I recently bought a '97 Z28 from a buddy of mine that was in need of some quick money. I bought the car for $500. Body is really rough, the tranny only works in 1st and 2nd, and the interior is horrible. The reason I bought it was for the very nice running LT1. I've have 4 3rd gen Camaro's over the years. I had to sell my last one when I got divorced. I want to buy another, but this time I want a convertible. All my others were t-tops. Anyway, a dude just offered to buy my donor car for $1,000. My logical side says that I should sell it since I only paid $500 for the car, but I'm pretty sure that just having a complete donor car to use for the swap is worth more than a grand. He made the comment that I could buy an engine for the grand, but my problem is that I can get so much more from this donor than just the engine. My question is this.. What should I do? Is a grand worth getting rid of my donor car and all the stuff I could transfer over? I don't think so, but you all know far more than I do..

 

for $500 you're getting a lot.

Is it an auto or manual?

For $500 you're getting a running 350 SBC LT1 + ECU + Wiring harness + 4th gen fuel tank and sender. You would easily spend more than a grand on these items. If its also a manual T56, you can get that rebuilt and use it in the swap also.

That is easily worth 2 to 3 times the $500 you're gonna profit off flipping the car; If you're serious about building and swapping an LT1 into a 3rd gen, this car is worth hanging on to. If you're not, then yeah, flipping it for $500 is a good idea.

 

It's got an automatic. I talked to a local shop and they said they could put a 700r4 in it so I can take the motor and tranny when I swap. No sense rebuilding the 4l60e when I'm not using it in the new one.

 

Id dump it and be $500 richer. It sounds like the car is a total POS, so the engine is about the only redeeming factor. A good running Fbody LT1 engine is worth about $500, so no real loss and its not hard to find another. Sounds like the rest of the car is mostly core, scrap and $20 parts, so in the end you -might- get $500 back from the shell. To me its a no brainer, dump it and move on