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BangShift Question Of The Day: How Far Gone Is Too Far Gone For You?


BangShift Question Of The Day: How Far Gone Is Too Far Gone For You?

Between Brian, Chad and myself, we’ve got a list of winners that have been dragged home and propped up as a financially responsible, perfectly safe mode of transportation…or, at minimums, a solid choice for the money. And while I can’t completely speak for Chad’s history, Brian and I actually share a car in this regard: the Dirt Track Javelin. Right about the time BangShift came to be, an AMC Javelin popped up on eBay. The outside looked like a rough but useable race machine painted in the proper red/white/blue combination. The inside was composed of pipes that looked like it had been a child’s jungle gym before sitting in a scrap pile for decades. Nothing about the car was pleasant, but Lohnes and I bid for the car, and he won. And he managed to get a bunch of readers to help move the car across country. And he had to sell the purchase to his wife, Kerri. How Lohnes is still breathing after that stunt is beyond me.

But then again, I’ve done similar. When I introduced Haley to the SuperBeater Mirada, a car that had already been played up like the second coming of the Monster Mopar, her face said many things…none of them repeatable here. On the drive from SeaTac Airport to my rented apartment in Mukilteo, the tires rubbed like a handsy masseuse, the carburetor choked out due to the hot air, the temperature gauge was somewhere between “put the lobster in” and “Three Mile Island” and that was before she saw what the car looked like. Instead of taking my pride and joy on a weekend adventure around Western Washington, we rented a Volkswagen Jetta. Which I sank in the sand near Ocean Shores.

We often look at derelict machines and sigh, wondering if there is hope in throwing money at the car to make things all better. It works for the Roadkill guys, surely it can work for us, right? Well, let’s take a look at our perspective on what’s savable versus the moment where you might get involuntarily committed to the funny farm.

Courtesy of Torino aficionado Andrew Crouch, our first subject is a 1972 Ford Torino GTS. It’s the desirable Sportsroof bodystyle, is packing a 460 under the hood, and the owner is up front about rust in the quarters, floors and the radiator support. At $1,500, we’d start preparing for the haggle, but overall…not bad. Throw some headlights in, patch the missing metal, and we see solid bones for what could be a pretty cool project car. Yes, it’s going to need a go-through, but if you’re dragging a car out of the woods, that should go without saying. With that in mind, we think this Torino is as solid a choice as any derelict car.

The car you see being cut out of the trees with a freaking chainsaw is a 1961 Chrysler Newport sedan. Four doors, some kind of big-block under the hood, fins at their highest. It’s a modern-day Christine…it’s been sitting in this spot since about 1977. Somehow, most of the body is still present, but the floors and trunk pan certainly are long, long gone. That engine has to be locked up tighter than a drum as well, plus you get the fun of trying to find parts for a fifty-six year old car that isn’t the top model. And if your first thought is to plug a battery into the car to see if the gauges work, you almost deserve the wire fire you’re bound to experience. You don’t even know if this thing will pull out of the weeds or not…in fact, your only certainty is that when it finally makes it to your driveway, hell awaits.

That’s our take on the difference between a possible project and a fast-tracked dissolution. What do you think, readers? Would you be the guy with the chainsaw, or would you walk away from both cars?


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13 thoughts on “BangShift Question Of The Day: How Far Gone Is Too Far Gone For You?

  1. Walter Joy

    I’ve been told it a few times that this car or that car is too far gone. For example, dad had a 1978 Jeep CJ-7 Renegade Levi’s edition that he bought as his first car in 1987. It was rusty then with many problems. 30 years later it’s still sitting there and I want to restore it but he says it is too far gone. Another one is I found a 1969 AMC Hurst/SC Rambler sitting in the weeds of a nearby shop. Original paint and interior, but no floor at all, rust also along roof and fenders, and a locked up 401 V8 in place. I want to buy it from the guy (he bought it as a parts car) and restore it too but once again I’m told it isn’t worth it

  2. Bob

    Rust is the number one thing that will get me to turn around and walk away on a project. I don’t care about the mechanicals or if the paint is trashed but rot is just such a huge pain to fix.

  3. john

    Parking a clapped out car in the woods is an invitation for the car”elves” to come and fix it. Sadly… only Rusty the elf, sometime “Basher” show up to beat the crap out of it. 🙂

  4. Chevy Hatin' Mad Geordie

    There are lots of variables – in a fairly dry climate free of winter snows and frost cars will last for decades without major rot setting in. Also if they are miles from anywhere and should we say “forgotten” they can be effectively free. But sadly the chances of finding say a rare Bugatti marooned in the woods in Britain are pretty slim as our shitty climate will have eaten it down to the bone in no time!

  5. Matt

    My 41 Pontiac didn’t have a bottom in it after I started to clean it all out. It had sat on the ground (on the frame) for 30+ years. If you have seen the 41, most would have left it for dead….
    But not me. Rust doesn’t scare me, there is always life left in the mess, somewhere…

  6. Brendan M

    Depends if the body rot is structural. I don’t mind doing floor pans, but if inner rockers, pillars, or rails are blown through I generally will walk away.

  7. Whelk

    If a car is sunk to rums or deeper when I first see it, I take that as a sign to move on. There are so many potential proje3cts in better shape there isn’t much point fighting the wrecks.

  8. Bob J

    Hmmm,

    For me, a great deal depends upon the desirability of the car, and ultimately, is the major consideration.

    You can fix almost anything, if you have the will and dollars (and time) to make it so, but as a practical matter, the biggest factor is a honest assessment of how much time and skill you have to bring it back to life.

    As a good friend once said, “some must die so that others may live”. He was of course referring to parts donors for what at one time may have been a desirable car/truck. Of course there can be other factors, such a sentimental reasons for saving the vehicle (you first car, or one from your childhood, for example). Oftentimes, people’s eyes are far bigger than their stomachs.
    Parts availability is key too.

    I guess if you want to do it, you can recover nearly any vehicle, but if you’re doing it solely to make a profit, you’re very, very likely to give up on it before you can complete it.

    my .02

  9. Tanglefoot

    No thanks , unless the car is a one off Duesenberg or extremely rare I’d pass on the rust buckets . I compare rust to icebergs , what you see is only about 10% of what’s really there .

  10. Tony

    Remember the lyrics from Kenny Rogers ” The Gambler” ” You got to know when to hold em , know when to fold em , know when to walk away and know when to run ” , that should hold true when looking at a possible project car ……

  11. Gray Had

    I look at what people in Aus are paying for HK HT and HG holden Monaros’ on ebay in any condition and seriously scratch my head

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