When it comes to rebuilding a car, how far gone, is too far gone? This 1955 Chevrolet Bel Air is pretty rough, and it’s been sitting in a field for decades. But, the owner gave it up for free, so it was worth grabbing, right? Maybe not. Take a look at the video and the condition of the car.
It’s missing glass, and what’s there is broken. All of the body panels are rusted and dented, and there appears to be no engine or transmission. One might be tempted to jump all in with the low price of free, but if you ever planned on doing anything with the car, will you really be saving any money? If you take something like this where every panel, every piece of glass, and every piece of trim, etc., etc., you might as well have just found a car in better shape and paid a little bit more for it. By the time you got this done and on the road, you’d be in it for what, $80,000 or more?
We present this question to you, the reader: is it better to find a good project car to start with and pay a little more, or go for the cheapest thing you can find no matter what condition it’s in? This is especially meaningful if you are going to do the work yourself. A certain amount of value has to be placed on your sweat equity. Sure you could put in all the hours to do it, anything is fixable, but is it worth all that time?
It really tickles our interest to think of something like this for free, regardless of condition. It would surely be good for something. But, could the excitement of the low price blind you into missing the high price of fixing it down the road? What do you think?