Rare Find?

[hawkdriver09]

I know mopars are becoming harder to come by due to the fact you just see them too often. Driving to work the other day i spot a car in a field with weeds growing around it that obviously hasnt ran in a good while. i know a mopar when i see one so i went to investigate. Turns out it is a 71 barracuda. This was odd because i live in a very populated area, maybe its an old grouch not willing to part with it or nobody but me cares about a rusted car in a field. either way i wrote down the vin and decoded it its a 318 auto nothing spectacular but the clones are bringing in good money. Anybody have any thoughts on this?

 

[70rr-brian]

I had a similar experience with a 73 318 'cuda. I have always been a huge fan of the E bodies. I stopped by the guys house where it was sitting outside a barn. Turns out it was his brother-in-law's car that had been inside the barn up until about a week prior since 1984. The guy I spoke to was very nice and pretty cool. He was a big Ford guy himself. Older gentleman. He took me into his garage where he had 2 Talladega Torino's both up on rotisseries in the same stage of completion. But just needed minor work to be ready for paint. Anyway, so clearly this was a "car" guy. I asked if he thought his brother-in-law would be willing to sell the car. He said well, he just came over and drug it out of the barn last week for some reason. He thought he might be wanting to start work on it. But as you can imagine it was pretty rough with rust in all the places you would expect. He then went on to give me his phone number and said. He might decide to sell it if you offered him say $7000 for it. We talked a little more car talk and I went on my way.

I never did call the guy. The car was way too big of a project and the 7k figure the fellow threw out seemed very specific. As though he knew he wanted to sell it for 7k. I just wasn't that interested in a 73 (less desirable than a 71) 318 car for that kind of money in the shape it was in. Plus the motor and trans were gone. Not that it would have mattered because no way was I going to do that kind of work to restore it and not put a big block in it. But it would have been for me not for resale.

Anyway, now that I have sufficiently wandered off the reservation... While e-bodies tend to bring a higher price than b-bodies, with the 71 being the most desireable by far IMHO. In this market even if you got the car for free, do all the work yourself and have a lot of the parts necessary to make a really nice clone just laying around, I sincerely doubt that the car would ever sell for more than the sum of the parts/cost necessary to do it right.

I would think being in Hawaii with the daily rains and humidity being outside for God knows how long that thing is probably totally eaten up with cancer.

Just my 2 cents.

 

[detmatt1]

I'd go knock on some doors, who knows, maybe the owner would sell. a `71 Barracuda is a `71 Barracuda. Is it on the big island?

 

[hawkdriver09]

Its on oahu. i tackled a rust bucket already as you can see in the photos of my roadrunner. dont think i want to go through that again. i might leave a note on the windsheild