VCCA Home Forums TECHNICAL - 1945 AND NEWER 1949-1954 1950 Chev with 400 miles on it

This is almost too amazing to believe.

Located in Portland, Oregon.

http://portland.craigslist.org/mlt/ctd/1152417944.html

Thats been around for a while. Was on Ebay a few times and discussed a lot on another Chevy chat site.
Some how the story sounds more phoney each time I read it.
The seat covers look to "modern" for anything that was offered in 1950. Note though that it has the red decal on the valve cover that says this engine equipped with hydraulic valve lifters. Not many of those decals lasted very long. I do believe they were reproduced at on time.
Would like to see it in person.

At first I read "would like to see it in prison" ... been in Leavenworth too long.....

Lee

Why does the engine look as bad as it does? I've put 40,000 miles on a restored car and the engine looked better.

Nice example of a '50 coupe, I down loaded the pictures for the reference folder.
But I also opened the downloaded pictures in Photoshop so I could take a closer look at them. I noticed a few things about that "400-mile always kept garaged” Chevy.
When you look at the seams you can see light reflecting at angles that show there has been work done to the body, even my 26-year-old daughter caught that when she looked at the pictures. If you look close at the bottoms of the doors and rockers you can definitely see that there has been work on them. The left fender and door moldings are misaligned just a little, the hood gap is not even and there is a bulge at the center of the hood where it meets the grill. That engine has seen a lot more than 400 miles and the air cleaner looks like it has seen it's share of cleanings, a lot more than 400 miles would warrant. There is something wrong with the cowl also, hard to tell just what it is from the pictures.
The kicker for me was the odometer. Working as the night parts man in a Chevy dealership back in the early 60's we had a guy that came in a couple times a week that did our radio repair work. He also did a little speedo work for the used car salesmen. One thing I learned from him is that when the numbers don't line up straight across it's a pretty sure bet that the speedo has been turned back. If you look at the picture of the odometer the seven is slightly out of alignment, that wouldn't happen to a new speedo with 400 miles on it. From my vantage point this looks like a scam, but a pretty nice restoration, and it might be worth half what they are trying to get if all that body work isn't Bondo over rust, in which case twelve or fifteen might be a better working point if I were looking for one.
Denny Graham
Sandwich, IL

The car is for sale at Mark Young's Chev Connection in Portland, OR.

Some of you know that Mark is a friend of mine. He IS a great, young guy. (Well, he's younger than I am by 15-ish years.) He has sold millions of dollars of cars in Reno @ Silver's HAN's auction; B-J auctions in Scottsdale and Palm Beach; locally here in Portland and elsewhere.

I've personally heard EXPERTS say it's all true and heard other EXPERTS question the whole situation. I have NO interest in the car. So I don't really care what anybody thinks. If I was interested in the car, I'd care A LOT. Friend of mine or not, I have no reason to doubt the story. On the other hand, I guess I can't prove it either.

You can also see the car at the Chev Connection website Check it out. There's some GREAT cars. And the sold cars section is a fantastic review of some incredible cars!

I can say it's one helluva neat little 50 coupe.

Bill.

The door/hood gaps look normal by 1950 standards. They never came from the factory wiith good fits. Our new car get ready guys used to readjust as good as possible. Can't see a lot of detail on my screen.
Often cars deteriorate under the hood more from storage but I agree it dosen't look 400 miles fresh. Also the battery ground cable should be braided, Spark plug wire look like the have printing on them. The original wires on my 1950 are plain.
The spot light is not correct and has 1949 accessory grille guards.
My guess is that its a nice original that was restored years back.

The 400 mile Chev is a fraud and Mark Young is the biggest liar in the world and here in pPortland he is known as the "Clonevator".......Joe

<comments removed>

Intent was already expressed in the previous posting.

<comments removed>

This story was linked to the Yahoo! home page.

No questions regarding the validity of the story.

http://www.modbee.com/columnists/jardine/story/754787.html

Just because these lies are in print so there for you believe this BS. too ?.... joe diorio

Whatever the history of the car, it is a good looking car, no doubt.

Bob

This story comes around about every other month.

I talked with the owner a few days ago and he indicated he has more-or-less taken it off the market. It's my understanding the next time it will be seen is at the Barret-Jackson auction in January. It'll be interesting to see what happens there.

Maybe the guy that was running the auction for the 1949, 3104 pickup truck on e-bay last week will bring his in to set next to it, that truck on e-bay was only supposed to have 12,000 miles on it. That one also looked a little doubtful to me with half the paint wore of the steering wheel and drivers side window garnish and not a speck of paint left on the engine. Compared it to my paint with 8,000 miles that isn’t showing any wear at all. Well one thing for sure, if either one shows up at the Barrett-Jackson auction in January, they better bring documents of provenance if they expect to get $60,000 for it. Word of mouth or a good story just won’t get it there.
Please do report in if you find out what happens Bill.
Denny Graham
Sandwich, IL

Denny,

I don't have the channel that carries the auction "live." (Speed Chan ??) But I regularly see guys writing in here about this car went for this and that car went for that. It seems likely someone will notice the action on that '50 Chevy and tell us about it. As I said, it'll be interesting to see the bidders' response to the car.

Bill.

Well, January is a long way off .... I don't know what documentation is needed by the seller to get the car registered at Barrett Jackson, but I'm guessing there must be some checks and balances to document and verify the sellers' statements as to the origin of the car, etc.

Bob