About a year and a half ago, I bought a travel trailer from a guy just down the road from my place. It was a 1972 Prowler 16 ft. with a clean title and minor roof and floor water damage in the very back. He wanted $500 for it, I talked him down to $300, and pulled it home with a buddy's truck and parked it next to my garage. The only problem was that I had no real use for a trailer and no rig to pull it with. So there it sat... Until recently, that is. I finally came to grips with the fact that I had no time to put toward it and would still need to buy a tow rig after I dumped funding into renovating it. So up on Craigslist it went. I wasn't in a huge hurry to sell it and said in the ad that I was really interested in trades, that was it. I had tons of people ask how much I'd sell it for and they all got the same response: make a cash offer and leave your name and number, I'll call you if I decide to sell it for cash. And I got the same response from all of them: no response whatsoever. Finally, someone e-mailed me and asked if I'd be interested in trading it for a 1978 Chrysler New Yorker. That's 19.5' of ritzy luxury car. They sent me pictures of the car, I sent pictures of the trailer, and today, the deal was made (excuse the crummy pic). It needed a new alternator and a negative battery terminal, both of which got replaced today. My buddy and I tinkered on it and got power to the power windows (2 work, 2 have issues that need to be worked out), the power seats randomly started working, and the radio randomly started working (it's a mid 90's 1.5 din factory Chrysler AM/FM/Cassette). It needs a good cleaning inside and out and some more tinkering, but everything is coming along nicely so far. It's nice to have a project car that's separate from my daily driver again. It reminds me of how much I like working on cars when it isn't to get to work the next morning! I'll take some more pics of the interior tomorrow, it's in pretty good shape as well.
I bought several New Yorkers for their drivetrain (440's are awesome motors). Got them dirt cheap, but some were in pretty nice condition, and I hated to put them out to pasture after pulling the motors, so a couple of the better ones I got running and drove 'em like I stole 'em, and basically used them as muscle-bound party barges until age and electrical SNAFUs finally retired the cars......they went out, but they went out partying! One was a 71 New Yorker with the 375 HP 440.....70,000 original miles, a lifetime of faithful, regular maintenance, but rust got into the frame rails and floors, so it's time left was limited...... I could do blocks-long burnouts in that baby.....went through 4 pairs of rear tires.....even beat a few Ford and Chevy street cars in stoplight races before an upper A-arm broke and ended the party. The 440 and Torque-flight went into a 71 Dodge Dart Swinger,.....so the burnouts lived on
There's truth in both of statements lol. I noticed the Maverick had a taillight bulb out, so I drove the Chrysler to work today. This thing is probably getting 8-10 mpg, but it feels like I sat down on my couch and drove my living room to work hahaha
"And as an investment, it paid well in the end!" looks like you traded a $300 piece of camper for a $200 fishing car...
Got bored (and creative) and did a little journalistic comparison of the Mav and the New Yorker: http://jongeddes.kinja.com/used-car-comparison-70s-american-sedans-1653166664