In a message dated 8/28/03 7:56:33 AM Pacific Daylight Time,
healey10610@hotmail.com writes:
> Please review this, and
> reply with your thoughts. Is it worth the $800 he is asking?
>
It could be worth $800 if there is little or no major area rust. Look at and
around the bottom hinges inside the front of the door. Are there holes
around them? The rocker panels, inside and out. The front interior kick
panels.
The rear Spring boxes (critical area). Are the floors solid (Not a difficult
fix--just messy and time consuming--lots to remove first)? The frame
crossmember inside the car and the one the steering rack is bolted to? If the
car sat
that long, you might as well count on replacing about every piece of rubber
in the car that is critical to the car's running and stopping safely, including
the seals on the master cylinder and the brake cylinders. If the car has
been started, that might have cause problems because a sitting car tends to
build
up sludge inside the oil pan which is sucked up into the oil gallies if the
car is started before dropping and cleaning out the oil pan. Is the engine
free turning? How is the compression, wet and dry? Usually it seems like
whenever you settle on a figure that something will cost on these cars to
restore,
you can double or triple that to get the real cost.
Soooo--in my opinion,if the body is relatively rust free and the engine
and tranny are turning or even running without any glaring problems, and it
seems to have all the other parts, it is probably worth the $800. But offer
him
$500 or even $400. You can always work up and maybe pull him down.
You can fairly easily make the interior panels, using the old ones as
patterns and using spray adhesive to glue the upholstry material to it. Seat
foam and upholstry is a fair expense. Worst thing about leaving one of these
cars outside that long just sitting, again, is rust.
And keep in mind that you can probably get a good, fair looking, running
one for somewhere between $2000 and $4000, depending on the condition you
want. Youwill have far more in this one to reach the same condition. This
won't
be the last one you will see. But if you like challenges. . .
Just my loose change on the subject.
--David C.
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