Flipping cars??

On one of Jay Leno's videos, he said "If you're making money fixing up cars, you're doing it wrong."

Timely post for me. I have considered flipping a car here or there to bolster the hobby cash fund. I did ok on the x1/9, but it wasn't purchased with intent to flip; just never really fell in love with the car and made sure I didn't get in too deep a hole to climb out.

Currently, I have a friend waving a Ranger under my nose for a $300 buy-in. I am quite familiar with the platform, and have Lima engine spares for days. Seems like a no-brainer on the surface, until I started really looking at dollars in vs out.

Pros

• Cheap buy-in
• Familiar platform
• Excellent overall cosmetic condition
• It is generally easy to sell a small pick-up

Cons

• Truck is non-runner and disassembled.
• The whole mess needs transported 1hr, so either reassemble the body to the frame on-site, or make multiple trips.
• It was intended to be an electric conversion, so critical parts to building an ICE runner(fuel tank/lines, exhaust, etc.) are missing
• The spare engine I would use from my stash has been pillaged for bits to keep other projects running

Looked good at first but turned into quite a bit of parts chasing, plus an engine gasket set, and lots of time. KBB says this is a $3-4k truck complete, but I see 4wd ex.cabs of the same vintage on CL for $3500. That makes this 2wd reg.cab likely a $2500 truck....I think I am gonna walk unless I find a ridiculously cheap(rotted, wrecked, generally beat down) runner from which I could source all the parts in one location.

Subscriber-unavailabile said:

Never thought about sticking to one make/model. Things that get me curious are ads like this

https://austin.craigslist.org/cto/d/austin-2007-ford-freestyle-needs-work/6943660182.html

won’t go over 40 mph need work . Just using this an example, but something like that sounds like easy fix, unless the trans is toast.

on my local CL there’s tons of cars with bad clutches listed for few hundyS 

Also never thought about dealer tax issues. That alone makes it alsmost not worth it. Bad enough Texas charges few hundred to transfer title into your name.

The nicest Ford Freestyle in the world is only worth $1500 so thats a hard pass.  Keep in mind no one looks for Ford Freestyles because they are a 10 year old disposable car and a dead nameplate.

Honestly I would focus on the Japanese stuff, one or two models.  Around here you could do really well on 4 Runners, FJ Cruisers, and GX470s.  Buy ones that are dirty with some missing and broken trim, fix them up, detail them, sell them.  Rarely do they need serious mechanical work and they pull a premium at dealers.  The 4 Runner and GX470s is a current name plate - GX460 - but will still show up in GX searches and Lexus SUV searches.  Be ready to move quick when the right deal comes along, that means having $5k in 100s in your pocket - not in the bank and a way to transport non-runners.  

If you have the room, buy a few wrecks or junkers just for spares.  Little interior stuff will eat all your profit and no one wants to ride in a car with a damaged interior.  Sensors, lenses, etc are great to pull from junkers since they will eat your profit buying new but don't add any value to a junker.

Do the minimum required to get it roadworthy and presentable.  No one cares if it has fresh oil change as long as the oil is good, same with spark plugs.  Plugs and oil on a V8 is $100 that I would rather have in my pocket.  There are tons of tricks used car dealers do for detailing, get the homeboy hookup on a PDR guy, a good detail guy if you are no good, an interior guy who can do airbrusing and redye leather, etc.  

https://atlanta.craigslist.org/nat/cto/d/dillard-1971-chevy-c10-runs-drives/6941561937.html

This in Wisconsin is a $4500 truck.

https://atlanta.craigslist.org/wat/cto/d/villa-rica-1972-chevrolet-chevy-c10/6932360260.html

Could get $8k for this pretty fast.

https://atlanta.craigslist.org/atl/cto/d/norcross-85-chevy-c10/6928229156.html

$6k for that.

Head down with a 3 or 4 place trailer, load some trucks, make $10k and do nothing but bring them north.  Backhaul cheap Hondas and stuff like that if you have them.  

Head down with a 3 or 4 place trailer, load some trucks, make $10k and do nothing but bring them north.  

That's what a few guys do here.  Trucks are cheap at the coast, and expensive here, so guy go get them and bring them in.

Less risk than buying that basket case that then becomes a parts donor, and you're "that guy with all those _________ in the back yard."

In reply to 93gsxturbo :

I disagree that GX470's rarely need work.  My recently sold GX, which we'd owned for 7 years, since it had 39k miles on it was very needy the last year we owned it.

I was constantly spinning wrenches on it as everything kept wearing out in quick sucession.  I'm sure the guy I sold it to is all set now that I basically rebuilt it, but I was so disgusted with working on it non stop I had to hit the eject button.

In reply to dropstep :

Most states have some kind of regulations about how many cars you can sell without a license.  It's called "curb stoning".

My first flip was a 59 VW, 20 minutes into my first legal drive with it. Skidded to a stop on the roof, right in front of a car dealer...

Oh, you mean buying and selling.

I did alot of horse trading with British sports cars but that was back before eBay, etc. The internet took the fun out of selling cars.