Can you hurl a paint-splattered ladder into the bed of your truck from 20 feet away and not flinch when it hits? The owner of this fine American machine- which parks just a couple blocks from Chez Murilee- can do that!

Back in '59, a base half-ton Ford Styleside pickup would have run you $1,938, or about $14,500 in 2009 bucks. For that price you got a 223-cube I6 and a three-speed manual transmission. That's way cheaper than the least expensive Ford sedan, which was the $2,132 Custom 300 Six business coupe. What a deal!

I found this cartruck parked outside Alameda's Tiki Overload Headquarters a couple months back. The bar was having a small pseudo-car-show, and this Chevy was parked just behind the '51 Dodge Wayfarer we saw a while back.

A base, six-cylinder 1959 El Camino listed at $2,352 new, or about $400 more than a half-ton stepside Chevrolet pickup. For those extra bucks you got a car-like ride and those snazzy fins, though cargo-hauling ability wasn't quite up to serious truck standards. Which would you have chosen?

That's why we're going with a couple of classic Italian machines once again, only this time we're going a lot skinflintier on the budget side. Just how cheap are today's totally easy projects? 500 bucks apiece! That's right, we're looking at sure-fire Index Of Effluency contenders for potential 24 Hours Of LeMons teams. Whether you decide to race one of these beauties or turn it into a painfully cool daily driver, you should be able to do it by investing just a 55 gallon drum brimming with little sweat and a cubic foot of few dollars.

Why is it that those lucky Yurpeans got almost all of the Lancia Betas? The first new model manufactured by Lancia after being taken over by Fiat, the Beta had a screamin' Fiat Twin Cam engine, front wheel drive, four wheel disc brakes, and all sorts of excessively complex innovative suspension features. You'd think they'd have sold like crazy in Malaise Era North America, but these days you'd be lucky to find one Beta per time zone. As for getting one for a 3-figure price, forget it! No, don't forget it, because this 1977 Lancia Beta Berlina (go here if the listing disappears), located in theoretically rust-free New Mexico, is ready to clank into your life for just cinquecento bucks! It appears that most of the paint on its horizontal surface has been burned off by the desert sun, and we must assume that the interior is in hopeless somewhat rough shape, but then we see those three magical PCH words in the listing ("ran when parked") and we know everything will be just fine! Thanks to five_on_ninetyeight for the tip.

Front wheel drive? Unless we're talking about a Citroën or maybe a 500-cubic-inch Eldorado, it's tough to work up the motivation to sacrifice your mental, physical, and fiscal health on the Hell Garage altar for a front-driver. You've got plenty of Italian rear-drive options available, and things get even better when you start thinking about horsepower-doubling engine swaps. Say, a Fiat 1100 with the original 1098cc engine torn out and replaced with a powerplant nearly twice as big? But where would you find that, you ask? A Texas rattlesnake hissed out a message about this 1959 Fiat 1100 with Toyota engine (go here if the listing disappears), and we're passing it on to you! Only $500, and the engine-donor car drove itself to the garage under its own power. The engine looks like a Toyota A of some sort, and the front suspension from the unidentified Toyota was swapped in as an added bonus. Not only that, the seller says he's "built several before," so you know he or she must have all the engineering tricks worked out by now- most likely you'll be able to just smash your skull against tinker with it for several eternities a couple of afternoons and get this ToyoFiat into fully roadworthy (or raceworthy) shape!

Aston Martin put together a documentary about the race entitled "Final Victory" (learn more at their site, and Scroggzilla has done some more digging to find that driver Carroll Shelby suffered from horrible dysentery the entire time, which (in the words of Scroggz) "must have made him REAL popular with his co-driver, Roy Salvadori. YIKES!" Enjoy.

That means that an old Detroit battleship - or maybe an air-cooled Beetle - tends to be a wise choice for drivers in Mexico's ancient capitol city. The-Simpsons-Rule spotted this extremely rough first-year Galaxie parked on the street last summer, and we can't be sure whether or not it runs. The glass, lights, and trim are mostly gone, but the tarp over the dash suggests that the owner plans to fix it up. We certainly hope that's the case!

Hi guys The-Simpsons-Rule here,
in a recent trip to Mexico city I was strolling around the neighborhood when I came across this very old Ford Galaxie and immediately thought of you guys. All i know(or can remember for that matter) is that it's an automatic and.... well it's very old. Well i've included some pics so you can see for yourself how this car has seen better days.

You see, while it's fun to see Germany or Japan or the USA take on (and occasionally defeat) a member of the Unholy PCH Trinity of Britain, France, and Italy, the real Hell Garage battles take place between the Superpowers. France won the last cross-Channel PCH matchup, with a Simca Aronde edging out a Humber Sceptre, and today we're having the rematch!

We fear French cars, of course, but we also worship them… but clowns? It's straight-up fear, unalloyed with worship. So what do you get when you buy a weird orphaned French car that was once owned by Emmett Kelly Jr, the World's Most Famous Clown? You get a great deal, that's what you get! This 1959 Panhard Dyna Z-16 is being sold by the late Emmett Kelly Junior's mechanic- yes, the World's Most Famous Clown had a thing for French cars- and the top bid of $2,225 failed to meet the reserve price. How much is that reserve? We're willing to bet Monsieur Clown Mechanic will pay attention to the sound of rustling Benjamins, were you to shoot him an email right now! It might even run; the engine "starts eagerly at a tug of the start knob," but it hasn't been driven in years. The interior is completely fried by the Arizona sun and no doubt every component that ever touched fluid will need replacing/rebuilding, but it's a reasonably complete car. How hard could it be? Imagine the joy of cruising your town in this suicide-doored beauty! Thanks to Mark for the tip.

That Panhard definitely gets the drool flowing, no doubt about it, but the Dyna Z sent only 50 horsepower to the front wheels. What if you want to die in a flaming high-speed wreck do some spirited high-performance driving? A British car you can afford, with crazy turbocharged power and tarmac-grabbing handling? Well, then, it comes down to pretty much one choice: Lotus Esprit Turbo! Before the Financiapacolypse, you couldn't get a running example for less than five figures, but the ticket to Lotus agony glory is now far cheaper! How much cheaper? Get ready for this: a 1985 Lotus Esprit Turbo (go here if the ad disappears) for only $6,500! You can find more details on this super-steal here. Much like the Panhard, the engine can be started, but it's not in "running/driving" condition. Oh yes, and it was "involved in a theft" and the center console was damaged… which means those high-quality Lucas electrics are likely to be even shakier than usual. Dim, Flicker, and KABOOM! We won't lie to you- this thing is scary even by Hell Garage standards; it runs well enough to give you hope, yet it's fully equipped with everything it needs to crush your spirit… forever! Still, having your own Esprit Turbo- just imagine how great that would be! Thanks to Adam for the tip!

That's exactly what our Canadian friend Fantasygoat did, and he's photographed some fine daily-driven machinery for us. General Motors products seem to dominate, from the '58 Buick above to a good assortment of early-to-mid-50s Buicks and Oldsmobiles; we also get a pretty clean-looking '57 Ford sedan and some bonus Warsaw Pact rides in the background (and we can assume that some of those American cars are motivated by Soviet truck engines). Hey, is that a '60 Corvair, brought to the island in the final minutes before the embargo? Check out the original photo album here.

You got your Reliants and your Lloyds, but when you're talking about weird British marques that Americans can't identify… well, it's tough to beat a Humber. You get your Rootes Group-ish Chrysler-influenced styling, Lucas Electrics, and ahead-of-its-time technology (well, not really, unless the time is being set in Detroit) with the Magnificent Humber Sceptre!

Just look at that fine hunk of British iron! At this point, you're probably bummed because you know there's no way in hell to get a Sceptre without traveling to the UK, and even then you'd be in a frustrating right-hand-drive car… but hold on a second! There's a left-hand drive Humber Sceptre (go here if the ad disappears) available for just $750 in rust-free Southern California! We know, the seller says it's a '60 and the Sceptre Mark I didn't exist until 1963, but this one ran when parked! OK, that was 10 (probable Craigslist-to-English translation: 18) years ago, but the "motor turns over" and it looks like all the impossible-to-find glass is intact. Add an SR20DET and you'll be the Sceptre King of your time zone!

That Sceptre is mighty fine and that's a fact, but where's the sportiness? You need a slick-looking two-door to get anywhere in this world, and you need to remember that Chrysler wasn't just building Hillmans and Humbers and Singers in England- the Rootes Group was building cars in France as well! Yes, perennial PCH Superpower France, where engineers don't give a damn how the rest of the world thinks cars ought to be… and you're in luck today, because this 1959 Simca Aronde is available at a very reasonable price. How reasonable we can't say, because of that damn eBay reserve game, but we're betting it's a 3-digit number. That means you'll have money left in your budget for an Offenhauser engine to fill in that void under the hood, and then you can start the search for a new rear window. Oh, wait- the seller says "i have found a rear window and i will give new owner the phone number to buy it," so you're pretty much ready to go!

We've seen many roof-rack-equipped Transporters in this series, including this '56, this '57, this '60, and this '66. Since this chalkboard-patina example is parked at the beach, I suspect its roof rack is often used to secure boards, sails, etc., leaving room for the bongs wetsuits inside.


Look, nice view of San Francisco through the windshield! And, of course, we must have my usual Old VW Disclaimer: I chose 1959 as the model year of this bus more or less by picking numbers out of a bong hat; I know it's got to be in the 1956-62 range, but that's the best I can do. Experts?

The Buick engine was gone, but otherwise the Mark Mist was in pretty good shape.

The gauges still have their 24-karat gold plating, and the upholstery has held up very well. In fact, all the car really needs is a new engine and a general mechanical going-over to be ready to roll again. This car is a time capsule!

It's a love-it-or-hate-it design; some will cringe at the Edsel-esque face, but there's no arguing with the quality of the fabrication and craftsmanship here. No body filler, everything handmade.

A Buick engine awaits installation, and the Mark I Mist should roar back to life soon. Dave will likely sell it and move on to the next project once it's finished- he's already got a '57 Ford project in the early stages- but not before he makes jaws drop at a few shows and cruises with this thought-to-be-gone-forever classic.

This is one of two beauties that are within a block of each other, parked on a main artery in downtown Toronto!
First up, I found what I believe to be a 1959 Desoto Fireflite four door. While taking the pictures at 10:30 a.m., a guy three sheets to the wind stumbles out of the house it's parked in front of, and although he's not the owner, he tells me that he knows the owner and says the car has not been not restored! She's beauty marked with some rust here and there, but aside from that she looks pretty solid for an almost 50 year old automobile. Drunk guy said she's parked there every day so he can watch it for the owner. Yeah, when he's not passed out on the floor! It's the little things on this car that catch my eye, the mirrors, emblems, tail lamps, even the hub caps all have a certain attention to detail modern cars are devoid of, and that's what makes something like this car special.

This car parks in Irvine, CA. I don't think it's a daily driver, but it does move a bit. The pink paint is very faded, but Also, here's a cute little Chevy van and the GMC Suburban-type that I mentioned. The GMC is my favorite, especially with its LAUSD vintage. These are both in the Irvine Groves neighborhood. The GMC always parks at the front and the Chevy is always on the east side at the back.

The Japanese have been building super-reliable, easy-to-repair vehicles with good parts availability for so long now that we tend to forget that at one time they built crazy cars. Cars that rusted to nothingness before your eyes, full of components and designs from Britain and Italy... while at the same time boasting amazing styling and features that fill us with yearning. Perfect PCH material, eh? Got to say, if this '69 Toyota Crown (go here if the ad disappears) lived a little closer than Florida... well, with a $1,750 price tag, we wouldn't be sharing this super steal with you readers! Now, for that sweet price tag you figure there's some work in store for you, and we'd be remiss if we didn't mention the pushrod Land Cruiser engine that's replaced the original SOHC 2M unit. There's nothing wrong with the Toyota F, mind you... but a truck engine in this fine luxury sedan? The good news is that the junkyard is chock-full of Supras and Cressidas with M engines, and you'll have no problem adding entire stables of extra ponies, what with the vast assortment of aftermarket go-fast gear out there. The seller says "Body is good, interior needs love," but how hard can it be to find 40-year-old Crown interior components?

That Crown would make you feel like an early-70s Yakuza enforcer, for sure, but wouldn't it be cool to own one of the very first Bluebirds? Based on the Austin Cambridge and powered by an Austin-licensed engine, this 1959 Datsun 1000 (go here if the ad disappears) clearly shows its British ancestry. Come on now, a half-century-old orphaned Austin/Datsun from Fresno? You can't say no! And you shouldn't say no, in spite of the somewhat disconcerting statement "Car is in 'ruff' condition (yes it barks for attention). " It's "Mostly a complete car," and we're sure you'll manage to find a big stash of '59 Datsun parts without having to go to Japan, because that's how serious you'll be about this project! And, hell, might as well drop in an SR20DET while you're at it, right?

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You want an NSX, and so do I. It's safe to say that you wouldn't be reading this series in the first place if you were the sort who doesn't want an NSX (unless your brand of garage masochism requires engines with carburetors... lots and lots of carburetors, in which case you most likely still think the NSX is a good idea, even if you wouldn't drive an EFI car yourself). But damn! they're expensive critters, and nobody seems to want to sell theirs. However, we looked and looked and finally found an NSX for just $10,000! No, really! Take a gander at this '92 Acura NSX and then try to offer us the usual lame excuses about how you can't afford your own Japanese supercar. This car is available at "a fraction of the price," though the price isn't defined, because it needs a little work. Actually, all it really needs is some TLC- like so many Hell Projects- in order to repair the damage from what looks like a half-completed ripoff-and-chopshop adventure. The engine appears to be there, and no doubt more than 50% of the rest of the vehicle's parts are present as well. How hard can it be to find a pair of NSX doors? You'll find out!

Say you admire the engineering of the NSX, but you're more of a fan of classic Detroit machinery. In that case, what you need is an early Corvette... but- holy Barrett-Jackson!- the price of nice 50s Vettes is utter madness! That's why you want to try to find a project car and turn oceans of sweat and rivers of tears into a top-notch concours-qualiity restoration, one that will convince even the most sphincterish Corvette obsesso that you don't deserve to be ground into hamburger for defiling such a sacred machine. You'll have your work cut out for you with this 1959 Chevrolet Corvette, because it's actually a '59 frame with a "thick fiberglass" replica '57 body and a 283 out of a '66 Chevy (no mention of the transmission, which means it's probably a Powerglide). But, hey, the car is only $9,100! Hmm... maybe that idea of a restoration isn't really feasible here, but ya never know, ya know? Just put the correct stuff on the engine, find the right 4-speed, and dive into Itchy Fiberglass Land, and you'll be out cruising your '57/'59 in no time!

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1959 Corvette Roadster. Red with White Coves, Red interior and a white hard top. The Corvette is an automatic with spinner wheels and white wall tires. VIN J59S100698.

Most folks who watch Faster Pussycat! Kill, Kill! come away with the impression that Tura Satana's Porsche 356 was the most badass of the murderous pack-o-women's stable of vehicles. But don't overlook Lori Williams' Triumph! Imagine blasting across the desert like a Russ Meyer-esque dangerous outcast in your very own 50s Triumph... say, this 1959 TR3 (go here if the ad disappears), for example. The seller, Mike, is a man who doesn't believe in sucking all the oxygen out of the air with useless discussion (instead, he saves oxygen for vigorous union with iron atoms in the floor of his Triumph); the sum total of the car's description is as follows: "Mostly complete, California car, rust in floors, hard to find classic." It looks like it's been exposed to the elements for a while, so you figure there's some interior work to be done in addition to the rust repair and the inevitable battles against electrical woes, but who cares? Imagine this thing with the body in nice shape and a crazy twin-cam Japanese engine under the hood! Thanks (and a Project Car Hell Tipster T-shirt) to Jonee for the tip; Jonee gets his shirt the hard way, by submitting single cars for two different PCHs.

What's even cooler than a taut little British sports car? A stately British luxury car, of course! A car you can enter while wearing a top hat. A car that floats along the pavement like an ocean liner, oblivious to the quotidian woes that beset one's social inferiors. A car with an electrical system by Joe Lucas. Yes, we're talking Rolls-Royce here; in fact, we're talking about a 1980 Rolls-Royce with a bid price of 100 bucks! OK, skeptics, point out that the reserve price hasn't been met, but we bet the seller will be open-minded about any offer in the three-digit range. After all, this car has a few minor issues. Such as: It doesn't run. The right front body is crunched (though the blurry, uncentered photographs make it tough to ascertain the extent of the damage). And, as is so often the case, there's no title. All those drawbacks mean nothing, however, next to the glory of owning your own Roller! Thanks (and a half-credit towards a Project Car Hell Tipster T-shirt) to BananaDoc for the tip!

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Today we're going old school with the source for a PCH ad; I dropped by Alameda's Lee Auto Supply (the last independent auto-parts store in the area and sponsors of the Park Street Car Show) and taped to the counter was this flyer for a '77 Lotus Eclat. The Eclat was essentially a fastback Elite, with all the pluses and minuses of the breed. You know it'll stick to the road... if it can reach the road, that is! This one is only $6500, and the seller claims it runs. Formerly owned by a "retired head mechanic for Lotus Racing," this car has upgraded cams, a Toyota transmission, and a Nardi steering wheel. The seller can't keep this fine machine, however, because "I have no garage, only a gravel-covered levee, which makes tinkering a challenge." Tinkering... is that what you call the kind of work that involves several hundred Lotus parts scattered all about the premises, with gobbets of raw knuckle-beef dangling from your hands and your wallet feeling distinctly light? Yes, that's what we call it, too!

We love package deals, with the Instant Junkyard appeal and all that, and you'd certainly have to be thankful for some parts cars if you were to take on a Bianchi project. Our friend and microcar guru Jonee spotted this ad for three 1959 Bianchi minicars (go here if the ad disappears), and how could anyone resist these cars? Unfortunately, oxygen atoms were unable to resist getting together with the iron atoms in these cars' floorboards, and the seller speaks ominously of "other metal body work" as well. They've got 500cc air-cooled engines that haven't been started in years... but look at the bright side: when you get tired of replacing rusty sheet metal, you can rebuild three engines! And you don't have to worry that money spent on this project will be wasted, because last year one of these babies went for a stunning $39,599 at auction in Monterey. It's an investment!

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BURBANK, CA—(Marketwire - November 17, 2007) - Neil Young will be interviewed on CNN's "American Morning" on Monday, November 19th. Young, in the middle of a North American tour, went to Wichita, Kansas to meet with John Goodwin, who is converting Young's 1959 Lincoln Continental Mark IV convertible to run on biodiesel and electricity. Young and Goodwin describe the new fuel-efficient life of the car and how it holds exciting possibilities for the future.

Neil Young is directing a movie about the experience, including the drive from Northern California to Kansas to deliver the vehicle. Titled "Linc-Volt," the film is scheduled for a 2008 release. Once the conversion is complete, Young will drive the Lincoln from Wichita to Detroit for meetings with the auto industry, and then return to Kansas to retrace the route back to Northern California, raising awareness of the feasibility of hybrid-powered cars within the mainstream consciousness. He describes the Lincoln's new form and function as the embodiment of "classic Americana from then, meeting the Americana from now." The Linc-Volt is expected to achieve up to 100 miles per gallon on the highway.

"American Morning" airs on the CNN television network 6-9 a.m. EST. Neil Young's interview will also be featured on www.cnn.com.[MarketWire h/t Tina Chow]

VW didn't put a lot of decoration on these cars, but the Wolfsburg emblem below the trunk release is a real beauty.


You got a 36-horse 1200 in your Beetle for '58 or '59, which was power enough for highway cruising. That doesn't necessarily mean that's what this Beetle has in the back; even if the owner hasn't swapped in some kind of Weber-ized Type 4, after nearly 50 years it's likely that at least a 1600 has found its way into this car.


I've always liked this style of antenna mounting; sure, it looks funny, but busted-off antennas are easy to replace.


The blue tarp in the back indicates that this Beetle isn't exactly watertight during the rainy California winters. Let's hope the floorpan isn't rusty!