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Okay, some great responses, and some pissed off angry school girl whining, so I need to explain.
I live in a blue collar neighborhood where most retirees have fled California (including myself). A guy around the corner has done a 65 mustang, and a 57 Chevy in the last year. these where complete frame off that he paints and does everything himself. Another Neighbor has a 68 Corvette that has a very nice restoration. There's a 64 Nova that drives down the street that is just beautiful and shakes the glass in the windows it is so badazz. Very few people are collecting old foreign cars. My daughters father in law has a 78 Fiat, an older Mercedes, but neither has seen frame off, and any service is performed by someone else other than himself. He's a salesman and can talk your socks poff, but can't get the talk from his mouth to hands.
Some mentioned a friend working on an old 72 BMW. This is great, and a perspective I find interesting and would like to hear more about. Do people actually restore these cars, or it limited like a guy who restores old Trails motorcycles? At one time all parts sold in the aftermarket were 80% for a small block Chevrolet.
The mid life crisis Corvette cracks me up, because the country song talks about a Porsche.
I live in a blue collar neighborhood where most retirees have fled California (including myself). A guy around the corner has done a 65 mustang, and a 57 Chevy in the last year. these where complete frame off that he paints and does everything himself. Another Neighbor has a 68 Corvette that has a very nice restoration. There's a 64 Nova that drives down the street that is just beautiful and shakes the glass in the windows it is so badazz. Very few people are collecting old foreign cars. My daughters father in law has a 78 Fiat, an older Mercedes, but neither has seen frame off, and any service is performed by someone else other than himself. He's a salesman and can talk your socks poff, but can't get the talk from his mouth to hands.
This speaks more for the neighborhood you live in than the manual dexterity of people who own American or German or Japanese cars.
Besides, you never said anything about "old cars". Old American cars are eminently more available in the U.S. as well - perhaps think about that as a possibility they are more ubiquitous?
Okay, some great responses, and some pissed off angry school girl whining, so I need to explain.
I live in a blue collar neighborhood where most retirees have fled California (including myself). A guy around the corner has done a 65 mustang, and a 57 Chevy in the last year. these where complete frame off that he paints and does everything himself. Another Neighbor has a 68 Corvette that has a very nice restoration. There's a 64 Nova that drives down the street that is just beautiful and shakes the glass in the windows it is so badazz. Very few people are collecting old foreign cars. My daughters father in law has a 78 Fiat, an older Mercedes, but neither has seen frame off, and any service is performed by someone else other than himself. He's a salesman and can talk your socks poff, but can't get the talk from his mouth to hands.
Some mentioned a friend working on an old 72 BMW. This is great, and a perspective I find interesting and would like to hear more about. Do people actually restore these cars, or it limited like a guy who restores old Trails motorcycles? At one time all parts sold in the aftermarket were 80% for a small block Chevrolet.
The mid life crisis Corvette cracks me up, because the country song talks about a Porsche.
40 years old going on 20, and a new Porsche car. Jerry Lee Lewis.
While your comment about the 65 Mustang and 57 Chevrolet work, they're not the norm.
My neighbor was in the process of restoring his 64.5 GTO, he did all the dis-assembly himself and started sending parts off for "fixing". The guy was a retired TWA mechanic and very useful with his hands. As far as I'm concerned his restoration was as "do-it-yourself" as most folks could get. After taking things apart and tagging everything, he sent the body off for prep/paint and sent the chassis in the opposite direction for blasting and powder coating. When he got the rolling chassis back, he began by installing new brake lines, new exhaust system, new fastners, new body mounts, revamped rear axle, etc...all NOS items ordered from the catalog. He and I dropped the rebuilt 389 and four speed manual transmission in and installed the driveshaft. He then sent the car to the chassis to the painter to have the body mated back to the frame, and had it delivered back to his house for final assembly...it sat there in that state for the next couple years while he struggled to find time to finish the resto - long story short he eventually sent the car off for finishing to someone else. (interior, electrical, tuning, etc). Either way, it was a heck of an project, that most guys really aren't up to...despite what Hot-Rod magazine says.
There are folks who restore/mod old BMW's and Mercedes, but you have to remember a 71' BMW is going to be more rare than a 71 Nova. Simply put, there weren't as many imported to the US back then as you may see today. That doesn't mean that those old imports don't have a following here stateside, but it's not going to be what you see for classic American cars produced during the same time period. Heck, if you asked most kids in the mid 60's what a 66' XK-E was they'd likely look at you dumbfounded...ask em what a '66 Impala SS was, and sure enough they'd be jumping up and down. This didn't mean the XK-E was garbage (although keeping a jag running can be a nightmare) but it's relative to what people were exposed to. To most folks, if you mentioned a German car, the first thought was a VW Beetle or Bus...maybe a Karmann Ghia.
While your comment about the 65 Mustang and 57 Chevrolet work, they're not the norm.
My neighbor was in the process of restoring his 64.5 GTO, he did all the dis-assembly himself and started sending parts off for "fixing". The guy was a retired TWA mechanic and very useful with his hands. As far as I'm concerned his restoration was as "do-it-yourself" as most folks could get. After taking things apart and tagging everything, he sent the body off for prep/paint and sent the chassis in the opposite direction for blasting and powder coating. When he got the rolling chassis back, he began by installing new brake lines, new exhaust system, new fastners, new body mounts, revamped rear axle, etc...all NOS items ordered from the catalog. He and I dropped the rebuilt 389 and four speed manual transmission in and installed the driveshaft. He then sent the car to the chassis to the painter to have the body mated back to the frame, and had it delivered back to his house for final assembly...it sat there in that state for the next couple years while he struggled to find time to finish the resto - long story short he eventually sent the car off for finishing to someone else. (interior, electrical, tuning, etc). Either way, it was a heck of an project, that most guys really aren't up to...despite what Hot-Rod magazine says.
There are folks who restore/mod old BMW's and Mercedes, but you have to remember a 71' BMW is going to be more rare than a 71 Nova. Simply put, there weren't as many imported to the US back then as you may see today. That doesn't mean that those old imports don't have a following here stateside, but it's not going to be what you see for classic American cars produced during the same time period. Heck, if you asked most kids in the mid 60's what a 66' XK-E was they'd likely look at you dumbfounded...ask em what a '66 Impala SS was, and sure enough they'd be jumping up and down. This didn't mean the XK-E was garbage (although keeping a jag running can be a nightmare) but it's relative to what people were exposed to. To most folks, if you mentioned a German car, the first thought was a VW Beetle or Bus...maybe a Karmann Ghia.
I had a neighbor as a kid that was into his Karmann Ghia, and he'd say over and over that it was really a Porsche. Funny that a retired TWA guy couldn't get time to put it back together. That's a fairly rare car.
Here in Northern Nevada I can go out in the desert and the younger kids will have tube chassis Toyota's with coilovers on 36" tires, so maybe fab skills isn't a thing of the past. In the 60's an Impala was a grandma car, and the smaller ones were where it was at. Do you remember people pulling travel trailers with a 69 Olds Tornado with a 455.
Anyway, most of the American cars have a great support up and into the 90's. Mustang, and Camaro guys can argue for decades about which is better. I believe you can purchase everything new too build a 69 Camaro including the roof panel. Is this type of support available for foreign models? oR DOES IT TAKE YEARS TO DID UP OLD PARTS?
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