Selling an incomplete project car

Has anyone on here had any success selling an uncompleted project car? Or maybe what I should be asking is what do you do when you've run out of motivation to finish a project?

I've been working off and on putting a 302 Ford into a (rust free) W123 Benz for the past 9 years. Right now it's at a point where it needs all the little bugs worked out, a custom driveshaft made, all new brake calipers and pads, wheel wells rolled out to fit the tires, clutch hydraulics put together.

The engine runs great, freshly built with a cam, springs, 4bbl., shorty headers, bigger valves and pocket ported heads.

Right now I feel like most of the value is in the engine, but I don't really want to remove it from the car and try to sell it separately. Nor do I want to try and sell parts of it piecemeal, I'd rather sell it complete.

How does one go about pricing something like this? Value the engine and get a cheap car attached to it?

In reply to TheRyGuy :

In 2009 I was forced to sell my nearly completed XKE roadster. At that point I had slightly over $45,000 in parts and materials into it not to mention over 1800 hours of labor.  
It was right,  no shortcuts taken etc. heavy marketing etc. the best offer was a little over $22,000 

I was thrilled I got that much.  

Something like this would be a hard sell in normal times, I would sell the engine and then the car. I know that's not the answer you were looking for but that is how I would do it.

And some real time information (I have cars and parts for sale)  not much is selling around me. YMMV

Paul

If you were close, I would be interested in the engine/trans. I just bought a complete "take-out" from an '83 Mustang GT and have another car that could needs a Ford swap as well.

Part it expecting to sell the engine and bits.  You may have to scrap the rest unfortunately.  Offer it up as the engine must be removed or take the whole car.   

Post it up here as well, we are wild and crazy guys.

Are you selling for challenge money? It will go fast.....

Outside of some of the crazy people on this site  there probably isn't a big demand for a Mercedes-Benz with a Ford engine.

Parting is probably gonna be your best way to recoupe.

Sometimes you just have to bite the bullet and move on, or clear your schedule and finish it.  Bought a TR8 to flip years ago.  It was a mess, but the body was very solid.  I got it real cheap and just wanted to make a quick 3 to 4 K to put into another project car.  Got it running and sorted thru the mechanicals and tossed on a good used vinyl top.  Tried to sell it quick, but it was still very ugly.  Torn seats, bad carpet, ripped roof, bad tires, scratched and awful paint.  Lots of lookers, no takers.  Stripped it to bare metal and painted it.  All was going smoothly until the clear caused the base to crinkle.  The paint place had a new guy and he substituted the wrong clear coat.  I lost all enthusiasm for the project.  Pushed it way back into the garage.  Last Summer I decided I was tired of looking at it and wanted it gone.  Let it be known that it could be purchased as is for $5K.  Lookers but no takers.   Great price for a solid original TR8 that just needed cosmetics.  Decided screw it, I'll paint it again.  Three weeks later it was sanded down, crinkles were fixed, epoxied, base coated, and clear coated.  Came out fantastic.  Let it be known it could be had for $7500 the way it sat if I didn't have to reassemble the car.  Came with freshly redone seats as well.  Lots of lookers, no takers.  Spent the Winter, refurbishing everything to bolt back on.  Installed all new rubber, emblem kits, gaskets, etc.  Installed new carpet,the newly covered seats, and a new canvas top.  Juts put on new rubber on reconditioned stock wheels.  Probably dropped another $3K on the car since the repaint started.  All in, might have $6K into the car including painting it twice.  Just refused a cash offer for $12K.  Think I may give this one to my dad, or send my daughter off to college with it in the fall.  Started the next TR8 restoration a few weeks ago.  Funny how something you couldn't stand to look at suddenly becomes something you want to hold on to after you show it a little love.

 Thank you all for your thoughts and suggestions.

stuart in mn said:

Outside of some of the crazy people on this site  there probably isn't a big demand for a Mercedes-Benz with a Ford engine.

You are correct in saying there isn't much demand for a Bastardized Blue Oval Benz!  I fully lump myself in with the crazies here!

I think I may put it up in the classifieds here. I had intentions of doing a whole build thread, but I've never got around to doing that. Perhaps my classified add, can serve as a build thread too? Might help it sell, might help with motivation to complete? 

I also may just let it sit for a while. I think I've lost interest because I really don't have the money to finish it anytime soon. I just don't want to let it sit so long that entropy starts to set in, and the value keeps dropping even more. At least I have it stored inside.

Central Ohio eh?  Have you met Patrick?

I sold my BMW 2002 in the middle of a megasquirt project. Guy finished it, drove it for a bit, then sold it for a nice profit.  I had it maybe 85% completed, but didn't have time to finish it. I sold it for stupid low money because I decided to move 1000 miles away with short notice and was already going to ship 2 cars.  It was the one that got away.

My experience is you can't really sell unfinished projects unless the price is so cheap the parts are worth more than the car.

It is for this reason I try to spend as little as possible on my projects, because when they don't get fininshed, they are worthless, so this limits my losses.

I've been looking for a 302/c4 combo if it's an automatic dropout I'd be interested 

If you can't drive them, they are just parts in close formation. Worse yet, a pile of parts that the buyer hs to buy as a lot and store/separate at his own time and expense.

Unless you can find a like minded person who was about to build a similar project and you can save them time and $$$, its best to part it out or practically give it away.

Pete

In reply to T.J. (FS) :

Every project car is 85% done. 

Unless you want to sit on it for a while, you may have to sell it for less than the value of the engine.  I agree with the above that unfinished projects tend to be hard to sell, at least until they hit the "running well enough to drive around the block" stage.  before then, the buyer has to trust that the seller is telling the truth about a lot of work, and that they didn't "bubba" the thing together.

In reply to dropstep :

Ah, it's a 302/T5 combo.

I may just sit on it for awhile till I can get it to the point where I can drive it around the block. It will then be worth at least as much as a running and driving car, and I think easier to sell. It's work to remove the engine, and work to finish it

The only things that are holding it back from moving under its own power are fabbing a clutch slave bracket, all 4 brake calipers and pads, custom length driveshaft, and rolling the fenders out for the tires and rims I have for it. 

That would I think make it about 90% complete. Interior is in great shape, body has dents and faded paint. Driveability, who knows? Carb and distributor would need tuned, plus a handful of other little things that crop up and are annoying.

Definitely worth much, much more as a running/driving car.  There's someone sorta close to me that's trying to sell a VR6 swapped VW Pickup truck that's not running/driving.  I'd love to buy it but am totally uninterested in giving someone $3000+ for something he claims runs, if you hotwire the fuel pump but still can't drive it. 

At that point, to me, as others have pointed out, it's worth the cost of a VR6 motor sitting on a pallet, so $500ish?