Resell value

[Julian with a Tbird]

I have recently bought a 1965 and 1966 for 2000$ for both to restore. The 66 has original 390 and automatic tranny, most work is body (rear trunk area) and motor. I'm assuming I will need to put 10,000 in the car. The original paint has been ruined by a previous owner so I will put my own custom paint last.
Does anyone have any idea if I make this top notch and keep it all original how much I can sell it for.
And does anyone have good websites for finding original or atleast well done aftermarket parts.

[vince]

One of the smartest things you can do is go to the 'Country Store' section on the website and purchase the OFS manual. This gives you all the specs and details you need to help you "restore'' the car. Good news for you the '65 and '66 are in the one book. You can decide how close to original you would like to be. Also on this website are vendors who, in addition to supporting VTCI and the website, have old, NOS and new replacement parts. They all have websites you can page through.

As to prices what a range! Buy a copy of Hemmings and see what is being offered for sale. Many of these are usually finished drivers. Also, find an old car retailer like Country Classics in IL, they will have a range of cars in a range of (running) conditions. This gives you the idea.

One other item; the price is wonderful. Be sure you have a title in hand before you get too far. No title greatly reduces the price.

Enjoy your new cars.

[TbirdIntender]

Congrats! I've had my '66 nearly a year, and though it came to me very good from the second owner, I've still had quite a few issues. I find the key is to just keep telling yourself, "Oh, all this fun is what I bought it for!"

As for prices, vince is so right that there's a very big range. A good source I recommend is Auto Tempest:

https://www.autotempest.com/

Enter the stats on the model you're interested in and it will bring together ads from several sources, from Hemmings to Craigslist, and you'll soon get a feel for where the market is.

We love pictures! Post up what you're doing as you get into your restoration. Best of luck!

[Julian with a Tbird]

Congrats! I've had my '66 nearly a year, and though it came to me very good from the second owner, I've still had quite a few issues. I find the key is to just keep telling yourself, "Oh, all this fun is what I bought it for!"

As for prices, vince is so right that there's a very big range. A good source I recommend is Auto Tempest:

https://www.autotempest.com/

Enter the stats on the model you're interested in and it will bring together ads from several sources, from Hemmings to Craigslist, and you'll soon get a feel for where the market is.

We love pictures! Post up what you're doing as you get into your restoration. Best of luck!

Thank you very much!

[JamesR]

I'm assuming I will need to put 10,000 in the car. The original paint has been ruined by a previous owner so I will put my own custom paint last.
Does anyone have any idea if I make this top notch and keep it all original how much I can sell it for.

To the OP, that's a very difficult question to answer, but I get a generally bad feeling from the scenario you describe. Is there a reason you are assuming you are going to spend $10k? Have you priced materials and parts out? And is that 10k per car, or total for both?

I can't quite tell if your intent is flipping or not, but regardless, fourth gen T-Birds are not tri-five 2 door Chevy's in terms of value. You bought those project cars at a low price for a reason. I've noticed the prices of this era of Thunderbird going up slightly in the last year or so, but they're still generally a bargain for such recognizable and distinctive old cars...and it almost never makes sense financially to restore old cars that are relatively low priced when in good or presentable condition. It makes much better financial sense to buy them in good condition to begin with.

That doesn't mean a person shouldn't restore one - many people on this forum have accomplished impressive restorations of these worthy and impressive cars - but when the emphasis of your question is on resale value, well...it sounds to me like you're in for a disappointment. Also, a "custom" paint job will not enhance the value of a 65-66 T-Bird. It will detract from it, depending on the outrageousness of it. If it's just a non-original color, not such a big deal, but if it's flamboyant in some way, most people won't be interested. Sorry for the bad news, but at least it's honest.

[JamesR]

Following up on what I posted before, here's an ad from a respected forum member who has a '66 for sale...or did as of late last year. Knowing what I know now, before I'd ever drop $10,000+ on "restoring" a '66 project (not counting purchase price), I'd consider buying this beautiful car for $16,000. It's had the motor rebuilt and other drive train components refurbished, as I recall. It's a very nice looking and straight T-Bird from California. I personally believe it would be very hard to replicate results this good for the kind of money we're talking about. Trying to save you some trouble and money.

https://www.vintagethunderbirdclub.net/ ... =5&t=18651

[64ZCODE]

Check out auction results for TBirds on bringatrailer.com.

[paulr]

I'm assuming I will need to put 10,000 in the car. The original paint has been ruined by a previous owner so I will put my own custom paint last.
Does anyone have any idea if I make this top notch and keep it all original how much I can sell it for.

Also, a "custom" paint job will not enhance the value of a 65-66 T-Bird. It will detract from it, depending on the outrageousness of it. If it's just a non-original color, not such a big deal, but if it's flamboyant in some way, most people won't be interested. Sorry for the bad news, but at least it's honest.

I will agree with JamesR about everything. I've been tracking sales of these for about 12 years. Unless you're going to qualify for a Mecum auction, the hard reality is you're going to be very lucky to make any profit on a sale vs. investment basis. In which case, 10K is about 90K lite in terms of investment. A safer bet is to sell a 2K barely running or not running beast for 3.5K; this is done every day.

Secondly, in terms of not flipping (i.e., fix-r-up, customize, enjoy for a while), like JamesR says, in Tbirdville where sadly these are still a dime a dozen, the closer the car comes to stock the better off you are. The more "personalized"--lowering, gutted interior replaced with knock-off street racing seats, iridescent paint with custom striping/flames, etc., those guys eat all that. You see that every day, too. Watch the ads.