Yes, this car is rough, and possibly a parts car (although my British friends would highly disagree with this!), but right now the price is in single digit dollars! Yes, as I write, with three days to go in the auction here on ebth.com, the high bid is only $6! The car is located in Millers, Maryland. Thanks to reader Mike H. for sending us this unusually inexpensive find!
Yeah, it’s rough. Honestly, this bonnet probably isn’t worth repairing, unless you are trying to learn bodywork. This does have the nice chrome bumper, though, which you can rechrome and fit to a 1979-80 model with those huge rubber bumpers. That’s worth more than $6 right there! Unfortunately, the difficult to find under riders aren’t visible, although I suppose they could be in the trunk.
Looking closely, you can see at least one of the original Lucas headlights still in place. If that works, it’s well worth the $6!
I’m sure there’s not much salvageable about the interior, but the shadow blue seats are actually relatively rare. That trunk lid looks better than some I’ve refurbished and used, and the stainless trim on it looks pretty good too. And believe it or not, it’s only showing 63,636 miles. I wonder what took it off the road? By the way, Howard, it doesn’t have an overdrive based on the serial number.
While I was poking around the EBTH site, I also noticed this running Alfa Romeo Spider with working air conditioning listed here with bidding just under $1,000 so far.
The interior doesn’t look bad at all, although the outside is a little scruffy in spots. Still, for less than $1,000 I could deal with some rough spots, and it doesn’t look very rusty. I think I’m going to have to look at EBTH.com more often! Thanks, Mike, for letting us in with this information! Do you think either of these finds are worth bringing home? Both of them?
Does anybody know if there’s a device that measures how long a car has sat in reference to how deep the wheels are sunk in the ground? Anytime a car is literally sitting on the ground, is not good. Obviously, nobody wants it. Parts only, so many nicer Spitfires. The Alfa always reminds me of the movie “The Graduate”. That car could be a lot of fun for low bucks, until it breaks, that is. Then she’d probably sit again. They are neat cars.
Howard:
I know your question is sarcastic but I’ll tell you this: in the clay soil of east central Minnesota an 800 pound trailer can sink in about 2″ over a single winter.
Old Louisiana plates……speaking of humidity
Depends, I have seen cars in Idaho, Washington and here in Oregon sunk in deep, Not a problem. Depends on the area, Mine I live up in the woods and you get moles and gophers tunneling so a car off the pavement can quickly sink, On the other hand over in Central or Eastern Oregon Its dry, arid and desert. Dont tend to sink at all. At our cabin up in the hills. High clay content and dont tend to sink but if it did, wont hurt anything. (Preserve it actually)
But it also depends on water flow… We just got done with snow and Ice storms and even some flooding. This picture is Russia, but we had issues like this too.
Good parts car, if you need parts. I couldn’t give my extra parts away when I had my Spitfire.
parts or project car its still a cool find, Save the vintage stuff! (Upvote for CoventryCat) Spitfires (Spitwads) are cheap fun cars, dont overlook them. (Datsun A series 1500 and 5 speed will drop right in hint hint)
A half-buried Spitfire. My suggestion would be to finish the job. Once they’re at this stage you can guarantee that the work and money required will out-strip the benefits. I have nothing against Spitfires (especially the early ones), but this particular car came from an era when British Leyland quality control only lacked two things: quality….and control.
In 1974 when I was transferred to Spain, I wrapped up my TR3A in large plastic military cargo pallet bags and set it up on two layers of concrete blocks with bits of 2X4 on top, in mom’s yard in NH. When I returned in 1980, I just pulled the car out of its spot (once mud season was over) as the six years of freeze-thaw cycling had sucked the blocks into the wonderful New England soil, leaving me with normal TR ground clearance. So that’s about 2 inches per year in sunny southern NH, unless you encounter one of the numerous rocks that lurk beneath the surface. All-in-all it’s probably better NOT to leave your car outside on unpaved surfaces.
Spitfire sold for $150, Alfa for $3,750!