So you think it’s time to buy that collectible car that you’ve been dreaming about all these years. Well, that’s a good thing, but unless you do it right you might not wind up with what you think you’re getting. And here to give us some pointers we have Tony Fleming from Fleming’s Ultimate Garage. Tony welcome back to Goss’ garage.

TONY FLEMMING: Thanks so much for having me Pat.

PAT GOSS: Alright, now this is a gorgeous Corvette, but what makes it a really top notch car as opposed to just being a lump?

TONY FLEMING: Well, a lump is well said. Alright, so start with how does a car look? When you walk up to a car is it a great looking car? And a lot of time you’ll say well that’s a great looking car but you never know why it’s a great looking car right? To make those cars desirable things like where we paint the wheel the way it’s supposed to be and the wheel cover goes over top and you have the thin little pin stripe of the paint color… adding the wide white so they’re period correct so they still look great. This car in particular is the last year you could get the painted cove on the side, and I think it looks great, I personally love those. And then you throw in the high performance engine you could get right? This car right here has two 4-barrel carburetors on it. It’s the original engine that came in the car and the car’s over 50 years old. When you think about that that’s pretty cool.

PAT GOSS: Alright, now another thing I’ve noticed over the years that makes a big difference is the authenticity of little things like the decals and the stencils even down to hose clamps

TONY FLEMING: Very well said.  So the provenance of a car whether you have some paperwork from back in the day or you have like the Harrison radiator decal the overflow tank decal even the horsepower call-out decals on some other cars it makes it look neat when you open the hood. That’s the way the car would have come from the factory. This one even has the Wonderbar radio in it, so it’s the original factory radio it’s a 50-year-old radio and its pretty cool to look at.

PAT GOSS: Yeah, alright so unless you do your homework, you can wind up buying something that really isn’t worth the dollars this is worth more than one that doesn’t have all of these things.

TONY FLEMING: Well that’s a very important part you say there. So there’s a big difference between this same car for let’s say 60 thousand versus a car for 90 thousand. Like what is the difference? So some people just go out and buy a car because they see it’s red and white and they think it should bring a certain amount of money you gotta do a little homework or buy it from somebody who can show you the reasons why you should get that and spend the extra and keep that money.

PAT GOSS: Ok an auction may not be the best answer.

TONY FLEMING: Well the auction really is just putting the buyer and the seller together with no warranty whatsoever.

PAT GOSS: Ok, Tony thank you. And if you have a question or a comment drop me a line right here at MotorWeek.