MN to OK and back - where to look for rust-free cars
 

Hello all!

I know there's been threads on where to look for rust-free cars - but I'm hoping to hear from some folks who might advise on my particular situation.

I'm from Minnesota, and used to seeing total rustbuckets everywhere. I've never been any further south than Iowa, so I don't have any personal experience to go on (other than knowing that Arizona, California, etc are the obvious prime places).

So... here's the situation: I'm going to be heading down to central Oklahoma for a few days in the near future. That means I'll be going through Missouri, Kansas, etc. and would be somewhat close to Texas. While down there I'd like to drag back a couple of non-rusty vehicles on the cheap (what's dime a dozen in the south would be a treat up here).

I know that clean vehicles can be found anywhere if you look hard enough. But given where I'll be going, what areas would you guys suggest I concentrate most on?


--kt

your dreamin'....no ones giving away anything 60s-70s anymore...especially for a dime a dozen..all those cars have been bought up and sent to the east coast...

Missouri...rusty
kansas...rusty
oklahoma...rusty
texas..some nice stuff but not cheap..

not trying to be a d!ck..but i buy 100 cars a year and your request isnt realistic,,,anymore...im all over kansas and missouri and half of Oklahoma..they are all rusty states unless you get deep deep deep in oklahoma..towards texas

i ship cars in from texas, and even those get rusty...

I'm with Marx
 

Gotta agree with Marx on this. I'm from SW Mo and am all over Mo, Ok, Ark and some of Ks and most everything here is rusty and not a dime a dozen. Getting hard to find stuff worth buying. I was told tonight about a '69 GTO hardtop that is sitting on the ground and rusted out and not worth buying.

so blue..youre the guy buying all the cool stuff im always a day late on...lol

Not sure exactly which vehicles you are looking for but if it were me I would make sure the trip was well planned.

I would use Craigslist and other like sources to find the cars. Most likely they are all going to be in bad shape or fubared from some hack. I did see one 69 FB on EBay that was a shell a guy was selling since he was humping out too many babies.

Good luck on your search and post up what you find.

The cheap and somewhat non-rusty cars are virtually all gone these days. Almost no one drives old iron daily without knowing what it is or worth. The barn find cars these days are so far off the beaten path they are extremely difficult to come by. Ever since the advent of the internet and these forums growing in size over the last 10-15 years, people have been attempting to clean out everything and score deals. You won't be driving along I-40 in Oklahoma and see a guy with a GTO or two and a Trans Am sitting by the side of the barn, those easy scores are long gone and what things you do find are often so wasted or rotten it's not worth your time or effort.

Check into craigslist as stated and be prepared for competition from guys who do the same thing for a living. If something is a true deal and cheap, it won't last long. If something has been languishing on the want ads for weeks\months it isn't worth it and the seller is likely unreasonable.

I was afraid I'd get these sort of answers. People up here are just as nuts about turning over every stone - was hoping that perhaps more had survived in the less snowy states, so that more would still be available now. Damn the TV shows and the scrap-hounds! :rolleyes:

I'm not insane enough to think I'm going to find GTOs and the like to be readily available and selling for pennies on the dollar. But I'm still hoping that the average backyard rotter will be that much less rotten, the farther south I go :)

As for what I'm looking for: just like around here, I'll be keeping my eyes open for any '71-2 Grand Prixs or '60-1 pickups, whole or parts, as well as any pre-'73 GM products with restoration potential.

I've done some before-hand scoping on craigslist and wasn't overly impressed by what I saw. That was probably my biggest concern... figuring out if the selection on craigslist is representative of what's around, or if the majority of stuff never makes it onto the interwebs. I'm already familiar with the (often futile) game of being the first guy to respond and arrive - and that's in my own backyard. Doing it a thousand miles from home will only make it more difficult.

Even so, I'd still like to think that a $1000-2000 wreck down south would, on average, have a lot more metal left than its typical Minnesotan counterpart.

Every time I go out west to see my brother-in-law and sister-in-law I drive by his neighbors house, a half mile from his house, and there is a 58 Chevy step side that looked real good. I asked my BIL about it and he said Dennis uses it to haul trash to the back 40. For about 20 years now I see that nice truck with the paint fading but still rust free.

I travel to Mo every month. Oklahoma like Okla City is rust free and north to the Kansas border. Texas Austin San Antonio and north is rust free. I have found rust free cars in Okla MO and Iowa but they have to be out in the country where they dont salt the roads. Any big city salts the roads. I think a dollar a dozen may be more reasonable to expect. Good luck

Winter is Best
 

My experience....when you find a good deal...JUMP on it.

I've find my best deals when I'm not looking for it. As Sidponcho said "when you find a good deal...JUMP on it". Also have the cash with you.

You may want to push your price up a little higher since the scrap value is way high. I biggo full size car might be worth $1000 in scrap? I would be looking for project cars that guys cannot keep and the wife wants gone. It will take a lot of work but they are out there.

ok you have to tell all on the black / red judge. my alltime favorite color combo.

There was a black with red 70 Judge in Independence..RA III 4 speed, bought new by an elderly lady who fell in love woth the car..I bought a 31 option Liberty blue GTO from her son..hes a career drunk...the minute his mom died he sold the car....i lost track of it..it was unrestored and really a decent numbers car...i always think of her when i see black Judges..

Maybe Steve has something you can rebuild.
http://www.pontiacheaven.org/

My BIL had a 70 Chevelle in Denver that was about 5 years old. It got a paint chip about the size of quarter and didn't have any oxidation or rusting. I asked him how long it had been like that and he stated it had been a few years. You might try the high and dry areas.

Scrap is actually way down rite now compared to a couple months ago.

I have a couple of 71 GP's in Iowa, that are defenatlly restorable, and not rotten compared to most other iowa cars and MN cars, also have a 68 buick convertable

I've heard guys from certain areas down south say that if a vehicle has so much as one spot of rust, the locals will walk away from it time and time again. Those are the kinds of deals I'd love to find... "hey man, I got cash and a trailer, you want that thing gone, let's make a deal" :-)

A 40-year-old car with nothing more than a few quarter-sized rust spots is, to me up here, a major score. If you're talking about quarters and rust around here, it's usually in terms of "no quarter panels left" or "rusted a quarter of the way up the doors".

Not Pontiac-related, but... For a couple years now I've been looking for a pre-'92 3/4 ton Suburban. I've seen at least a dozen, and yet I still have no idea what their rockers are supposed to look like :eek: