My wife already knows the routine: I come down the stairs slowly, shaking my head, looking slightly pale. I have a distant look in my eyes. "Does it run?" she asks.
I have a sickness. I have more projects than I will ever possibly finish - and not just cars! Motorcycles, home remodel, art projects, guitars to fix, gardens to plant - if I quit my dayjob and started working on all of 'em tomorrow morning I'd still never finish. Still, I can't stop looking.
The good side of it is finding things like
this. I stumbled down the stairs, slackjawed with wonder. "What is it? Liv asked. I couldn't even really tell her. How do you describe a car that looks more like a boat, but sort of like an airplane too? All those switches. All those gauges.
Whatever it is now, it started out as a 1947 Crosley sedan. A San Jose aircraft engineer (re)built it in 1958, got it titled as a Special Construction vehicle and used the heck out of it for the next couple of decades - there are 60,000 miles on the clock! It's barely run in the past 30 years, but the guy who listed it on Ebay (the builder's neighbor) got it fired up before he listed it for sale with a minimum bid of $800.
It's wacky. Now I like wacky, but this was too much even for me. Despite the fact that - for once - an Ebay Crosley was within a couple hours' drive of me, I didn't buy it the second I saw it. I admit that I did email the seller and ask about a Buy-it-Now price (I HAD to). He thought about it and said he'd take $2500, and he added that to the listing. I told Liv that I'd found a really neat car and that somebody was going to get a great deal. And went to bed.
It was sold before I got up - I think it was for sale for less than 12 hours. I've followed a lot of
crazy Crosleys for sale, but this is way near the top of the list for cool. Somebody got a great car, and I REALLY hope he/she brings it to the
West Coast Club meet in September.... buyer - if you are out there reading this, consider it my personal invitation - and congratulations!
1 comment:
Okay..here;s another project to whet your appetite. I'm selling my 1960's Fageol 44 I/O engine Before I EBAY-it, I thought I'd see if there are any Crosleykook readers interested. It is complete with lower drive unit, shaft and
prop. It turns over freely and the plugs are clean. Reportedly when I bought it 10 years ago it was running but I have never unboxed it until today for pix. I intended to convert it for an HMOD project but that got sold off first.
Asking $750.00 and you can probably get $200+ for the lower drive unit if you plan to use it in a car. Pix available from lftrn97@comcast.net.
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