Warbird Information Exchange

Anyone have a clue what a "restored" one is worth?

Thanks

Mark H
PS: I was trying to find the ball turret guy on here, but no luck today; anyother time I see lots of his posts.

I'm here Mark...I've just been too busy at work this morning to check the forum pages.

A restored ball turret? I've been given many different estimates on what a restored ball turret is worth. Most of the estimates hover around $30,000 - $35,000!!! Now keep in mind this is for a completely restored ball turret. I know Don Brooks still has (or used to up till this past summer) a replica recast ball turret for sale and is asking $24,000. This recasting was made by Harland Avezzie and is supposedly 80% complete with many original internal parts, with the shells being recast in aluminum.

The problem with restoring these ball turrets is the scarcity of parts...especially the outer shell components. Because they were made of aluminum alloy most were melted down by the scrapper.

Soooo....dare I ask...do you know of somebody that has one????

John

There is a bar here in Greeley, CO. that has a B-17 fuselage that had a ball turret in it. The turret appeared complete. It was sold some months ago to a B-17 group. The owner of the bar told me that he sold it for $60,000. Sounds kinda high to me, but who knows.

$60,000 does sound a bit high but it's not out of the realm of possibility. If there is somebody out there that want's it bad enough and has deep enough pockets...any price is possible. The $35,000 price tag was based off of the last complete ball turret that was put up for sale on a military vehicle restoration magazine classified ad back in 2005. Rumor has it that Don Brooks purchased this turret for one of his restoration projects. I guess he figured it was a good deal considering the scarcity of these turrets.

John