86blackiroc

iTrader: (12)

A couple oddball forums for cars that nobody here would care about and several Chevrolet truck forums for the 70's, 80's and 90's. The trucks are a good example actually. GM built millions and millions of them, basically none of them are rare and everybody had one. But the amount of beat and rusted trucks that get love is amazing. There are SO many trucks that receive an extremely large amount of restoration work and nobody gets ridiculed for putting the time and effort into it. Nobody gets told that their truck is junk and they wasted their money restoring it instead of starting with a cleaner example. Generally speaking anyway. There's always that one guy on the forum that looks down on anyone with a rusted truck.

DynoDave43

iTrader: (11)

Well, in this case, this is a car the OP is considering buying. Not one he has bought.

So no one has told him HIS car is junk, or that he HAS wasted his money on it. This is all just theoretical at this point. The point members are trying to make (I think) is, always start with the nicest car you can. Unless this is an exercise setting out to prove your welding and bodywork skills, then don't be a masochist by purchasing a parts car to try and restore. It's an opinion being offered, and the OP can chose to listen to it or ignore it. He came here and asked for opinions, and he's getting them.

Personally, I don't care. If he's in love with this particular car, has been dreaming about saving it for years, and just plain wants it for his own personal reasons, go for it. Be happy. Nothing wrong with that. It's his time and his money. And there's plenty of room in the hobby for cars of all types, done by people with all kinds of budgets and skill levels. But if you are asking my opinion, this car looks less and less appealing as a project as we see more and more photos.

QwkTrip

iTrader: (22)

Trucks are very different. Rust, mud, dents - doesn't matter. Slap a lift kit and offroad tires on it and it's suddenly cool. It's also a body on frame vehicle with HUGE aftermarket support. Not even remotely like a rusted and neglected 3rd gen F-body.

86blackiroc

iTrader: (12)

Right, the OP is just considering this car. But when people such as myself have started with a car in much worse shape, it's hard to ignore the comments about being a fool and wasting money.

No. I mean full on restorations. Just like the third gen market, aftermarket parts are plenty, but not much of it is really correct. Rusted frames are common, people repair them too. Like I said, it's an entirely different mentality than what many members here have.

WildCard600

I must have missed the part where anyone here ridiculed the OP about the car posted. This is a thread about how much the OP should offer the seller, which is not much considering the condition of the car and it's unknown mechanical condition.

I don't read every single thread that get posted on this forum but I have never seen anyone post a car they own and get told flat out "your car sucks, it's a piece of garbage and you're and idiot for paying what you did".

I hope someone does buy that car and fix it, but I hope they don't pay much to do so because it is a piece of junk as it sits. It's not unfixable obviously, but I personally would steer clear of it because it is far to much of a project for me to be able to undertake in any reasonable amount of time. Maybe OP has a fully equipped shop and can blow the whole thing apart and throw it up on a rotisserie and get it knocked out in 6 months. I don't know, OP just asked how much $$$ they should offer and most of us gave our opinion and I'm sorry if that somehow offended you.

86blackiroc

iTrader: (12)

I personally am not offended and don't hold a grudge against anyone here... just getting that out of the way.

The OP asked what to offer for the car, with the intent of getting it going and on the road again. There was no mention of bringing it back to showroom new condition, but apparently that's what everyone assumed when I said it could be brought back to life and roadworthy in a handful of weekends. There were several posts in this thread right here that wrote the car off right away and said it was worth no more than scrap value and to "run away" from it, and only a fool would spend money on it. It's the amount of comments like this that are very disappointing to see here, which is why I said what I did. I still firmly stand by those statements too. The general amount of pride and enthusiasm for saving another one from certain death simply sucks here, compared to other enthusiast forums. I obviously realize that not everyone should be willing to take on the lesser cars as projects, but those people that aren't willing should realize that some people ARE capable and perfectly willing to do so (potentially on a tight budget too) and shouldn't be insinuating that they aren't responsible with money or that the car will just be yard art after they buy it.

DaveyDug

iTrader: (3)

Thank you all for the lively discussion on this car. After seeing it again in person and reviewing these pictures a hundred times, yeah, the car is pretty rough.

After considering everyone's comments, I think what I'll end up doing is once more offering her a few bucks over scrap value and letting the chips fall where they may.

If on the off chance she accepts, I'll get it home, give it a thorough inspection and decide whether to rip some parts off and then scrap it, or try to get it running.

I have no intention of doing a full on restoration of this car, and if I implied that by posting this thread in the wrong forum I apologize.

I see this car at best as a temporary beater to have some fun with before selling off to someone else. Or, it may be fated for the scrap yard right away. I just hate to see these things rotting away slowly in someone's front yard.

I'll update the thread if there are any new developments.

LeonardS

Hopefully it works out for you, whatever you decide.

LAFireboyd

iTrader: (3)

Definitely an 86. High exterior 3rd brake light, two-tone cloth interior, large coil-in-cap distributor, perimeter bolt valve covers, si alternator.

One special telltale sign of it being an 86 is its early-style 140 mph instrument cluster. It has the very cool and unique 1986-only 140 mph speedometer withOUT kph. It isn't worth buying the car just to get it, but if you do buy it, part it and scrap it, then save and sell that cluster.

If you can get the car for scrap value, then at least you'll get that money back if you scrap it. Otherwise, there's not much reason to save this car, unless you want a VERY longterm project, not that there's anything wrong with that.

But it's likely to take years and cost a small fortune. If you have the space, time, money and determination, then that's ok. If not, then it's likely to sit for many more years to come, but in your possession, not hers.

Another thing about such a car, if you want such a project, then you definitely DON'T pre-post about it and ask for opinions. You just buy it and do it. Then after you accomplish the project, THAT'S when you post it up.

Document your project with before and after photos, THEN create a build thread, where you show-and-tell its sad backstory and happy resurrection, and everyone will heap praises upon you for the "great save" and all of your hard work.

Plenty of 3rdgens in equal-to-worse condition have been saved-from-the-grave. There's even a topic tread specifically about such cars, so it's not unusual. But that first rule is, never, Never, NEVER post about it BEFORE you do it. Imagine how many of those cars might not have been saved in the face of such discouragement.

If she doesn't sell it to you for scrap value now, then that's all she'll get for it when she eventually wants it gone, so ask her to get in touch with when that day comes and hope you're still in the mood.

battmann

iTrader: (9)

here's a link to that thread:
https://www.thirdgen.org/forums/auto...ave-share.html