Acquired wrecked Australian ZH Fairlane - What to do with it ?

[440]

What to do ? I've acquired a wrecked Australian ZH Fairlane (brown). The thing is I already have 2 of them, one is quite nice (blue) and the other (white) is a so so daily driver. The brown one I acquired is from the same owner that I bought the white one from . I originally bought the white one from his daughter as parts for the blue one, but upon getting the car going it was too good to tear apart. The owner had swapped the engines between the white/brown ones before I bought the white one, I'm not fussed if either have the correct engines but its funny how neighboring cars have the others engine.

Anyways, the wreckers wouldn't give him anything for it and instead of scrapping it or paying storage costs he basically gave it to me if I paid to get it towed to my house. This is all without seeing the car so I had no idea how bad it was. It gets it to my house, I pay the tow and upon inspecting it it's not nearly as bad I thought. It's quite fixable in my opinion but probably not worth it $$ wise as the door hinges/bulkhead are slightly damaged. Fix the bulkhead, a new door, fender, tie rods and she's apples...

It is mechanically sound, the engine was reconditioned 3 years ago, trans shifts fine, 4 wheel disks, limited slip rear, fairly new Sprint Gas gen II system just to name a few, and everything works.

Do I strip it down for parts, do I repair it? What would you do?  

[Fred]

That's a tough one. some pics might help us help you decide.

[440]

#1) Blue Fairlane

#2) White Fairlane - Daily driver/ originally parts car for blue one

#3) Brown Fairlane

The brown one has just come back from a trip pretty much halfway around Australia... Didn't burn any oil, didn't miss a beat. With a wash to remove all the bugs, grime etc, it will clean up pretty good. I also have a set of mags that can go on it.

[440]

And here is the damage to it....

I'm surprised the trim strip below the door isn't bent up considering everything around it is mangled..

[Fred]

Hmmm. Tough one. If you've got the cash, I say restore it, the damage isn't too bad and it will scrub up well.  You may even be able to sell it for a reasonable price once fixed. If not keep it anyway (if you have the space) as it's too good to dump.  
As for the blue and white...............very nice rides.  

[greenpigs]

List it on Ebay but do not show that side.

If you have the space keep it, how rare are these cars?

A sorta common car I would part out.

[Bob T]

Part the Brown one, lot of rust from the torn up pic, keep what you might need and off it goes. Thats just me though - I'm done with poo brown cars  had some before
It the White one a Marquis? An Uncle of mine had one when I was a young fella, thought it was the ducks nuts

[fc7_plumcrazy]

looks interesting.
Any pics from the back to see those cars?

Carsten

[tan top]

  think the suspension has taken a wack / tweek that side also , unless the tire absorbed most of the impact
A pillar looks damaged ,  &   looks like some rot also , whats the rest of it like under there ??
as you have two already , & not knowing much about how rare they are , think i would , strip it for parts !!  

[440]

Hello All,
Thanks for the input. These cars aren't very rare but they are not common either. They have slowly been increasing in value over the years but nothing to jump over the moon about.

I'd rather restore the white one then the brown one, and apparently the white with blue roof and interior trim wasn't offered as an option. I've never seen another in that color combo either. It is only a Fairlane 500, the marquis are the ones that fetch the decent dollars, being full power accessories have the the larger 351's w/9"

The brown one has a little bit of rot but not too bad, it's in the typical places. The back/trunk area is almost perfect. It has a new gas cylinder and the fuel tank looks new too. A pillars also look good. Just the very corner of the windscreen is cracked but I think it's due to the fender catching the corner of it as it was pushed up. The front suspension is knocked out of alignment on the right but the inner uni-body structure looks good, wont know without measuring it up though. Replacing the right side suspension would be pretty cheap if it needed replacing.  

Here's is what they look like from the back....

[greenpigs]

Sounds like you want to keep it to me....so do that.

[440]

Sounds like you want to keep it to me....so do that.

I'm not fussed either way, at least it runs and drives under its own power so moving it if need be is easy. I can't say the same if I strip it down and have to find the room to store the engine, trans, rear end etc... Moving the shell around without the drive train just makes things difficult, plus trucks can't really get up our driveway to haul it away once parted out. I think the best thing to do in the meantime is to just hold onto it, much to my wife's disgust.

The easiest solution is to flip it but I cant as I'd feel wrong in doing it.   

[Mrs440]

   Well hello everyone!  Yes, I'm the disgusted wife who found all three cars.....   Mr 440 will now disagree  

[greenpigs]

                     BUSTED!

[elacruze]

I like the white one best. And hello, Mrs.!

[Paul G]

If it were me, I would just flip the brown one. You already have two others. Since you have it running it is now worth more than your initial investment correct? Some one else may be looking for a decent parts car or project. Make a little profit, and pass the jewel on to some one else. If you have the will, and feel it necessary, you may want to swap over the correct and/or better parts to one of your keepers before you flip it. Thats what I would probably do. 

[440]

I guess I have to behave now    

I give my wife full credit for finding two of the cars    the white and brown one. We purchased the blue one upon seeing it for sale on the street during a walk to the grocery store. She took it to work one day and a co-worker of hers said that he had one, turned out he actually had two. His daughter had to move house and couldn't take the white one with her, so he offered it to us. The white one was pretty bad when we bought it, and almost passed on it because it was so bad. We slowly made it better and better, and it has turned out to be one of the best cars we've owned (aside from the charger of course  )

I find it hard to flip the brown one on his misfortune. If he had the room to keep it he could sell it just as much as I could and come out much better off, or at the very least recoup the money from the emergency tow. He basically gave it to us if we paid to get it out of yard and the tow to our house, which ended up being less then his original emergency tow. I'm guessing because he didn't want to see it get crushed or pay the storage fees till he could figure out what to do with it.    I could definitely sell it for more then I paid in total but wouldn't feel right in doing so.

I could use quite a few parts from it or swap them over to make ours that little bit better. I'll clean it up within the next few days and see what it looks like with a different set of wheels... Maybe fix it and see if he wants to buy it back for the cost of repair, if not then sell it? There's no real rush on it but the wife said she doesn't want it sitting around for 6 months.    

[aussiemuscle]

how rare are these cars?

kinda rare, but by the same token, not very popular. i see them mostly in 'just cars' magazine going for about $2000. (compared to it's Falcon sibling, which go for $10,000 in the same condition.)

[maxwellwedge]

From the door forward it sure looks like an Impala

[Darkman]

I would keep the nice bits from it (trim, lenses, glass etc) and any parts you could use then part the rest out. Once finished call up a tow company that come collect your car for free. They advertise quite often

[TK73]

RACE CAR

[Old Moparz]

If parts are tough to come by for the 2 other cars you're keeping, save it as a parts source. If you don't need parts, or don't want to part it, sell it & split the profit with the people who gave it to you.

Personally, I'd try to store it as a spare parts bin if parts were difficult to get. 

[Nacho-RT74]

[fc7_plumcrazy]

Thanks for the back pic!

I would let the brown one survive if there is no need to dismantle it right now.
Why kill it if mybe someons comes along later and ants to use it (as a whole car)


Carsten

[aussiemuscle]

so, 440. it's been over a year. what did you do with the old brown turd?