Grassroots Pantera

I would love to see a museum of interesting cars that are frozen in their found state of decomposition.

irish44j wrote: find out who wins the auction and contact them ASAP about "removing that white car from the property FOR FREE!" woooooooo!

Honestly, this car is not worth dragging out of there. There is Swiss cheese rust everywhere. The driveway is in similar condition to the car. It's down a hill, around a bend and next to a wall. Retrieval will require chainsaws and Jeeps with winches. You can't get a flatbed anywhere near it.

Restored warplanes are worth much, much more than a perfect Pantera.

The Harley has much more potential.

I am a little curious what's in the garage, though.

New owner of the property will just have those "old junk cars" hauled off by the first junkyard they find in the phone book. Leave a note on the front door to get the Pantera, even just for parts. The wheels alone have to be worth something. The Camaro is tempting if its not too rotten. Big bonus if its a 4-speed.

whats in the garage!!!

Holy crap, what a bunch of whiney pessimists.

Call city. Complain about "abondoned, unregistered vehicles in front of abandoned house." Ask city what recovery yard handles these things. Contact yard. Let 'em know you're the guy who just "donated" 4-5 cars worth of scrap to them...including a Pantera, which some "Appalachian American" at the yard will no doubt want. Get free Harley.

IIRC the transmission is a collector's piece. 4 speed ZF is worth well over 10,000USD.

I'd still snag the Pantera...I don't care what condition it's in. We have the technology....we can rebuild it....without the 15K minimum buy in price.

eebasist wrote: IIRC the transmission is a collector's piece. 4 speed ZF is worth well over 10,000USD.

It looks like the transaxle has been removed (they were a 5 speed, I believe.) I see the engine is laying in the weeds, the transaxle could be buried in the debris somewhere as well.

If the Harley is in the same shape as the Pantera, then the bike and $20K will get you a $10K bike.

Are you saying that bike laying on its side is a Harley? Looks Japanese to me.

Listen folks, the Pantera is E36 M3. The best way to remove it from where it sits is with a Sawzall. Everything is missing. Even the dash has been removed.

But I am interested enough to go to the foreclosure auction this weekend. I expect that a bank will buy the property. It doesn't even sound like a house you'd want to walk through, but it would be interesting to see if there is a ZF transaxle in the garage. Next to the Pantera, under the leaves and beer bottles was an engine stand, so there may be some decent tools around there somewhere. The winning bidder will have my contact information before I leave.

The Harley hasn't been out there any where near as long as the Pantera. Maybe it could donate it's engine and transmission to my Formula car project.

I sent an e-mail to the attorney handling the sale. I mentioned that "I might be interested in some or all of the vehicles and parts on the property".

He said "The property is being sold “as is”. All vehicles and junk included."

Hmm....I suppose you could still attend the auction, then afterwards sidle up to the winnig bidder and offer to help him out by removing some of the junk from the property.

Give them $100 and get a receipt. Sit that rusty Pantera shell on some other chassis and challenge the hell out of it. Dont paint it please!

stuart in mn wrote: Hmm....I suppose you could still attend the auction, then afterwards sidle up to the winnig bidder and offer to help him out by removing some of the junk from the property.

That's the plan, but as I said, I suspect that a bank will buy it. I may have to offer my services as a salvage contractor or something.

A jalopy Pantera would win about a million cool points.

Woody, I'm with stuart in mn on this one. Get yer salvage licence out, and wait to see which sucker buys the place. Then offer to "help".

I can tell one thing. That cleveland engine did not come out of the Pantera. It looks like it has a 2 bbl carb and a torque converter on it.

Yeah, I immediately spotted the torque converter. My guess was that it was intended to go into the Pantera, you know, before he left it out on the lawn.

Why is anyone talking about it being too far gone.. too far gone for what?? Id go out of my way to pick that up as yard decor. You guys must all live in the city or something.

If the bank ends up with the property again, get the name of the person at the bank, that handles that stuff. Usually they turn it over to a realtor. If you can get to them before that happens, you can score big. I bought a house that way in the early 80s. Didn't do a thing and was able to flip it in two months, making a very tidy profit. The bank is only interested in getting their money, they're not in the house selling business. At least that's what they told me. Pick it up on the cheap, hire some unemployed guys to clean up inside and out, and list it.

The newspaper headline about this place was "House of Death and Decay".

I just want the vehicles.

Here's how the courthouse steps forclosure process (Trustee's Sale) works:

Bank calls Lawyer (The Trustee) and says, "Homeowner is in default, sell it at auction."

Lawyer stands on the courthouse steps and performs an "auction" hoping that nobody shows up to buy the house and he doesn't have to deal with anybody but the bank. He doesn't care about selling the house, he doesn't care about making anybody happy, he works for the bank (who incidentally is THE most likely buyer in these cases).

Law office often sends someone to do the auctions to multiple counties in one day. You'd be lucky if that person even waits long enough after the sale to give you their card (and they may flat refuse).

If the property is worth less than what is owed on it, the bank buys the property back.

What does this mean? If it's a big bank, not a local one, you would have a LOT of work cut out for you trying to get a hold of the entire property, let alone a few select pieces of junk off of it. It would require, most likely, hours of time on the phone, being more pleasant than you'd like to, in an attempt to charm someone into giving you info that they have no other incentive to give you. Anything they do for you just complicates their job of processing this thing.

If it's a local bank, and/or if you get a hold of someone who cares enough to help you out, you just need to talk to whoever is IN CHARGE of making decisions with whatever entity actually OWNS the property at any given time. If this is a reasonable person, and can tell that the person they're talkign to is a reasonable person, you might have half a chance at "helping" them be rid of a piece of junk or two. However, like I said, this is a process for these folks. Anything to make it more difficult is simply not woth their time, typically.

The person who ends up with that Pantera will have HOURS of time invested in the deal...or they'll be at the receiving end of a paid job to clean the property up...in its entirety.

On the other hand, if the property is worth significantly more than the amount owed on it (you can infer this by looking at county records...check the deed of trust, when it was recorded, and for how much), someone other than the bank will buy it. In this case, talk to the person who bids and buys and tell them you're interested in the cars/bikes/whatever. You don't need to make it look like you're doing them a favor...you're really not. They need EVERYTHING gone. They're doing you a favor by letting you have it...if you feel like offering cash, so be it. Just ask for an opportunity to look around and see what is there that you want. Whatever it is that you want, be prepared to make it dissappear ASAP...because they have no incentive to wait for you.

Wow...that was a long post. It's just that I have some experience with foreclosure sales and thought it might help.

Clem

I would try to get my hands on that stuff. If nothing else you could flip some of the cars for more then you paid. And I am kinda looking for a bike so if you get one and don't want it.

He treats his cars like he did his pets, wonder how Mrs. Romanczack fared?

Maybe she's in the garage....