You have hit this right on the mark. I am fairly new to this list, but
have been playing with LBC's since I bought my first two in 1973 (a TR4
with a parts car).
Generally speaking, if I can buy a car cheap and do a basic rebuild (by
this I mean make the car structurally. mechanically, and cosmetically
sound) then the car is usually worth about what I have invested at the
end and then begins to depreciate as the new bits begin to age.
Just as a new car depreciates with use, so too do these "classics".
Unless you want to carry the car around on a trailer from show to show
or put it behind ropes in a museum, these cars will wear out. Replacing
brake lines and recovering seats are not "making an investment" in these
cars. This is maintenance pure and simple.
IMHO the reason a bolt polishing rebuild will never be worth the money
spent is that it is a horribly inefficiant way to build a car. Would as
many of these cars have been made with this amount of man hours spent at
the factory? Or, for that matter would any have been purchased for the
prices that would have resulted? The reason we find pointed bolts on
these cars is because they centered themselves more easily given the
speeed of the production line and I for one do not loose any sleep
replacing them with bolts from the local hardware store.
Sorry this is alittle long, but I feel better now.
Jim Higgins
1962 MGA MK II (next patient in the OR)
1958 TR3A (getting sewed up now)
|