Thoughts & Opinions Please On Value of Family Car

[1947dodge]

Hello- I am seeking opinions from folks who know more on this subject than I do. I know that it is not easy to estimate the price on a car without seeing first hand and that it is only worth what someone will give you for it but I would like some thoughts please.

A few years ago I purchased My great-grandparents 1947 Dodge 4 Door Town Sedan from my uncle who had purchased it at the estate auction. My great-grandparents quit driving in the late 60's and parked it in their garage. After my uncle bought it in 1981 he stored it in a dirt floor garage which is what I believe led to some of the scaly rust on the underside of the car. When I first purchased the car I was excited about working on it and pulled the engine/transmission and removed the seats to check for rust. Shortly after this my wife & I started our family and I realize that I am not going to have time to work on the car and we are about to move to a property that does not have storage for it. I have purchased a lot of new or NOS parts for this car along the way but will go with the car.

The car has the Fluid Drive transmission. The exterior body is in very good condition with only 1 small dent on the rear passenger side fender. Has all the original trim pieces and bumpers although the rear bumper is getting some weak spots. I had the original engine running and my father said it was overhauled shortly before my grandparent quit driving it however I have no way to prove it. All the glass is intact with 1 side window being cracked. Has all the hubcaps and spare tire with jack. It has the original radio and clock. The headliner needs refurbished.

There are rust holes on both sides of the floorboards under the rubber sill plates and where the bottom piece of weatherstripping is on the trunk opening.

The following are new parts that I have for the car:

Starter solenoid switch

fuel pump

fan belt

old style battery cables

thermostat

radiator hoses

brake hoses

master cylinder

brake light switch

wheel cylinder to brake shoe pins

brake return springs

brake shoe retainer clips

brake shoe anchor bolts

front/rear shocks

trunk weatherstripping

brake shoes

front wheel bearings/seals

distributor vac. advance

water distribution tube

water pump

tune up kit

plug wires ignition coil

voltage regulator

wiring harnesses

Coker wide white-wall tires

stainless brake lines

service manual

parts manuals

original owners manual

I am sorry for the long post but I appreciate any information you can give. I would just like an idea on a starting price. I want to be fair to the next owner and myself. The car is located in central Indiana if location matters on the price. Thank you.

[bob westphal]

Are you planning to sell it or what? Sadly your car is worth exactly what you can sell it for. I found that out in my early days of collecting old cars. Unfortunately MoPars of these years aren't that desirable to the majority of the collector public. Everybody wants Fords, Chevys, or MoPar muscle cars. It is only nuts like us on this forum that value these cars and most of us are tightwads. To give you an idea of how it works, I had a '51 DeSoto 4dr Windsor with 53K verified original moles on the odometer. It was a good runner but smoked on compression. The engine had never been touched. Body(no rust) and interior were excellent for a 54 year old car. Somebody stole the grille years ago and the exterior chrome needed care. I ran ads for

$3500. No takers. I ran it on eBay twice with a starting bid of $2500 &

$2200. No takers. Finally I sold it for $2 to an expatriot Russian who had seen it on eBay. He told me he planned to drop in a full blown Hemi. Good luck!

[eric wissing]

Maybe another family member is interested in it? Search Ebay for past sales of similar cars for base line. You might make more selling it peice by peice if you had the time. Good Luck Eric

[1947dodge]

Yes, I do plan on selling the car. I did talk to any of my family members that I thought would be intersted but they all declined the offer. I think that most of them are in the same "boat" as me. I am hoping to make back some of the money that I spent on parts. Thanks for your thoughts.

[greg g]

If it is a Town Sedan ( rear dors open like the front, not suicide doors) is is a body style that was produced in limited numbers. If the car is a survivor, no previous restorations or major body work, it may be worth quite a bit....to the right person. The Town sedan is one you don't see very often. I might put a reasonable price on it and place it in Hemmings Motor News. Get a copy of the old car price guid from your local magazine store and make a deterimination of its condition based on their numbered scale and prce it accordingly. As noted the Town Sedan is an unusual style for the day, and you don't see many of them.

[1947dodge]

Hello, Yes the rear doors open like the front. I have tried to attach a picture of the car, hopefully it comes through. It is a picture of the day we pulled it out of the barn. It is the only one saved to my computer. It is covered with a pretty good layer of dust but it washed off.

[FMSPEED49]

Ok , I have to say this, I would give up alot of my stuff to own any car that my grandfather, or great, or even my father had owned. (ok maybe not the pea green pinto he thought was so cool when he bought it)

The money value on the car will never match the value of knowing your great grandfather tooled down the road listening to President Kennedy on the radio.

[PatS....]

I have to agree completely with FM. Compared to alot of us, that car won't need much to get it going and once you take it out for a drive once, you won't likely sell it.

What about your kids?...maybe they would love to have a car grampa owned when they are older.

That said, you should have no problem selling the car for a fair price. (clean it up first)

[greg g]

Man the looks like a nice straight car. And I bet that paint would clean up and buff up to a nice shine. And as said these things are simple and reliable and with a little work would probably start up and run. They are prone to having valves stick open when they sit for a while.

[Charlie Olson]

You can compare your car to a few on: http://www.traderonline.com/

Enter 1946 - 1948 Dodge. There are 4 or 5 cars similar to yours.

[Don Coatney]

The money value on the car will never match the value of knowing your great grandfather tooled down the road listening to President Kennedy on the radio.

Not only Kennedy. Harry S. Truman was president 1945-53. Dwight D. Eisenhower 53-61. John F Kennedy 61-63. Linden B Johnson 63-69. And Richard Nixon would have been on the radio 69-74. So grandfather could have heard 5 presidents while driving the Dodge. And could ave heard Neil Armstrong speak his famous words "one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind"