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I thought that I wanted to share this with you:




http://www.echo-pilot.com/article/20130220/NEWS/130229988/0/SEARCH

Tom

A better question mite be what do the Cubans do for parts???

Quote:

Hmmm. "Wealth" is not the word I would use in describing the numbe of pre-1960s car in Cuba. Most would be no better than parts cars. In fact, I've been told by someone who's been down there to inspect them said you'd probably be better off finding a car in a junkyard in the states and restoring it.

I only found out a few months ago that when Cuba became a Communist country private ownership of cars became illegal, along with private ownership of real estate and a lot of other things.

Existing cars were exempt but there were no more car dealers selling cars or doing repairs. Except for official garages for government owned vehicles.

Private car owners could keep their cars but had to do their own repairs or depend on shade tree mechanics. As there are officially no privately owned cars in Cuba, naturally the government does not keep dealerships or parts stores open. And there are no non government owned businesses.

So they improvise, or get someone to bring things in from Mexico in a suitcase, or cobble something together from a junker or from parts snuck out the back door of the official garages, like Russian truck carburetors and Lada engines.

There are a few really nice pre 1959 cars that have been locked in garages for years. The average privately owned car has seen over 50 years of hard service with NO parts or repairs available, officially.

Wealth or no wealth - the great Cuba car sale has already begun. To export a car isn't allowed but to export scrap of no sale value is. It depends on your creativity.

About a year ago, I saw a current photo of a Mercedes-Benz 300SL gullwing that is in Cuba. The only parts it could have provided for a restoration project may have been some stainless steel or plastic pieces. If anyone would have sneezed on it, the whole car would have blown away in the wind.