OODLES OF FREE ADVERTISING!

OODLES OF FREE ADVERTISING!
- KL Nichols

Craigslist.com is the first place, these days, that most people think of when they want some free advertising, but I am going to recommend Oodle.com. In the cars for sale category as I write this, there are over 27,000 cars for sale. Admittedly, like on CraigsList.com, most of the cars for sale are daily drivers. But this indicates the activity on Oodle.com and where car buyers congregate, collector buyers can't be far behind!

Admittedly, CraigsList.com is a bigger website with more traffic, but the fact that you can only advertise in one city at a time on CraigsList.com negates their size and traffic.

I report this information only to prove that as a collector in these trying times, you can sell your collector vehicle and save money on advertising to boot!

http://oodle.com

SEMA SHOW 2008

SEMA SHOW 2008
Mark C Bach

Each year the Las Vegas Convention Center is besieged by the Specialty Equipment Market Association (SEMA). Over a million square feet of indoor spaced was covered with cars, car parts and an expected 125,000 registered attendees.

Over four days this week countless celebrities mingle with the crowds, unveil cars, sign autographs and drool over the cars. Perhaps the strangest celebrity pairing was Carroll Shelby from Cobra fame and Guy Fieri the cook/host of “Diners, Drive Ins and Dives.” This year a record fifteen car manufacturers brought out their stock of new releases and concept cars.

Despite the economy we read about in the newspapers and hear on television, there was plenty of business to be made. Typically at the SEMA show manufacturers strut out their latest offerings and products and write orders with their jobbers and wholesalers. As the public sees the new offerings they tell their suppliers what THEY want to buy. Besides the car manufacturers, almost 2000 other exhibitors brought out their lines. One of the highlights of the show is many exhibitors bring out their demo cars or show cars to draw in the crowds and showcase their equipment. So over 2000 great cars are on the premises to look at.

Some of the cars included a restored Ghostbuster’s ambulance, some pimped out cars from DUB with outrageous rims, the much touted 2010 (or whenever) Camaro, the Hyundai Genesis and Toyota’s Venza. If you looked closely you could find more brands of quick detailer car spray than you even knew existed!

This year marked the 36th year of the show which first modestly started at LA Dodger Stadium. As tantalizing as all this sounds and seems, it is a trade show and closed to the general public.

Copyright 2008 ClassicRag.com

1936 Ford Tudor Sedan Stainless Steel

This is the 1936 Ford Tudor Sedan built for and owned by Allegheny Ludlum Steel. This is 1 of only 4 in existence and is the only one currently in running & in road worthy condition. The car is in exceptional condition, with the interior and even the frame looking great. All 4 cars each had over 200,000 miles on them before they removed them from service.

These cars were built for Allegheny as promotional and marketing projects. The top salesmen each year were given the honor of being able to drive them for one year. The v-8 engine (max 85 hp) ran like a sewing machine and was surprisingly smooth and quite.

The story has it that the dies were ruined by stamping the stainless car parts, making these the last of these cars ever produced. More information of the history on these automobiles can be found at Allegheny Ludlum's website

http://www.alleghenyludlum.com/pages/companyinfo/stainlesscars.asp

Happy Birthday USMC

November 10. The only fraternity I ever joined, Semper Fi Marines!

Happy Birthday Route 66!

Route 66 Birthday - Route 66 was officially established on November 11th, 1926.

All Automotive Appraisers are not equal

All Automotive Appraisers are not equal; to locate a certified IAAA
appraiser and read the Classic Car News; go-to www.AutoAppraiser.info. If you are or know of a recognizedautomotive appraiser who could qualify, write or call for a membership application. IAAA, PO Box 338, Dept. RAG, Montvale, NJ07645. 201-391-3251 (12d07)

BUSINESS FUNDING SOLUTIONS

BUSINESS FUNDING SOLUTIONS

"The Secrets of Raising Capital for Start-Up & Early Stage Business"
This eBook Serves As The Most Comprehensive Guide Available Into The World Of Raising Capital.

http://tinyurl.com/6dcsub

WIN A SHELBY TERLINGUA RACING MUSTANG

WIN A SHELBY TERLINGUA RACING MUSTANG
Benefiting The Carroll Shelby Children's Foundation
http://tinyurl.com/43hfsy

QUICKIE WATERLESS CAR WASH

QUICKIE WATERLESS CAR WASH – WE PAY THE SHIPPING!
Environmentally Safe!! Saves our Precious Water!
(The average car wash uses over 100 gallons of water)

Quickie Waterless Car Wash Cleans, Polishes and protects cars, trucks, boats, recreational vehicles, airplanes - virtually any non-porous surface – all without using any water. You just spray Quickie Waterless Car Wash directly on the dirty surface, wipe to lift dirt and buff it
dry with a clean terry cloth! Now you can have a just-detailed, showroom finish without messy hoses, buckets, cleaners or waxes!
Waterless Car Wash contains no silicons or other ingredients harmful to your vehicle's paint or the environment. $16.95 a Quart.
One Quart will wash the average car 8-12 times. Or one GALLON IS $39.00 (Gallon includes Spray Bottle) also shipped FREE!
http://www.QuickieCarWash.com

BARGAINS AT BARRETT-JACKSON

BARGAINS AT BARRETT-JACKSON
- Larry Edsall

2006 Ford Mustang customized by By now you know there were no million-dollar cars at Barrett-Jackson's inaugural Las Vegas auction.

Hard to believe, isn't it? A Barrett-Jackson auction and not only were there no million-dollar cars, there were no half-million dollar cars.
In fact, in going through the auction results, I found only four cars that sold for a quarter of a million dollars or more:

$330,000 for a 2006 Ford Mustang customized by "Funkmaster Flex"
$313,500 for the 1949 MG TC that was the first car ever raced by Carroll Shelby
$260,700 for a 2003 Saleen S7 sports car
$225,500 for a highly customized 1954 Rolls-Royce Silver Dawn sedan

Nonetheless, something like 15,000 people showed up on opening day and by the time the three-day event concluded $29.1 million in collector vehicles had changed owners.

Barrett-Jackson president Steve Davis noted that half of those bidding had never been to a collector car auction before. "At times," added Craig Jackson, "the bidding went in smaller increments because some of the bidders were less experienced."

Whether it's the overall economy or all the new bidders, maybe there's finally an opportunity for those of us of more modest means to get our dream machines.

With that in mind, I paged through the Barrett-Jackson catalog and results sheets and discovered some relatively affordable classics I'd love to have in my garage:

Read More Here: http://tinyurl.com/ClassicRag06

OMG! I WANT ONE!!

OMG! I WANT ONE!!

Bugatti's Veyron is the world's most expensive and powerful production
car ever. At $1.3 million, it boasts a 8.0L quad-turbo W16 engine that
produces 1000+hp and 927 ft. lb torque -- rocketing the vehicle from
0-60 mph in just 2.4 seconds.
http://tinyurl.com/ClassicRag05

Bruce Willis's Sale

Bruce must be running short of cash? He has sold his collection of cars. Bruce Willis Auction Report - http://tinyurl.com/route66er11

Oklahoma Surf Rods?

Can you imagine what size of fish requires a fresh water Surf Rod? Oklahoma's got 'em! Get your Surf Rod from www.CherokeeRodCompany.com

Corvette Giveaway!

Corvette Giveaway! Benefits Kids Wish Network. Win a Pair of Vets worth $250k Tax Free! Better than stock market! www.winthevettes.com

Bid on the WD-40® Ultimate Work Truck!

As The Last Straw Tour comes to a close, you now have a chance to bid on the WD-40 Ultimate Work Truck and support a great charity! Click on the following link to view the live auction page:
Last Straw Tour eBay auction page http://tinyurl.com/route66er10

Please share with family and friends who might be interested, and consider bidding on the tricked-out truck to support a great cause! Your entire winning bid will be donated to our partner, Rebuilding Together®, and will help support its efforts to provide free home repair and renovations for low-income homeowners.

DRIVE-IN THEATERS STILL POPULAR AFTER 75 YEARS

LAKELAND, Florida (AP) -- The view from Row 2 of the Silver Moon drive-in has changed hardly a whit in 60 years. Cars enter the road leading to the box office at the Silver Moon Drive-in Theatre in Lakeland, Florida.

Take a gander, and you'll see:

To your left, a yellow wooden post supporting a cast-aluminum box with a single volume knob and a tongue that hooks to an open car window -- a monaural speaker, from the days of President Truman.

To your right, in the rear of a Ford pickup lined with quilts, sleeping bags and goose-feather pillows, three jammie-clad youngsters devouring popcorn the way squirrels do acorns while Papa snoozes and Mama sips lemonade.

And dead ahead, the gods of Hollywood filling a gargantuan silvery screen beneath the grandest of all templates: the coal-black heavens, cluttered with thousands of points that flicker like diamond chips.

Not a place to miss if you happen to be in the neighborhood -- or even if not.

Ask Donovan Padgett, 44, who rolls his Ford F150 into the lot of the Silver Moon, on average, three times a week, making a 50-minute trek from his north Tampa, Florida, home.

He shrugs off the inconvenience. "There ain't many things left in this country you can call 100 percent, true-blue Americana," he says. "But this place, right here, is one of 'em. It's got a feeling to it. Homey."

The drive-in theater, that uniquely American institution which turned 75 this summer, is experiencing an unexpected renaissance. After decades of closures, about 100 drive-ins have opened or reopened since the mid-'90s.

Read More Here: http://tinyurl.com/route66er6

THE NEW UPPER CRUST

KL Nichols

As I pulled up to the gas pump and prepared to download (cringe) $50+ dollars worth of gas, a guy in a Dually, you know, one of those pickups that are as wide as they are long with 40 or 50 tires on them? Anyway, this guy pops out and plugs two gas pumps into two gas tank filler tubes on his side and comes around to my side and says, "Hey buddy, when are you going to be done with that pump?" Apparantly, he had two more filler spouts for an additional two tanks on my side. I quickly finshed and as I relinkished the pump to him, I asked him how much gas his rig held, he said, "240 gallons, 60 to a tank."

My next question brought a big smile to his, "What kind of mileage do you get with your truck?" He said proudly, "8 mpg around town and 5 mpg on the highway." I was so stunned that I couldn't talk so he went on, "Unless, of course, I am pulling the trailer with the dragster in it." "Then It goes down to a couple of miles per gallon highway."

I just sat there in my car and watched as he drove off. I got out and looked at the four pumps he had used and by mental addition, his 4 pumps totaled $700 and change. It was at this moment, I realized that sometime in the middle of the recent national financial crisis, I may have dropped a notch to lower class. Here to fore, I had considered myself middleclass.

Copyright K&L Enterprises 2008

The All New Wanna Bee

Nissan driver with sense of humor. I've seen this car driving back and forth on the Beeline Highway (SR 87 in AZ) often. Gotta love his sense of humor and his decal on his yeller car.

Mark C Bach

IN THE HOT SEAT? UH-OH!

- By Daily Mail Reporter
- 28th August 2008

Heated car seats and long traffic jams 'may be a threat to men's fertility'

Traffic jam: Scientists claim heated car seats can lower a man's sperm count

Heated car seats may keep drivers warm on cold mornings - but they could also lower a man's sperm count, scientists claim.

A study found the electric-generated heat emitted by some driver's seats raises body temperature to a point that interferes with the production of healthy sperm.

It follows evidence from previous studies that men who sit in a car for more than three hours a day, or who work as long-distance lorry drivers or long-haul pilots, could be putting their fertility at risk.

The ideal temperature for sperm production is around 35C to 36C (95F to 97F), just below the average core body temperature of 37C (99F).

If temperatures are much higher - because, for instance, men wear tightly-fitting trousers or underwear, have long, hot baths or spend too long sitting down - sperm counts can fall dramatically.

Some fertility experts believe changes in fashion and lifestyles are partly to blame for falling sperm counts in recent decades.

To test the effects of car seat warmers, researchers at the University of Giessen, Germany, fitted temperature sensors to 30 healthy volunteers who then sat on a car seat fitted with a warmer for 90 minutes.

Within an hour, temperatures had risen from to an average of 37.3C (99F).

One man recorded a temperature of 39.7C (103.5F) New Scientist magazine reported yesterday.

Sitting on an unheated seat also led to slightly raised temperatures of around 36.7C (98.1F).

While the researchers did not test the quality or quantity of the volunteers' sperm, they are worried the effects of car seat heaters may pose a greater risk to fertility than merely sitting for long periods.

Researchers in Holland compared the sperm counts of men who wore tight-fitting underpants for six months and found it fell compared to when they wore loose undergarments.

BUSINESS OPPORTUNITY!

BUSINESS OPPORTUNITY!
- BS Brash

Video is not new, but selling classic cars with it is a new wrinkle. YouTube.com, a Google website has pretty much set the stage to post any video for the public to see. Once you post a video to YouTube, you can use the URL to send it to anyone by email or YouTube offers you the html code to embed it in your website or your ebay auction. The following two examples are samples of both a personal and an ebay video.

Most people don't have the knowledge to jazz up, read that edit, a video for posting.

This is where the business opportunity come in, if you do have a video camera, the knowledge and the software to edit the videos, it would be worth a lot of money to people who don't have that knowledge or equipment to help the make a video to post on their eBay auctions.

There are also some websites that allow you to make slide shows and videos from still pictures. Here are a few of those sites, http://280slides.com/, http://preezo.com/, most of these have a small learning curve and look pretty professional when done. Some of them even allow audio and music too.

Just as an idea, how about this; you take a video of cars for sale and post it to YouTube. You change the owners anywhere from $50 to 100 depending on how in-depth the video of their vehicle is, then you put 5-20 cars on the video and post it on YouTube. I am sure you can refine the business plan to suit your time and ability.

CLASSIC IMPALA CARS 4 SALE!!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fZ6Dml8YukU
---------------
1968 Chevy Impala Fast back RARE and PIMPED OUT for sale
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c5N9ZLDRG88&NR=1

If this idea interests you, I am sure that a little digging around on the Internet will come up with a lot more info on it. Mean while, you will learn how to do this just for yourself.

Copyright 2008 BS Brash

I HAVE ONE WORD FOR YOU, PROVENANCE!

KL Nichols

American Heritage Dictionary defines Provenance as:
(prŏv'ə-nəns, -näns') *n. Place of origin; derivation.
1. The history of the ownership of an object, especially when documented or authenticated. Used of artworks, antiques, and books.
2. The records or documents authenticating such an object or the history of its ownership.

If you own an expensive piece of art, you will need a written history on the art to, A. prove ownership, B. prove its worth. Provenance is the pedigree of the valuable piece of art.

Everybody knows that if you have all of the paperwork for your classic it is easier to sell. That means Dealer's Sticker, Owner's Manual, any repair and body work receipts, etc, etc, etc.

If you have all of the above paperwork, you are well on your way to establishing Provenance for your Classic. But if you really want to add value to your classic, you should document it and put it in a fancy binder.

One way that I can prove this to you, have you ever heard of the classic category, "Star Cars"? These are classics that belonged to famous people, Elvis, Steve McQueen or John Wayne, just to name a few. This is a category that has a strong following and in order to prove that the car they are selling actually belonged to Elvis Pressley's 7th aunt twice removed, you have to be able to authenticate it. Provenance! Out of the 200 or so cars that Elvis actually gave away, there are probably a thousand floating around out there, so if you are not careful, you can be fooled.

Provenance, how do you go about establishing it?

The easiest way is to start a diary and write down everything, and I mean everything that you do to and know about your classic. Video your classic thoroughly, documenting any repairs if possible. If you do a frame off restoration and strip it down to the metal, video the entire body as proof of no rust or bondo, then keep the CD or DVD with your diary. Pictures are great; if you have enough, make a photo album. The more information you have, the more the Provenance will boost your car's value in the eyes of the would be buyer which will translate into more profit when you sell it. If it is featured in any magazine or on local TV in a parade, keep copies of these with your diary.

One more thing, after you go to all of the trouble building a Provenance for your classic, go to a copy store, and have two copies made and bound buy the pros. That along could add $500 value to your classic! Put the originals and one of the copies in a safe place, just in case your show & tell copy get destroyed or beer spilled on it. Make it just as professional as possible, if you aren’t a computer person, find one who is and pay them to do the typing. Keep all files, photos and anything else you have on your computer about your classic backed up on two CDs, one for each set of Provenance

Provenance will also help establish your classic’s value in the eyes of the insurance guy in case, God forbid, you son should wreck it on his prom date!

Copyright 2008 KL Nichols

SHOULD YOU TAKE PAYPAL PAYMENT FOR YOUR CAR?

- KL Nichols

A friend called me to say that he had sold his 63 Corvair Spyder. That in itself was nothing new, I hear from a lot of car sellers both before and after the sale. I am involved in the collector vehicle market.

What was different is that he told me that the guy who bought the car paid him by PayPal. Again not to unusual, but in this case he received the full $16k payment by PayPal. Not good!

First, PayPal charges for their service, a hefty charge, as much as 6%, on $16k and that is close to $100.

Second, PayPal protects the buyer, not the seller, at least they protect the buyer a lot more than the seller. What does that mean? PayPal will refund that $16k to the buyer at the drop of a hat, and leave the seller holding the bag! Once the money is refunded, the seller will probably play hell getting his car and title back!! Especially if it is in Alaska (another story for another time), Rhode Island, Hawaii or outside of the US. At best case scenario you will be stuck for return transportation and in this day of high fuel prices, that can be 10% or more of your vehicles worth!

Before I say anything else, I want to say that I love PayPal, but it has it's place. If you need to use PayPal to get an Earnest Deposit, that isn't bad, but be prepared to lose the entire amount if your sale goes south.

PayPal ain't God, but they do sit at his far left hand side, at least where your money is concerned and they are not easy to talk with. I have seen grown men brought to tears with frustration when trying to find an actual person to talk to at PayPal! It has been said that, "God is easier to talk to than eBay or PayPal!".

Did I mention that eBay owns PayPal? So it might follow, that if you piss off one, you may have scored a twofer! Something that might happen if you have spent the money you received thru PayPal for the sale of your vehicle and PayPal wants it back to refund it to the buyer. If that happens, I see lawyers and court time in your future! PayPal has no sense of humor where money is concerned. The reason is that they refund the money to the buyer and then expect the seller pay them back.

Copyright K & L Enterprises 2008

GUYS ARE ALL THE SAME

BSBrash

It was Saturday and my neighbor Pete, trotted out his absolutely perfect 57 T-Bird, it is Turquoise, has both tops and only 387 actual miles on it. It also has the McCollough/ Paxton supercharged V8 in it and the T-Bird Special F Code. He only gets it out when it is sunny and over 85 degrees and after doing the cosmetic necessities, he lets it set in the sun to dry any errant drop of water left. I would buy it from him, but I am about $150k short of the asking price.

When he does get it out, I generally go stand bird watch, since we don't have a bird problem, we just generally swap lies and BS about cars, local gossip and etc.

This time we got to discussing Gorp, (At least I think that is his name) the teenager across the street, the one with the Nissan with no muffler. He is a discussion with just about every body who goes to bed before 12:00a as his muffler tends to wake up anyone sleeping when he comes home for the late shift down at Burger Haven.

Anyway we were discussing him as drove up with a girl that caught both of our eyes, she had to be 20 (I later found out that she was 16, OMG) and well built, wearing a skirt that would have been cleared the upper edge of her nylons 30 years ago. I don't know about Pete, but my estimation of Gorp when up more than a couple of notches.

Anyway, we were discussing Gorp and how we were just like him when we were young. I had a 50 Merc with straight pipes and steel mufflers that would have put Gorp's pipes to shame. Pete's ride was even noisier. My recollection is that our cars were much louder than Gorp's, maybe to the 10th power? Not to mention tires squealing during a peel-out was a common sound all over town back then! Drag racing at almost every stop light. Funny, once in a while I see peel out makes around the neighborhoods on the streets, but never hear them. The tire marks are mostly in front of a cute girls house, it is a guy's way of telling a girl that she has been noticed!

It was the same back on our day, but we it seems to me that we did it with a little more style. That's my story and I'm sticking to it!

Copyright BS Brash 2008

Holy Cow Batman!!

Man Builds Batman Tumbler Replica Single-Handedly
In the pantheon of awesome fan art, Bob Dullam holds a place of high regard after his work on a full scale, working Tumbler replica from the movies Batman Begins and The Dark Knight. Constructed in his two-car garage with little more than pictures and the extra features from the DVD, Bob has built for himself the single baddest piece of driveway candy ever to make the leap from the silver screen. This thing makes Deloreans with bent up trash cans on the hatch look like kids' stuff.

Read more and see pictures here: http://jalopnik.com/399892/man-builds-batman-tumbler-replica-single+handedly

UK Businessman Decapitates Self With Aston Martin DB7

Shade of Jame Bond

An inquest into the death of Welsh gym owner Gerald Mellin has found the businessman decapitated himself in his Aston Martin DB7 after an argument with his estranged wife.

According to the court, Mellin tied one end of a rope to a tree, climbed into his DB7 and wrapped the other end around his neck. Mellin then jammed the pedal down on the $173,000 car, driving into a busy main road, forcing other drivers to watch his horrific death. Police found his headless body still in the driving seat and his head on the back seat. But what caused Millen to kill himself with such heinous vehicular methodology?
Read More Here: http://jalopnik.com/400143/uk-businessman-decapitates-self-with-aston-martin-db7

Mexico Confiscates Some American Pickups Buying Cheaper Mexican Diesel Fuel

Mexico Confiscates Some American Pickups Buying Cheaper Mexican Diesel FuelBy: Mike Levine © 2008 PickupTrucks.com

Americans who buy cheap diesel fuel in Mexico do so at the risk of having their pickup truck confiscated and a fine assessed by Mexican customs officials, according to local newspaper and television outlets in Texas.

Demand for low-cost Mexican diesel fuel has grown to new levels since the beginning of 2008, as the cost of diesel fuel in the U.S. has increased dramatically; it hit a record $4.85 a gallon in mid-July, according to AAA. Diesel fuel prices have started to drop, but the national average is still $4.59 a gallon, up from $2.95 a gallon a year ago.

To avoid paying those high costs in the U.S., some American truck owners who live close to the U.S.-Mexico border have made short trips into Mexico to purchase diesel, which averages about $2.20 a gallon there.

Read More Here: http://www.pickuptrucks.com/html/news/miscnews/mexico/diesel/mexico-confiscates-some-american-pickups-purchasing-mexican-diesel.html

AN AUTOMOTIVE JIGSAW PUZZLE

AN AUTOMOTIVE JIGSAW PUZZLE
-KL Nichols

Have your ever wondered why some people completely disassemble a classic car and then abandon it in their garage like an unwanted jigsaw puzzle, sometimes for years?

Take this car for example, it is for sale by a friend of mine, he rescued it from someone's garage in hopes of finding that special person who can re-assemble it into the valuable classic that it should be. If you would be interested in salvaging this would be beauty, or know of someone would would, give him a call or email him from his website. The car is in the Tulsa area and will have to be trailored.

1961 Ford Starliner 2 door, this is the best 61 Starliner body I've had in 35 years. Disassembled for restoration. Just out of an estate. 390, auto, factory air, power steering. A rare show car in the making! This car won't last long at only $5,000.00, www.HPFord.com, 918/706-5788

Copyright K & L Enterprises

WHAT DOES 9,800,000,000 MILES LESS LAST MONTH MEAN?

BS Brash

Americans drove 9,800,000,000 miles less last month! OMG, that is almost 10 Billion Miles less, approximately 400,000,000 gallons less used, that is close to 21 million barrels of oil, which is about one day’s usage for Americans! And still the price of gas is high!

It means less money spent on gas, tires, car repair, gas taxes ($73+ Million less), road repair, road construction workers, tolls, wrecks, less body shop repair, less cars purchased, way less trucks, SUVs and RVs purchased. It is no secret that the American vehicles drive our economy, no pun intended!

Listen up would be gas boycotters, I mean the people who send all of those emails to boycott one or two brands of gas or just boycott gas for one day to show the gas companies who is boss, that is a real waste of time! Driving 10 Billion miles less in July didn’t! Compared to that, a boycott couldn't even make an inroad on that negative 9,800,000,000 miles less driven this month. So much for boycotts!

The only light that I see at the end of the tunnel, with immediate potential for gas replacement, seems to be CNG, Compressed Natural Gas. It requires an approximately $350 -$650 conversion per vehicle, but at the price a gallon of CNG is, .90 cents currently, it sounds interesting even if it only gets about 1/2 the MPG that petrol does. That makes normal gas mileage less than $2.00, about half the price of gas. I can live with that!
The biggest crock of BS is Gasohol. Anytime you use a food product to make fuel for transportation, it is going to screw up the economy. As you are probably aware, food is going up, meat is going up and the manly essential, beer, is going up too!

One other problem no one is talking about is that alcohol only has half the combustibility of gas, if you ran on straight alcohol you would get one half the gas mileage, so when they take out 10% gas and replace it with alcohol you are only going to get 95% of the mileage out of it that you would straight gas. Not to mention, and I hear nothing about the fact that alcohol isn’t that good for your engine, it screws with your car’s computer and gaskets, so it follows that gasohol isn’t good for your car!

Half-ass politicians saw an easy out by jumping on the gasohol bandwagon, It will be years before the repercussions of this bad decision stops rattling around our economy!!

BS Brash Copyright 2008

CANADIAN MARKET FADING SLIGHTLY

KL Nichols

The Canadian Dollar, called the Looney, because of the bird pictured on it is a Loon. It might as well stand for the eratic uncertainty that the Canadian Dollar is facing.

While Canadians celebrated last year as the country's dollar reached parity with its U.S. counterpart for the first time since 1976, traders now predict the currency will fall as much as 17 percent through 2009. Riding the express train that is the American economy, energy prices and certain commodities have boomed.

In May Canada's economy shrank 0.1 percent, as the extraction of natural gas slowed and car production dropped, Statistics Canada said last week in Ottawa. Economists predicted a 0.2 percent expansion.

If you have been watching closely, you have probably tracked this drop yourself, there being no labor savings for American Manufacturers in Canada since the parity, and the rising price of gas, mfgrs. are closing factories in Canada and looking for a cheaper market. The next factories opened will probably be in Mexico whose labor is still cheap and the pollution regs. are pretty lax.

Why am I writing about this, because the Canadian market was just developing and with the parety between the Looney and the Buck, the Canadian market was just starting to replace some of the drop the collector car market was experiencing her in the US.

The collector vehicle market is still going fairly good for foreign buyers, but so goes America, so goes the foreign economy, so if you get a buyer interested in your classic from over seas, don't bargain to hard.

Copyright K & L Enterprises

CHEVY'S FIRST V8 ENGINE

CHEVY'S FIRST V8 ENGINE
-BS Brash

Since it was Saturday evening and the yard work was all done, I decided to mosey over to Mother's, my favorite watering hole and quaff a few with the guys. The "guys" being my life long friends and all of them were classic car nuts. But every now and then I like to shake them up and tonight was one of those times.

I headed over to Mother's, I like to walk that way I don't have to automatically be the "Designated Driver" and it was only about 6 blocks and it was beautiful out so the walk was very pleasant and filled with summer smells and sounds.

When I got to Mother's, the gang was pretty much all there, with the possible exception of Pete who was serving some jail time for shooting squirrels inside the city limits. The judge being a gardening man himself had let Pete off with a fine the first two times he had been caught, but the third time was a charm, so Pete was in the Pokey for 30 days.

We raised our glasses to Pete and then after the usual banter, I sort of slid in the comment that cast doubt on their virility and said, "I bet a beer that none of you guys know when Chevy built it's first V8 engine?

"Well that is easy beer, Tom Said, "It was the 265 “Turbo-Fire”, it was rated at 162 horsepower with a two-barrel carburetor and had a 8.0:1 compression ratio".

"Wrong, not even close" I said. and the uproar began. We have probably come closer to being thrown out of Mother's for noise, but I can't remember when.

After the guys quieted down I told them about the 1917 Chevrolet Series D Engine . Chevy started the production of the first Chevrolet V8, a 288 cid overhead valve motor rated at 36-55 (There is some confusion about this) net horsepower. A total of approximately 3000 Chevrolet V8 motors were made between 1917 and 1919. It was pretty pricey and finally was pulled from production in late 1919. After that Chevy decided you could have any engine that you wanted as long as it was a 6 cylinder, and continued that production practice untill 1955 when they built their "Second" V8 engine!

Man, the free beer was cold!

BS Brash Copyright 2008

SELL YOUR CLASSIC FOR FREE 01

SELL YOUR CLASSIC FOR FREE 01
KL Nichols

So you want to sell your collector vehicle and you don't know where to begin?
Like everyone else, I like to save my money and if I can advertise for fr*ee, I will choose fr*ee every time!

Fr*ee was pretty hard to do before the Internet, but thanks to the many fr*ee classified ad websites on the Internet, it is now very possible.
Last issues of the Rag, I went into some detail about Craig's List, possibly
the largest Fr*ee Classified Ad Website on the internet. This issue I will go
into a couple of lesser trafficked, but still fr*ee classified ad websites.
The first is www.buzztrader.com , you can put several cars with 4 pictures
each on their website all for fr*ee and they will stay posted for up to 90 days.
BuzzTrader is not unique in the fact that they allow other website owners to post their html code on their website and this makes it look like the cars are posted on each website, when in fact it is one website posted to several,
possibly hundreds of other websites. This is good and bad. Good in that you do get extra views of your ads, bad in that it is confusing about who is
actually selling your car as each website pretends that the cars from
BuzzTrader are in fact proprietary to the website you actually view the ad
on. Confused? So are the potential buyers seeing the car for sale on several websites...

The second is www.Auto-RoundUp.com . You can advertise your cars fr*ee on this website too, but they do have the advantage of printing several Magazines and for $10, they will also put your photo ad in one of their magazines too.

I will tell you about some more Fr*ee classified ad website next issue, so,
meet me back here next week!

Copyright 2008 KL Nichols

IS GM HEADED FOR CHAPTER 11?

IS GM HEADED FOR CHAPTER 11?
-MaxChevy Magazine www.MaxChevy.com

Wall St. analysts say that GM may be forced to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection if the company is unable to secure funding. Merrill Lynch says the automaker may need to raise as much as $15 billion.

With sales plummeting, GM stock is doing likewise. Merrill Lynch analyst John Murphy moved GM’s rating from “buy” to “underperform” and said the stock might get as low as $7 per share. Stocks were at $10.07 per share Wednesday, July 2, on the New York Stock Exchange, the lowest value since 1954.

“While we do not believe GM is facing an immediate cash crunch, the urgency to shore up liquidity to navigate through a difficult 2008-2009 has risen significantly in recent months,” Citigroup analyst Itay Michaeli told Reuters. He predicted a full recovery in the U.S. auto market would not begin until 2010 or 2011.
Read More Here: http://www.maxchevy.com/news/2008/news-iii_6-10.html

STOLEN STREET RODS AND HOT RODS

STREET RODS AND HOT RODS- By Daniel Strohl – Hemmings Newsletter
Stolen car alerts: Three hot rods go missing during month of June
June was a fairly horrible month for stolen hot rods, with at least three reported nabbed across the country.

The first, stolen straight off the owner’s property in Schuylkill Haven, Pennsylvania, the week of June 9, was a 1932 Ford roadster with cycle fenders, painted flat black with red wheels, red interior and a 1953 Mercury flathead V-8. The owners of the car request that anybody with information about its whereabouts contact the Pennsylvania State Police at 570-593-2000. For pictures and more information about the car, visit www.hotrodhotline.com/pr/2008/08stolen32/

The second, stolen shortly after the Holley NHRA National Hot Rod Reunion, was a yellow 1940 Willys coupe with a new Chevrolet 572-cu.in. crate engine and was taken along with its tow vehicle, a burgundy 2005 Ford F-250 Supercab pickup, and its trailer, a white 2005 Haulmark Edge 26-footer. All three were taken the weekend of June 14 from the Springhill Suites on the west side of Knoxville, Tennessee. For pictures and more information, visit www.hotrodhotline.com/pr/2008/08stolenford or www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=272626 .

Finally, another car stolen from a major hot rod show, a 1955 Pontiac Star Chief, went missing from the Comfort Inn in Brooklyn Center, Minnesota, June 22, during the Back to the ’50s weekend in and around Minneapolis. For more information and photos, visit http://winnipeg.kijiji.ca/c-cars-vehicles-classic-cars-Stolen-1955-Pontiac-Star-Chief-W0QQAdIdZ58620915 .

WOULD YOU PAY $10.00 A GALLON?

WOULD YOU PAY $10.00 A GALLON?
-BS Brash

Yeah, it's coming, and it ain't gonna go away either. I know, I know, you say it may drop in the future. BUT I can almost guarantee you that Gas is never going back to $2.00 a gallon again, unless the Dollar is devaluated.

American and the world too, are gearing up for some other kind of fuel, probably hydrogen and as we change over to any other kind of fuel, the scarcity of gasoline will drive the price up further. And why would that matter to you since you will probably buy a hydrogen powered car when they become available? Just what are you going to power your collector cars with, air? That's right, Gas! And I have no doubt that you will shell out any amount of money to have fuel for your musclecars? Because it just ain't right to run a classic on anything else! So my answer is, “Yes!” You will pay $10 a gallon or more.
Copyright 2008 BS Brash

ARE YOU USING CRAIG’S LIST?

ARE YOU USING CRAIG’S LIST?KL Nichols

If you aren’t aware of www.CraigsList.com , you are in for a treat. Craig’s List Is a huge network of things for sale covering most of the US, if not the world?

Craig’s List was started by an aging hippie in San Francisco approximately 7-10 years ago as a place to give stuff away. When the word got around, and it did quickly as the Internet was just exploding and America was looking for just such a website! It exploded so fast it out grew the San Francisco website and users were clamoring for their own city home page! So CL did just that and never looked back! So almost every major and a few minor cities have their own city page.

Now, after all of these years, you can still advertise FR*EE on CL! Not that it will always be that way? About a year or so ago, the Mother of all Websites, eBay bought 25% of Craig’s List. The investment turned out to be another snafu for eBay, Craig’s List has resisted charging for their ads, and now there is a Law Suite between CL & eBay trying for a change in whatever agreement that they originally entered into, what ever that was.

Any observer of eBay knows that they paid Kruse Auctions $250 million for their auction business a few years ago and then a couple of years later sold it back to Kruse for $50 million. Even a dummy can see that wasn’t a good business deal!

Enough about business, let’s get down to how you can use of Craig’s List to sell cars and parts.

First (this is for the beginners) you surf on over to www.CraigsList.com and then find your city or a city near you that you would like to advertise you merchandise in. This brings up a big complaint and something that you will have to work around, when you advertise on, let’s say the Kansas City Missouri page, the only people who will see your ad are the people who actually visit the KCMO page, and here’s another glitch, Craig’s list would let you list the same thing in more than one city…. A real big pain, but if you work with it, changing your wording and rename your pictures, etc, etc, you may be able to list on another city page. One good item is that you can post up to 4 pictures with your ad and for pete’s sake do post as many pictures an you can. Collectors are a visual group and will think you are hiding something if you don’t.
Okay, there are some other irritations with CL, the main one after the above problems is that if you post on a big city site, such as Kansas City Mo, your ad will disappear in a day or two because every ad is listed at the top of the page and if there is a lot of ads posted, pretty soon your ad is three or four pages down and CL only lists the 100 most recent ads first and then they post the link to the last 100 ads on a link at the bottom of the page, and so on…
My advice and you have to do it this way, is to cancel your ad if it hasn’t expired and repost it at the top of the list every 3 or 4 days or so. When you first register with CL, you will be sent to your back office where you can control your ads, there are no limits to the ads you post just as long as they are different. I suggest that you bookmark your back office so that you can go right to it when you want to. Another little detail I probably should mention, the ad posting times run from 7 days in major markets to 45 days in smaller markets. That’s just the way it is, deal with it!
CL doesn’t like links away from their website. Sometimes they will let you do it, sometimes not. Also, remember I told you this was a aging hippies website? There is a rating system on each page, and if the visitor thinks your ad or if CL thinks your ad is inappropriate, miscategorized, prohibited, or spam/overpost (this means posted more than once) , the reader can flag your ad and if CL agrees with them your ad is outathere! There is no court of recourse! If you run into a antagonistic local, post on another city page.

This is just a little info and if you have any questions, email me at route66er@cox.net and I will try to answer your question.

Copyright 2008 KL Nichols

COUNTING NOSES

COUNTING NOSES
KL Nichols

Saturdays in my neck of the woods is the day that the homeowners all get out the lawn mower, hedge clippers and the leaf blower and do the weekly maintenance that home ownership requires!

And while this ritual is going on, I get out my 57 Chevy and go for a snoop, looking for what antiques & classic vehicles my neighbors have tucked away in their garages! I have been doing this for years! In fact I actually got started on this in the early ‘80’s when I lived in a small college town of about 5000 permanent residents. I had just restored a beautiful 49 Ford Convertible and I was out to show it off with out bragging. As I drove around I started seeing Model-T’s and Model-A’s hiding in local garages. The amount was so large, I started counting and the inaccurate total was in the 50’s and in such a small town too!?”So what”, you say? I was so amazed at the booty I saw in those garages, I started investing in any stock I could find, related to the collector vehicles and their aftermarket. And the market exploded, my collector cars gained in value nicely every year until 1991 when the bottom fell out of the collector vehicle market, just after the First Gulf War.

Did I mention that I went back to that small town last month and I went for my “Snooping Drive”, I only counted 4 Model A’s? But I did see an amazing amount of other classics including 18 pre-70’s Mustangs and a couple of GTOs, not to mention several other potential keepers!

My advice to you is to take a ride whenever you get the chance, it’s likely to be profitable.

I BELONG TO SEVERAL COLLECTOR CAR CLUBS & YOU SHOULD TOO!!

I BELONG TO SEVERAL COLLECTOR CAR CLUBS & YOU SHOULD TOO!!
By Nick Cash

I was at a car club picnic the other day when another member asked me what I drove. I told him that I owned several classics and a couple of foreign models, and then I asked him what club this was? He looked shocked and said, “This is the Back Country Mustang Club, Aren’t you a member?” I told him yes, I was a member of this club and approximately 22 others. He asked me why, and I told him, I have several collector vehicles and belonged because I liked the people, enjoyed the social events and the clubs were a good source of parts and model information! Which brings me to my title of this small article. For the very same reasons that I mentioned above and one other, most times it costs less than $50 a year to be a member and support a local club! Plus I have to say that you meet the nicest people in car clubs!

PS. FYI, Car Clubs are a great place to get hard to find parts and a great place to sell parts and classics!! Generally, you can advertise for FR*EE on their website or in their club newsletter, but if not, the fairly inexpensively!

APPLE PIE & THE 4TH OF JULY!

APPLE PIE & THE 4TH OF JULY!
BS Brash

I am old enough to remember the summer picnics back when the classics and muscle cars of today were everyday drivers. And to top it all off, there were no car shows? The collector car industry as we know it, the car shows and the rich collector car auctions were things of the future and swap meets weren’t even a gleam in the inventors eye yet. The guys that started the collecting were ex-GIs running around in Model-Ts and Model-As stripped down to the now-famous hot rods and t-buckets the Street Rodders of today so emulate.I kinda miss that time when the biggest event in July was the 4th of July picnic and the Big $250 Fireworks event that was planned after it got dark and all of the horse shoe & softball games were over. After the big watermelon feast provided free by the local farmers for which their only pay was to ask us to spit our seeds in a bucket so that they would have seeds for the next years crop.

Yes, they were good times, but would I trade them for today? No way! I was too young to drink beer and I would have to sell my collection of classics and muscle cars which either didn’t exist back then or I couldn’t have afforded them if they did…

Copyright 2008 BS Brash

CHECK OUT THE NICK INDEX

CHECK OUT THE NICK INDEX KL Nichols

The Nick Index. Think of it as the Dow Jones Index for collector vehicles. Visit it at www.NickIndex.com/ ”Collector cars increase in value approximately 7 to 10% per year and some cars appreciate much more, why not make an investment you can have fun with!!” How is your 401K doing???We are interested in your input, so feel free to look it over and then drop us a line!

WATCH 'EM LIVE!

WATCH 'EM LIVE!
KL Nichols

I love web cams! One of my favorite is the 46th & Broadway in Times Square where the world never sleeps, here is that link for your edification;
http://www.earthcam.com/usa/newyork/timessquare/index.php?cam=fridays. It has a little microscope with a + in it down in the lower right hand corner that allows you to double the size of the viewing window.

What does that mean to you? How about being able to watch collector car
auctions while in progress?

While perusing the latest email from Mecum Auctions, I saw a Big Red Button that said, "Connect To Live Auction", so I clicked on it and lo and behold, a live auction did appear! Here is the link to that;
http://www.ustream.tv/channel/mecum-muscle-cars-and-more---live%21, be forewarned, you need a broadband connection to see it and it may be over by the time you read this.

"So", you ask, " What does this mean to me?" Maybe nothing right now, but this technology, like every other technology is expanding daily. My favorite Techie says that computers double in speed and intelligence every two years.
As a matter of fact, the technology is already available for you and me to
watch TV on the Internet; the big TV syndicates just haven't found a good
enough way to make money on it yet.

Kruse and others already have Internet options for high dollar absentee
bidders. Not that it bothers the high dollar folk, but maybe it could save gas
money for the rest of us, if they do need the rest of us! Internet viewing may cut down on ticket sales for lookee-lous so maybe they will have to charge for the Internet Viewing? As always, you can figure out a lot of stuff by just following the money!

900 CLASSIC CARS HEADED FOR THE CRUSHER

900 CLASSIC CARS HEADED FOR THE CRUSHER
By Rob Einaudi

It's the same old story. Crazy old man hoards cars on his property, then dies. Weird family doesn't want to deal with all the circling gearheads and sells off the lot to the scrap guys. If you look at the pics there are some rare and desirable cars here--Road Runners, Super Bees, Camaros, Impalas, Fairlanes, etc. This is especially upsetting to me cause a puke green Road Runner like the one below is pretty much my dream car, and this one is probably gonna be turned into five econoboxes.

See Pictures & Read More Here....http://blog.cardomain.com/blog/2008/06/900-classic-car.html

PHISHING FOR CLASSICS?

PHISHING FOR CLASSICS?
BS Brash

A friend of my forwarded me this email that he had received recently:
===========================================================
"Hello Seller, How are you doing today and also i am here to notify you my
interesting in your item you placed on this site for sale on behalf of my client,
Also i will like to know more about the item before we proceed on our to pay
you. So please kindly answer the following question below..
1,Are you the original owner of the item?
2,What is the condition of the item?
3,Can you acept certified check as a mode of payment?
4,Can you allow some company to pick up the item from you?
5,Can i trust you on this transaction?
6,What is the final asking price of this item?
So please kindly get back to me asap now with those question requested
from you,so we can proceed on payment asap and we complete this
transaction as soon as possible. Email me back now to
....LASSY1977@xxxxxxx.xxx "
===========================================================

This and tens of thousands of similar emails show up everyday in the in-boxes
of people who advertise their vehicles on the Internet! If you are an Internet
Newbie, you answer them back, if you are Internet Savvy, you just delete them
or forward them to the appropriate authorities.

Below is my answer:

Unfortunately there is no program for defense from scam emails except good
common sense. Spam and Phishing as this kind of email is called are a way
of life if you advertise anywhere on the internet. That being said, there are two
ways that you can get some satisfaction by forwarding any suspicious emails
to, they are www.coldrain.net & Spam@uce.gov . Coldrain.net has taken down
1000's of websites of scammers and spammers and you can join their
crusade, it's fr*ee to join. The other is a USGov email that you can forward any
suspicious emails to if there is no website listed, I think they pass them along
to the proper authorities

I have a friend that is a collector car dealer and he has played games with
these kind of people for several years and for his efforts, he has enough bad
checks and money orders to paper his office with them.

My advice is to forward them and forget them!

The Internet is a growing force and a great tool for buying and selling collector
vehicles, but like all tools, safety first, protect yourself!!
Copyright 2008 BS Brash

MUSCLE CARS

MUSCLE CARS
Z-L1 POWER RETURNS
Hemmings Blog

Chevrolet has reissued a 430hp 427 to celebrate the big-block's 50th.
photo courtesy GM
A few years back, GM Performance Parts rolled out a reissue of the ZL-1 aluminum block, claiming that the original tooling used in 1969 to create the infamous alloy rat engine installed in just ’69 Camaros and two Corvettes had been updated and pressed back into service. Now, a complete engine assembly is being produced as part of the 50th anniversary of the Chevrolet big-block engine (we’re assuming GM is considering the 348 the first big-block).

The Anniversary 427 is filled with a forged-steel crank, forged steel connecting rods and forged aluminum pistons that make 9.5:1 compression when paired with the 110cc combustion chambers in the aluminum oval-port GMPP heads, also featuring 2.19/1.88-inch valves. A hydraulic roller-tappet camshaft with .510/.540-inch lift controls the valves through 1.7:1 roller rocker arms and an 870cfm four-barrel carb feeds the beast through an aluminum intake.Read More Here…
http://www.hemmings.com/newsletter/newsletter.html?volume=4&issue=1&id=1729&refer=news&emlid=135074#1729

HOW NOT TO SELL YOUR CLASSIC

HOW NOT TO SELL YOUR CLASSIC
Nick Cash

A lot of people think that putting a for sale sign in the window of your classic & parking it down at the Wal-Mart parking lot will do the trick. Well, the concept is good, but your classic may be vandalized, stripped, stolen or towed to an impound lot because Wal-Mart is not happy about the liability you are forcing on them, plus in some cities, even parking a car in your driveway with a for sale sign in the window is illegal! This is a law that a city council has passed to make the local car dealers happy (they pay a lot of taxes).

You need to protect your classic investment, and parking it where the public has unattended access to it, is a real bad idea! I have heard horror stories of classic cars loosing steering wheels, chrome, door handles, tires & wheels, hubcaps, and even engines when left unattended. A #2 car can be reduced to a project car by a couple of determined parts thieves. It used to be that it was kids looking for parts or a crooked body man, but with the advent of eBay, your classic may wind up being parted out nationally! The unfortunate problem is that unless the thieves are actually caught in the act with the parts in their possession, most car parts are unidentifiable when found later and as such make recovery difficult is not impossible.

Another BIG No-No is letting a prospective buyer take your valuable classic for a drive alone. First of all, this may invalidate your insurance and never trust a buyer’s affirmation that his insurance covers him in your car, because he may be lying or may not have any insurance to start with and if he has larceny in his mind, he may just never come back with it. I have seen engines blown, transmissions ruined, clutches blown, parts stolen and in on case a wonderful person took the car and used it in a wedding! Never underestimate the devious nature of a potential buyer. Make sure you are perched in the front seat right next to the driver testing your classic and that way maybe you can ward off a potential wheelie popper!

Is there any safe way to show your classic? Yes the odds are in your favor that the guy looking at your classic is a good guy, but use your street smarts to make decisions on him. If he had “I feel the need for speed” tattooed on his arm, give him a good third degree grilling and wear your T-Shirt with, “I have The Cops On Speed Dial!”.

A little more advice, show your car somewhere public and not where you have it stored! The reason for this is that classics can be car-jacked too! And if the crook knows where your car is stored, it may not be there the next time you look.

Copyright 2008 by K & L Enterprises

HOW TO MAKE A FEW EASY BUCKS AND LIVE TO REGRET IT!

HOW TO MAKE A FEW EASY BUCKS AND LIVE TO REGRET IT!
BS Brash

Recently I was at a weekend swap meet and I spent a little more than I realized on the parts I bought, and when I added up the total, I was short about three weeks beer money...

I knew the little wife wasn't going to like it if I shorted her weekly salary, if you don't think your wife is worth a weekly salary, my guess is that you are on your third or forth wife?

Anyway, I was on the alert for a little extra cash flow when I read the paper that Sunday, I ran across a classified ad wanting to rent a classic car for a wedding. Cool, maybe my 57 Chevy convertible could earn a little towards it own keep? A great idea, so I called the guy about the ad and he mentioned that he had an extra $250 built into the wedding costs for a classic rental car just for the trip to the reception and then back to his home where he would pickup is own car for the trip to the airport. Seemed like easy money to me, so I asked him when and where? He said to bring it by his house Friday afternoon and he would put it in his garage, and I could pick it up Sat afternoon about 3:00pm.

I complied and dropped off the 57 at his house on Friday and watched as my baby slid into his garage and the door banged shut...

It was Friday and as I occasionally do, I went off to my favorite watering hole, Mother's Bar & Grill to tip a few suds with the guys. About 11:00pm, I came outside intent on going home when I heard the unmistakable sound of a 327 engine at high revs come roaring down the street. Nice, I thought, but as I looked for the car, when it passed me, to my horror I realized that it was MY 57 Chevy convertible with what looked like no less than 20 people in or hanging on madly as the car screamed by. OMG? What Have I done, I thought, or maybe I shouted out loud? Dang, that trip by me just then probably took about $5k off of the value of my car!! I had to get it back and right now!

I called Buba, a friend of mine who was the local sheriff and told him what was happening and he swung by and got me and we took off after the 57.

But the 57 proved impossible to find, there were over 50 reports of it all over the city, so after arriving too late at every report, we decided to just go to the guys house where I dropped it off and wait. We sat there until 2:15am when my 57 Chevy finally came limping in breathing really hard. To stop a murder, Bubba went and extracted the soon to be bridegroom and the remaining 3 or 4 passengers that hadn't been thrown out by the night's wild drive thru the city.

I got in my baby and drove slowly home. I parked her in the garage and shut the door and locked it! I was afraid to look too close because I needed to sleep all night to be braced for tomorrow.

It will suffice to say that it took me two months and $2800 to get the 57 back to #1 status. Plus the case of scotch I sent bubba for his help. No I didn't put a hit out on the stupid groom, but I kept the $250 and was happy that he unhappily had to get another car for his ceremony the next day.

The moral to this story and I think it is obvious, is; 1.) Never let anyone drive your classic! 2.) Never rent out your classic unless you are doing the driving! 3.) Get it in writing so that you can sue the b*st*rd when it goes wrong!!

Copyright BS Brash 2008

CARROLL SHELBY?

CARROLL SHELBY?KL Nichols

First off I want to state that I have never met Carroll Shelby and don’t even have his autograph. But that doesn’t stop me from loving him from afar.

But the above isn’t what I want to say about him.

Carroll Shelby, like all world champion fighters has maybe jumped into the square circle one too many times. But he is still great!I am not going to cater to his detractors by quoting what they have said about him lately, but it suffices to say, there is a lot of negativity going around about Mr. Shelby.

This is unfortunate and reminds me of the saying, When a mother asked her kids for some help, reminding them of how much she had done for them over the years, they said, “I know mom, but what have you done for me lately? Shelby is a made man, no one can take that away from him and the great stuff he has done speaks volumes about his status in the automotive world!

So for crying out loud, give the guy a break and get off his back, because like all of the greats, he is here only for a small amount of time and we may have to wait a long time for another key automotive figure as great as he is!
“Carroll, who loves ya baby?” I can definitely say, “I do!”

HOW DOES YOUR CAR RATE?

BusinessWeek.comHere's a preview of the Martin Rating System for Collectible Cars from Sports Car Market. They've selected 100 cars, each with something different to offer to a collector, and rated them on a 1–100 point scale, in five categories of 20 points each. Over 2,000 collectible cars will be rated in the upcoming book, The Martin Guide to Collectible Cars.Read the full article here; http://bwnt.businessweek.com/collectible_cars/index.asp

SURFING THE WEB?

Nick Cash

I needed some parts for my 57 Chevy Belaire, so I decided to Google for them.

WOW! A search for 57 Chevy Parts pulls up 1,650,000 pages to look at, so I settled down for a morning on the computer, but guess what? That 1,650,000 pages is limited to less than 800 pages available and then I am stopped from going any further! On top of that, many of the pages, which are presented at only 10 pages per page, many of the pages are duplicates and other pages on the same websites! Sheesh!

A lot of the links are eBay links that are outdated or on the verge of being sold. Or some other website like Auto Trader, etc, etc, etc.Then there is are the fake links that try to sell you ebooks on how to sell on eBay or how to get rich numerous other ways. Here is one that has no bearing on 57 Chevys at all; "57 Chevy parts, giftsforgirls com, free wweonlinegames, diva staz".

I have to say that it was mighty frustrating! All in all though, I think I found 3 new sources for parts.

So, frustration aside, my surfing was a success, if you don't count that new keyboard I had to scavenge from my kid's computer because I spilled beer in mine.

I guess I will wrap this up and go buy a new keyboard for my computer before I get in trouble with the kid...

Going To The Drive-In Movie

by Karl Nichols

The Drive-In Movie was a weekend fixture in my family’s plans as it was with so many other American families and when it disappeared, we didn’t even realize it. The transition from Drive-Ins to TV & Video/DVD Rentals was so subtle and smooth that nobody even thought to say goodbye. I remember, after the Air-conditioning was installed and we bought the color TV, we didn’t think about the Drive-In Movies anymore, the industry just bled to death out of site and mind.

The first time I realized this was in 1987 when we moved into a new house in a new city and there, as big as life, sitting beside the entry to our new subdivision was a Drive-In Movie Theater. My 9-year-old daughter said, “Dad, what is that?” She was the last of our 4 kids and the only one who was still at home, and as I thought about the answer to her question, I realized that I hadn’t been to a Drive-In Movie in at least 10 years, my daughter’s question was proof of that.

We are still living in that house, and my daughter just graduated from college, but the Drive-In is gone, about 10 years now. Gone the way of the Buffalo and the Outhouse, crowded out by a civilization that ruthlessly moves on, discarding the bodies of past technology in it’s wake and such was the fate of the Dive-In Movie, left behind like a discarded 8-Track Cartridge.

What brings about this maudlin sentimentality for the Drive-In? I was recently surfing the Net and ran across the website http://www.driveinmovie.com/ which is dedicated to helping people who are looking for Drive-Ins. The site has all(?) the Drive-Ins listed state by state to help those of us who still wish to be eaten by mosquitoes while sweating copiously, having to use smelly over crowded restrooms and eat bad carryout food which is cold by the time we stumble around looking for and finally finding our car. Man that is what I call a good time! The old saying that “Hindsight is 20-20” could actually be restated as “Memories are blind as a bat”! See ya at the Drive-In next week.

Copyright KL Nichols 2008

BOB'S AUTO PARTS AUCTION

BOB'S AUTO PARTS AUCTION
Tony and Michele Hamer

Are you looking for a parts car or a restoration project? Well Rowley's Auction Service will be auctioning off the entire contents of Bob's Auto Parts in Fostoria, Michigan, this weekend. This facility has operated as a classic car salvage yard since 1938. Bob and Chris Zimmerman have owned and operated the business since 1957. Due to the death of Bob Zimmerman, all the vehicles will be sold at auction. What will be auctioned are the 1,800 cars in a junkyard that's been in operation since 1938. Looking at the pictures on the website, there are some interesting collector car material from the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s. There will be a minimum bid of $400 for all of the cars and pickups "due to high scrap prices", so we might assume, that whatever doesn't sell at auction goes straight to the crusher. If you see anything on the website you might be interested in, give Bob's a call and save a classic from being crushed.

Read More Here: http://classiccars.about.com/b/2008/05/15/bobs-auto-parts-auction.htm

WHERE DID ALL THE MUSTANGS GO?

WHERE DID ALL THE MUSTANGS GO?
This is from http://www.cars-on-line.com/ Newsletter

On Tuesday morning when we opened the Cars On Line office there were four inspection orders that had come in overnight. They were all for buyers from Australia. Three of the four orders were requests for us to look at classic Mustangs for sale here in the United States. That's the way the market has been going lately. Australian buyers are putting down cash money for first generation Mustangs, Mach 1's and Boss Mustangs. And here's the kicker. They're buying up all the Mustang hardtops (coupes) they can find.

Now you and I know that only the early Mustang convertibles are of any value here in the U.S. But the word is that in Australia the resale on American Mustang coupes is $40,000 to $50,000! Look out! Right now in California, Arizona and Nevada, Australian front men are buying up as many solid, dry Western coupes as they can find and shipping them back to Australia to sell to collectors there. The average value on the early Mustang coupes had been around $6,500 in the U.S. up until now. But in California they are getting $10,000 to $12,000 for rust free high No. 3 condition coupes.

I'm worried that ten years down the road there won't be any '65 and '66 Mustangs left here in the U.S.," a California Mustang collector told us this week. "At the Pomona Swap Meet last month Australian brokers bought all the decent cars during the setup day on Saturday. When the show opened on Sunday they were standing at the gate buying all the rust free Mustangs as they came in." This collector told us that, out of the last ten cars he has sold, all ten went to Australia. He delivered one to a dock in Long Beach where he said there were hundreds of cars standing outside in the yard waiting to be loaded on boats to go back to Australia. He said that he was told there was a backlog of five hundred cars waiting to be loaded and shipped. They didn't have enough boats!

Classic car dealers across the country are telling us the same thing. Some say half the cars they sell are going overseas. We may see that scenario increase. And its not just Mustangs that are being shipped overseas.

We've noticed that collectors in Australia, Norway, Sweden, Denmark and the U.K. have been buying American classic cars in greater numbers this year since the U.S. dollar has weakened against the world economies. Now foreign collectors can buy American classic cars for one-fourth of what they used to pay, not to mention that prices have dropped in our own market. The only thing that will correct this trend is for the U.S. Fed to stop printing money (and start raising interest rates again.) The Fed is so worried about bailing out "house flippers" and real estate speculators that they succeeded in pushing gas prices over $4.00 a gallon this week. To add insult to injury, now we have to watch while our collector cars are being bought up because our currency gets about as much respect as the Mexican peso.

Food for thought: Isn't it amazing how the rest of the world appreciates our "old cars?" Now consider this: is that a good thing?

(This is from their newsletter, which is worth subscribing to. Normally I would just link this article to it, but it is a good article and there seems to be no way to link to it!)

FINDER'S FEE? PART II

KL Nichols
If you missed Part I of this article, you can find it just below this article.

A lot of you guys can skip this part because you have grown up scrounging for parts and cars and telling you how to find a part is like telling a dog what to do with a bone! But for the newbies, here goes;

You will need, besides an innate love of cars, a phone (I suggest VOIP and cell), a computer, some sort of filing system that will help you keep track of your wants and finds. (You must be and stay organized)

Here are a few pointers;

1. I have never thrown away a business card (I trade business cards with everyone) and as a result, I have about 40 or so, 3-ring notebooks full of them dating back about 30 years. When a phone number or address changes, I note it on the business card.

2. However, I am slowly moving all of my info to a program that I like called Any Time Deluxe and is available at individualsoftware.com for about $40. It has all kinds of goodies, a great phone book/directory, a Phone Dialer, yes it will dial the phones of my Contacts, & you can send emails directly for the Phonebook, you can schedule Appointments and Things To Do in it also, plus a bunch of other features. All of this and much more with a very small learning curve!

3. I carry a printed list of the top 200 (some of them are long term wants) most important wants. I like to focus on the most profitable, so I revise it frequently. I keep it in a text file on my Desktop in my computer for easy editing and easy to print out. Yeah, a lot of what I do is on the computer, so if you are seriously computer inept, I would suggest that you get a partner that is good on the computer.A word here about computer illiteracy, "Computers are a tool and are here to stay, so get used to it and learn how use it, even if you have to go to a local college for a short non-credit class in computer usage!

4. Email: I have a large email list just for locating. Yes, they all are friends or businesses that are in the business (I also publish another newsletter for The Want List and also maintain a website for it. And believe me, you better get permission from each person that you add to lists like mine or you can be banned from your ISP (Internet Service Provider) and they don't kid around or just ask you to stop sending UCE (UnSolicited Email) known to many as (Sp*am). They just turn you off!!I make about 50-100 calls a day, I spend 6-8 hours a day on the computer when I am in the office, I email about 1000 emails a day (a lot of these are 10 to 20 at a time, as CC's), all in the name of locating collector cars and parts. I collect names, phone numbers and URL's (website addresses) of everyone and anyone that might be of help in my searches.

5. As a tool for your business, I suggest that you spend $7.00 and buy the ebook "Classic Salvage Yard Locator" at classicsalvageyardlocator.com. It has 200 plus Salvage Yards, phone, URL & and in most cases an interest area, like Fords, Chevy's etc, etc.The database I have boils down to a whole lot of friends and when I call, I ask for a certain individual that I know and I generally don't get put on hold. (Time is money!)

6. I communicate with my customers frequently, because you never know when they will turn up the Wanted Item on their own or thru another Finder. One thing that has helped me is to focus narrowly in a field that I know a lot about, be it a make, model or year. This being said, don't focus so narrowly that you ignore someone that wants to give you money!

7. There is also a lot of money in helping individuals, widows and estates to sell off collector cars or even complete collections. One time a lady called me having been recommended me by a friend of hers and asked if I could help her sell her late husband's old cars. I went out to her place just outside of a small town in South Dakota, it was a long drive, but I decided that she sounded like she needed help. When I got there it turned out to be a small hobby farm and with about 11 or 12 out buildings, she took me past 6 or 7 of the buildings to a nice looking small barn and opened the door. Inside were 12 cars in #1 or #2 condition. I told her I would be glad to get some values for her and help her sell them. I took a lot of pictures and as we were leaving I asked what were in the other buildings, she said. Oh, nothing but a bunch of old car parts….

All in all, the "late husband" had $1.2million in the cars and "old car parts", it took me 6 months part time to get them all sold , my commission of 10%, and I took a month off in Hawaii!!

Not all of my finds have been that great, I have had to tell a lot of people that the rusting Corvair framework that they have had setting on the ground in their backyard for 15 years is definitely not going to fund their retirement! Also I can't tell you how many people that I have had to count as a loss when they wanted to sell a rusting 57 Chevy 4 door part car for #1 book value! So like any service business, you take the good with the bad.

Most of the money I make is after the fact, meaning after I find the part or car. However, and this is a judgment call, if the part of vehicle the customer wants is hopeless or possibly "extremely long term" (I have looked for 12 years for a specific car with a specific vin # for a person who drove it to high school and is now rich enough to pay anything to find it.) This type of customer I charge a search fee to help me stay motivated. I also charge a flat fee to parts wanted customers to weed them out. You will find a lot of people want you to work for fre*e! But as for asking for a lot of money up front, you set off a lot of alarms in the minds of customers, not to mention the Better Business Bureau and Law enforcement organizations.Deadbeats? Yes there are some in this field too. If you take credit cards that helps and you can also take checks over the phone, the software for this is available for $10-$12 at nicks411.com

One last thought, don't try to cheat your customer because bad news travels at the speed of light. I know a more than a couple of Finders/Locators that spent a little time in the hoosegow because they messed with the grandfather of the local sheriff or some other local person of importance! Good luck and good hunting!

Copyright 2008 KL Nichols

FINDER'S FEE? PART I

FINDER'S FEE? PART II
KL Nichols

If you have ever looked for a collector vehicle or a part for a collector vehicle, you will know that it is a big world.

One of the biggest expenses to restoring a vehicle is the cost of time and long distance phone calls to find parts. When most guys can’t find their socks, it takes a special person to locate parts!

Some might say that has all changed because of the Internet and all the free long distance vailable today on cell phones and VOIP (Voice Over Internet Protocol) systems. But if anything, it makes the competition worse as the huge amount of pressure put on the available inventory by the Internet and Online auctions like ebay. EBay alone has 140 million users and every one
of them is looking for something to sell! Now that Is Pressure!!

Okay, so you know this, or at least are aware of it. So what? This is where Finders come in. If you have ever dealt with a Finder, you will know that they charge a fee for their services. A Finder takes the pressure off of you and a Finder has contacts that he (I say “He” for brevity here, but one of the best Finders I know is a stunning female type person!) has built up over his
career!

Why am I telling you this? Because you might be interested in being a Finder or at least knowing how a Finder works and what they charge?

A Finder generally is a person who has grown up loving cars. Along the way, they have developed a fairly large mental database of cars, and car parts. You know, the guy who can tell you if a dirty, greasy engine block lying in a dark corner of an unlit garage is a Hemi with out even getting dirty! That is generally the type person who is a Finder, but there is also a place for a detail person who loves to spend time on the phone and online surfing the parts yards websites. Which in either case that is what you do.

Now how do you make money being a Finder, or better yet, what do Finders charge? Since I do a lot of finding, I can tell you what I charge…

Cars are more profitable, you can make a lot more finding a car than a part. Nobody wants to pay you what it costs to find parts; it is just as easy to find a $25k car, as it is a $50 part. So if you are going to be a Finder, get your priorities straight.

If someone just has to have me find a part, I charge a minimum $50 up front and 25% of the cost of the part with a minimum of $50, not everybody can pull that off, but I don’t actually get money, most of the time I get a credit card to charge or I send them a PayPal invoice and most people know that PayPal will Cover their butts in case of fraud, so they are safe using a credit
card or PayPal or a credit card on PayPal. That’s a little confusing, but in time you will understand it.

Give the customer his money’s worth; but don’t spend a lot of time finding $10 parts. Depending on what your hourly fee is, you can also adjust these prices to your hourly fee. But, I have to say, it is a really desperate person who will pay a $1000 to find a $10 part so don’t be dumb!

Now on the other hand, there are Finders fees for classic cars! If, and this is the case more often than not, I have located the car before a Buyer shows up, I charge a flat fee of $100 or $200, depending on how much of a classic it is. If I have no clue where the car is and it is a hard to locate car, you know, a limited production car, then I ask a minimum of $250 - $500 and a percentage of the purchase value of the car, which depending on the circumstances can be
any where from 5% to 10%. I know that sounds like a lot, but considering the services I provide, finding, negotiation, and in some cases I get, at the customer’s expense, an appraisal, plus as often as not, I find the transporter for the buyer. One point here, as a Finder who brings a transporter to the table, you may be liable for any problems with the transporter! Case in point,
I found a 66 T-Bird for a guy in NY and the car was in OK, the firm I used sent a sub-contactor to transport the car, he drove around for a couple of months holding the car hostage and phoning in to the transporter every couple of days wanting more money. Eventually he dumped the car off in NY at a storage lot, which charged $35 a day, we didn’t find the car for over a month.
The transporter stood all of the costs, including the lot storage fee. This is the reason to check out the references of your chosen transporter! Oh yeahthe final cost was over $2500 and I only had to pay $750.

One more thing, if your buyer had purchased the classic at one of the big auctions, his cost of purchase would probably be a lot more than I charge!

Next issue in Part 2, we will talk about How To find cars and parts.

Copyright 2008 KL Nichols

WISDOM - FROM THE MILITARY MANUAL

"If the enemy is in range, so are you." - Infantry Journal
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"It is generally inadvisable to eject directly over the area you just bombed." - U.S. Air Force Manual
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"Whoever said the pen is mightier than the sword obviously never encountered automatic weapons." - General MacArthur
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"You, you, and you ... Panic. The rest of you, come with me." - U.S. Marine Corp Gunnery Sgt.
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"Tracers work both ways." - U.S. Army Ordnance
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"Five second fuses only last three seconds." - Infantry Journal
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"Any ship can be a minesweeper. Once."
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"Never tell the Platoon Sergeant you have nothing to do." - Unknown Marine Recruit
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"If you see a bomb technician running, follow him." - USAF Ammo Troop
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"Though I Fly Through the Valley of Death, I Shall Fear No Evil. For I am at 80,000 Feet and Climbing."
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"You've never been lost until you've been lost at Mach 3." - Paul F. Crickmore (test pilot)
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"The only time you have too much fuel is when you're on fire."
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"If the wings are traveling faster than the fuselage, it's probably a helicopter -- and therefore, unsafe."
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"When one engine fails on a twin-engine airplane you always have enough power left to get you to the scene of the crash."
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"Even with ammunition, the USAF is just another expensive flying club."
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"What is the similarity between air traffic controllers and pilots? If a pilot screws up, the pilot dies; If ATC screws up, .... The pilot dies."
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"Never trade luck for skill."
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The three most common expressions (or famous last words) in aviation are: "Why is it doing that?", "Where are we?" And "Oh S...!"
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"Friendly fire - isn't"
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"Airspeed, altitude and brains. Two are always needed to successfully complete the flight."
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"Mankind has a perfect record in aviation; we never left one up there!"
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"Flying the airplane is more important than radioing your plight to a person on the ground incapable of understanding or doing anything about it."
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"The Piper Cub is the safest airplane in the world; it can just barely kill you." - Attributed to Max Stanley (Northrop test pilot)
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"There is no reason to fly through a thunderstorm in peacetime." Sign over squadron ops desk at Davis-Monthan AFB, AZ, 1970
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"If something hasn't broken on your helicopter, it's about to."
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"You know that your landing gear is up and locked when it takes full power to taxi to the terminal."
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As the test pilot climbs out of the experimental aircraft, having torn off the wings and tail in the crash landing, the crash truck arrives, the rescuer sees a bloodied pilot and asks "What happened?". The pilot's reply: "I don't know, I just got here myself!" - Attributed to Ray Crandell (Lockheed test pilot)

From An Unkown Source - Let me know if you know the origin, I would like to give the originator credit!

You Missed this on eBay

Eight Cars on a SpikeThis is actually a fairly famous piece of roadside sculpture. It was created by Dustin Shuler and was commissioned by the partnership that owns the Cermak Plaza shopping center in Berwyn, Illinois. This is one of those things that would really go a long way toward irritating your homeowners association should it happen to end up in your front lawn. The cars on the “Spindle” starting at the top:
1. 1967 VW
2. 1976 BMW
3. 1981 Escort
4. 1974 or 1973 Capri
5. 1978 Mustang
6. 1981 Grand Prix
7. 1980 or 1979 LTD
8. 1981 or 1979 Mercury

MUSTANG ABUSE!

By Elizabeth Dinan

Owner of classic car says jealous husband should pay for damage

April 15, 2008 2:09 PMPORTSMOUTH — The owner of a restored 1968 Mustang that was "totaled" by his girlfriend’s jealous husband, who pummeled it with a golf club, told a judge his insurance company should not have to pay the $14,000 in damage.

The jealous husband, Matthew Neill, 30, of 41 Front St., Exeter, pleaded guilty in March to a pair of criminal mischief offenses, admitting he went to a Holly Lane residence on Jan. 12 and beat the antique Mustang with a golf club. He also admitted smashing the windshield of his bride’s 2007 Honda.

Neill was summonsed to Portsmouth District Court for an April 15 restitution hearing when, through an attorney, he disputed the $14,000 figure and suggested payment come from the insurance company.

The Mustang's owner (the Herald does not publish the names of crime victims) told the court he and his father restored the car to certified classic condition and displayed multiple photos as evidence. Another set of photos showed smashed out windows, removed Mustang logos, a smashed rearview mirror and damage to the interior caused by weather getting through the broken windows.

The cost to repair it to its restored condition, he told the court, is $5,068 for the interior and $11,753 for the exterior.

"It’s never going to be a classic vehicle again," he testified, adding his insurance company offered to total the car at the Blue Book value of $14,000.

Under cross examination by Neill’s attorney, the Mustang owner told the court he has no intention to file a claim for that $14,000.

Judge Stephen Morrison asked why.

"I was very upset and I don’t feel the insurance company should pay for the damage," he said. "He should pay for the damage to the vehicle."

The judge said he would review the evidence and issue a ruling at a later date.
Neill previously admitted that after discovering his bride was with another man, he grabbed the golf club and smashed out multiple windows on both of their cars.

During a March hearing, prosecutor Corey MacDonald told the court the victims reported hearing "a loud banging" outside, then discovered their damaged cars. After telling the officer they saw a familiar sport utility vehicle flee the scene, the investigation moved to Exeter, where police there found Neill’s vehicle still warm and stained with blood.

A broken golf club was discovered on the passenger seat.

Neill’s attorney, Phil McLaughlin, described the crimes as the "unfortunate" result of the dissolution of a six-month marriage.

Neill was sentenced to 12 months in the Rockingham County House of Corrections and fined $500, with $250 suspended. The sentence and half the fine are suspended contingent on his good behavior and payment of restitution.

HOW NOT TO SELL YOUR CLASSIC

Nick Cash

A lot of people think that putting a for sale sign in the window of your classic & parking it down at the Wal-Mart parking lot will do the trick. Well, the concept is good, but your classic may be vandalized, stripped, stolen or towed to an impound lot because Wal-Mart is not happy about the liability you are forcing on them, plus in some cities, even parking a car in your driveway with a for sale sign in the window is illegal! This is a law that a city council has passed to make the local car dealers happy (they pay a lot of taxes).

You need to protect your classic investment, and parking it where the public has unattended access to it, is a real bad idea! I have heard horror stories of classic cars loosing steering wheels, chrome, door handles, tires & wheels, hubcaps, and even engines when left unattended. A #2 car can be reduced to a project car by a couple of determined parts thieves. It used to be that it was kids looking for parts or a crooked body man, but with the advent of eBay, your classic may wind up being parted out nationally! The unfortunate problem is that unless the thieves are actually caught in the act with the parts in their possession, most car parts are unidentifiable when found later and as such make recovery difficult is not impossible.

Another BIG No-No is letting a prospective buyer take your valuable classic for a drive alone. First of all, this may invalidate your insurance and never trust a buyer’s affirmation that his insurance covers him in your car, because he may be lying or may not have any insurance to start with and if he has larceny in his mind, he may just never come back with it. I have seen engines blown, transmissions ruined, clutches blown, parts stolen and in on case a wonderful person took the car and used it in a wedding! Never underestimate the devious nature of a potential buyer. Make sure you are perched in the front seat right next to the driver testing your classic and that way maybe you can ward off a potential wheelie popper!

Is there any safe way to show your classic? Yes the odds are in your favor that the guy looking at your classic is a good guy, but use your street smarts to make decisions on him. If he had “I feel the need for speed” tattooed on his arm, give him a good third degree grilling and wear your T-Shirt with, “I have The Cops On Speed Dial!”.

A little more advice, show your car somewhere public and not where you have it stored! The reason for this is that classics can be car-jacked too! And if the crook knows where your car is stored, it may not be there the next time you look.

Copyright 2008 by K & L Enterprises

SELL YOUR COLLECTOR VEHICLE CHEAPLY

KL Nichols

I have been in the collector vehicle advertising business and found a lot of ways to advertise them for sale.

Yes, I am quite familiar with all of the Pay-Per-Ad services and magazines. That being said, I intend to tell you of a few ways to sell your collector vehicle for little on nothing!

One of the prime ways to sell is on CraigsList.com, (hereafter called CL) unfortunately, it can also be a waste of time. One of CL’s problems is that you can only advertise your vehicle on one. That means when you advertise your vehicle on the Kansas City home webpage, that it isn’t searchable on any of CL’s 100’s other city page. What a waste of good traffic. When eBay bought 25% of CL a year or so ago, I had high hopes that they could resolve that problem, but alas, so far nothing. Keep in mind that locally might not be the best place to advertise your classic, so pick a big city not too far away to run your ad on. One other thing, CL readers are notoriously cheapskates. When you can advertise for nothing, you get a lower end clientele. One other problem with CL is that there are a lot of scammers working the ads on it, so be forewarned! Never give out your address or the location of where your vehicle is stored and never let someone drive your classic without you setting right there is the front seat too!

Another freebie photo ad site is BuzzTrader.com. (hereafter called BT) BT has a unique following and it has a website feature that allows other website owners to brand BT for embedding on their website, so you get hundreds if not thousands of page views all over the Internet.

Another freebie is Auto-RoundUP.com, (hereafter called AR) not only a great website where you can post a free photo ad, but they print three of the larger vehicle collector magazines and will run two free photo ads a month for you. AR is a good source to sell parts and memorabilia too!

Another great freebie website is RacingJunk.com (hereafter called RJ) One reason I like RJ is that it is compartmentalized, which is also the reason it will take you a little time to put your ad in the right category. It is aimed at the racing and drag market, but has a large classic section too! Your ad will run 90+ days

Copyright

One last thought, for top dollar, make sure that your vehicle is clean, fix all the broken stuff and make sure the engine will start. Sure you can sell a car in almost any kind of condition, but if you really want top dollar, do your best!