Find or Sell Used Cars, Trucks, and SUVs in USA

1974 Thing on 2040-cars

Year:1974 Mileage:45102
Location:

Bellville, Texas, United States

Bellville, Texas, United States

I’ve bought a lot of stuff on Ebay, but never tried selling anything before.  Because of this I will exercise great care in providing an honest, accurate description. 

 The earliest records I have on hand indicate this car belonged to a Texas lady who had it restored by a shop in Victoria over October 2000 to February 2001. The invoices (4) show that the mileage was then 43,971 and that she spent a total of $6,970.85 on an extensive list including new brakes, drums, shoes, seals, hoses, filters, exhaust system, fuel tank R & R, gaskets and a ‘minor tune up’  to adjust the carburetor and set the timing.  The most expensive of these invoices shows $3,836.16 spent for body repair of “major dents and rust on body, undercarriage, wheel openings” with, among other items, new paint, new vinyl top, windows and refinishing the wheels, bumpers and rear storage compartment.  I’m sure this was a frame-on restoration because, as I’ll describe later and attempt to show in the photos, some rust bubbles have begun to show over 13 years later.

 The Texas lady sold this Thing to my father in 2007 when it showed 44,658 miles on the odometer and dad took it to his home in New Mexico where he tinkered with it.  Nothing major, just tinkering as he added a new header exhaust and a few small items such as a new top latch & hook set for which I also have his invoices totaling $545.36 spent.  By the end of 2010 he realized he wasn’t going to do much more with it so he sold it to me and I brought it back to Texas.  The mileage was 44,961 then and the math indicates he only put 303 miles on the car over three years and, before him, the lady only put 687 miles on it over nearly seven years.  I cannot say whether the mileage currently shown is truly original since I have no information about the first 26 years, but I suspect it is original.

 Fast forward to today and I haven’t really done much with this Thing, either.  I will say it’s a fun car and I’ve enjoyed it, but I’ve only put 141 miles on it in my 3+ years.  I took it to a couple of club events and used it as a parade car where it got a lot of attention.  I’ve always kept it garaged, but now I want to free my garage space for another project such as an art car or rat rod.  As such, for the last year I’ve been tempted to alter this Thing, but it’s just too nice and too rare for me to do that in good conscience, which is why I’ve decided to sell it.  If my relatively low reserve is not met then I’ll reconsider the art car concept.

 Now for the good and the bad:  The engine runs fine at speed and the transmission shifts smoothly through all the gears. The idle should be adjusted as it occasionally quits when I depress the clutch for down-shifting. It leaks a small amount of oil, but I suspect that’s common for these cars. No known issues with the clutch or brakes.  I’ve kept STA-BIL fuel stabilizer in it and run only premium gasoline. I took it to a shop for a tune up in March 2012 when new spark plugs, points and a timing belt were installed.  Since then I allowed the Texas registration and inspection sticker to lapse, but both legalities can be easily cured and I am confident it will pass inspection today as the lights, turn signals and horn (not original, I added a replacement plus a PA system for the parades) all work fine.  The canvas top is still very good, but the frame for the top is a bit stiff from lack of use and appears to be slightly bowed.  Side windows are good.  It needs a new battery.  I put a charger on it for 20 minutes and it started right up then re-started several times more as I drove it around town on errands.  The upholstery is mostly good, but an old cat living in my shop apparently decided that the top of the front passenger seat was really a scratching post.  The cat and I came to an understanding concerning the propriety of that behavior and, since then, I’ve kept the top up and use a spare car cover to keep the whole car covered at all times.  This spare cover will be included with the Thing if desired. The tires should probably be replaced even though the tread still looks good.  I say this because the car has clearly been sitting for prolonged periods and the tires are likely out of round, stiff with flat spots that, in my opinion, are the cause of highway vibration beginning around 45 to 50 mph.  The stickers shown on both bumpers are just that, stickers that can be easily peeled off.  These stickers were created and applied for one of the events supporting our club.  There are some chips in the paint and, as I already mentioned, some rust bubbles appearing behind the left front wheel well.  You must kneel down and peer into each of the wheel wells to see more rust around the underside edges.  Otherwise, this car looks good from 10 feet, great from about 15 feet and beautiful from 20 feet away.  

 That’s about everything relevant.  If I’ve left anything out I don’t know what it could be, but welcome any questions.  The photos were all taken on March 11 and, along with this narrative, are intended to provide a clear idea of what you are bidding on.  I hope you will bid with confidence on what I consider to be a very good car and, more, that you will enjoy it for more than the 1,131 documented total miles it’s been driven since October 2000.   Thanks for looking!

Auto Services in Texas

Z`s Auto & Muffler No 5 ★★★★★

Auto Repair & Service, Brake Repair
Address: 16548 Stuebner Airline Rd, Jersey-Village
Phone: (281) 370-4500

Wright Touch Mobile Oil & Lube ★★★★★

Auto Repair & Service
Address: 6011 Whitter Forest Dr, Jersey-Village
Phone: (832) 272-5376

Worwind Automotive Repair ★★★★★

Auto Repair & Service
Address: 101 Bowser St, Scurry
Phone: (972) 563-3700

V T Auto Repair ★★★★★

Auto Repair & Service, Automobile Parts & Supplies, Automobile Accessories
Address: 243 Blue Bell Rd Bldg A, Atascocita
Phone: (281) 999-6444

Tyler Ford ★★★★★

New Car Dealers, Automobile Body Repairing & Painting, Used Car Dealers
Address: 2626 S Southwest Loop 323, Winona
Phone: (866) 595-6470

Triple A Autosale ★★★★★

Used Car Dealers
Address: 155 Maplewood St, Lumberton
Phone: (409) 246-8030

Auto blog

VW Group to split brands under four holding companies

Tue, Jun 16 2015

The Volkswagen Group is planning a tremendous shift in its internal structure that will decentralize operations by splitting its 12 brands into four different holding companies. Here's the breakdown. Things will be split logically, considering the inter-sharing of parts, platforms, and engines. The Volkswagen brand, Seat, and Skoda make up a passenger vehicle division led by former BMW man Herbert Diess. Audi, which is tightly intertwined with Lamborghini and motorcycle manufacturer Ducati, will be managed by current Audi exec Rupert Stadler. Porsche and Bentley, which are already quite close, will be joined by Bugatti and run by Matthias Mueller. Finally, a commercial vehicles division will include Volkswagen Commercial, Scania, and Man. Former Daimler exec Andreas Renschler will take care of the big vehicles. The massive move, according to Automotive News Europe, is part of an internal VAG effort to move away from the structure established by ousted Chairman Ferdinand Piech, who favored a compact, but highly centralized, management structure to oversee the independent actions of the company's brands. Criticism of Piech's arrangement stemmed from the company's slow responses to changes in the market, ANE reports. The new structure should make for a more efficient, streamlined company that's better able to make crucial decisions. What are your thoughts? Should VAG decentralize, or did Piech have the right idea? Have your say in Comments.

Volkswagen Golf R 400 Concept still makes us swoon

Fri, Nov 21 2014

We know, we know – this hot little guy isn't really new or anything. Volkswagen first rolled out the Golf R 400 concept in Beijing earlier this year, and since its debut, we've heard rumors that the German automaker might-perhaps-maybe-hopefully build the thing. Its showing here in Los Angeles simply marks the first time it's debuting in America, and honestly, we can't get enough. So here it is, again. Hello, Golf R 400 – we love you. And what's not to love? What starts as a normal Golf R gets better with a more aggressive appearance, big wheels, some tasteful neon yellow accents, and a whole mess of power. The original concept packed 395 horsepower from an overblown 2.0-liter turbo-four, though the most recent reports suggest a production version could produce over 400 hp. To keep it all in line, the concept has all-wheel drive. And inside, it's the same functional, comfortable Golf we've always loved. There's nothing left to say, really. We love this car, and you should, too. Check it out in the gallery above.

Rising aluminum costs cut into Ford's profit

Wed, Jan 24 2018

When Ford reports fourth-quarter results on Wednesday afternoon, it is expected to fret that rising metals costs have cut into profits, even as rivals say they have the problem under control. Aluminum prices have risen 20 percent in the last year and nearly 11 percent since Dec. 11. Steel prices have risen just over 9 percent in the last year. Ford uses more aluminum in its vehicles than its rivals. Aluminum is lighter but far more expensive than steel, closing at $2,229 per tonne on Tuesday. U.S. steel futures closed at $677 per ton (0.91 metric tonnes). Republican U.S. President Donald Trump's administration is weighing whether to impose tariffs on imported steel and aluminum, which could push prices even higher. Ford gave a disappointing earnings estimate for 2017 and 2018 last week, saying the higher costs for steel, aluminum and other metals, as well as currency volatility, could cost the company $1.6 billion in 2018. Ford shares took a dive after the announcement. Ford Chief Financial Officer Bob Shanks told analysts at a conference in Detroit last week that while the company benefited from low commodity prices in 2016, rising steel prices were now the main cause of higher costs, followed by aluminum. Shanks said the automaker at times relies on foreign currencies as a "natural hedge" for some commodities but those are now going in the opposite direction, so they are not working. A Ford spokesman added that the automaker also uses a mix of contracts, hedges and indexed buying. Industry analysts point to the spike in aluminum versus steel prices as a plausible reason for Ford's problems, especially since it uses far more of the expensive metal than other major automakers. "When you look at Ford in the context of the other automakers, aluminum drives a lot of their volume and I think that is the cause" of their rising costs, said Jeff Schuster, senior vice president of forecasting at auto consultancy LMC Automotive. Other major automakers say rising commodity costs are not much of a problem. At last week's Detroit auto show, Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV's Chief Executive Officer Sergio Marchionne reiterated its earnings guidance for 2018 and held forth on a number of topics, but did not mention metals prices. General Motors Co gave a well-received profit outlook last week and did not mention the subject. "We view changes in raw material costs as something that is manageable," a GM spokesman said in an email.