Ron,
I saw Rob's Bugeye just before he sold it at auction last year. It
was a very, very well done restoration. His attention to detail was
fanatical to say the least. He had been obtaining parts for a concours
restoration for 25 years. He had ALL NOS parts on that car.
Damn few repro parts, maybe some of the rubber ones. Interesting
though, is that he really had to sell it as soon as possible when he
noticed the seams and some surfaces were beginning to show rust from his
acid dip a couple of years earlier. This did not show from the outside
which is why it went to auction for sale. By the way I have those 40
year old
Dunlop tires he had on it in 1992 when he had it judged Gold Level. He
sold them to me for $150.00 and the "cracks" in the sidewalls are many
and rather large. The whitewall was added after he obtained them. Not
as original on the export cars. So, not everything is as it appears.
Unless it actually did come out of a "time machine" I don't think there
is ANY Sprite, Bugeye or not that is worth $15,000. I have much more
than that in my Bugeye restoration (the body work cost half of what was
invested in this restoration), but I'd be lucky to see $15,000 for mine.
Mike MacLean-60 Sprite
Ron Soave wrote:
> Interesting thread (again). The way I look at it,
> there are 3 types of cars - perfect true concours
> quality, cars that are sound body wise,
> and...everything else, which will need tons of time
> and $$$. I'm of Bob's mind(?) when it comes to
> Concours cars' values. Most cars "in-between" usually
> need everything in a short time period anyway. That's
> why some of these $7,000 ebay Sprites are to me
> foolish buys. They may appear sound, but what you
> can't see can hurt a whole lot. Go in assuming you'll
> need several thousand to make it right enough to drive
> safely. I remember a year or so ago Rob Garofalo's
> Bugeye that was featured in Road and Track was at a
> dealer's for $25,000. Gold level concours, rubber mat
> interior, original tires. The only points he lost in
> Concours were for cracks in the sidewalls of the -0-
> mile tires. So unless you had a time machine and
> could buy tires from 1958 brand new, you could not
> find a more perfect car. How much would you pay if
> there were a BMC dealer in town selling brand new
> Bugeyes? I'd probably pay $15 to $20K. Because there
> isn't such a thing, I'd probably have tried to
> negotiate on Rob's car a little, but paid close to
> $25K if I had that kind of disposable income.
>
> Whatever, it's finally not raining, Little League game
> to coach....
>
> =====
> Ron Soave
> '60 Bugeye
> '72 BGT
> '87 325iS
>
> __________________________________________________
> Yahoo! Photos -- now, 100 FREE prints!
> http://photos.yahoo.com
|