77 442 Ultimate barn find !
February 27th, 2016, 08:39 AM
#1
Registered User
Thread Starter
Join Date: Mar 2015
Location: Farnhamville, Iowa
Posts: 332
77 442 Ultimate barn find !
Hey guys,
I would post this on the 73-77 olds site however my log in hasn't afforded me the ability to post/respond in over a year n a half. Seems the administrator went awol.. Though I can see the odd ball post.
Just saw this come up on barnfinds.com
http://barnfinds.com/2933-miles-1977-oldsmobile-442/
http://www.ebay.com/itm/281943083361?rmvSB=true
I am tempted myself to go buy it as I have a 350 olds ready for it. However no vin tags or title... Plus having dumped what I got in my current car.. Girl Friend would be pissed.
Someone jump on this if it isn't hard to get around the vin tag, at least to get it on the road.
I would post this on the 73-77 olds site however my log in hasn't afforded me the ability to post/respond in over a year n a half. Seems the administrator went awol.. Though I can see the odd ball post.
Just saw this come up on barnfinds.com
http://barnfinds.com/2933-miles-1977-oldsmobile-442/
http://www.ebay.com/itm/281943083361?rmvSB=true
I am tempted myself to go buy it as I have a 350 olds ready for it. However no vin tags or title... Plus having dumped what I got in my current car.. Girl Friend would be pissed.
Someone jump on this if it isn't hard to get around the vin tag, at least to get it on the road.
February 27th, 2016, 10:05 AM
#3
Registered User
Thread Starter
Join Date: Mar 2015
Location: Farnhamville, Iowa
Posts: 332
Even if you weren't concerned with the die hards at the shows coming around looking at the vin and bushwacking ya cuz the vin was wrong.
If one could get a tag and title from desert valley auto for any 77 cutlass, then get it back on the road. Be awesome to get back on the road, the story for the car shows...
if I had the $. Have the motor..
my two cents.
February 28th, 2016, 02:43 PM
#8
Connoisseur d'Junque
Join Date: Sep 2010
Location: The Hudson Valley
Posts: 21,183
Let me lay this out in a bit more detail:
When a vehicle is junked ("salvaged"), the VIN tags are not removed.
Quite the contrary. The last thing a junkyard owner wants is to be accused of disposing of stolen cars (Well, second-to-last. The last thing would be disposing of the bodies of mobsters inside of cars). To this end, he keeps track of all relevant data on the cars and parts he deals in, and leaves all VIN information intact, so that if questioned, he can prove it is legitimate.
When a vehicle is donated to a school by the manufacturer (usually after a fairly minor problem that is too expensive to fix, like a crushed roof pillar after falling off a truck), the VIN tag is removed to ensure that the car can never be sold and registered (thus ensuring that the manufacturer can take a full tax deduction on the loss), but the school is provided with the appropriate paperwork that will allow them to have the car legally crushed when they need to dispose of it. They are contractually prevented from selling it or making any money from it.
When a vehicle is stolen (well, was stolen, "back in the day"), the steering column was routinely destroyed, because slap-hammering out the cylinder, or smashing the top of the column to get to the ignition lock mechanism, was the fast way to start a car and drive of in it. Such cars, when they came up for sale, would always be sans steering column, or would have a replacement column (and an extra key on the ring). Leaving a smashed column in the car provides proof to the prospective buyer that the car was stolen, and raises the possibility that the car either a) does not belong to the seller, or b) was horribly abused during whatever joyriding occurred before it was recovered.
When a vehicle is stolen, it is also likely to come up missing parts, especially easy to remove high-ticket parts, such as the engine and transmission from a low-mileage car.
When car thieves look for cars to steal, they try to get the newest cars possible, as they have parts with the least use on them, and therefore the highest street value.
So, this car was stolen shortly after it was purchased, and its engine and transmission were removed and sold off.
After that, either it was recovered and sold off at auction, in which case it would have been sold missing its engine and transmission, and with a smashed steering column, but also WITH its VIN tags and a salvage title, OR it was kept by someone involved in stealing it (never a good plan, but the enterprising thief or co-conspirator probably felt that removing the VIN tags would protect him in the event that the car was discovered), who believed he could one day sell it or drive it. As additional security against suspicion, he removed the smashed steering column, which would have looked suspicious if left in place. In the latter scenario, the car would have probably changed hands a few times, as enterprising buddies who thought they could "fix it up" took it off of their friends' hands.
In either scenario, after a short while, the car was left somewhere and sat, and has finally been dragged out by someone related to the most recent "owner," who thinks he can make a fast buck on it, but who knows that the truth will hurt his sale prospects, so has concocted a (typically lame lowlife-type) story involving multiple highly unlikely fires, which sounds plausible to him.
The key point: The absence of VIN tags may be attributable to the car having been donated many years ago (which would make it illegal to sell), but the absence of a steering column, especially in conjunction with the absence of VIN tags, is a dead giveaway that this is a stolen car, and cannot be credibly accounted for any other way.
Happy bidding!
- Eric
When a vehicle is junked ("salvaged"), the VIN tags are not removed.
Quite the contrary. The last thing a junkyard owner wants is to be accused of disposing of stolen cars (Well, second-to-last. The last thing would be disposing of the bodies of mobsters inside of cars). To this end, he keeps track of all relevant data on the cars and parts he deals in, and leaves all VIN information intact, so that if questioned, he can prove it is legitimate.
When a vehicle is donated to a school by the manufacturer (usually after a fairly minor problem that is too expensive to fix, like a crushed roof pillar after falling off a truck), the VIN tag is removed to ensure that the car can never be sold and registered (thus ensuring that the manufacturer can take a full tax deduction on the loss), but the school is provided with the appropriate paperwork that will allow them to have the car legally crushed when they need to dispose of it. They are contractually prevented from selling it or making any money from it.
When a vehicle is stolen (well, was stolen, "back in the day"), the steering column was routinely destroyed, because slap-hammering out the cylinder, or smashing the top of the column to get to the ignition lock mechanism, was the fast way to start a car and drive of in it. Such cars, when they came up for sale, would always be sans steering column, or would have a replacement column (and an extra key on the ring). Leaving a smashed column in the car provides proof to the prospective buyer that the car was stolen, and raises the possibility that the car either a) does not belong to the seller, or b) was horribly abused during whatever joyriding occurred before it was recovered.
When a vehicle is stolen, it is also likely to come up missing parts, especially easy to remove high-ticket parts, such as the engine and transmission from a low-mileage car.
When car thieves look for cars to steal, they try to get the newest cars possible, as they have parts with the least use on them, and therefore the highest street value.
So, this car was stolen shortly after it was purchased, and its engine and transmission were removed and sold off.
After that, either it was recovered and sold off at auction, in which case it would have been sold missing its engine and transmission, and with a smashed steering column, but also WITH its VIN tags and a salvage title, OR it was kept by someone involved in stealing it (never a good plan, but the enterprising thief or co-conspirator probably felt that removing the VIN tags would protect him in the event that the car was discovered), who believed he could one day sell it or drive it. As additional security against suspicion, he removed the smashed steering column, which would have looked suspicious if left in place. In the latter scenario, the car would have probably changed hands a few times, as enterprising buddies who thought they could "fix it up" took it off of their friends' hands.
In either scenario, after a short while, the car was left somewhere and sat, and has finally been dragged out by someone related to the most recent "owner," who thinks he can make a fast buck on it, but who knows that the truth will hurt his sale prospects, so has concocted a (typically lame lowlife-type) story involving multiple highly unlikely fires, which sounds plausible to him.
The key point: The absence of VIN tags may be attributable to the car having been donated many years ago (which would make it illegal to sell), but the absence of a steering column, especially in conjunction with the absence of VIN tags, is a dead giveaway that this is a stolen car, and cannot be credibly accounted for any other way.
Happy bidding!
- Eric
February 28th, 2016, 05:28 PM
#10
Registered User
Join Date: Jul 2014
Posts: 25
I can't believe what the bidding is up to. I agree with Eric that something bad is going on here. I just bought a parts car 77 Cutlass for $250. I also just bought a rough 77 Cutlass Salon running driving car loaded with options for $800. I believe the bidders on the car are mostly bogus or totally insane
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