General Music Chat

Since I opened this car can-o-worms...

I'd have a hard time gettin' rid of any of these--depending on the "dilapidated" condition they might be in. I keep 'em until the expense to maintain 'em in better-than-good condition far outweighs the value to me (not the same as book value). My Rustang would have needed too much work, w/ the quarter panels, fenders and all--it just wasn't worth keeping. It takes an enormous amount of work to completely clear a car of rust; if you just do cosmetic work, it'll come right back.

I got the Z cheap (once I checked its provenance) long ago, and at one point drove it every day for a while. But lack of driving is what brought it to this condition; the seals dry out and crack. I was starting it every couple of weeks and letting it run, but I wasn't driving it, so the tranny seals weren't getting lubricated. I'll do the RMS & exhaust while they have the tranny out, which will bring the cost down considerably. The interior isn't in too bad of shape, but I'm gonna redo it--in leather--anyway. It's a FL car, so no rust at all. Once I get all that done, it will be in excellent condition. And I'll force myself to drive it regularly.

Oh, and to validate this turn-of-thread... It has the original Bose sound system, w/ a cassette deck (yep, I still have my old cassettes). I might swap it out if I can find the old Bose CD player, but the existing unit still sounds really good--enough so I can play "general music" while I'm cruisin' down 75.

My Rustang would have needed too much work, w/ the quarter panels, fenders and all--it just wasn't worth keeping. It takes an enormous amount of work to completely clear a car of rust; if you just do cosmetic work, it'll come right back.

HAHAHA...he said "Rustang".... good one duuuude!

Oh, and to validate this turn-of-thread... It has the original Bose sound system, w/ a cassette deck (yep, I still have my old cassettes). I might swap it out if I can find the old Bose CD player, but the existing unit still sounds really good--enough so I can play "general music" while I'm cruisin' down 75.

yeah, my E Type had a Blaupunkt cassette deck in it!

like you, i still have a shit-ton of cassesttes and of course they're all older stuff which made perfect sense to me...driving along in older car and listening to Tower Of Power, Beatles, or some EWF from that era.

and the rebuilder has way more than $10,000.00 in parts and LABOR invested to get that negative return of $ $$$$$$$$$$$ 10,000.00

HAHAHA...he said "Rustang".... good one duuuude!

You want ta know a GOOD one?? Try 'Body by Fisher'!!!

There used to be a Fisher plant on the far west side of Columbus when I lived up there. Long since shut down, I think, but it was a massive plant, a major employer in the area.

Value is a very transitive thing, and is solely dependent on how much a buyer is willing to pay and how little a seller is willing to take. Most of the time, you'll put in more than you'll get back, w/ few exceptions; the older a car is, the more you'll spend to restore it (if you do it right, anyway). Most guys--myself included--do it for the love of the car. I dumped my Rustang cheap 'cause I knew I would never do the work it needed, nor would I pay someone else. Rust can change your mind in a hurry.

I can do a fair amount of work myself, and have a garage, tools, etc., but I'm not gonna do the tranny in my Z--I'm just not skilled enough (ever see how many parts there are in a 4L60E?). I'll have them do the other stuff at the same time, since they'll already have the exhaust off and the tranny out. If you go by book value, it's not worth it, but book value means little to me--it's just a guide for the banks and insurance companies. You find a performance car that old with absolutely NO rust... The way I see it, for 6K I'll have a Z28 in almost pristine condition. I'll hang on to it and see which croaks first: me or the Z. I'm betting it'll be me.

The way I see it, for 6K I'll have a Z28 in almost pristine condition. I'll hang on to it and see which croaks first: me or the Z. I'm betting it'll be me.

Long may you BOTH run!

Value is a very transitive thing, and is solely dependent on how much a buyer is willing to pay and how little a seller is willing to take.

True to a certain extent. Some people are so obsessed w/ things that they can artificially inflate the true value of anything. Look @ the housing crisis not long ago. That's all that was.

Actually, it's the bedrock of economics. Few people understand that "true value" is nothing more than the total cost to sell a good or service, which includes production/manufacturing, transportation, marketing/sales, training/education, warrantee costs, regulatory/taxes, etc., and is only relevant when a good or service is initially brought to market; obviously, producers lose their stake after the initial sale. A simplistic way to express it mathematically is V = P * S, where P = per-unit cost and S = supply. Profit is solely determined by the supply & demand curve, as is the transitive value on the used market. In other words, how much a buyer is willing to pay vs. how little a seller is willing to take. Value on the used market can be impacted by a number of secondary factors, including condition, age, etc., but is still determined by supply & demand. Demand is goosed by manufacturing desire, the province of the marketing folks.

The subprime crisis had almost nothing to do w/ value and a great deal to do w/ pure greed. A janitor working for minimum wage (circa 2003-2008) should never have been able to buy a house for 250K, but many did, spurred on by "creative financing," cheap interest rates and a regulatory environment that was severely lacking. Wall Street packaged those mortgages into securities and made billions, but it was a house of cards. Once the first card withered, the entire system came down. Wall Street knew it would happen, but it's tough to blow the whistle when you're pocketing 6-7 figure bonuses.

Oh, right--this is the 'general music' forum. It impacts us, as well, both in terms of what we pay to bring art (in my view, how music is best understood) to market and what others pay to enjoy it. But that's 'nother thread...

The way I see it, for 6K I'll have a Z28 in almost pristine condition. I'll hang on to it and see which croaks first: me or the Z. I'm betting it'll be me.

Long may you BOTH run!

I'm hoping it's not a tie...if you catch my meaning.