Quote:
Originally Posted by Kevin Howard
I received an email today referring to this 403 on ebay which is currently at £500. The comment was made "Yes the Poms ravaged another restorable Bristol."
But restorable at what cost? It sounds like a bit of a basket case, and the restoration cost would surely be far in excess of what it could be worth in the foreseeable future, even with it's engine and gearbox.
I wonder what it would have cost with the engine and gearbox, maybe £5k? That's a pretty cheap way to get an engine and gearbox for your AC, that would be worth many times more than the Bristol.
At £500 it's certainly doomed now, because the parts value must be several times that.
The only way to stop this happening is raise the profile of the Bristol marque and ultimately raise the value of the old cars. |
People look at life in different ways. Some people go into a car dealer and buy a new car, even though as soon as they drive it out the door, it is worth less money. It depreciates at a shocking rate and five years later, even though it does the same thing (move one from point A to B), they have lost a lot of money.
Other people would never buy a new car, for that very reason. Instead they take advantage of the depreciation.
Buying a candidate for restoration fits in the same class. You buy it to get "your" car, to get it made in the form you want. It is not an investment (except as a justification to ones wife... the utterly practical one), it is a pleasure. Sure one could look for someone else's folly, but in the Bristol 403 world, there are far too few of these. One could pay considerably more and buy a runner, and then do a running restoration, but often one finds the same equally expensive corrosion - hidden below a nice paint job.
As Bristol supporters, we want to see these historic vehicles saved. Thus, we should do all we can to encourage those with a deep pocket and passion to take the plunge.
For the chequebook restorer, I suggest two options...
1.) Have the factory redo it. Send a blank cheque in and don't ask your accountant what the final number was. Enjoy.
2) Send it to Auto Restorations Ltd. in Christchurch NZ (see
http://www.autorestorations.co.nz/) and relax. They will send it back within a year to the standard you require, all the way up to Pebble Beach winner, at a reasonable price, about NZ $60 hour.
Claude