65 a990 belvedere for sale ???

[BROKE AND SLOW]

Hi guy's, I'm new at this so any help would be greatly appreciated. I am just seeing if anyone has any information on an A990 PLYMOUTH that is for sale and being advertised [ Autabuy.com ] as a REAL A990 car, although it has been rebodied. The car is white with BEWITCHED and 31 stickers on it. I'm sorry I can't get the link up, I just thought someone here might know something about the car. The car has been run through MECUM'S auctions 3 times and the price keeps falling. The guy selling it is in CA but the car is apparently in Chicago. Any opinions or information you could share with me would be greatly appreciated.

 

[hemlock]

I saw that car at Mecum's St. Charles auction this past fall. It looks nice from the outside, unfortunately I never saw it with the hood open, so I can't comment on anything under there. I did grab hold of the fenders and they are way to stiff to be factory lightweight parts, I have some and they bend very easily. The car was also missing some A990 specific items that are not bolt ons that should have been on an original chassis. Don't remember exactly what I read it got bid up to, but I think it was short of $80K, maybe high $70's. Do you know for a fact it is a rebody, that would make sense based on what I saw.

 

[696pack]

If I were in the market for one of these cars the first thing I would do is buy Darrell Davis's book about these cars. All of the V.I.N.s for all of the cars built are known and accounted for in his book. There are also all kinds of A990 specific things listed that will help you identify what is right and what is wrong.

This link should direct you to how to buy it.
http://www.1962to1965mopar.ornocar.com/welcome.html

Regarding the above post and comment about the fenders, I may be wrong on this but I don't THINK they built any aluminum front end cars in 1965 and that was only in 1964. I think that many of the 65 cars were acid dipped body/parts by the individual owners not the factory.

Cocerning the possibility of rebody, you will get all kinds of opinions on this. I will tell you that it is known that some of these cars were rebodied early in their lives because of bad accidents at the strips. There was a lot of body parts/numbers swapping in those days with no consideration to what people may or may not think of it today. They were just race cars and most of them were never titled in the first place so there was not much consideration to the numbers. It is quite possible that a car back in the day was "rebodied" in a sence by moving all of the race specific things to a better donor body and just parking the remains. Later on when these cars suddenly became more valuable the "numbers" may also have then been switched over. There are all kinds of different possiblities.
The bottom line is that the FACTORY SPONSORED/OWNED cars where also subject to this in many different ways. Back when there were little changes to the bodies from one year to another the factory would send new grilles, etc. to update the appearance of an older model year car and run it at the strip as the newer model so all of this switching around business can go either direction. I personally would not have a problem with a rebodied car if everything was transfered and done properly. That to me is a better way to save a car rather than hacking it down to a tiny bit of original unibody and welding/bolting donor body parts to it for the sake of saying it is NOT a rebody in someones mind's eye vs. the other way of doing it.

 

[hemlock]

Regarding the above post and comment about the fenders, I may be wrong on this but I don't THINK they built any aluminum front end cars in 1965 and that was only in 1964. I think that many of the 65 cars were acid dipped body/parts by the individual owners not the factory.

While you are correct that the aluminum body panels ended in 1964, the 65 factory Hemi cars got lightweight steel instead. If you compare the production steel parts to the lightweight parts there is a big difference both in weight and rigidity of the parts, not difficult to tell them apart.

 

[mattsmopars]

While you are correct that the aluminum body panels ended in 1964, the 65 factory Hemi cars got lightweight steel instead. If you compare the production steel parts to the lightweight parts there is a big difference both in weight and rigidity of the parts, not difficult to tell them apart.

You are on the money! No aluminium front sheet metal for 65 as you stated they were stamped from a lighter gauge steel and are easy to damage and bend. They did however have aluminum door hinges. To me 65 A990 cars are very interesting what was actually done to save weight from the factory.
Matt

 

[BROKE AND SLOW]

Thanks for the input guy's. The car has a Govier report where it states that it is a rebody, it has the correct heads, intake etc, date code block but no numbers matching anything. It has a vin tag RO51183033 but that may or may not be a repo as it is riveted on and apparently should be attached by screws. From what I can gather the owner who built it started with a copy of the buildsheet and built a car around it at a cost well over $100K and now claims it to be 1 of the original 101 built. As I'm on the other side of the world it's even harder to muddle through it, to me it's a clone, replica, tribute car or whatever other term you choose but not the Real Deal. The car went through Mecum's in approximately March, high bid $100K, May, high bid $80K, and September, high bid $70K, and who knows if those bids were real and is now for sale at $100K. I was just after feedback if any one knew of this car and what value a good clone is worth. Thanks for the input and all the best for the Festive season and the New Year.

 

[mattsmopars]

The vin is riveted on , but a special rivet that has a hole the the middle.
I attached a picture of a vin from a 65 coronet that is ebay for sale. The car will have the SO number on the LH side of the package tray and the core support. Should also have the SO number on the fender tag, but the ones on the body would be the ones to look for. Darrell Davis also has a book for the 65 plymouths with the VIN numbers in it, and he can be contacted for further info on these cars as he is very knowledgable.

 

[RubyredSavoy]

The tags are actually spot welded to the body, then polished over. No rivets or screws were used.

 

[mattsmopars]

The tags are actually spot welded to the body, then polished over. No rivets or screws were used.

Learn something new every day! I know they did not use screws to attach the VIN plate with. I always thought it was a special type of rivet. Thanks for the info.
Matt