Classic cars forum & vehicle restoration.

[Rdover]

Well it's true, it does happen. I was on a farm today looking at some tools and stuff when I got talking to the farmer and mentioned old cars. He said to emt hat he had a 1954 Austin Sheerline that he was wanting to sell and showed me a very dirty but complete car.

I was astounded as I've been there many times over the last few months and walked past it several times but never noticed it. It is 100% complete (although partially dismantled) and he has a second complete car minus the chassis and bodyshell which has been stored in a shed.

My interest is that my grandfather had several of these cars and it although it looks very nasty it is only surface rust with a few holes here and there. It has not moved in 15 years and has been laid up for 25.

Now my question: How much is a fair price for the car and the spares? It has an up to date V5 (Farmer wants to keep the reg - not a problem to me), all the mot's up to the last one, the original paperwork and manuals.

Over to you guys, it is both too young and too old for me to put any value on it.
_________________
Richard

[lowdrag]

If you look here you'll see what they fetched at auction and for me the telling thing is the maximum price for a car in good condition - not a great deal. If the car needs a lot of work then I'd give a nominal sum for it but it seems sad that the farmer wants to separate the reg. number from the car after all this time. I doubt it's worth a lot if it isn't a special one, not in these straightened times anyway. Oh, nearly forgot to put up the link!

http://www.motorbase.com/vehicle/by-id/274/finance.ehtml

[peppiB]

To transfer a reg, the car it is coming off has to have (or have had in the past 6 months) an MOT - so I would be inclined to say that I would restore and MOT the car in exchange for releasing the number back to him on completion. Unless that work is done, he cannot use his reg anyway.

[Rdover]

The car was his father's and he wants to keep it for sentimental reasons, it's nothing special.

My gut reaction is that he thinks he's got something special!

Thanks for the link, I found that one as well but the last sale was almost 4 years ago.
_________________
Richard

[Brian M]

RDover - If you are serious about the Sheerline, invest £3.99 in this month's Practical Classics where there is a buyers guide to the Austin Sheerline.

They don't give a price for a barn find, but suggest £3000 for a runner, but they do make the point that there is the potential for enormous restoration costs!
_________________
Brian
1970 Volvo Amazon and 1978 Safari 15-4 Caravan
Classic Safari Forum: www.classicsafaris.co.uk

[Rdover]

I really don't think it is a viable option. It would cost £10k or more to restore even if I did all the mechanical work myself and there is no pressing need to do it.

I'll buy the magazine, it's usually a good read anyway.

Cheers
_________________
Richard