Buy a Rust-Free Project For Cheap

02. A fair amount of older cars are still in use around Los Angeles, though trolling parking lots and leaving "I wanna buy" notes tends not to work since the people usually either know what they have or they need the car for transportation. This Nova we found was a four-speed car, and it appeared to have originally been Rally Green.

03. Working with the "every car is for sale" theory, we have better luck nagging people with backyard cars that are nearly abandoned. But don't come to California looking for decent G-bodies like this Monte SS. The smog laws have kept rodders away from them, and most of what's left is totally clapped.

04. Keep an open mind when you're shopping for cheap stuff. We found this super-sano, 69,000-mile '70 Dodge A-van with 318 power and the world's cleanest undercarriage for $1,800, and that could turn to $1,200 pretty easily. It made us think of road-tripping it to the Mopar Nats and flipping it for a few bucks and lots of laughs.

05. We're in particular need of a Ford project and took a long look at this '71 Maverick Grabber we found at the Pomona Swap Meet. Showing unusual restraint, we resisted the price of $1,400 and let the owner rot for a while to try and cheese him down some on the price. By the time we took a second look we were more intrigued by a straighter '65 Falcon we spotted for $500 on craigslist.com.

06. Readers still ask us about V-8 S10 conversions, and those are rarely seen out here thanks to smog laws. If you have your heart set on one, then come on out. These things are like fleas on a dog's back, and decent ones sell for $800ish. We found this one in junkyard row.

07. Here's one we're still working on trying to buy: a '68 Chevelle 300, and yes, we know it's a four-door. Like McGean said, "It's so ugly, it's like a movie-car," and that's the point. We have a Weiand 6-71 we want to throw on a beater for 12-second summer fun that we can drive anywhere, and we'd expect to pay no more than $300 for this car.

08. We often buy stuff we never knew we wanted just because we found it sitting on the street at a good price. For years we've lusted for a fullsize American convertible, so this '68 De Ville drop-top had us twitching at $4,500. That's about twice our budget, so we had to walk away.

09. A second-gen Trans Am is also on our want list (which doesn't make it unique), and this '78 was found in The Recycler. It was perfect for us with the lack of T-tops, and we didn't even mind the Olds 403 power or the dimestore mags, but the baby blue interior gagged us. We passed on it at $2,500.

10. We pause from the actual hunt to show you the TA that we've had for a year now. It was an eBay posting, but we recognized it as a beater we'd seen here in Hollywood. When the auction closed with no bids, we hit the guy up and got it for $800--perhaps a bit too hastily. It's a Massachusetts car with more rust than we like, which means it actually has a little. We're not sure what to do with it now. The '72 Nova in the background was $200.

11. Another roadside attraction was this '73 Pontiac LeMans Sports Coupe. We've always thought these were pretty neat and unusual, but this 350-powered car had just a few too many strikes against it for us to hand over the very fair $1,400 asking price. But you'd take it for a haggled $1,200, huh?

12. Remember we told you we needed a Ford? We decided against this '89 5.0 as being too mainstream, but we did like the red GT-style interior and the $2,800 asking price. We hated the moonroof and automatic. This one was found in one of many areas where cars for sale seem to congregate on the street.

13. And finally, the prize. Frustrated with not being able to score anything for dirt cheap, we ended up walking out of the Long Beach Swap Meet with this '73 Duster for $400, delivered to our door. We can't tell you why we bought it, but it's rust-free and prime fodder for a race car. We may have to finally build the musclecar rally racer we've always dreamed of. Burning the four bills would probably have been more responsible in the long run. How'd we do? END