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#1 Dave Crevie

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Posted 24 August 2017 - 02:58 PM

At the recent Mecom auction, a VW bus drew $120,000. When we were building dune buggies in high school, we junked six of those after pulling out the engines. All were split window, two were 21 window versions.

 

Excuse me while I try to find a piece of rope with a noose in it.






#2 NY Nick

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Posted 24 August 2017 - 03:14 PM

My mom burned my baseball cards in '65 for not cleaning my room. 

 

Look at it this way you got to build dune buggies.


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#3 Cheater

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Posted 24 August 2017 - 03:40 PM

Dave,

 

That's nowhere near what some of those Sambas are bringing these days...

 

The one I regret is not buying a couple of M-B 190SLs when you almost couldn't give them away in the middle-'70s and early '80s. Take a look at the auction records for those cars now...


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Never forget that first place goes to the racer with the MOST laps, not the racer with the FASTEST lap


#4 chaparrAL

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Posted 24 August 2017 - 04:57 PM

Back when I was a kid we had a 21 window go through Dad's garage. The engine suffered the usual malady, burned #3 piston. That fixed and a paint job it was sold to a hippy couple for like $600. They go for $100K today. :shok:


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#5 Garry S

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Posted 24 August 2017 - 05:22 PM

You're looking at it from the wrong angle. If we hadn't junked all those buses back then, the ones that are left now wouldn't be worth so much.


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#6 MSwiss

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Posted 24 August 2017 - 10:31 PM

Dave,

 

You weren't aware how desirable they are these days?

That's why Jackie and I spotted this clapped out, POS, on our vacation.

http://slotblog.net/...samba/?p=685170

 

If I'm not mistaken, at least one, has gone for something like $300,000.

I road in one, in about 1974, under the guise of picking up a bicycle, in Lombard.

It was staggering how slow they were.

 

My photo, taken at dusk, doesn't do justice to how bad it was.

 

(edit) PS - I think this has been eclipsed recently:

 

http://money.cnn.com...tion/index.html


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#7 slotcarone

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Posted 24 August 2017 - 11:03 PM

Makes me laugh when my fellow Jensen Interceptor owners can't get $50K for their beautifully restored cars! What are people thinking! More money than sense I guess!


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#8 Dave Crevie

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Posted 25 August 2017 - 02:31 PM

But the Mecom car was not a Samba. Even if it was, I can't figure the popularity of the car. Just how many people are there out there who wish they had been hippies back in the '60s?

 

What irks me most is that they are selling in the same bracket as concours restored Austin-Healey 100Ms. As cars I can't put them in the same box.



#9 Dave Crevie

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Posted 25 August 2017 - 02:44 PM

The Mecom car was not a Samba. Even if it was, I can't justify the price. How many people are there out there who wish

they had been hippies back in the '60's? They are selling in the same bracket as concours restored Austin-Healey 100Ms.



#10 MSwiss

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Posted 25 August 2017 - 02:48 PM

Dave,

 

You posted to my linked thread, so I moved this post back to your thread.

While I got your attention, what's this?

It was at a small car show event, last Sunday, in Downtown Hinsdale. It looked great, but there was skepticism, that it could be a "real" one.

20170820_104239-1.jpg

 

20170820_104752-1.jpg

 

20170820_104705-1.jpg

 

On the other end of the spectrum, this was terrific looking.

 

It would be awesome to see something like it, on Saturday night, on the Fiedler Flat.


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Mike Swiss
 
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#11 Dave Crevie

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Posted 25 August 2017 - 03:06 PM

Mike:

 

Thanks, I was confused. Old age.

 

The Ferrari is real. It is a 750 Monza that the Kimberly team replaced the four-cylinder with a 250 Testa Rossa V-12. Weinberger's guys restored it maybe 15 years ago.  


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#12 Garry S

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Posted 25 August 2017 - 04:53 PM

I went through my VW phase a little later in life, restoring this one from a rusted hulk in 1985. Wish I still had it.

 

van1.jpg


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#13 Cheater

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Posted 26 August 2017 - 07:09 AM

For years, I had a 1970 'tin-top' VW Westfalia camper, i.e. one without the pop-up. Used it to travel to many car shows and meets when I was an editor for Car Collector magazine.

 

The camper had a later 1600 dual-port motor, with a fair number of mods: big barrels, header, Bosch dist, Holley 200-cfm 'Bug Spray' carb, etc., and would do an indicated 100 MPH (I don't claim it would actually do that speed...) on level ground.

 

The problem was that I didn't have the scratch then to intall a counterweighted crank and it would pound out the center main bearing about every 20-30,000 miles of hard running so I'd have to drop the motor and put new bearings in every so often. My ex was helping me tighten the gland nut on the flywheel one night before a trip, using a six-foot cheater pipe on a 1/2-inch breaker bar, when it sheared at the base of the socket. She was hanging her full weight (112 pounds) off the bar while I held the motor down and when the bar snapped and she fell hard, breaking her leg in two places.

I guess it's understandable that she wouldn't help me work on cars after that... LOL.

 

When we had our second son, the camper simply wasn't big enough for all of us and I sold it after almost 20 years of ownership.

Yes, I wish I still had it, too.


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Never forget that first place goes to the racer with the MOST laps, not the racer with the FASTEST lap


#14 Phil Hackett

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Posted 26 August 2017 - 01:08 PM

Once upon a time in the 70s.... I came home to a phone call from a friend of mine who worked at a gas station. They had a 1967 Chevelle, 396 Super Sport, 4-speed manual, 3.90 gears... it was owned by some "housewife" (never really got the story) who brought it into the station for service.... the station wanted the bill paid and she either was unwilling or unable to pay.... the car had a striaght body and a perfect interior.... $225.... I didn't have $225 to save my life at the time.... My friend scrapped everything together he had and bought it. It was one of those one-in-a-lifetime opportunities....

 

Now that I have a few bucks no one ever offers me things like this. Irony rules.


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#15 Cheater

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Posted 26 August 2017 - 01:24 PM

I know that song... "Shoulda, Coulda, Woulda."

Sing it to myself on a fairly regular basis. LOL...


Gregory Wells

Never forget that first place goes to the racer with the MOST laps, not the racer with the FASTEST lap


#16 Dave Crevie

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Posted 26 August 2017 - 02:01 PM

I can see the practicality of the Westfalia as a camper. Even if they are under powered and slow. They can't even make a five percent grade.

 

One of the combi's we scrapped for the engine actually was a very good runner, so we used it as a parts chaser. I remember we had to back up the hill on Villa Avenue (a little over 5% at the time) because reverse has a lower gear ratio than first, and the bus wouldn't make the hill in first.

 

I have you all beat in the "I should have bought it" contest. Back when I had my Ferrari 206, I had the opportunity to buy a GTO/64 for $4.500. At the time I was going through one of my "no more Italian cars" phases, and I wouldn't have taken it if it was given to me. It was a used-up race car, and needed a nut-and-bolt restoration. Bob Bodin bought the car and restored it. After about ten years, during the "Ferrari Faze" of the late '80s, he sold it to the owner of the Domino's Pizza empire for eight million. Nice return on his $50 to 60 thousand investment.



#17 Dave Crevie

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Posted 26 August 2017 - 02:02 PM

Don't know what happened there. I clicked once, and it posted three. 



#18 Cheater

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Posted 26 August 2017 - 02:04 PM

Yep, you got us beat. LOL!

My hot-rodded camper would definitely climb a 5% grade, I can assure you...

Gregory Wells

Never forget that first place goes to the racer with the MOST laps, not the racer with the FASTEST lap


#19 Dave Crevie

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Posted 26 August 2017 - 03:04 PM

Believe it or not, we were able to get over 100 horses out of a 1600, using Empi and Scat products. It went in a dune buggy with a Meyers Manx body. That car would tear your head off to sixty, with the low gears and weight biased to the rear. (Yes, it had wheelie bars.) 


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#20 Garry S

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Posted 26 August 2017 - 03:51 PM

My VW Westfalia would go up just about any hill (1600 dual port, Weber 2v, Bosch 009 dist, EMPI extractor), but was VERY prone to unscheduled lane changes due to cross winds, passing semis, and odd whims.

 

I dug that picture out of my "cars I have owned" scrapbook, it really brings back memories.  In 1985 I had a mobile home, 3 VW's, a Volvo, and a wife.  They're all gone now, and I really miss those cars.   :D    


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#21 Phil Hackett

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Posted 26 August 2017 - 04:31 PM

I know that song... "Shoulda, Coulda, Woulda."

Sing it to myself on a fairly regular basis. LOL...

 

Oh... I won't tell of the 1941 Chevy 2 door one-owner that would been mine if I said yes... no $ involved... bad situation couldn't have it.... then there was the 1961 Corvette, all orginal, only needed seats reupolstered. $1500..... There are more... seeing a Dodge Daytona in the mid-70s on a car lot for $3000.... the '56 Chevy *convertible* all intact and running $800.... 

 

It's getting depressing... gotta stop now...


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