keoni1978

I'm new to the 356 models so I dont know a thing about price. But this weekend I stumble upon a 1961 356B and the car has been repainted and overall the paint job is pretty good. The only problem is that none of the emblems has been reinstalled and some other misc little things. The good thing is that the current owner has all the parts and some more. Hes asking 12500 and I'm assuming its a 356 B normal. What would be a fair price to offer? THanks

RJT

Without seeing the car or at least a picture or two, it's hard to pin-point a price. Installing emblems is no big deal.......Repairing rust is! Check the floorpans, the tray under the battery, inside the headlight buckets, under the doors, and everywhere else! If it's relatively solid, 10-12 grand is not that bad. We've seen some pretty rough cars sell for 6 and 7 grand lately. But, if it needs alot of work, restoration is spelled with dollar signs. A 61 'B' is a pretty common car and not as desirable as a 'C' car or an earlier 'A' car. I do like the T5 'B' cars thuogh. T5s have a more rounded hood and only a single engine grill. T6s have twin grills and a slightly more squared hood.

Hope this helps

Robert

sharky47

For what it's worth, the T-5 B that I am working on was bought for 6k. It has very minimal rust, no real body damage, complete motor, etc.

keoni1978

Thanks guys. The car has new floor pans from front to back and theres no rust at all. Pretty much everythings been fixed or replaced and all it needs are bunch of minor details to complete the car. I offered the guy 11000 and hes ok with that. Should I go ahead and buy it or go lower?

RJT

Kinda hard to go lower once you have offered an accepted price. Guess it wouldn't hurt to try though.

R

keoni1978

I spoke to the owner last night again and appearently is a numbers matching car and the engine was rebuilt about 15000 miles ago. The car just need a little TLC. The cars been sitting there for 8 months so hes in a hurry to sell it. So if I want, I could go a little bit lower....but how low because I want to be fair to both parties. RJT, can you give me a range please? thanks

Pedro356C

Hi Keoni1978...have someone experienced inspecting the car for you regarding rust...structural rust is an expensive fix and the paint could hide a lot of things including tons of bondo...if you have the time you can inspect the body for bondo yourself using a magnet...good luck...Pedro

RJT

It never hurts to wave a handful of hundred dollar bills under a guys nose! Go to the bank and get 10 grand in hundreds, keep 1 grand in your pocket, and lay the 9 grand on the table. You can always pull the other thousand out if that doesn't work. You never know until you try! Cash talks, and you know what walks!

I bought a beautiful 70 914-6 for $7,000 doing the above.

Robert

keoni1978

Thanks for all the helpful info. I might pick up the car tonight or noon tomorrow, I'll let you guys know. Thanks again

P.S-I was reading some of the old archives and someone mentioned a PPI for a 356. Is it necessary for a car this old?

Pedro356C

A PPI is a pre purchase inspection...I think the fact the car is old is irrelevant! PPI could be used for a car, boat, bike , diamond or a house...it's just a way of asking an area expert to inspect the good and protect you from surprises...I'd do that unless you had a 356 before and knows exactly where to look for damage...good luck...

Greg D.

>The only problem is that none of the emblems has been reinstalled and some other misc little things. The good thing is that the current owner has all the parts and some more. Hes asking 12500 and I'm assuming its a 356 B normal. What would be a fair price to offer? THanks

I've recently seen a few turds - pardon my french - when we were looking for cars for a friend. It's impossible to give you a fair estimate like this, it would also be hard with pictures - pictures lie more often than statistics !!! ;-)

Bottom line, I gotta ask: if you were going to redo a car and paint it ($$$), why not put the emblems back on ? Did he fill the emblem holes too ? If so that's a bad sign right there... Also, it's a B coupe. On the scale or desireability (and value) it's next to last just above a notchback.

That said, if the car was rust free, ran great, had quality work done to it and was complete, $12500 would be a steal ! But my guess is it's not - call me a pessimist - just seen lots of aforementioned turds lately !

alarti

Hey Greg,

Which turds and friend are you referring to exactly?

Anyways, keoni1978, Greg is right there are a lot of bad representations out there and $12,500 would be a great price. Anything under $11,000 would be down right robbery. From experience I'd tell you that there is probably more wrong with the car than meets the eye (Greg and I can certainly give you tons of feedback on that) and you would be much better off getting an expert to do a PPI. Nothing other than a on-site inspection by someone knowledgable will work. Pictures can hide a LOT of problems as can paint.

Good luck and hopefully welcome to 356 ownership.

Pedro: I am happy for you but sad to hear that Flipper might be going far, far away.

Pedro356C

Hi Andres...what a nice picture!!!! Your avatar's picture looks like from a sales brochure...

"Flipper" is going to the land of Chocolate and small breweries...potential buyer got an expired visa though and will have to renew in order to enter the US..."Flipper" is mine until the 27th and the weather is blessing us in South Florida...

Welcome to the Rennlist my friend...

RJT

At least you can drive Flipper because he is still yours. Helga is going to have to sit and wait in our garage for 3 WEEKSs until Intercity Transport can get here to pick her up. We didn't plan on having her sitting around for that long. ANYWAY, we'll start her regularly to keep her juices flowing, but it's not like we can just jump in and go for a long ride. She isn't ours anymore. AND It's going to be tight in the garage as we HAVE to start prepping Max for the Parade. We are going full Concours and can't wait any longer for "More Room". We HAVE to start the big time 1000 q-tips on the floor cleaning process. I guess we'll make do and just put him up on jack stands in the corner and get going!!!

Andres,
Welcome to Rennlist! We are always glad to have new people on the 356 board.

JoAnne

Pedro356C

Hi JoAnne...Andres is one of the Talklist's young guys...he is just 78...by this picture you would not believe he's older than me...I'm just 77 1/2...