Early LA IM languishing at $20K

The crude pan sections can be fixed without removing body. New pans can be spliced in without too much difficulty, I’ve done it on Volkswagen restorations I’ve done. Early Intermechanicas are made of nice thick fiberglass too. It’s not a bad entry level older speedster for someone. Its sins are visible at least.  I would replace the rear pan sections and reinstall the side trim and bumpers and enjoy it as is. Yes it will go higher than 20k.

I kind of like it without the side trim.  To run around without bumpers like that it needs to be 2" lower though.  Some cut down tubular nerf bars might look cool, and very period.  I've always liked the nerfs that @Gordon Nichols' buddy did for Gordon's Speedster.

To answer your question, @dlearl476, although the early IM bodies were bolted to the pan, whoever did the deed may have used caulking so it didn't leak through the seam and it may be a 'little' difficult to separate them.  As @LeadPedal mentioned, it's probably easier to just cut the offending bit out and re-do.

I didn't look that closely- are the back pan-halves bad enough that they need replacing?

@ALB posted:

I didn't look that closely- are the back pan-halves bad enough that they need replacing?

I guess it depends of what your definition of “bad enough” is. If this is all there is, I would simply patch it. But I know people who couldn’t sleep without replace both pans.

At first I thought this was a patch, but someone in the comments suggested it was a lowered floor for headroom.

Went for $38K, which I guess is pretty good on both sides. Personally, I’d love an old CA IM.

I wish it had shown some real evidence of being an early IM.  I didn't see prancing bull on front hood handles, no aluminum trim down the side, no INTERMECANNICA on hood/engine hinge castings, and no silver foil IM "VIN ID" in the passenger's door opening.  The IM VIN one looks homemade.  I think I read that early IMs didn't have battery boxes -- like this one ???? They did use 914 gauges - but a lot of other folks found they were good gauges too.

Interesting. Thanks for adding to my knowledge base.

Is there any chance that this car is so early it pre-dates those things? (Admittedly, the “VIN plate” is suspect.

There's a VS on BaT now.  I'm guessing built sometime after 2012/13.  There's no driving videos yet......or any videos.  But they certainly paid for the photography.

IMHO, the speedster looks great.  It will be interesting to see where this goes....to see if my "great photos sell cars" mantra.

https://bringatrailer.com/list...ntage-speedsters-10/