My friend Joe who is retired, collects Tractions like I do. I have sold him three and given him one. It's his only hobby and he has not had an easy life.

Until last week, when he bought the car shown below. I told him to buy it. It looks like any other old car, but I happen to know from the other pictures that it's a 1934 7B traction.

It got shipped to the US in 1935 and sat out the war here, then sat in a storage garage since 1971, i.e. 39 years.

They made 4,000 of these cars--- period.

I have only seen museum pics of 7A and 7B cars.

Now all the snooty Europeans who never answered Joe's posts on his other cars are begging him to send photos. He has gotten two offers of 20,000 Euros sight unseen as long as he has a clear title.

I told him to keep it. Restoration is actually pretty easy, and Joe's a body man. I suggested he take his time and decide what he wants to do, and start treating the booger heads who ignored his questions before in a like fashion.

So I guess there IS karma, huh?

Attached Thumbnails

 

__________________
Strelnik
Invest in America: Buy a Congressman!

1950 170SD
1951 Citroen 11BN
1953 Citroen 11BNF limo
1953 220a project
1959 180D
1960 190D
1960 Borgward Isabella TS 2dr
1983 240D daily driver
1983 380SL
1990 350SDL daily driver alt
3 x Citroen DS21M, down from 5
3 x Citroen 2CV, down from 6

Congrats to Joe!! It's nice to see grand cars like that go to someone who actually deserves them (ie someone who's willing to put in effort restoring the car themselves, rather than someone who buys it and ships it off for a restoration.)

Sidenote, I've always liked Citroens.

Pretty amazing, and congrats to your friend! I'm glad something nice happened!

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hum.....
1987 300TD 311,000M Stolen. Presumed destroyed

my dad had a shop and we used to work on all kinds of cars.and that was a pet peeve of his.these rich people that would buy an old car and drive it around like they were king$hit,yet they couldn't tell you where the spark plugs were.
had one guy bring his(mint) 66 mustang convertible in one day, god was this his baby.i went to raise it on the hoist and about the time the hoist made frame contact you could here the crunching,yet the car never moved.so i look underneath and the hoist was pushing right up thru the body it was so rusted out.i dropped the hoist and told him no way in hell i'm getting under that rustbucket.he got madder then hell and left and i never saw him again.like it was my fault.

I'm getting the feeling that most of them stayed in France and didn't survive the war?

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1982 300GD Carmine Red (DB3535) Cabriolet Parting Out
1990 300SEL Smoke Silver (Parting out)
1991 350SDL Blackberry Metallic (481)

"The thing is Bob, its not that I'm lazy...its that I just don't care."

I'd treat those booger heads very nicely. I wouldn't turn around and be a giant a55 hat to them because I have something that they wanted. I would just ask a ridiculous selling price if someone really really wanted it

you want it? ok. I want 100k for it

I was thinkin more like 200 k. But, on the other hand, there's the satisfaction of having something they want.... I'd send out a post every couple weeks. Just so they don't forget about it.

__________________
Strelnik
Invest in America: Buy a Congressman!

1950 170SD
1951 Citroen 11BN
1953 Citroen 11BNF limo
1953 220a project
1959 180D
1960 190D
1960 Borgward Isabella TS 2dr
1983 240D daily driver
1983 380SL
1990 350SDL daily driver alt
3 x Citroen DS21M, down from 5
3 x Citroen 2CV, down from 6

How would you and Joe have gotten acquainted in the first place? Because of the Tractions? I would not think there would be just a lot of collectors out of France for them. Sounds to me like he should hang onto it as a nest egg of sorts, being it's worth some serious coin to Frenchmen.

I've watched a number of the 'barn find' type shows and collectors like the one that recently found the Bugatti reckon that many such cars are more valuable unrestored.

Very good point, I would take care of any rust-by hand with sandpaper and just try to conserve it-Joe may really know his stuff but this aint a honda.

what a beauty. Congrats to the new owner.

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"It's normal for these things to empty your wallet and break your heart in the process."
2012 SLK 350
1987 420 SEL

and great story

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Anders

1995 E300
2015 VW TDI Sportwagen 15K
1977 240D (197K)
2002 Subaru Legacy L Wagon (115k) (Wife's)
Gone but not forgotten:
2005 Buick LeSabre
1998 C230
1984 300D
1983 240D
1981 300SD
1974 240D
1974 Fiat 124 Spider
1968 Triumph TR250

He plans on hanging onto it, which is what I elieve he should do. As far as restoration, real simple things: thoroughly wash it, put a little vinegar on a cloth to remove rust, since it hasn;t had an oil change in 39 years, do that before running it, lol.

__________________
Strelnik
Invest in America: Buy a Congressman!

1950 170SD
1951 Citroen 11BN
1953 Citroen 11BNF limo
1953 220a project
1959 180D
1960 190D
1960 Borgward Isabella TS 2dr
1983 240D daily driver
1983 380SL
1990 350SDL daily driver alt
3 x Citroen DS21M, down from 5
3 x Citroen 2CV, down from 6

Those are not uncommon in Holland, believe it or not but you will even see them as daily drivers. And if I'm not mistaken there are more Traction's and the later DS's in Holland than there are in France these days.

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1979 Black on Black, 300CD (sold), 1990 Black 300SE, Silver 1989 Volvo 780, 1988 300CE (vanished by the hands of a girlfriend), 1992 300CE (Rescue).

I did all kinds of work free for Joe, because when he started out looking at Tractions, he had no network and mine was 20 yrs old. I helped him buy the necessary basic service and parts books, plus gave him somew other help, because I saw how the guys in California who are the primary sources for many items wouold screw him over little things.

Now he has plenty of time and some money to work on his stuff. And I help him with buying parts from Europe or translating letters into French for him, when he deals with Ebay France guys.

__________________
Strelnik
Invest in America: Buy a Congressman!

1950 170SD
1951 Citroen 11BN
1953 Citroen 11BNF limo
1953 220a project
1959 180D
1960 190D
1960 Borgward Isabella TS 2dr
1983 240D daily driver
1983 380SL
1990 350SDL daily driver alt
3 x Citroen DS21M, down from 5
3 x Citroen 2CV, down from 6