1961 Parkway Conversion on Bring-A-Trailer

I went ahead and went up to $2.500 knowing it would not go that low. One thing that is concerning is if you take a look at the picture of the under seat storage area. It looks like they just painted over the rust and let the paint run big time. If they did this is an area that is visible it makes me question what you might find in the hidden areas.
 
Be careful, this is a major rust bucket. Looks like they took buckets of epoxy and poured it over everything. I would not trust anything that has been done to this thing.
 
I see Scramboleer is keeping everyone straight in the bringatrailer comment section on this auction. Comments seem to be positive as to the desirability of Willys wagons with the exception of the floor and paint problems on this particular rig. It's going to be interesting to see where this auction ends up.
 
This auction ends tomorrow at 4:30 P.M Eastern. The bidding has died at $4500 and will probably end up a no sale but we shall see. Failing body work and that goopy floor covering has generated too much uncertainty to maintain the interest of bidders.
 
It reminds me of how my delivery started out...................1000 hours to fix correctly! There won't be much metal left after cutting out all of the bad I'm afraid.
 
Body is definitely a can of worms. One could probably drive it for years as is, in the right climate. Or be prepared for some serious work once paint is stripped off. I wouldn't mess with one area at a time. May not find a stopping point. When I was younger we would call this one a "block-a-way" as she looks good from a block away!

Looking at invoices like the ones provided gives us an indication as to how much our time is worth? Right? ;) Let's not add that up though. If I put a dollar figure on my time invested in my restoration I may cry a little.
 
This auction was bid to $10K but failed to meet the reserve and ended up a no sale. However, the seller indicated the final bid was close so I'm thinking he was looking for $11-12K. Bring-a-trailer noted the sale received 35 bids, was tracked by 428 people and had 12,000 plus views over it's six day run, not bad for the $99 listing fee. While this wagon has paint issues it is a running driving 20 footer with pretty good eyeball so the takeaway is the real world thinks a nice but not perfect Willys truck is worth around $10K. All of this serves to reminded me I do this for love and not for money. A nicely restored Scout 80 sold for $33K the other day on Bring-A-Trailer, I wonder if an equally restored Willys would bring the same result.
 
Around here ... Arizona ... Nicely set up Wagons above $6-7,000 simply don't sell on Craigslist. There have been plenty in the $15-35,000 range all set up with the best most recent hot rod engine, AC, sound systems, great paint ... they don't move at all.

We love our Wagons for what they are, mine is an old vehicle with my kind of history that I can afford and can work on myself.
 
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While this wagon has paint issues it is a running driving 20 footer with pretty good eyeball so the takeaway is the real world thinks a nice but not perfect Willys truck is worth around $10K. All of this serves to reminded me I do this for love and not for money. A nicely restored Scout 80 sold for $33K the other day on Bring-A-Trailer, I wonder if an equally restored Willys would bring the same result.

I think that you are correct about the $10k-12K number for a presentable driving Willys. Proper body and paint work can easily exceed that number though. It seems that you either build a running driving Willys or go with a very high end build/restoration that would be a player at one of the bigger auctions. Anything in between like no-mans land.
 
Yeah, cost invested doesn’t equal market selling price. See this all the time the world of the Ford Model A.

I agree: it’s a big roll of the dice to put in an non-stock drivetrain and expect to get money out of it come selling time. An upgraded drivetrain might make all kinds of sense for drivability, but it’s a roll of the dice as far as an investment.
 
It's hard to explain to people how labor intensive and expensive it is to do body and paint. The last project I painted was 300 hours labor and $2500 in materials and I didn't have to do any sheet metal...which we all know is need on just about every Willys on the planet . For someone needing to farm that work out to a body shop hearing it's going to cost $10K plus for a complete high quality job is a shocking experience. Hopefully whoever buys this wagon can do spot repairs and enjoy a nice driver for years to come.
 
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