Town Car In Swap Meet

[Mike V. Florida]

Originally Posted by Franchise_24

While it would be nice to own a town car, that car is in no way shape or form worth $100k IMO.

What's your guess?

How much if it were 100% 490+ points car?

[CometCyclone]

Fellas,

Price is a starting price. In the past when selling cars and not putting an asking price you either get 2 types of responses. 1: you get reamed out for no asking price 2: you get lowball offers such as $1,500.

I'm basing my price on previous offers.Some of the responses here people get the idea that I'm firm with 100k... that don't mean I won't considar 60-75k either for example.It's worth what somebody is willing to pay. It is a buyer's market.

[Joe K]

It is a buyer's market.

Buyers market implies surplus of commodity compared to buyers.

This not the case.

Alternative would be surplus of buyers compared to commodity.

This not the case either.

The truth is somewhere in between. And this of sufficient rarity - along with a buyer of sufficient rarity. This a case of market stands at "between buyer and seller."

Good luck with this. It certainly cries out for a savior with not only the interest but the means. Jay Leno would be a good candidate.

Heh. One of my interests is an 1868 Colt Baxter Steam engine. 17 are extant nationwide (of a hundred thousand more more made in their time.) One of those 17 owners 'sounded me out" to become the next "custodian" of his as he is aging and seekful of someone who is appreciative to be the next in line.

While flattered mightly, frankly I had to beg off. While appreciative of the machine's techinical and historical merit - ownership implies RESPONSIBILITY. Responsibility not only for it's care and maintenance, but also to a social responsibility. People need to see and be made to appreciate the machine's development and merits. It's part of our engineering historical culture. And given my life's condition and income level - I could not do the Baxter Steam Engine justice.

Similarly whoever latches onto this will hopefully be able to do it justice.

This sort of along the lines of (formerly) Charlie Bass's Model A No. 189.

Keep this in mind when selecting your buyer.

Best regards,
Joe K

[Mike V. Florida]

To all, what's your guess as to present worth?

Is this one a number matching car? This would almost double the worth in my opinion.

How much if it were 100% 490+ points car what would it be worth?

How much to make it a 490+ points car?

As with most A's what you put in is not what you are going to get out.

Found one, a 1929 that sold at Christies in 1995 restored for 53,000.

[spdway1]

CometCyclone - I sent you a PM (private message) thru this board. Thank you.

[Mitch//pa]

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Originally Posted by Steve Wastler

I would say in its present state, given what it is no more than 20k. Numbers matching maybe 25k. When restored to 490 points 120k. You could easily have 150k just in resto cost, not including purchase price. You can get offers all day long, most won't have merit, a true offer would be backed up by a fistful of cash. Given this one has been dangled like a carrot for years, the asking price is way out in left field. Seems more of a look what I have, I'll never sell kinda thing. The best way to tell value on this one is a HIGHLY publicized auction with NO reserve, it'll bring what it brings. With the price tag on it now, I can only see it going overseas...JMHO
Wishing the seller best of luck...

steve that pretty much sums it up

if he was offered 60-75 already , should have grabbed it and ran as fast as he could

[CometCyclone]

Was my fathers car until 2 years ago. Now the decision is mine not his.He passed away 2 years ago. I'm not dangling it like a carrot. I shouldn't be held accountable for offers my father has turned down in the past.

[SkipShift]

A better description and more photo's might bring an offer. Maybe call Danielle and get yourself on American Pickers. We all want a peek in that garage.

[Franchise_24]

Originally Posted by CometCyclone

Was my fathers car until 2 years ago. Now the decision is mine not his.He passed away 2 years ago. I'm not dangling it like a carrot. I shouldn't be held accountable for offers my father has turned down in the past.

Sorry to hear about your Dad. Are you into Model "A"'s at all? Have you ever thought about keeping it and getting it running?

[Deluxe Delivery Don]

It would be nice to see a detailed description of this Town Car. How complete is it or incomplete is it? Is their a Title ? To restore this Town Car and Not complete would almost Not be worth Restoring. Remember this is my opinion . My opinion based on info available it is worth some where in the range of $ 5,000. - $15,000. We all could use more info. Thanks. Sorry to hear about your father.

[RobertB]

I don't see Jay Leno or anyone like that doing this. $100K will buy a lot of collector car projects. The labor to restore one, and probably most of the parts and fabrication will be the same, whether it's a Model A or a Cord.

And which one will sell for more when it's finished?

Don't get me wrong, I love Model A's, but if I'm going to spend close to $200K on a car and restoration, it would probably be an older Jaguar, or an Aston Martin, or some such.

The beauty of Model A's is that we can afford them, they are simple, and we can affod to restore them as necessary, and not be out the price of a nice house.

Just my opinion, everybody has one.

[peters180a/170b]

In all honestly it will cost easy $200,000.00 to restore in this shape. If the wood is missing and incomplete good luck finding a pattern !! Too many small parts ???? Mirror to name 1. I wish the seller luck and hope some kind of deal can be reached. Years on the restoration will be needed no matter how deep your pockets are... And RobertB is right you gotta LOVE the Model "A" Ford for $200,000.00 even if it was done a nice 1930 /31 Packard or a Cadillac open car could be had...ME if i had that kind of money i would buy a 1932 Ford Phaeton AND a 1934 Ford Cabriolet Restored ,I would say the 34 would come first because i think its the nicest looking Ford built.

[Deluxe Delivery Don]

Originally Posted by peters180a/170b

in all honestly it will cost easy $200,000.00 to restore in this shape. If the wood is missing and incomplete good luck finding a pattern !! Too many small parts ???? Mirror to name 1. I wish the seller luck and hope some kind of deal can be reached. Years on the restoration will be needed no matter how deep your pockets are... And robertb is right you gotta love the model "a" ford for $200,000.00 even if it was done a nice 1930 /31 packard or a cadillac open car could be had...me if i had that kind of money i would buy a 1932 ford phaeton and a 1934 ford cabriolet restored ,i would say the 34 would come first because i think its the nicest looking ford built.

Amen !!!!!!!!!!!

[Stretch Cab]

I'm really surprised by some of the low ball prices being thrown out for the car. Sure it will take a mint to restore this car but after all we are talking about the holy grail of Model A's. When I was a kid I got to see a Town Car being restored and we have a 34 Cabriolet in the family. Both are fantastic cars but IMHO the Town Car is almost magical. I only hope that whoever buys the car will document the restoration here on FB for the rest of us to see.

[Joe K]

I only hope that whoever buys the car will document the restoration here on FB for the rest of us to see.

Coffee Table book.

Joe K

[eagle]

ANYthing that is that rare and desirable is not going to have many people who can afford it. If someone wants it bad enough to pay $40,000 they'll pay 80K, or 100K. Its one of a select few, it doesn't matter what shape its in, it is WHAT it is that makes it valuable. I had a '31 Standrive, I knew I would never be able to do it properly, so I found someone who could do it right, and sold it for $1k. I would LOVE to have the truck, but it would still be undone and no one would be enjoying it. I would say, keep your price up, or give it away to a proper custodian. Anything else is a travesty. $5K for a TOWNCAR???? Give me a break. Now,,,IF it is a cobbled up bunch of crap parts from an assortment of donors, thats a different story.

[CometCyclone]

In all honesty if I had the financial means I'd restore this car.I like model A's alot I grew up riding in the rumble seat of a 31 coupe.I'd love to have a beater/driver Model A pickup to run to Home Depot with I chose to sell off a 1931 L-29 cabriolet Cord and decided to keep this one instead.However the money from the cord went to pay dad's hospital bills rather than to begin work on this car.If I had offers of 5-20k I just assume sit on the car until I either gain the financial means or until a serious buyer comes along.This is a true genuine 1930. 1 of 3. not 5 etc of some of the rumors of how many 30's are floating around.I'm offering the car for someone who has dreamed of having one of these possible and for those who didn't know where this car was. I'm sure many of you heard about this car but few have known where it was.The other 2 30's are owned by a single man so the opportunity is out there for any serious buyers.Those other 2 30's are also restored.Any questions or serious buyers can contact me @ 518 672 7170.I will say the car is not complete.But any other questions should go through me and not speculated.If the car sells I still have other nice cars to fall back on that also need a restoration.I have a 32 Studebaker commander touring,A rugby pickup,Velie,Brooks steam car and a few other oddities.Ask yourself where are you gonna find another 30? Or do you settle for a 29? I will also go on to say back in 1988 my father sold 300 cars at an auction and this car brought 13k back then.... so what is the car worth today with inflation etc... back then 13k was very good money.Needless to say the price was turned down.Again this was my fathers doing if you want to say dangling it as a carrot.I will sell it for the right $$.I can also try to take additional photos of special requests but again serious buyers... the car is 20 miles from my house.It's best to come see the car in person.Don't take my word for the car or anyone else's for that matter. Something I may rate a 9 on a scale of 1-10 u might rate a 6 or even an 8 for example.Point of this whole thing is boils down to How bad do you want it?How deep are your pockets? And, how desperate or needy is the seller? Comparing a 29 to a 30 is like comparing an apple to an orange the only thing they have in common is the fact that they are both round.I'm also quite suprised on the # of guys that don't know the difference between a 29 and a 30.I had several people tell me they know where 30's are but are in fact 29's.There was even a comment about a guy seeing a town sedan in my slide show? Obvious Square corners on the body are a dead giveaway for one... I don't mean to piss anybody off I just want to set the record straight.You all are entitled to you opinion.But is it fair to say that if you don't have deep pockets or the desire to restore it can u put a fair value on something like this?

[1wonton]

It's a good thing this man likes this car since he will never sell it. Hope he doesn't have that money spent already.

[Mitch//pa]

maybe flop can make the parts

[Bob Johnson]

I have done some research on Model A Town Cars.

First the production numbers.

1928 There were 89 built all in the US
1929 There were 913 built in US 100 foreign (1013 total)
1930 There were 63 US built an 33 foreign (96 total)

Total production 1198 (1065 US, 133 foreign)

Which is the rarest ? Depends on how you look at it. 1928 had the lowest production. There were more US made cars than foreign.

All Model A Town Car bodies were built by the Briggs Body Company. The completed bodies were shipped to the assembly plants where they were put on chassis which were made at the assembly plants. In late 1928 Ford placed an order for around 2000 bodies. Briggs built bodies from late 1928 through early 1929. Because the sales were not good Briggs had a backlog of Town Car bodies in early 1929, so the stopped production. They only made about 1200 bodies. At the end of 1929 Briggs still had around 100 Town Car bodies. Ford told Briggs to convert them into 1930 cars. Briggs converted them by replacing the front doors and cowls with modified parts from 1930 Town Sedans.

The critical parts for a 1930 Town Car are in the body from the door pillar to the rear of the car. The exception is the rear doors. The rear doors are the same as the Briggs Town Sedan / Fordor with the exception of the inside trim piece just below the window. Most of the wood is unique to the Town Car and patterns do not exist. The partition is also unique and has many components including curved glass. The rear seat is unique. The armrests in the rear include a cigar lighter and a vanity case which are hard to find. There was also a clock in the passenger side of the partition header. The rear view mirror is also unique. The metal body panels are also unique. There are aluminum trim pieces on the two rear corners of the body. Do not forget the hassocks.

I have found that the owners of Model A Town Cars are willing to help other Town Car owners with whatever they can. Anyone who would restore this car could get help from some of the other Town Car owners.

I looked at the few pictures available I can not tell how easy or hard it would be to restore this car. Questions are: How much of the partition is missing ? How much of the roof structure is missing ? Is there an original back seat / arm rests. What is the condition of the body sheet metal and wood?

Bob