What cars did you buy for 2-300 bucks back in the day?

[autoxcuda]

In the mid 70's, I bought my first car for $425. It was a 67 Belvedere II convertible with a 318. Ten years later, I bought a 64 Ford Country Sedan station wagon for $300 just to haul canoes around on. It had a 352 under the hood.
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Wow, that 67 conv was already starting to rust on rear wheel arches. less than 10 years old. I didn't think it snowed much in Virginia to have salt on roads.

 

[Cudadude2]

 

[Cop car wagon]

Soo...many..
But keeping with the $300 mark
$20 67 273 dart 2dr
c bodies, many- $150 limit
Trucks + vans, up to $200
67 428 t bird $300
And a 70 barracuda 318 4spd $250, and I still got it!

 

[BeatersRus]

budnicks right,bitd the mopars werent generally respected nor all that valuable depending on the area too.
i could sit here and write ten walls of text about how many mopars ive bought sold,parted and scrapped.
i have hundreds of stories from bitd,of all the caraziness...people used to Give cars away,or sell them for 25 bucks down in NC.
some people Paid me to remove cars,Esp anything they couldnt find the title for/major hassle in Nc back then.
scrap back then meant you got 25 bucks for the Entire Car,not by weight.
when we would score a 440 car and stripped it,we would have to throw a 318 motor back inside the car so they would accept it lol.


maybe i should make a youtube vid someday of the amazing amount of cars ive had,Thanks to God.
ive been blessed to be in cars my entire life after the military.

anyways
my first car,back in the dawn of time,aka somewheres in the 80-s,was a 4 door dart,that ugly green,with the slant six and a broken suspension arm.
that cost me a 100 for the car,and a 125 for the welding job......mysteriously/keep in mind i was very young then lol/the welds kept breaking about ever 4 weeks and it would be another 125.
pretty much anyone in our town/high school who didnt have a car and wanted to party rode in that pile,and the cops used to sit at dunkins and watch us wheeze by with all the drunks hanging out and waving.

the twist.
i never registered that car...i couldnt,that welder kept breaking me every month id save and then wham there it goes.
it had 2 cardboard tags i made up,and the cops knew it.
i drove it to school,work,and parties on the weekends.
they also knew i was one of the few who didnt drink and i obviously couldnt speed lol so they never said a word other than keep those morons Inside the car !!

my last car,well lets hope for the best,i bought 2 Amx`s recently.
both are 390 cars,ones a complete but rotter and the others a really nice roller shell.
700 for 1,a 1,000 for the good shell.
the deals are still out there,if you just keep looking.
before anyone rushes off looking for an amx tho,fair warning,the Part availability right now is ten times worse and more expensive than the mopars are.

hence why i bought 2 cars to make one.
Cheers

ps,i still sorta kinda have a mopar too,besides the trucks and vans,i know you guys dislike the m bodies,but i have a decent 2 door dippy,that we have almost everything for now.

 

[1967coronet]

Funny deal on my 1st car, 65 impala it was a 327 4spd , local guy just out of school had it for sale for $600.
I was just 16 and had some money in savings at the local bank.
I had worked for farmers and at the local DX station.
I had opened the acct myself and had made regular deposits.
I talked to my Dad for his ok on buying the impala but did leave out the 4spd part.
Went into the bank to withdraw $600 and the A hole ( Pete) a teller would not give me my cash.
( Do your folks know ??? ) small town shake down lol.
I did get the $ with my dad making a phone call.
Also that car allowed me to bank in the next town over 7 miles over , no big deal when you got wheels.

 

[moparedtn]

Answering the original question:
Literally a couple dozen for $500 or less - but never a Mopar in my early days.
First one of those was my red '68 Bee, for which I actually financed $2300 to buy
- must have been like early 1980's.

 

[Southbranch]

Just remembered another, a 1971 Gremlin 6 cyl with 3 speed on the floor, $25. It was the neighborhood car, you sold a car and drove this until you found what you're looking for. So we passed it around for $25.

 

[Jim 68cuda]

Wow, that 67 conv was already starting to rust on rear wheel arches. less than 10 years old. I didn't think it snowed much in Virginia to have salt on roads.

Well, I'm in northern Virginia, near Washington, DC. Yes, we get snow, and the roads are heavily salted in the winter time. The rust showing, in the photo, was the only rust on the car during the time I owned it. I bought it from the original owner in Maryland. The wagon had no rust as it was an Arizona car. In high school I had both the Belvedere convertible and a Coronet convertible. The Coronet, I paid $650 for but it was much rustier than the Plymouth. When I had it painted, the body shop found large rust holes hidden by the body side molding. I kept the Coronet till the late 80's. A few years after I sold it, I ran across it at a local salvage yard.

 

[Curiousyellow71]

For starters...Both our 1972 b bodies were $300 each. Both drove home. The Satellite Sebring's 318 we had headers on it the first week, then a 4 barrel intake. I think it was '88. We then painted it white (of course it was green). Original engine ran pretty good with the mods. Coming home from high school we caught up with a guy in a brand new trans am. I saw the rear of the TA dip down from him flooring it... I figured what the heck, I dropped it into second and floored it to. We watched the guys buddy in the backseat turn completely around as we passed him. I even used the blinkers.
The next week the college guy with the Trans am asked a friend if he knew someone with a white car with a black stripe over the roof. The guy with the TA said he had is friends in his new car and they blew my doors off. Lol

The 72 charger for $300 a neighbor bought new..pampered it to 278k miles without touching anything...all original. On the way home(he lived 1 mile away)...I floored it. Broke the motor mount, fan shroud hit the fan, exhaust got caught on the railroad tracks and ripped off, and the timing chain gave up when we shut if off.
But, we had a hell of a laugh.

 

[Photon440]

Had a few... In 1977 I picked up a 1968 Ford LTD for $50. Hidden headlights still worked, the guy said it was fast and had a 390. Turned out it was a 428. Then in 1982 I got a 1971 four door Satellite from a guy at work, no rust on it, green 318. Paid $180.

A year later, for $100 I got a 1974 Ford Custom 500 police interceptor, it was a ghost car, cream yellow with dark green vinyl top. It had the 460 with 429 SCJ heads. Got it cheap because the transmission seal leaked. "Certified Accurate Speedometer".

1986, saw a 1970 Sport Satellite for sale for $225. I offered $150 and the guy said ok. Drove it home, 318 with power windows. Saved the power windows and bucket seats for my road runner.

1980, a buddy showed me an early 60s Ford with a 352 FE block that he bought for $50. It was in nice shape. Looking through it, I found $60 under a floor mat.

 

[Scott Engelhardt]

71 Dodge Demon 340 4speed $250. 76 Ford Elite had a bad vinyl top and 2 rusted through core plugs, someone told him block was cracked.

 

[erickson]

$325 in 1978. Still have it

 

[OneWheelPeel]

I’ll probably forget some:
Late 80s to mid 90s time period when in my early 20s:
60s Baja bug for around $275. Needed new jugs and heads, first really involved repair for me
67 VW Squareback around $250. Sat in a yard for years, spent a few hours working on that rusty mess and then nursed it home from the valley to Los Angeles. Vice grip garage style.
1973? Pontiac Granville 4dr with a 455 for under $300 I think, first go at bodywork to flip a car
1965 karmann ghia $600 so not as cheap but in the same spirit as is the next one
1978 Pontiac Grand Prix which I’ve shared a vid of elsewhere on the forum for $500. I used to race it at Brotherhood Raceway every weekend.

In the 2000s the getting wasn’t as good:
1973 rust bucket Ranchero for $275. It was never good but had fun adventures with it, finally sold it to someone who seemed really happy to get it, I hope it’s still around.
1966 Baja Bug again for like $300, this time I had a little more budget so it got small dual carbs and was really fun.
1973 Squareback parts car, which I still have most of it.

I think that’s it, I’ll post again if I remember more.

 

[HEMIB]

when i was 15 i went to the mates place ,his father was a councilor & the council upgraded their cars every 2 years ,there was a 57 star of the year custom line green & white with a red & white interior sitting under a tree as a cheeky young fellow i said to his father what do you want for the car mate to which he replied $50 bucks son & its yours's changed the battery & fuel and away we went drove it for 6 years then sold it for $6,000

 

[Richard Cranium]

when i was 15 i went to the mates place ,his father was a councilor & the council upgraded their cars every 2 years ,there was a 57 star of the year custom line green & white with a red & white interior sitting under a tree as a cheeky young fellow i said to his father what do you want for the car mate to which he replied $50 bucks son & its yours's changed the battery & fuel and away we went drove it for 6 years then sold it for $6,000

 

[451Mopar]

First car was $175 in 1977 for 1967 Coronet 4-Door 440 model, 318 with 727 and 8-3/4" rear, less than 40,000 miles it was my Aunts car, she bought a Dodge Aspen. Car was in good shape, but the engine was carboned up bad. Ran when I got it, but had to pull the engine apart, pry the rings out of the pistons, scrape the piston ring lands clean. Put back together with new rings, bearings, gaskets and had a valve job done on the heads. Daily drove this car for maybe a year before I started racing it with the usual 318 upgrades 4-bbl intake & Carb, headers, 284/0.484" purple shaft cam, various gear sets.

First truck was $1,000 I think in 1979 for a 1973 Power Wagon Sno-Fighter 318, 727, 8-3/4 rear, dana 44 front axle. Truck was pretty rough when I got it. Only drove it as-is for a short time (maybe a month) before modifying it. Built a nice 360 engine for it 4-bbl, headers, Crower Baja Beast cam and such, like rebuild everything, body and paint, interior. This became my daily driver through High School, and to around 1985. I kept the truck until around 1990?

Around 1985, paid $300 for a 1973 Audi 100 LS 4-speed from my neighbor looking for a car with better fuel economy. Car smoked. had a loose valve guide. I overhauled the engine (same pistons) and painted the car, had to fix a bunch of wiring under the dash, and got better condition seats from another '73 Audi LS that was in a junk yard. Became daily driver, but heater didn't work well in the winter.

1986 paid $75 for a 1968 Polara 4-door hardtop? (no post between the door windows) 318, 727, 8-3/4". Car belonged to a friend of my brother who got it from his Grandma. He couldn't get it running and wanted to use it as a demolition derby car. The car was actually in very nice condition. The issue was the alternator shorted and burn't the fusible link. Fixed that and it ran great. Needed tires, so I tool my old rims/tires off the '67 Coronet and put them on the car (Light Blue rims on this White car.) over time, had to rebuilt the transmission, and put a muffler on it. One cold day the speedometer stuck and snapped off the indicator. Got a replacement. Drive this car on and off as needed and in the winter.

I think around the same 1985-86 time period, I bought a 1968 Dodge D250 Truck. Paid $300 for it but the 383 engine had thrown a rod. I was looking for something for hauling stuff and the old 1973 Power wagon was only a 1/2 ton. The '68 had the Dana 60 axle and the 16.5" split rims, but I bought some 8-lug hurricane rims for it. The hard part was finding left hand thread full-duplex lug nuts. I put the 360 from the '83 truck into the '68 (had to use a small block transmission) and used that truck for a few years when I needed to haul stuff around. I think around 1991 or 1992 I sold it to a friend.

1989 when I bought the '71 Charger 500 383-4, 727, 8-3/4" for $550. Body was pretty beat up, but it actually ran. Didn't matter as I tore the car apart and started rebuilding everything and doing the body and paint work. From the title, looks like 1992 was when the car was back on the road.

1994 I bought the 1969 Dodge Coronet R/T Hardtop for $700. Pretty much a basket case, It had been raced and the interior stripped. The guy I got if from started restoring it. Body is pretty good, but needs the trunk/lower quarters as usual.

1995 I bought the 1969 Dodge Coronet 500 Hardtop for $800. Originally was looking for a parts car for the R/T, but this car is way too nice to part out. After fixing a bunch of vacuum leaks and a tune up it drove good, but not much power from the 318, 904, and 7-?? rear axle. Pretty solid and straight original paint, wheels, hubcaps, ect.. The bad is the top was cut off and roof painted, but water got around the rear window, and trunk. I patched the rear window metal and still need to fix the trunk. Lower quarters are still intact, but can see rust bubbles under the paint, so more metal work.

2001 is when I bought the 1969 Coronet R/T Convertible. Paid alot more for it $$,$$$

Some other cheap cars I bought with/for my brother:
$200 for a 1968 Pontiac Firebird with 350 engine, power glide transmission. Originally green. I did body work and painted it metalic gray. Was going to rebuilt the 350 Pontiac engine that the previous owner dropped the carb stud down the intake and bent a valve, but my brother found and bought a 350 Buick engine for it. He didn't know it was not a direct swap, but not a hard swap, mainly different motor mounts on the frame and re-locating the wiring I think the starter was on the other side of the engine? Being my brothers first car, he had an accident in it soon after it was painted, fender and bumper damage, but he drove the car (and some of my cars) until after he graduated High School.

Found a deal, $200 for another 1967 Coronet 2-Door 440 Model, 318, 727, 8-3/4" that my brother started fixing up. But he lost interest in it and I was too busy to do much with it.
Body was good, but it needed all the interior re-done. It ran, but overheated so it wasn't driven much. I think got rid of the car after a year or two.

My brother was not good at buying decent cars, but had several bad ones he picked up cheap. I recall a ratty 1970's Subaru DF? Drove shortly before a half shaft broke, A clapped out 1971 Vega shell (was going to be his "race car"), I think a 1980 Ford Escort in poor condition that someone broke into not noticing the radio was already gone.

 

[Unkle Krusty]

Also. 53 GMC panel van, $175. 53 Chev sedan, 6 cylinder, $175. Guy with a new Cadillac backed in to my Chev. New tail light for the Cadillac was $180.
And lastly, 77 Dodge B200 camper van. ZERO. Was a gift. Towing cost was $100. Since then I stopped counting at $15,000. We have been to the Arctic Ocean, Yellowstone, Bonneville, and many places in between.

 

[MarkLevi]

$325 in 1978. Still have it

You have that one currently "Hemi'd" or "De-Hemi'd"? (Happy Birthday BTW)
'68 Polara 383 2bbl - $150 in '80

 

[gtx6970]

Summer of 1976 timeframe maybe???? bought a 1966 Pontiac Tempest, 6cyl auto, $50 and drove it home ( needed some work though )



Bought my 1st Mopar the summer of 1977 . 1969 Roadrunner, 383, col auto. Pd $150 and drove it home

 

[Nxcoupe]

This would be a war and peace-length post for me.