Well, I don't know what you have been offered as generic carbodies in various stages of decomposition are generally cheap to acquire if not free, providing you pay for the move. If you can't afford the move, you can't afford the project. What's unobtainable except through years of networking and finagling and dumb luck is the original style electric hardware to make the coop operational. We can't yet just place an order for a complete set of parts to fit out the carbody, but I'm working on it - it's a slow process with lots of obstacles to overcome. If and when we can, we don't know what it will cost, but any cost is cheaper than unavailable..... or infinitely more expensive, depending.

I'm with eze.... get a coop and build a doodlebug. You can find drive trains off the shelf and supportable that will do nicely, including air conditioning and heat if you want a luxury model.

dave

The cheapest I've been offered was 16k for something covered in brick shingle tarpaper and somewhat gutted. If you know of any "freebies" I'm all ears.

thx.

C.

Start with the list, determine what is within reasonable distance, make courteous contact and work out from there. Gutted is to be expected, the tarpaper is a bonus. Two of the carbodies I have worked on were incomplete steel frames with no wood left on them.

dave

True that. LOL

Thx

C.

Have you seen this guy?

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Real-small-Trai ... 4aadb0da15

This has been on my radar for years. =)

Here is a birney body with bus transmission installed and lots of rot in the last 10 years:
http://www.rypn.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=24956

I'm not sure whether to say thanks or run!

C.

Perhaps then, this car would be more to your liking:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/oncewas/5774036304/
https://www.flickr.com/photos/lch4/2131947053/
http://www.bera.org/cgi-bin/pnaerc-query.pl?sel_curown=City%20of%20Petersburg

It has sat under this bridge in Petersburg VA for perhaps 8 or 10 or more years now. It sits on a lowboy, perhaps you can take ownership of that as well?
Best of luck-
O.

At least it's pretty much there....... not a bad start.

dave

Agreed. Transportation included! Lol

Now how to figure out who owns it?

C

According to the PNAERC link, the city of Petersburg. You can see an antique fire hose reel or something on the nose of the trailer. It probably would not take too much convincing that the restoration project is now beyond their capability, and that you will provide a good future for the car (with possibly offering them first rights of refusal for a sale?).

Yep. Waiting to hear back now.

Thanks for the tip!

C.

The city is not interested in donating or selling the carbody. It seems they have no idea what to do with it at this time, but it is "too historic" to move to a new owner.

C.

To be honest it looks pretty rough. I think the single truck Birney that I sent you was in better shape. And that's not saying much.