Classic cars forum & vehicle restoration.

[Rick]

Seeing stuchamp's mention of Mario Andretti reminded me of a lucky find - within a book about Indy racing was a card insert, with a handwritten autograph by Andretti made out to someone or other. Not a bad find for 50p.

What lucky finds have you had? it could be a vehicle, or item of memorabilia, or basically any gem found in an unlikely location and, ideally, bought for a great price.

RJ
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[goneps]

A brand new and boxed steering column arm for the Morris Eight, complete with trafficator and dip switches and horn push. Picked up at a swap meet (autojumble) in South Africa for a song by my partner's uncle. The seller thought it might be for an Austin, poor deluded chap. Exactly what was needed to replace the grotty broken/repaired arm on the car.

Richard

[Ellis]

One of the very few lucky purchases I have made was in 1996 when the restoration of my 1964 Mark 2 Jaguar was nearly complete.

The overdrive solenoid of the original gearbox was not working and replacements even then (1996) were rare and expensive. My local repair garage was closing due to it's long term owner's retirement and I needed to arrange for a last service there on my VW Caddy.

After paying my bill I asked if he (the proprietor) knew where I could buy a solenoid. "Wait a minute" and he went to the ages old storeroom.
He returned minutes later with a new old stock item in it's original box with a price label of £5.18s.6d (£5.92p).

We agreed on £20 cash.
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Starting Handle Expert

1964 Jaguar Mark 2 3.4 litre
1962 Land Rover Series 2a 88"
2002 BMW M3 E46 Cabriolet

[lowdrag]

A chap desperate for cash came to see me to see if I would buy this from him. He only asked £25. It's in perfect condition and with the envelope. I treasure it.

[Penman]

Hi Lowdrag
How odd that you should post that today, this was posted in the on-line paper from Guildford today.

http://www.guildford-dragon.com/2014/09/18/127/
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Bristols should always come in pairs.

Any 2 from:-
Straight 6
V8 V10

[Rick]

That's a cracker lowdrag

I found a signed letter by Raymond Mays by chance on ebay a few years back, that wasn't expensive either perhaps because it was written after his ERA and BRM days.

RJ
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[Keith D]

I had a very lucky find a few years ago.

I was at a swap meet and found myself looking at a mint, bronze carburettor, absolutely complete. The seller was watching me and told me that if I could name the car it came off I could have it for $5!

"A Stromberg OE1 and it's from a 1926 Chrysler series 60!" I gasped out. And that's how I got a new carby for my Chrysler!

Keith

[lowdrag]

I'm not sure if you would call this lucky, but at a car boot sale I bought a load of absolute tat for £4. why, you might well ask. Well, the paper in the bottom of the box was none other than an original copy of the newspaper from the day after the Le Mans accident of 1955. Here is a photo of one of the pictures, something I am sure would not be printed today, where the girl is saying:-

"Speak to me, speak to me I beg you. Open your eyes, speak to me. Don't be afraid, I'm here. We're getting married in two weeks. Dear God, make him recognise me. Jean, come back to me; I love you."

Very poignant, and this is just one of the number of photos.

[ecurie]

A few years ago, my wife's cousin informed us that her uncle had died and that they were selling his house and everything that was in it.
As he had owned a small garage many years before, I was interested to see if I could pick-up some spares or tools.

At first it didn't look too promising as there was'n that much automotive stuff and they clearly had no clue as to what everything was worth.
€40 for a set of chipped and rusty screwdrivers, €50 for a broken bench vice, ...
But then I saw a cardboard box filled with what looked to be 70's motoring magazines.
As they only wanted €10 for the lot, I bought them all.

When I came home I started shifting through them all and then stumbled upon some early 70's Renault and Citroën sales brochures (R6, R17, GS, etc...). Nice enough, but then came the real treasures : an early Alpine A110 brochure in good condition (I've since discoverd they're worth something) and an almost immaculate R12 Gordini brochure, which seems to be extremely rare.

So, a nice find and reading those politically incorrect 70's mags is a lot of fun too.

[baconsdozen]

A massive Elora 'Master' socket set 1/2 drive, AF BSW and MM. Original steel case with the liner to hold the sockets and its contents all as good as new. £3 at a car boot and a few minutes later from another stall a large hydraulic type ball joint seperator (Sykes Picavant I think) for the same price. I've used both now dozens of times,to me they're priceless.
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Thirty years selling imperial hand tools for old machinery(Now happily retired).

[lowdrag]

Here's one that has turned up today. One of the mile signs (well, kilometres) from the 24 Hour circuit from, I guess, about 1930. Found in a barn. All comments more than welcome to help find out the actual date.

[mikeC]

I would guess the Chenard-Walcker sponsorship indicates mid-1920s, since by 1927 they had abandoned sporting car manufacture.

[lowdrag]

Spot on MikeC. Apparently it is from 1924, when the old triangular circuit was used. The ACO have offered "a couple of hundred euros" for it. I am in an advisory role here, and I am going to suggest that it be sold at the next edition of Le Mans. I reckon (and he has already turned down 500€) that it'll fetch several thousand. A wonderful, and very rare, find.

[mikeC]

I agree: 500 euros sounds cheap, and two hundred derisory

[lowdrag]

I was prepared to pay £500 but even though I spent two days researching it and told him to wait, he sold it the same day for £350. I've since had an offer substantially higher - quite substantially - from someone with a car that raced that year.