Best of OPC. 
Field of Mopars Comes to Auction in Oregon.
April 1, 2014
10 comments
Props to homeboy Marc for some stellar images. Check out the awesome photo gallery on American Car Collector. You better believe that an OPC photo-shoot roadtrip is in the works.
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10 comments:
Nice! Just went to the auction site and I want the red 1966 Newport. I am always astonished by people who collect these huge amounts of cars only to let them rot.
I'm astonished also at this. Problem is if there's nowhere to put those vehicles, at least they're not getting crushed in the junkyard. I like that 70' Chrysler 300!!
Wow, the patina on these is exceptional. Like, the kind every rat rodder dreams of. Lots of "boring" four-doors I'd love to save.
Anon, that puzzles me too. For hoarders their cars seem to be the most precious things in the world - yet they don't seem to care about them at all. It's as if it's the occupation of space that brings some kind of satisfaction for them, and not the cars per se. That said, these cars would've probably been crushed a long time ago if it wasn't for this guy.
I don't get it!
what's happened to you guys? Did you fall off the face of the earth?
After umpteen years of daily updates and now nothing since April 1, I need my old parked cars fix!
C'mon and get back on blog!
Sincerely,
Mikael, I think hoarders (of anything) are mentally ill. I knew a guy in the 90's, who had a lot full of nice old cars from the 50's, just sitting out and rusting away. People would stop and ask to buy parts or whole cars...he would never sell. They just sat there for years...till one day, no one heard from the guy. After about 6 months, the landlord got someone to take all the cars to the crusher, to pay the rent that was owed. What a waste. I see similar things a lot.
And yes, what has happened to this site? Did they finally run-out of old cars in the Pacific Northwest?
@anonymous: "I am always astonished by people who collect these huge amounts of cars only to let them rot."
If you read the actual description you'll see they aren't rotting, at least not much: A desert is better place to store them than a garage in Florida. Not perfect, but it doesn't cost anything either and storage for big cars like this is a major cost.
The desert sun has eaten the paint for many of these but that's basically irrelevant, you need to grind it to bare metal anyway and none of these had badly pitted rust (at least as far I can see in the pics).
Almost all of the expensive chromed parts (or impossible parts), like emblems and badges and trims are almost good as new. Most of the cars were also complete, lights and blinkers and everything, very easy starting point for restoring.
Interior probably needs upholstering and most of the seals too, but don't let the rusty outside fool you: Re-chroming two big bumpers (like most of these have) to factory quality costs more than having half of the body re-made from sheet metal. Or all the seals on the car.
Good and complete chromed parts are often 2/3 of the value of a restored car at this car class. (Unless you can buy those as new production: Re-chroming kills your budget and for many parts it's not possible, esp. cast zinc badges.)
It doesn't leave much for body, chassis or mechanics: Those are relatively cheap items.
@Donkey Hoaty: Collecting nice items isn't much different than collecting money: At some point you have much more than you can ever use (if you are successful).
I haven't seen anyone claiming that hoarding money is a mental illness ... while I like to think it is: Collector mania or just pure greedyness.
But, as a collector, taking care of the collection once you are gone, is as essential as collecting itself and that seems to be the really hard part for many.
Then we can see tens of rare cars gone to crusher as the new owner of the land wants it cleared asap, no interest at all to "old junk" there. Happens here in North way too often too.
Some people have arranged auctions while they still live (but are too old to actually do anything), or, like this guy, the inheritors know what to do (or are instructed in the last will). That's a good thing: No reserve on these means that only those cars no-one really wants, even for ~free, are crushed.
One more note: There were so many of these I'd really, really love to have, but as I'm in Europe and transporting a project all the way here costs the same or even more than a drivable similar here, it's unfortunately not feasible to buy.
Damn.
christine is in there. best not admire the cars in proximity to her cux you'll regret it!
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