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Anyone expressed interest in your cars when you pass?


knuckleharley

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37 minutes ago, Sam Buchanan said:

 

Yep, when we get to the age where our productivity is dropping off....if we haven't touched something in a year, we most likely never will.....time to get rid of it. It is a huge burden to leave this task to our kids....and their opinion of us will not be enhanced.......

I disagree. I have seen too many people in their 60's or 70's just give up because all of a sudden they had some illness or injury,and suddenly it was a lot harder to do what they liked to do,so they just gave up.

 

Seems like none of them lived very long after that.

 

There is almost always hope you will get better,even if you don't recover.

 

I finally gave up my dream of being able to recover again to the point where I could spend all day out in my shop,"plugging away at my own pace" after 2 years of basically not being able to anything much more difficult than walking from the house to the truck. Stage 4 lymphoma is in charge now,not me.
 

So,rather than just hold a massive garage and yard sale,I have started farming out the work to local shops. Have two different local shops working on my cars right now. This produces a couple of benefits.

 

1: I am still "in the game",even if I am not doing the actual work. I am in CHARGE of the actual work,and stop in often to check on how it's going,ask questions,and sometimes I learn something,and sometimes I teach something. Either way it gives me something to do.

 

2:When the car and the truck are finished,I will get to enjoy driving them around as finished nice vehicles with For Sale signs in the back windows.

 

3a:When they are sold,they will provide me with enough money to get other,more complex projects finished. Which I will drive around with For Sale signs in the back windows until they are sold,and then use THAT money to take on the really rough ones.

3b: While the others are being done in shops,I will use what time I feel well enough to do anything working on them,as I can and when I can. Whether or not *I* finish them is irrelevant. They give me something to do that I love doing,and even if they are not finished,they will be in better condition than they are today,and easier to sell to someone that wants a project to finish to his own satisfaction.

 

4: I am providing work and income for my friends that operate these local shops. One guy is even getting some of my rougher project cars to partially pay the labor and parts bills for the cars he is working on. Mostly stuff I never really wanted anyhow,but bought it to keep it from going to the crusher.

 

Win-win for me. I get them hauled off without having to pay for it,and I get my repair bills reduced.

 

Beats the hell out of seeing them send to the crusher,and beats the hell out of me doing nothing but sitting in the house and watching tv.

 

So,yeah,my productivity HAS dropped off. That doesn't mean I am already dead,though.

 

We all live until we die. What is important is how you fill in the days between those two events.

 

Edited by knuckleharley
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My son gets all my toys when I pass.  He's been helping me with the 51 and all on his own he signed up for auto shop this year.  I guess that means he's enjoying it.

 

He's also taking welding, which I don't do so he can teach me.

 

Sometimes you need to pass your hobby on, kids, grand kids, heck the neighbor's kid if they are interested.

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When I was shopping for parts for my P8 I came across an add on Craigs list. Parting out 39 Plymouth P8 Deluxe. Pictures showed a garage full of parts and a 39 P8 shell sitting on a frame. Everything off. I sent him an email and asked about the trunk lid, he emailed me back some pics of a perfect trunk lid and was asking $50 for it if I paid shipping, I snatched it up. In one of the pics I saw a pair of running boards leaning against the wall. One top side the other bottom. These were completely refurbished, new ridged rubber on top and new steel underneath. Mine were a rusted mess. I asked him what he would take for the running boards and he emailed me back and said would $75 be to much? I didn't know what to say, I asked him why he was selling the parts off this car and he told me it was his dads. His dad passed away a few weeks back from a long and costly illness. His mom did not know what to do with it so he was trying to help her to make some money off of it. She could use it..

I emailed him back and told him that the running boards could easily fetch $600. He thanked me and offered them to me for $400 and I paid shipping. There on my car now.

 

A few weeks ago I pulled my car out into the driveway for a bath. While I was washing it I had about every car passing by either honk and wave or some even stopped. One car with two young girls, early 20's stopped and when I looked over at them the passenger looked at me and said 'Wow'. Then the driver leaned forward and said 'Thats a beautiful car'. I had people walking down the sidewalk stopping by and talking to me. One elderly lady, probably 70's or more was just standing there looking. Then she said it reminded her of when she was in high school and going out on dates with her husband. It looked just like his car.

Then she said 'Is that a Chevrolet?'

I said no mam, its a Plymouth. She smiled and said she wished her husband could see it.

 

My point is, that if your car is scattered from one end of the garage to the other, no one but a gear-head looking for parts would care. If it's together and looking good then everyone cares.

It may get sold but at least it will go as a car to someone that wants it.

 

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1 hour ago, knuckleharley said:

I disagree. I have seen too many people in their 60's or 70's just give up because all of a sudden they had some illness or injury,and suddenly it was a lot harder to do what they liked to do,so they just gave up.

Never give up. I had a co-worker who was in their 50's. He got some sort of cancer and he gave up. He figured he was dead.

He mortgaged his paid for family home, maxed out his credit cards, took 5 close friends on a vacation to Mexico ... then he lived.

 

He could no longer work, filed for bankruptcy, sold the house to satisfy bankruptcy laws. He ended up living in a older travel trailer in a old rv park filled with crack heads ... Karma has a way to come back and bite you.

 

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1 hour ago, knuckleharley said:

Please define "sizeable" in dollar terms,if possible.

 

BTW,please correct me if I am wrong,but since 90 percent of my estate is going to 2 charities,I shouldn't have any tax problems,right?

 

According to one website, North Carolina has no estate taxes. If I read the IRS page correctly, Federal estate taxes for 2020 are on estates of $11,580,000 or more. Only about 1% of US households have that kind of money. If you have the kind of money that requires Federal estate taxes you are likely already tied into appropriate legal help so you are unlikely to be asking on this forum.

 

However, unless you set up a trust you are very likely to have an estate that will need to go into probate. If my Internet search turned up good information, that would be anything over $20,000 ($30,000 to surviving spouse) in North Carolina.

 

Many (most? all?) states seem to have rigged the system for probate lawyers. Their fee is often set to be a percentage of the gross estate value, not the net value. So, for example, if your estate consists of only your house and property with a market value of $100,000 and you have a mortgage of $80,000 then their fee is based on the $100,000 not on the net worth of $20,000. And if you go through probate there will be court fees of probably several hundred dollars in addition to the scalping you'll get from your probate lawyer. You really want to stay out of probate! Cost to set up the appropriate trusts, etc. is much, much lower (can be done for not much more than the notary fees on the documents). If you retain a lawyer to help you set up the trust, it will still be much cheaper than probate.

 

I am not a lawyer. Laws vary from state to state. You should at the very least read up on the laws in your state. For my wife and I, we hired a lawyer for the initial trust creation but have done the revisions ourselves (once we became familiar with the process and requirements).

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I really don't care what happens to my things, I'll be dead.  Nothing I have is worth a lot.  My 48 B1D might be worth something if I can get it to where I envision it should be before I croak off.  My kids will fight over the 2 vehicles believe me!!?

 

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We gave our house to our grandson and his wife and children in what they call a Living Will. They live in the main house and we live in the mother-in-law shack in the back of the property, sure is nice not to have to mow the yard or scoop sidewalk anymore or keep up that big house.

we know that they are taken care of without having to pay taxes on something that was given to them.

Edited by Frank Elder
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3 hours ago, knuckleharley said:

I disagree. I have seen too many people in their 60's or 70's just give up because all of a sudden they had some illness or injury,and suddenly it was a lot harder to do what they liked to do,so they just gave up.

 

It is certainly your perogative to disagree...but you missed the point of my post (or maybe I didn't state it clearly). I'm not talking about a sudden illness or injury, but rather the loss of desire or will to pursue a hobby, in other words, the fire has gone out. My local airport has hangars full of aircraft abandoned by pilots who know they will never fly them again, many don't even want to fly again, the hangar doors haven't opened in years. But they can't pull the trigger to sell and their family will be left with a huge burden to unload something they know nothing about. We can be more considerate of our survivors by realizing when its time to let stuff go.

 

Edited by Sam Buchanan
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5 hours ago, TodFitch said:

 

According to one website, North Carolina has no estate taxes. If I read the IRS page correctly, Federal estate taxes for 2020 are on estates of $11,580,000 or more. Only about 1% of US households have that kind of money. If you have the kind of money that requires Federal estate taxes you are likely already tied into appropriate legal help so you are unlikely to be asking on this forum.

 

However, unless you set up a trust you are very likely to have an estate that will need to go into probate. If my Internet search turned up good information, that would be anything over $20,000 ($30,000 to surviving spouse) in North Carolina.

 

Many (most? all?) states seem to have rigged the system for probate lawyers. Their fee is often set to be a percentage of the gross estate value, not the net value. So, for example, if your estate consists of only your house and property with a market value of $100,000 and you have a mortgage of $80,000 then their fee is based on the $100,000 not on the net worth of $20,000. And if you go through probate there will be court fees of probably several hundred dollars in addition to the scalping you'll get from your probate lawyer. You really want to stay out of probate! Cost to set up the appropriate trusts, etc. is much, much lower (can be done for not much more than the notary fees on the documents). If you retain a lawyer to help you set up the trust, it will still be much cheaper than probate.

 

I am not a lawyer. Laws vary from state to state. You should at the very least read up on the laws in your state. For my wife and I, we hired a lawyer for the initial trust creation but have done the revisions ourselves (once we became familiar with the process and requirements).

Thank you!

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So, back to Knuckle's query...Even though I don't plan on kicking-the-bucket for quite a while and the cars may change, our kids have put dibs on the old cars we currently have.  They don't see a monetary value to any of them, they just grew up with them and like them, and so far it seems they've left that arguing-over-the-same-toy stage way behind them.  If they change their minds and decide old cars are not their thing anymore, then I'll only hold onto them as long as I enjoy them.  I do not want or intend to leave a mess behind for someone else to clean up.

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12 hours ago, TodFitch said:

 

According to one website, North Carolina has no estate taxes. If I read the IRS page correctly, Federal estate taxes for 2020 are on estates of $11,580,000 or more. Only about 1% of US households have that kind of money. If you have the kind of money that requires Federal estate taxes you are likely already tied into appropriate legal help so you are unlikely to be asking on this forum.

 

However, unless you set up a trust you are very likely to have an estate that will need to go into probate. If my Internet search turned up good information, that would be anything over $20,000 ($30,000 to surviving spouse) in North Carolina.

 

Many (most? all?) states seem to have rigged the system for probate lawyers. Their fee is often set to be a percentage of the gross estate value, not the net value. So, for example, if your estate consists of only your house and property with a market value of $100,000 and you have a mortgage of $80,000 then their fee is based on the $100,000 not on the net worth of $20,000. And if you go through probate there will be court fees of probably several hundred dollars in addition to the scalping you'll get from your probate lawyer. You really want to stay out of probate! Cost to set up the appropriate trusts, etc. is much, much lower (can be done for not much more than the notary fees on the documents). If you retain a lawyer to help you set up the trust, it will still be much cheaper than probate.

 

I am not a lawyer. Laws vary from state to state. You should at the very least read up on the laws in your state. For my wife and I, we hired a lawyer for the initial trust creation but have done the revisions ourselves (once we became familiar with the process and requirements).

Thank you.

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7 hours ago, Robert5 said:

At that point you're just dust in the wind.

My H.S. class's theme song - Kansas' "Dust in the Wind".  Although we were being cheeky because our entire senior year we had a drought, high winds, and... ?...dust.  The only thing they ever used to cancel classes for in Presidio, TX - dust storms due to high winds...

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On 9/14/2020 at 6:05 PM, Los_Control said:

People just need to step up and prepare for this adventure .... nobody gets out of this world alive.

I really felt sad for myself when my favorite uncle passed. He had basically a 2 acre junkyard of old cars and junk.

It was a huge and daunting task for his children to dispose of. Uncle was in upper 80's. Oldest son was 64 and partially paralyzed from a stroke, next daughter is in worse health, youngest daughter in her 50's and a busy manager at her job. Lives 6 hours away. She has no time to deal with this.

You get down to the nephew's, grandsons, nieces etc ... They are into cars .... They are building modern jeep rock crawlers, they have no interest in the old stuff.

And they have a job and a life and no time to mess with this stuff.

 

I was 1200 miles away and could not get involved.

The 2 acres of property was actually in a prime location and would sell quickly once the junk was cleared off.

1957 chevy 2.5 ton truck with a hotrod 283 cam etc, 5spd transmission, 2 spd rear end starts runs stops .... $100 to scrap yard.

1952 chevy 2 ton rebuilt 235 motor with almost zero miles, Grampa built a extra heavy duty dual piston dump bed ... $100 to the scrap yard.

1957 packard clipper, 2 door hard top black & white, nice body  paint interior, start and move, but had a rod knocking and needed rebuilt ... scrap yard.

The engine room where all the goodies were kept,  rebuilt 283 with less then 1k miles, rebuilt 312 y block with overdrive trans zero miles.

There was a rebuilt 218 Plymouth flathead engine, Just one shed of many and was packed full of good stuff.

They gave the contents away to someone with a trailer to haul off for scrap.

 

I think they got about $200k for the house and property, everything else nobody could care less. Just get rid of everything quickly, so they could get this monster of a project off their backs.

I think it is a really wise idea to deal with it yourself while you can.

that effing sucks

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I'm probably one of the younger ones in this conversation, but it is something that I have thought about only because I have had to deal with it so many times already with other family members. I've even been custodian of getting rid of certain things for people after they passed - not executor of the will, but actually stated/suggested that I deal with certain things for the estate when no family wants it. It sucks.

Bottom line - if you don't have anyone interested and don't want it going to scrap - state your wishes in your will to send it to some auction, or designate a "disposal" agent for it. All too often I have seen items go to the junkyard because no one knows what they are, or what to do with them. 

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20 minutes ago, michaelmarks697@yahoo.com said:

that effing sucks

Yes,it does.

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I have to admit that I have no real plan myself today. I am 58 years old and while I have a bad back, I am pretty healthy and take care of myself .... but we never know when the day will come.

 

While on the other hand, my wife is 60, she refuses to take care of herself, copd, diabetes, high blood pressure, over weight, taking 9 different medications daily ....

 

If I go first, all goes to wife and will help prepare if have time, then later will go to her 2 sons when she is gone.

If she goes first, I would probably set something up with a local charity to take over when I am gone.

I already know her sons would not be interested in anything we own. We do not talk now, we would not talk after their mother passes.

 

If I live to be 80, then 22 years is a lot of time for things to change ... not getting excited about preparations just yet.

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On 9/14/2020 at 4:47 PM, kbuhagiar said:

Interesting discussion.

 

My wife an I have talked about this a lot. We have no descendants, and none of the nieces and nephews (except for one) have expressed the least bit of interest in my cars or tools (or cars and tools in general). The one nephew showed some interest a few summers ago but I think girls and computers may have superseded all other interests. So right now he is top on the list, but that could change. 

 

Honestly, I think we would rather bequeath it all to a young gearhead who would appreciate it (related or not) rather than pass it on to a relative that would liquidate it.

(We are fortunate enough that we wouldn't need the proceeds from the sale of my cars and tools, which give us more options for their disposal.)

 

Lots more thinking to do about this before we make a decision.

I can relate. We have no kids and our nieces and nephews have no real interest in old cars, or old Jukeboxes, or anything else.

 

We have discussed what to do with our stuff as well. I like the concept, if I could ID one when the time comes to find some young kid with a real interest in this stuff and see to it he/she got it all like a lightening bolt out of heaven ---with no previous idea that they would get anything.

 

As someone who had his dad die when he was 9 and mother at 24, I am well aware how short our time here really is.

 

The one thing I have been doing the last few years is tagging and organizing all the spare parts and special tools. All with those little white tags so that people know which car they go for, is they are used or NOS and the like. I must have $10K of parts!

 

James.

 

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I have a 12 year old that has been helping me turn wrenches since he was about 4 and he's interested in our old cars.  He also loves to junkyard hunt with me when we go and really loves the antique stores.  I know he's not the norm, but he also wants what I did when I was younger, the 60s and 70s muscle cars and the Lambos and Bugattis.  I don't think of what I do with my cars as anything that will ever bring serious money, because its just for fun, and I want to drive all of mine (at some point) regularly, like a quasi-daily driver.  I think its all about what we teach our younger generations.  Too many kids have never even seen a wrench, and unfortunately with these newer electronics, you really do need to have a basic understanding of electrical schematics and computer programming/algorithms to be able to diagnose properly.  Honestly if it doesn't throw a code, a lot of these newer techs don't have the basic knowledge of how an internal combustion engine works, and how the bolt on computer is designed to help it process the basics into a digital signal.....Anyways.  Tangent, sorry.  I guess basically what my thought is that a lot of times our hearts and likes change throughout our life, and people will always like things in different genres. 

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