The Great Texas Mopar_® Auction Event is now in the review mirror. Every single one of the 270-plus vehicles and literally thousands of parts, tools and models, and other bits of automobilia from the John Haynie estate found new homes. And to prove the fact that old cars aren’t “worthless junk” – and that online-only auctions DO work – Freedom Car Auctions brought John Haynie’s estate $810,733.30 ($730,606.30 in vehicles, plus $80,127 in parts and tools) as over 600 bidders from all over the country and as far away as Canada and Europe fought for a piece of this once-in-a-lifetime car collectors’ opportunity.

Not only was the online auction a success, but a podcast broke out. Initially, Freedom Car Auctions honcho Spanky Assiter assumed this online-only auction would be a conventional affair. But as the multitude of timed auctions played out, thousands of folks tuned in to the live stream broadcast on the Freedom Car Auctions website just to watch the action and learn about automotive history. It was more than an auction, it was also a “classroom” where otherwise silent, inanimate objects “got a voice” and their unique histories were told as the bids mounted.

Here at DodgeGarage, we’ve brought you weekly preview stories about the Great Texas Mopar Auction Event for the past 19 weeks and now it’s time to recap the sales and take a look at how it all went down. In this story, let’s look at some of the lowest priced sales. Though just about every one of the nearly 280 vehicles was non-running, their mostly Texas/Arizona/California/New Mexico origins meant they were solid and ripe for restoration, customization or parting out to save other similar vehicles.

The next time someone complains how expensive the collector car hobby is supposed to be, have them read this story for an attitude adjustment. This assortment of vehicles is just a few that sold for well under a thousand bucks. The bargains are out there. You just have to be tuned in to learn about them. In other words, stay tuned in to DodgeGarage!

1964 Plymouth Fury (Lot #288): $172.50

Hardcore car fanatics aren’t put off by the missing front clip. The rest of this 1964 Fury is ripe for conversion into any number of exciting finished projects. Most importantly, from the firewall back, the body is ready for altered wheelbase surgery and match bash glory. And look at those clean quarter panels! With the front frame extensions still present, it’ll be a simple matter to add some tubular braces to the firewall and then maybe a straight front axle with parallel leaf springs. Then a Hilborn-injected Race HEMI^® engine and Clutch-Flite! We’d leave the interior gutted and spray Zolotone trunk-spatter paint on everything inside. The mind reels! But the wallet doesn’t. Less than 175 bucks scored this bargain!

1964 Plymouth Savoy (Lot #248): $201.75

Ok, it’s a four-door. But in our last DodgeGarage preview story, we described how these four-door sedans can be transformed into much more desirable two-doors. Even if you don’t want to get that involved, the very well-preserved grille alone is easily worth twice the $201.75 paid for the entire car. And those front fenders … and that hood … and let’s not forget the trunk lid. All these bolt-on body panels is a direct fit onto an existing 1964 Plymouth two-door sedan or hardtop. Somebody got an incredible deal on this one.

1960 Plymouth Plaza Police Pursuit (Lot #138): $230.00

This 1960 Plymouth Plaza Police Pursuit was a real shocker. Selling for a mere $230.00, we can only hope its new owner understands just how very, very special it is. When we originally featured this vehicle, great pains were taken to alert readers (and bidders) to the fact its VIN reads 3907146148. Breaking it down, 3 = Plymouth V8 model, 9 = Police/Taxi specifications, 0 = 1960 model year, 7 = St. Louis, Missouri, assembly plant, 146148 = serial number. The stunner is the “9” in the second spot. As a two-door, we can be sure this wasn’t a taxi. But with the cast iron four-barrel intake manifold, exhaust manifolds and dual point distributor all sitting loose in the trunk, we know it’s a “9-code” police interceptor.

What’s even wilder, it was originally built with a column-shifted three-speed manual transmission rather than the more likely push-button automatic transmission. Amazingly, the heavy-duty iron Chrysler three-speed is still in the car along with the steel clutch housing (in the trunk). It is likely this very low-profile 320-horsepower Police Pursuit pounced on many a speeder in its day. Or maybe it was the formidable pride and joy of some small town Texas sheriff. Regardless, you can bet this mean bat machine gave plenty of speeders memories of being pulled over by a “black car with wings”.

We can only hope, hope, hope this one got into the hands of someone who fully understands the very special nature of this rare specimen of law enforcement history. Truth be told, a number of the less expensive cars were sold to a local Texas buyer who might be a scrap dealer intent on crushing the leftovers on site at the Haynie farm. That would be the ultimate tragedy. Records show that this car went to a buyer in Tucson, Arizona. Let’s hope that buyer has a proper restoration in mind – again, the trunk is full of rare parts they’ll need for the job. If that buyer reads this, we’d love to follow up on the restoration. This author can be contacted at hemimagneto@aol.com.

1963 Chrysler 300 Pace Setter (Lot #285): $460.00

This 1963 Chrysler 300 Sport is a bit of a mystery. We know the Chrysler 300 Sport (NOT to be confused with the 300-J) paced the 1963 Indy 500 and that 2,167 Indy Pace Car replicas (1,861 convertibles and 306 hardtops) were built. But those were supposed to be painted Holiday Turquoise, this one’s white. So what gives? Also, the center console lid bears a round medallion reading “Pace Car Built For” (without any visible engraved customer name) and the VIN sequence reads 803320, the “80” matching the Pace Car-only code (the 300-J VIN starts with “84”).

So, who knows. What is known is that just $460.00 took it away. A bonus is the fact we noticed a cast iron four-barrel intake manifold on the big block V8. The base 300 Sport engine was the 383 two-barrel. All single four-barrel engines were of the 413 displacement variety, so the buyer got a 413 cherry-on-top. Though a little rusty – the hood suffers from inner corrosion that caused it to buckle in the middle – this $460.00 300 Sport could yield a ten-fold profit if parted out. But that would be a shame, wouldn’t it?

1964 Dodge 330 (Lot #241-A): $603.75

Another one of the four-doors we previewed in the DodgeGarage story that ran the week before the October 13^th auction, this 1964 Dodge 330 brought just $603.75. Again, parting it out would be a shame, but the fenders, hood, grille, front bumper and trunk lid are worth their weight in silver (only semi-joking here) to the restorer of a two-door model.

Little details that shouldn’t be missed are the fact its 318 polyspherical V8 engine is no longer the unwanted orphan engine it used to be. Outfits like Chrysler Power are reviving interest and offer new headers, aluminum intake manifolds, valve covers and other items. Don’t throw it away. And the column-shifted three-speed manual transmission isn’t junk. There are many still in use and wear items from the shift linkage are in high demand. So too are the 14-inch steel wheels. They have the larger hub cap circle used on B-bodies through 1966 and are wanted by 1962-66 B-body restorers wanting to use original-style hub caps. Later 1967-up steel wheels take smaller hub caps so they won’t work on pre-1967 B-bodies. Then again, this car would make a fantastic what-if four-door Max Wedge tribute car. Or just stick a mild 440 under the hood and build a street sleeper. So many options, so little money spent to buy it.

Ok, that’s it for this re-cap story, but we’ll be back next week with a look at some of the highest sale prices from the Great Texas Mopar Auction Event. And remember, if you or someone you know has a “field full of old cars to get rid of”, DO NOT call a scrap dealer. As the folks at SEMA and Year One say, “Don’t Crush Them…Restore Them.”