mmeikle

UPDATE:
Finally had a bit of time to head back and take more video as well as tinker a bit more with the cars. The owner will now consider selling off the cars one by one if necessary. Also, the 1962 Chevy S10 Pickup and 1972 Buick Riviera may be available for purchase as well. It will require some coordination with the seller and a family member. Some folks on the forum have expressed some interest in those. I've taken more videos and I'll post the links below. I want to thank those who provided their candid advice. Also on the mold removal. Concrobium, Goop and 50/50 mix of ammonia and hydrogen peroxide work very well in certain applications. The next steps are getting the engines hand-cranked over. Probably have to remove the radiators to do that. A lot more details in the following videos.

Part 3 Toronados:
Part 4 Toronados:
1972 Buick Riviera:
1962 Chevy S10:
Hello, all. I'm looking for a bit of a lot of advice. Have a barn find of five Toronado There are three 1966 Toronados (White, Gold and Light Blue). There are two 1967s, both red. The Riviera is red as well. All the cars suffer from significant mold in their interiors and haven't been run since the early 1990s. Any advice on how to clean up the mold on the interiors and free up the engines would be helpful. Are they too far gone on the interiors to save? I took videos of the cars and posted them to my YouTube channel. Please take a look and leave a comment there or post here if you have the time. Thank you.

Part 1:
Part 2:

redoldsman

Since you don't have a place or the skills to do any of these cars, run away from them. Although they are great cars they are not collectable like A body cars are. The cost of the new upholstery alone would almost put you upside down on one of these cars. It is unfortunate they have been allowed to sit and deteriorate. It would be interesting to know what they want for them. As long as these cars have been sitting, they are going to need more than a bath and new upholstery.

oldcutlass

The problem with mold is it will be everywhere. In the seat foam, carpet backing, headliner, under the dash, in the door panels, etc. You really have to take everything apart and clean it. If its not clean, it will come back. Vacuuming first and cleaning with white distilled vinegar and water is the usual approach.

mmeikle

Thank you very much for your advice. I think I could get all of them for under $5k. There is also quite a bit of spare parts in the barn, including an entire Toronado engine.

oldcutlass

I'd buy them.

jensenracing77

Each car is going to be a MAJOR job. I have much experience buying cars that sit like this and getting them back on the road. Without restoring them and just getting them road worthy is a huge amount of work. You will have to go through the brake system front to back on each one, the interior has to come completely out and detailed piece by piece to get it clean enough. I enjoy doing it from time to time but again, it is a HUGE job.

jensenracing77

The mold is not what I would worry about. That will all clean if done right but the parts have to come out to do it right. Not a huge amount of money to clean but a huge amount of work. The part to be worried about is getting the engine running without causing more harm to them. After they are running they will often have lots of oil leaks after sitting like this. None of the videos show the bottom side, If it was a damp floor, the floor pans may be rusting out on them. It is a good thing it is a rock floor, the floor pans would almost certainly be gone if it were a concrete floor. They will likely all need exhaust systems and all of them will need tires. If you have limited skills you are going to pay far to much for someone to do this work for you. Even if you got the cars for free you would have more into them than they are worth. It is something you would need to do yourself to be worth it.

Koda

I think OP is like many who come here, they want to be agreed with, not told what is real.

Reality is those cars are not worth what will be required to get them going. The only way it is worth it is if you plan to do it all yourself (and I'm not sure you know what you're signing yourself up for, else you wouldn't be asking) and if you plan to keep them for yourself.

One of the biggest problems people have is present bias, they would rather be happy RIGHT NOW than later. Yes, you can buy these cars for 5 grand right now, and be happy right now, but 5 years from now, you've got one of them on the road and have sunk another 10 grand into them,
and you have one driver condition Toronado.

Or, you save some money for a couple years, put down 15 grand on a nice, cruise-in level 442, and are much happier in the long run.

mmeikle

I appreciate you taking the time and providing good advice. I pretty much felt the same way. Kinda sad that the cars are nearly worthless. The backstory on them makes it a more bitter pill to swallow. Thanks.

mmeikle

I agree with you, Koda I came here to mostly validate my thoughts on the situation. It's just a shame about the cars I guess. I don't want them to be scrapped but I know that the work to bring them back would be huge.

mmeikle

Yeah, I need to put air in the tires and jack them up to see what the deal is underneath. I'm assuming the floor pans are suspicious and the exhaust system is probably toast, if not crushed. Doing it myself would be a challenge for certain. Hate to see these cars scrapped. But I came here for unvarnished advice and I appreciate it.

v8al

If you are looking to flip these and make a huge profit I think that's unlikely. At 5K, even parting them out would take a long time to get back your money unless you are already in that business. IMHO, I'd pick the one that's in the best shape that I like the most and maybe drag that home. Get running, enjoy for a few years and then sell. Even then you probably won't get back the money you would have to sink into it.

jensenracing77

I for sure wouldn't consider them as worthless. A couple of them look to have some great potential but just at a large investment of time. I for sure wouldn't want to see them scrapped. Just don't want to see you go blind into what it would take. If you have limited skills in this area then I would say these are not the right car for you. The seller needs to sell them one by one or come done on the price. If he sells them one by one he may do ok but $5k for all of them together limits his buyers. A buyer buying all 5 is not going to pay that much

redoldsman

Nobody has really talked about the condition of the engines. If they are seized then it is off to the crusher. As v8al mentioned you might pick the best one to restore. If I did that I would try and get the white one for parts because with all the rust evident, it is a parts car for sure.

jaunty75

What IS the back story on these? Unusual to find five of the almost the same car all parked at the same time in the same place and then ignored for 20 years. Why are they being sold now? Are they being sold only as a group, or would the seller consider selling them off one at a time? Someone restoring one of these might want one of these five as a parts car, but they probably wouldn't want to buy all five of them just to get one parts car. In other words, I would think these would be worth more in total if sold separately rather than as a group as few people need five of the same thing all at once.

Even 20 years ago first generation Toronados were relatively sought-after cars, and I think these would have been worth decent money when they were first parked and in decent, running, driving condition. They should have been sold off then.

mmeikle

Yeah, my next step would be to get a few quarts of Mystery Oil and pull the plugs on the blue and non-giant spider infested red one and let that sit. Then see if the engines can be, carefully, hand turned over. Of course also put air in the tires or get a look under those two cars as well. I have a feeling the floor pans are probably crunchy. Can't tell at first pass though.

mmeikle

So the backstory is probably one everyone can guess. An older gentleman really liked Toronados. The barn is located on a property (farm) he and his wife visited every few weeks. Sort of a weekend get away. They lived on the shore in Virginia most of the time. Apparently he was always seen driving these around when they were there, although the current caretaker and owner can't remember that since he was a child.

The gentleman became very ill and could no longer get up to the farm nor drive the cars. The local family who acted as caretakers of the farm were never tasked with taking care of the cars The man tried to get up a few times but was still too infirm to drive them. So fast forward twenty years. Farm is abandoned as well as the cars. The widow of the original property and car owner sells the farm to the son of the local man who looked after the farm. Now she wants to sell the cars. I'm sure there is emotional attachment, etc. In the videos you can see the wife or kids had driven them to work or school. Parking stickers and the like.

I told the new farm owner the likelihood of getting a buyer for all five cars would be very difficult. Just the logistics of getting these cars out of the barn, up the access road and to another location will be quite difficult. Plus the work involved with reviving just two of the cars is no joke. I knew this was the situation even before I posted here.
I think my next steps will be to go back to the farm and check under the blue 66 and red 67. Put some Mystery Oil in the block after I pull the plugs, etc. See if they will hand turn over. I checked the fluids in both and there was oil, clean radiator fluid, etc.

If I go back I'll take more video and post it. I still welcome any advice folks can give. If anything I'll pass this info along to the new owner of the property and see if the widow will reconsider how she wants to sell these cars and the price.

jaunty75

Thanks for the story. Very interesting.

cfair

Neat story.

You might consider moving them in a bundle or 2. The non-vinyl '67 and vinyl top 67 as 1 bundle. The 66's as another bundle. Someone with the room, time and money might have some fun with this.

I'm not in the market, but $1,500 - $2,000 per bundle might be fair considering nothing is known about the engines, or floors, the mold may require new interiors and the major systems will have to be gone through. The more you can show about engines and floors, the more fair you can be on the price to your advantage or to the buyer's

You might also think about selling the whole lot to a junkyard. There might be a junk person out there who sees the value in these.

In your video I saw factory cruise controls, deluxe interiors with the rear door handles, and a pretty rare Toronado console, maybe even vacuum door locks. These parts are hard to find and may increase the value of a restoration. Or could be valuable parted out.

One car from 2 or one car from 3 would be the way I'd go, if they're not too rusted to save. If the engines are seized or they're rusted out, scavenge the rare stuff and recycle them.

Good luck and keep us posted.

cf

mmeikle

Thank you for the feedback. Yep, there is a lot of work to bring anyone of those cars back on the road. Is the red 67 without the vinyl top rarer than the other? It has a strange steering wheel for the model year. At least from what I've seen.

I recently went back and started on the blue 66. I pulled the plugs, and put Mystery oil into the cylinders. I'll go back and add a bit more to the 66 and start on the non-vinyl 67. I attempted to inflate the 66 tires, but I need to bring a stronger compressor apparently. I also tested Concrobium on the mold. It seems to work really well. It removed a lot of the goo and quickly reduced the smell. I'm going to test a mix of vinegar and hydrogen peroxide on the floor mats. It was a recommendation from a detailer.

The seller of the cars would have to be convinced about not selling all five at once. I have mentioned it would be very, very difficult to find someone to purchase them all and then handle the logistics of getting them out of there. I'll take more video when I go back.

Thanks again.

jensenracing77

Someone here tipped me off to using Goop hand cleaner on the interior vinyl but it is messy and the seats should come out to do it. Goop works GREAT on this stuff and also softens the vinyl. Not sure what Concrobium is but just be sure it is not something that is going to dry it our worse.

mmeikle

Awesome tip. I'll try that out on the vinyl pieces. Concrobium is a spray that works on fabric, leather (porous surfaces) One of the few that does. It's pricey but it seemed to quickly handle the mold on the door cards etc. https://www.concrobium.com/

The blue has a leather interior. I used some leather cleaner on the hides and got the first layer of mold off. Plus it started to soften the seat. Probably need to go back and see if mink oil would make more of a difference.Hopefully, once the Mystery oil has time to sit, I can get a few engines to manually turn over. And of course see if the floor pans are not falling through. I did hook up a jump box to the blue 66 and all the lights came back. Interior and exterior, so that's something.

Does anyone on this board belong to the Toronado Owners Association? Didn't know if contacting them would be valuable. They don't appear to be updating their site.

Thanks again.

jaunty75

I'm a member. The club's front page looks reasonably up to date. It mentions the 2020 OCA Nationals, and the TOA, which is not affiliated with the OCA but which has many of the same members, is holding its bi-annual national meeting at the same time.

http://www.toronado.org/

What would you want from them? Advice on how to get the cars on the road? Or are you looking to sell them? If the latter, non-members can place classified ads in the club's magazine, but it's not free.

http://toronado.org/public/classifiedsmain.html


There is also a Toronado-Aurora Chapter of the Oldsmobile Club of America. I'm actually the webmaster for that group, and we're in the process of migrating the chapter's site from a third-party host to the OCA's site.

Here's the current site, which is being decomissioned in about a month.

http://www.toronado-oca.com/


Here's the new site, which will largely consist of the material that was on the old site. The difference for the chapter is that the OCA site will host the chapter site at no charge whereas the chapter was paying for the third party hosting.

https://www.oldsmobileclub.org/membe...aspx?id=190108


The chapter also has a bi-monthly newsletter sent to members, and you can place classified ads in there at no charge, but you have to be a member to place an ad.

https://www.oldsmobileclub.org/membe...0108&id=835329

mmeikle

Thank you for the information. I was wondering if the site had a forum. If the owner decides to scrap the cars, I didn't know if a member of the site would be interested in them if the current owner decides to sell them off to a junk yard. That hasn't happened yet of course, just wanted to check.

jaunty75

The new chapter site does have a forum, but it's not very active yet. The TOA does have a forum that does have activity. To post anything in the forum, you have to be a member. I'm willing to do that to help these cars find homes, but there would need to be a craigslist ad or something like that to point to. I would think it would be useful to have a point of contact, prices, photos, and good descriptions. I think you want to convince the seller to not insist that all five cars be sold as a group. There's no particular reason that these cars need to be kept together, is there? They're not all brothers and sisters, right?

Seriously, price them individually, and if anyone wants to buy more than one, they're certainly free to do that. The ad might suggest that two particular cars might go well together with one being in good enough shape to restore while the other is the parts car. Or whatever.

mmeikle

Thank you for the reply. There shouldn't be a reason they should be sold together, I have just been told that the seller wants them all to be sold as one. I can work with the current owner on that matter and of course get more information. Of course as I find out more I'll post it here (engine, floor pan, interior) condition. I appreciate your help.

OLDSter Ralph

I hope they all find a home. There doesn't seem to be a lot of interest for those"old girls".

jaunty75

I think there's always interest in the first-generation Toronados, especially the '66's. The problem for these cars is their lousy condition. So there might not be much interest in these particular cars, but I wouldn't extend that thought to all Toros of this era.

mmeikle

I'm going to take the advice I received from the thread here and see what can be done. Hopefully, a few can be resuscitated and cleaned up.

jaunty75

Anything done to clean these cars up will certainly help. As they look in your videos, I'd be scared to go near them for fear of catching something from the mold. I'm only half-kidding. If you can get any of them running, that will certainly help in terms of value and how easy they are to sell. I would say that a '66 Toronado parts car is worth maybe $1000. If it doesn't run but is worth restoring, maybe $2000. I really, really think that the owner needs to abandon his insistence that the cars be sold as a group. That makes no sense, and he's only hurting the sales process. Does he give a reason for insisting on this?

mmeikle

No firm reason. I need to discuss the situation more with the current property owner. He is acting as the agent of the owner of the cars. You probably read the backstory on these cars earlier in the thread. I'll chat with him and see if the widow of the original car owner would consider selling them in lots or per car. Heh, the concrobium really did nuke the mold pretty well. I'm surprised. Of course, the interiors will have to come out and be cleaned but it tamped down the surface fuzz at least. I'm going to try Goop and other remedies too.

Willysnut1959

I might be interested in buying the cars. In what state are they located?
Marty

Olds64

Those cars would be good for a project. Do they have good titles that can be easily transferred to new owners? If not, that would be a major bummer.

mmeikle

Hello, they are located in central Virginia.

mmeikle

I'd have to coordinate with the seller on that one. I believe they do, but I want to be 100 percent on that. I'll post an update here when I know definitely.

mmeikle

The seller informed me that the titles are clear and accessible.

nbuergel

Hi Mike,
I’d be interested in talking to you about these cars.

I sent you a pm.

Thanks,

Nate