Cunningly not pictured so you can really see anything. That said the general drift is upward and everyone is looking for fresh complete cars to restore. The question is is this it?
Certainly with Messerschmitts the price of a complete reasonable restoration projects bares no relationship to the price a new well restored car. Include the time and cost of parts to restore the car correctly and the finished cars are very often actually selling cheaper than a basket case! That low miler went for around £18k yet a pile of misc bits that looks like a whole car can fetch £7k. Unless you do the work yourself that car should cost about £7-8k to get finished right. For the extra £3k I would have the real thing with history. Of course the market is driven by those who believe that £7k plus twopence ha'penny with wrong bits equals £15k. Sadly it does not. I will see what the market really is when the first of my proper cars goes to the market. I expect to be disappointed and if so it will be more expedient to sell some off unrestored and cash in the spares I had bought to restore them. Some of these parts have nearly doubled in price over the last few years, more profitable than the cars themselves, and availability seems to be worse!
I fear this is effecting Treinkels just the same. Finding well restored cars is very difficult. Finding a good basis to restore is equally as difficult. When I think of some of the unrestored cars I had they would be highly sought after now as they were whole with floors and ID. The junk cars used to sell at about £700 to £1,000. The same thing now is £1,700 to £2,500. A floorpan is over £1,000 before it is fitted. You cannot do a car like this and sell it for £7,000 and make a profit so I think there are a lot of folk out there fooling themselves or someone else. Of course this commercial activity has push the cars beyond many enthusiasts who are not interested in making a profit. Even as a hobby it is hard to justify when other interesting machinery is available to play with for less money.
