amount I spend does not matter. But I do get a thrill out of fixing rather than replacing, and if I can save a little mobney here and there, I will.

For what Olive the Beetle owes me I could have had a tidy ten year old Corolla or similar . But I wouldn't enjoy driving that Corolla at all and when it came time to move it on, it would be worthless.

Now the Beetle will probably still be running long after the Corolla is a very bland snack for a crusher somewhere.

In 1990 the gearbox in my 1968 Morris Mini Deluxe died. I was 17 years old, had just got my license and paid $1200 for the car. It was going to cost $800 in parts and labour to have a reconditioned gearbox supplied and fitted by a mechanic. My family told me to scrap it, but I had it fixed. Six months later I sold it for just $1300. It's changed hads a couple of times, but that car lives on to this day. If I'd listened to my family in 1990 it would be long gone.

Cheers,

[mark912]

hmmmmm Well I am the op to what has been said.. I am a car fan but I am equal a buisness man.

That does not mean I am trade or anything like that I just look at every project in the same way I run a company.

I buy at the right price I work out what I need I am lucky I do all the work my self and I have the contacts for the parts I don't do which is not much..

Parts are my biggest issue.. I have prob spent over £15-20K on parts in the last 10 years I have 11 cars so I have be very selective of what car get what parts.

And engine rebuild for one of my cars comes in at £6000 for the parts. £9000-£12000 is some one else builds it.. so you can see I have to be carefull.

But then my cars are worth from £14k to £100K so all in all yes there is profit in it.. but really the hours I put in and the stress it can add to your life ... no family holiday has been the same.. it's checking out all the free ads while on holiday in that area and craiglist in the US when I am over there.. suit cases full of parts I need to save some money is a total most.. I have even taken cheap flight out to the US to buy spares sold some off when I got back to pay towards the flyght and it worked plus I got a weekend trip to LA, nice but for the Jet lagg LOL. I am working on the one day when i sell it all I will be A bored B living in the sun in Perth Oz on my deck chair and a bottle of well deserved Red..

[rld14]

I was thinking a bit more on this.... I own 2 modern cars, a Jaguar (:D) and a Lexus ( ). Both were purchased when 3 years old and off lease.

Combined, those two cost less than half of what they would have cost new, and even so in a year the Lexus has dropped another $5-6k and the Jaguar in 2 years has dropped another $5k. Hmm, another reason to hate the unreliable Lexus more.... anyhow.

So I have been doing the math on the major project, my '62 PA Velox. I have figured that to get the car where I want it, for it to be a regular use car over here, and we're talking drive it several times a week (Provided there's no salt on the roads as old Vauxhalls rust like nothing else) is going to cost me right around $25,000 maybe more. I figure I'll have $3,500 in the drivetrain, $2,000 to add air conditioning, $3,500 in chrome, $9,000 in bodywork, and then there's all the other little stuff that adds up. When all the dust settles I will have an immaculate PA with an all-Vauxhall drivetrain, 150hp at the rear wheels, no rocketship but performancewise likely at least equal to the average family saloon on the roads here these days (Camry, Accord, Malibu, etc).

I'll have a car that I can MAYBE sell, after thinking it over, for about $15,000 if I am lucky. HOWEVER! I won't have depreciation of a new car, if I spent $25,000 on a new Toyota Camry or Chevy Malibu, I'll lose $10k easily in 3 years in depreciation if not more. And while the Velox will be going up in value, the modern car will keep sinking. My Jag listed at $67,000 new, I bought it 3 years old for $21,750. Even if the original owner got it for $62k, that's still a shocking amount of money to lose on a car in 3 years. I can't see losing $13,000 a year on a Mark 2 Jaguar.

So even if you do get a bit "upside down" when you compare it to new car depreciation... it's nothing.

Or am I insane?

[rich.]

i know several people who have bought brand new cars... the depreciation is horrible,
mazda mx5, £8000 in one year
citroen picasso £7000 in 18 months
when you look at it like that you will be glad you are keeping an old car on the road...