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I'm looking for a knowledgeable person to take a look at this car offered by a dealer in Gurnee IL and give me an informed opinion. Happy to pay a reasonable fee.
Phil, is this the car you are referring to? https://blackhawkmotors.com/vehicles/122/1961-desoto-adventurer
If so, it does look like it's in very nice condition in the photos, but there are several significant items that are not correct if you weren't aware. The back-up lights are completely wrong for the car and it appears they had to fill in the body to modify that. It would be invasive to change back to original. The seats are also the wrong upholstery material and would be somewhat costly to redo correctly. Under the hood, there are some non-original parts, such as the intake and air cleaner, and also wrong paint colors on the motor itself. The motor stuff is probably not too difficult to put back to original. The trunk lining is also not correct and someone added the "Adventurer" script to the rear quarter fins - 1961 had no model designation. A minor detail, but the crosses on the hubcaps also should be silver, not red.
I'm not trying to make it sound like a bad car because there are a lot of positive aspects as well and it does show very well overall. However, I think they are asking very strong money for a '61 and at that kind of price I would expect the car to be more correct than it is. If none of that matters to you, then hopefully you can get someone to go look at it to inspect paint and body work up close, in addition to hearing the motor run. Hopefully my comments were of some help.
For comparison, a black 1960 Adventurer went through the Meecum Auction in Kissimmee, FL about a month ago in about the same condition (not factory correct but similar and didn't have the botched up back-up lights) as the '61 in question but also included air conditioning and the proper Chrysler style wire wheels. The '60 is more desirable than the '61 mainly because of the front end design that seems to be the most criticized.
Anyway, the '60 got a high bid of $36000 which indicates pretty much the real value but didn't sell because the reserve wasn't met. This should give a close evaluation as to to the true value of the car in question and like David mentioned above, the price is very, very strong at about $13000 high by comparison.
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