Allen sent a photo of his wagon that appeared on the cover of the Japanese magazine 38Timez. Add some Google search expertise and some translation and we now have some high resolution photos of the magazine cover AND the story inside the magazine. Check it out.
Reserve was pulled at $33k and the car sold at that price. Wish I had been prepared to bid. It’s hard for me to imagine the car selling at that price.
I find this auction significant as this “Rarewagon” carried the highest selling price for a Chevelle 2-Door wagon with it’s sale at Barrett in 2002 for $56k. To see the same car, that carried the record high, sell for $33k validates discussions I had with Dennis back in 2006. There is no broad audience for these cars. Those willing to pay high prices for them are as rare as the cars themselves. I find it hard to believe that this car would not have pulled $45k+ with traditional selling methods.
Maybe it is my perception of the cars quality? I have not seen the car. Is it not the show quality car I see it to be? Many fellow Rarewagon fanatics in California have seen the car. How does it compare in quality to other cars on the market right now for $40k-$45k? As someone who has considered spending $40k for one of these cars, this sale is potentially a game changer. Or maybe sale prices at auction mean nothing.
I need to go sulk for a while. The car that started it all for me sold at a price well within my means. I should have been there.
STORM UPDATE – BLUE WITCH AFTER THE STORM:
Dennis Smith’s wagon was on the cover of Hot Rod in June 2001. Dennis took his car on a number of road trips including two Power Tours and a trip to Chevellebration in Nashville, a long road trip from his California home. Dennis and Dave Sconyers gave the wagon the nickname of the Blue Witch. This may or may not have something to do with issues during the build or the road trips. Only Dennis and Dave could say.
The Blue Witch was featured on six episodes of Hod Rod TV and appeared on an episode of Horsepower TV with it’s showing at Chevellebration. The Witch won many awards at shows and for me set the standard for a pro touring car before “pro touring” became popular.
The Blue Witch goes to auction today at Russo and Steele in Scottsdale Arizona. The car is scheduled to appear between 3:45pm and 4:15pm. The auction will be streamed LIVE to the internet via the Russo and Steele website. I’m excited to see what the car will bring at auction. Join me in watching the live stream HERE. If you are a registered member of Team Chevelle, we can chat together LIVE during the auction HERE.
LIVE AUCTION – THURSDAY JANUARY 21 – 3:45PM to 4:15PM
WATCH THE AUCTION LIVE HERE
CHAT LIVE DURING THE AUCTION HERE
RUSSO AND STEEL AUCTION INFO BELOW:
1965 Chevrolet Chevelle Custom 2-Door Wagon
Consignment # 42-6167
VIN: 136355Z154877
Lot Number: TH268
Auction Date: Thursday, January 21, 2010
Auction Time: Approx. 3:45PM – 4:15PM
This very rare 2-door station wagon variant on the 1965 Chevrolet Chevelle is one of just 1,668 of this bodystyle for the model year. A recipient of a body-off frame-up restoration with full photo history supplied and a custom rebuild, it features a 496 cubic-inch 550 horsepower engine, 6-speed Richmond Stick transmission with overdrive, 12-bolt rear with 3.73:1 gears, electronic fuel injection, Air Ride Technologies Air Bags, 18″ and 20″ intro wheels, dual air conditioning, gray leather interior and a custom sound system.
The car was a Hot Rod Magazine Cover car and featured story in June of 2001 (supplied), 6 episodes of Hot Rod TV, Hot Rod Power Tours 1999 East, 2001 California to Michigan and back and was driven to “Chevelle-abration” during May 2001 in Nashville, TN. Further, it is a multiple-award winner at Super Chevy including 2 Best of Chevelles, Las Vegas Best Paint, 3 Top Ten awards, 3 Best of Class awards and many more.
Not so RARE wagon
How “rare” can the 64-65 Chevelle 2-Door Wagon be when there are so many on the market for sale? Five years ago I couldn’t find a decent driver. As of today there are more for sale than I have seen in my last six years of tracking these rare beasts. What you don’t see are a handful of other wagons I have been wanting to buy if they ever come up for sale, and the owners have sent email asking if there is interest.
A year ago, just before I took delivery on my Challenger, the owner of a black 65 that I have wanted to buy for years contacted me asking if there was interest. The price was too rich for me but a little negotiation could have got us within my budget. That car was built by Gary Slurkanich and in the top three for nicest 2-door wagons that I have seen. I talked myself out of the car because I really want a resto-mod wagon. Something with modern drivetrain and fuel injection. This 65 was stock except for modified springs for ride height and aftermarket wheels. I couldn’t bring myself to the idea of spending $40k for a stock wagon that I would have to spend another $20k-$30k to get the perfect wagon for “Steve”. Thinking about it now, why couldn’t a stock wagon of exceptional quality be the “perfect” wagon? I fell in love with the car when I saw photos of it after Gary built the car. I’m sure the current owner still has the stock wheels that were on the car when those pics were taken. Some of you know this wagon as the black wagon that was on the market about four years ago for $40k. The price on that car forced many of us to think “how high will prices climb on these wagons”?
Last week, an email I sent in 2006 was finally replied to. I mean, I didn’t hear anything, no response of any kind until out of the blue there it was; “Do you still have interest in my wagon?”. This car was a black 64 that sold on eBay and had previously been owned by George Poteet. In my obsession to follow these cars and find owners, I put together at least four different strings of information that took history of the car all the way back to Ken Memmel around 2001 time frame. Ken performed an on-frame restoration to the car, sold it to Jack Fields, who sold it to Ken Barnhart, who sold it to Wayne Keele, who sold it to the current owner in Pennsylvania. George performed a frame off with great attention to detail including rewiring the car but left the black paint. To me that means great things for mechanicals and paint that won’t kill my pocket book. I responded to the email with interest. The price should be in my range, but I have not heard back.
Sometime around New Years I stumbled upon the auction of Dennis Smith’s wagon, the Blue Witch. I about fell off my chair when I saw the auction as I have been trying to find photos and info on this car since it was sold at Barrett Jackson in 2002. The auction is coming up next week at Russo & Steele. I would kill to be there and cover the auction. This car cemented my love for these cars. I had known about them for years prior with my brother telling me I would never find one because they were so rare. When Dennis’ car hit the cover of Hot Rod in June of 2001, I carried around the magazine for years thinking I would own one. I met Dennis in 2006 at the Huntington Beach Cruiser event. This may sound weird but for me meeting Dennis was like meeting a movie star. The neatest thing about meeting him, and other rarewagon fanatics at the show, was how quickly and easily it was to talk about our love for these wagons, how we might build one and their value, customized or otherwise. You see, it’s not about stock, resto-mod or wild custom, it’s about building the car YOU want and using it the way you will enjoy it most. Some people want the perfect example of what the car would look like rolling off the assembly line, others want something similar to what they drove in high school and still others want something to drive across the country in the comfort of ac, power seats and dvd entertainment for the kids.
So let’s go through a list of wagons that are on the market right now. I’ll call this first batch the “A-List” as these are cars I would consider to be of very high quality. Dennis Smith’s blue 65, Ed Roberts aqua green 65 (now owned by Wayne Farrandino), Darrel Nance’s tribal 65 “Bamboozled”, Pat Nance’s wild 65, Gary Slurkanich’s award winning black 65, George Poteets black 64. There is a very nice black and green, 64 resto mod in Florida that I would like to include here but it no longer has sliding rear side glass. That change puts a huge dent in value for many so I have to exclude it from the “A-List” even though the parts and build look to be of exceptional quality. There are a slew of “B-List” and lower wagons on the market. For simplicity, I’ll classify “B-List” as $25k-$30k. There are at least four of them in Arizona ( 2 silver & 2 red) , two in California (1 blue & 1 green), one in Michigan and one in Iowa. I count three driver quality cars for less than $20k on my website. I’m not sure it’s still available but Eric had a white Arizona grown 65 for sale a little while back which would bring the total for drivers at less than $20k to four. Project wagons are at an all time high. There are so many of them I can’t keep track of them on the website. Is now the right time to buy one and store it somewhere until I can build my own in a couple years when the kids get a little older?
My point is these wagons are out there and there are lots of them. So how rare are they really? How rare can they be if we consider the limited market that has interest in them? Sure, people can talk a big game about how they want one but how many are stepping up to BUY them? I am VERY interested to see what price the “Blue Witch” will pull at Russo & Steele”. One of the very first posts on this website was documenting the sale of this famous wagon for $56k in 2002. What can it pull this year? Will my bid win it?
Russo & Steele – January 20 thru 24 – Scottsdale Arizona. The Blue Witch will be there. Where will you be?
- Steve @ NewRarewagon.COM
Rod Young sent me an email tonight with some photos from GNRS 2008. He reminded me that his win was 2nd place. As a Rarewagon Fanatic, I think a win is a WIN and I want to congratulate Rod for his hard work in building an extremely nice wagon. Thanks for sending the pics Rod. We look forward to seeing more of your wagon in 2010.
Rod’s wagon was our feature car on NewRarewagon in January 2009. See the write up below and photos. After Rod sent photos of his car, the build photos looked famiar so I started digging though the hundreds of photos I have collected over the years and found something. Rod’s wagon was once owned by a gentleman named Todd Reiter. I call him “eBay Todd” in my database because Todd has sold a number of Rarewagon’s on eBay over the years.
Posted: January 1st, 2009
YEAR: 1964
OWNERS: Rod and Kathee Young
LOCATION: Upland California
COLOR: Beige Harvest Moon
This wagon has undergone a complete updating, restoration, and re-construction. It took 3 years to complete with considerable amount of help from a very good friend and mechanic Kerry Morris, I think he enjoyed this project.
The wagon was taken all the way down to a bare chassis, sand blasted and painted. The body was acid dipped; boy did I ever find out how much bodywork was now required. The floor pans looked as though someone had shot them with a shotgun. I decided at this time to build a rotisserie to which I attached the body. I could not get into the unusual positions to cut and weld the new floor pans, as in my younger days. All passenger areas received new floor pans.
I believe the biggest challenge was trying to install the original stainless steel sliding window channels. Most sliding window channels on other 2 door wagons I have observed have not shown very well. The reveal between the body and the glass tracks are not consistent. I finally overcame this issue with the use of a normal ¼” glass run window channel and a piece of rubber/steel trim molding screwed to the inter/outer quarter panel seam.
Below is a brief description of what was incorporated into the updating, restoring, and re-construction of the wagon:
• Air Ride Technologies, Con7000 RidePro e2 Controller, suspension system (I wish I could see the digital readout in the daylight)
• Power front disk brakes
• 350/290 hp. target engine, (regular gas), with Zooks adjustable aluminum accessory brackets
• 700R4 trans
• American Auto Wire Hwy, 22 modular panel system
• Ididit tilt steering column
• Hot Rod Air
• E-dead (.46”) sound proofing/insulation throughout
• 3-point front belt restraint system
• 2004 Honda Accord electric bucket seats, the rear seat is stock, contoured to match the buckets with a custom center console
• Dash is custom, polished stainless steel insert with Auto Meter gages
Posted: December 31, 2008
Going thru pics tonight trying to figure out if I had any photos of Rio Merricks car from a previous owner, I found something else. Todd Reiter sold a white 64 on eBay in 2004. Pics of that car match build photos of Rod Youngs wagon. The wheel covers sparked my memory.
I’ll post images of Todd Reiter’s wagon and some of Rod Youngs so you can see for yourself.
Todd Reiter:
Check out the wheel covers, missing drivers side trim and the tailgate below. Same wagon that Todd Reiter sold on eBay above.
Rod Young:
Posted: December 31, 2008
Wow, I must be nuts to have all this Rarewagon stuff. I found the eBay auction listing for Todd’s white 64. See below.
LINK to original posting here on NewRarewagon.
eBay Item: 4514732107
Date: 12-28-2004
Chevrolet : Chevelle two door 300
1964 chevelle TWO door wagon
Vehicle Description:
1964 Chevelle two door wagon in great shape.This wagon was found in a barn with three others and is almost perfect for 41 years old. No rust in body and only one repaint in 1984 from gold to white.After this wagon was painted it was not put back together it was left untouched (why I dont know). I bought this wagon to keep but don’t have room for it inside any more. You wont find one this clean for sale most people would not sell one this nice. So here is your chance to own a very nice driver. This wagon has a 327 V8 with 275 horse power and a four barrel carb# 4028S power guilde trans. All lights on this wagon work dome light heater defrost and even the lighter. I have sold three others this year and the add numbers are 4502912698 and 2489066133. I don’t plan to sell any more of my wagons so this is IT. If you want a good clean driver you better bid and bid big. I don’t know when I will get more of them In most are just rust buckets and not worth fixing. I WILL BE OUT OF TOWN DEC 29 (THROUGH JAN 3rd 05) If you have any questions you can call my cell phone at (714) ***-****7 ask for TODD. MY HOME PHONE IS (714) ***-**** until Dec 28 AND AFTER JAN 4 05 THANKS AND HAPPY NEW YEAR TODD
Vehicle Condition
Over all very solid with a little cleaning It will be a full time driver. NEW ALT, NEW DOOR PANELS FRONT AND REAR BLACK IN COLOR, REAR PANELS NOT IN PICKS BUT WILL BE INCLUDED with new arm pads and bases with the ash tray inserts, NEW CARPET and some new floor board work, all kinds of new stuff to much to list runs good one piece of rear glass was cracked on the driver side rear fixed glass was replaced with lexan and if car sells I will be happy to include this piece of glass from some of my collections. PLEASE NO CALLS WITH PEOPLE LOOKING FOR PARTS ONLY IF YOU BUY ONE OF MY CARS AND ONLY THEN THANKS. Todd
Additional Information:
The style tag reads 64-5415 (v8), body vin reads 413 (production number), trim is 762 (interior), paint is 93-8. Door jam tag reads 45315L (made In LA California). Hope this helps some people that have asked about numbers and people who will want to know later on.
WAGON BUILD FOR GNRS 2010 RAISES THE BAR
As a 64-65 Chevelle 2-Door Wagon FANATIC, any time I discover a new wagon being built it’s like an early Christmas for me. I love these cars and have familiarized myself with many people who own these rare beasts across the country. A few years ago I produced a biographical film on these cars and the owners who love them. That film is called “The Wagon Kings” and can be purchased from Fourth Wall Films which is owned and operated by Kelly Rundle. Sorry, this isn’t a sales pitch, I just wanted to give some background info on myself and what these cars mean to me.
On to the meat of this blog post. While searching HubGarage.COM for fellow Chevelle 2-door wagon enthusiasts, I stumbled onto some build photos here on the Hub. I have asked the owner of the garage if we can run a feature of the car on our website NewRarewagon.COM. It looks like they may be in thrash mode as the car is being prepped for the Grand National Roadster show in mid-January.
The only details I have so far are what’s been posted in Mark’s garage.
DETAILS: 502, Hilborn injection, Roadster Shop Chassis, Tangelo Pearl House of Colors paint
UPDATE 1/23/10: More photos added to the slideshow
Photo Slideshow:
2324 Auto Park Way
Escondido, California 92029
Phone: 760-745-1170
Fax: 760-745-1197
The Hub is turning out to be a wonderful place for connecting with fellow Chevelle 2-Door Wagon enthusiasts. While reading comments on Chevelle Wagon photos I followed up on a Hubhead that said he was using parts from a Chevelle 2-Door wagon to build a custom wagon. I’m very happy to see that he has posted some photos and some info on his very unique and exciting build. I’ve copied the details of his build below along with some photos. Please make sure to drop by his Hubgarage and leave comments of encouragement on his build. Can’t wait to see more of this one.
GTO 2-Door Wagon
1964 Pontiac Tempest
DETAILS
Performance
Engine: 2002 5.7 Litre LS-1
Engine Parts: Headers, Custom Air Intake
Transmission: 4L65E
Suspension: Global West Coil Overs
Brakes: C-5 Corvette
Tires: BFG G-force
Exhaust: Stainless custom made Flowmaster
Other: 12-bolt 3-55 posi
Interior
Seats: 2004 GTO
Steering Column: IDIDIT
Gauges: Classic G-Stock
Pedals: Stock
Noise & Heat Insulation: Dynamat
A/C & Heat: Vintage Air
Exterior
Body Mods: 2dr Grand Prix door handles, gas door, shaved, smoothed
Paint: PPG
Wheels: Torque Thrust
Audio & Electronics
Head Unit: Alpine
Amplifier: Infinity
Highs: Infinity
Mids: Infinity
Subs: Rockford Fosgate
Battery: Optima
Body sits on a 65 Buick GS 2dr frame which is boxed from the factory and bolted up to the body with 0 mods.
Photo Slideshow:
After years of messing around with the website behind the scenes I’ve decided to pull the trigger and move us to a blog format. This is a good change and will give the website a more professional feel. This change will make it easy to generate new content on a regular basis which should drive up traffic to the site. We have created a great deal of content on the forum over the years but I’ve heard from a few people that they find it hard to navigate. We have a lot of information on the forum and I like the ability for us to exchange information there. With that, the forum will remain but we are in desperate need of an upgrade. Security issues with our current version of forum software means we have to bite the bullet and buy new software. The two options we’re looking at carry a price tag of $150-$185. Combine that with the yearly cost of $100 to carry the site and we have a need to raise more cash.
I know many of you frequent the site. Please show your support by donating some cash to the cause. I don’t mind doing the work. Your investment tells me you want to see the website carry on so don’t be shy, there is no limit on the amount you can donate. Any and all donations will go to the site, now and in the future. Feel free to send donations via Paylpal link below or email me for a mailing address.
