"Junk"? Nice looking "junk". But what we might consider such is a treasure for somebody not as well informed. BTAIM
In the middle 2000s, some guys had started an oil well fracking company, sold the company and one of them went to B-J Scottsdale and invested his windfall in classic cars, Mostly GM cars. All genres. 1940s and 1950s Cadillacs. 1956 and such T-birds. Several Street Machines of later 1960s Camaros. Things he liked.
EVERY one of them needed work to make them right. Something like 2 transports per auction dropped cars off at our dealership to be checked out and fixed. Had to find an old generator shop to fix the generators, for example. Had to source carb rebuild kits for the T-birds. Had to do lots of stuff, yet the cosmetics looked very good.
One was a '55 Dodge Sierra 2-dr station wagon street machine. LOTS of stuff done to that car by the prior owner. If I had not remembered seeing that car on the B-J website, it would have been a nightmare to get parts for it! Had a Dakota front suspension under it, so new lower control arms were needed to get the front air bags removed. Salvage yard LCAs and new front springs (for the Dakota) from NAPA did the trick. Had Cragar S/S wheels on it, for a 1960s vibe, but when the air bags were deflated, the front wheels could not turn to execute a corner when driving. Theft deterrent system? Must have been 1/4" of spray undercoat on the structure of the front suspension to cover theri work!
On the back was a flaky drag racing-style rear suspension, too wide for the car, so no real clearance for the rear wheel well body sheet metal. The car DID have a 440 and 727, though, with the factory push button shifter mechanism. End results, to build the car for what he pair for it would have been impossible unless the owner did all of the work by himself. When all of the suspension and rear axle stuff got fixed, the 440 crapped out. Which is when it was discovered that later 440 and 400 blocks had some different bolt holes to attach the power steering pump to differed in the later (1976+?) model years (with the power steering pump mounts moved to allow the AIR pump to be installed?
About 15 years prior, I had run across a '55 Dodge 2-dr hardtop at Mopar Nats. Looked stock, other than how the wheels fit into the wheel wells. Hood was up, revealing a 440 6bbl V-8, hooked to a 727, with a '66 Polara station wagon driveshaft and rear axle. But for the Sierra wagon, somebody went to a massive amount of work to do what they did!
I did a Log-In on the Mecum website so I could look at auction results. Some neat cars with flaky wirte-ups by the owners. Easy to kind of tell their knowledge of the cars by what the owners write about them, too, to me. Mecum puts on the website what the owner supplies. Apparently not fact-checked?
If you see a Camaro sell for "crazy money", it probably has a late model LS engine in it. Rotisserie restorations go for less. That LS engine can mean about an extra $20K in selling price, it seems.
Crazy money on B and E body Mopars usually means . . . rotisserie restoration, mostly complete vehicle documentation. complete data plate, HEMI 4-speed or 440 6bbl real car. High Impact paint color and "not common at the time" interior/exterior/stripe color combinations. "Low Miles" also helps, too. As does "numbers match".
LOTS of different factors on auction prices! Just depends on WHO shows up with their money during that auction. Some neat deals, lots of "eye candy".
Happy Holidays!
CBODY67
