Seems to be there's alot of a$$holes in Western Canada.....
Okay-now that I've got the "knee-jerk" reaction off my chest, let's talk reality.
Here in the rustbelt, is where the new homes for such vehicles should be. It's simple fact that the "supply" of useable 1940's-1950's tin originally found here (Southern Ontario) pretty much dried up by about the time they were 20-25 years old in the 1970's.
What now remains is largely hoarded by old timers who are primarily motivated to see old cars or trucks "restored" and don't like "hot rodders." These same individuals will cheerfully ask
HUGE sums of money all day for rustbuckets with rotten, unuseable frames and completely missing floorboards.
I remember going to an old junkyard in Eastern Ontario some years ago with a buddy of mine. I asked one of the attendants there what they were asking for vehicles, as there were a couple of A.D.'s there which could have been saved, especially with the use of one of the more solid 1-1/2 or 2-ton truck cabs there. His response was "Anything worth towing out of there will be going for $800-$1000." Seemed then (and still seems now) to be a steep price for something which is worth probably $150 for scrap value.
Incidentally, this same yard I'm speaking of used the scare tactic, "Oohh, were gonna CRUSH IT ALL by such-and-such date if somebody doesn't come and buy it" for AT LEAST a couple of years before they actually did crush everything...Right down to scare ads in Old Autos...
Back to our Alberta stash-$400-$500 is a pretty good price for a reasonably solid A.D. 'specially since I've wanted one for 20-plus years. However, you'd have to add on the price of
shipping from Alberta to Ontario, which could run $1000 or higher! Suddenly your cheapo old truck looks a little bit more unreasonable. Starting to look better to buy something imported from Arizona or desert California...At least then the price would be justified with a truly "rust free" vehicle. Western Canadian vehicles DO have rust, just not nearly as much as what we have here in Ontario...
I kinda wandered off on a tangent there, I think. Anyway, time to get two little girls to brush their teeth and get off to work.
Talk atcha all later.
Regards,
Shea