Hey everybody. Well, as always, I can't make up my mind with where I want to go with my car. One option, the one I'm leaning towards, is selling it next summer (2004), and buying another FBody with a V8.

Problem is, I don't want to have to try to sell this car with the state it's in. It's got some surface rust on the rocker panel and the lower lip of the door on one of the sides. Along with that are a few "blister" spots (I don't know what you'd call them, where the paint is kinda bubblying up cause of rust underneath), and other spots of surface rust. Also, before I sell it, I want this car to look like it should, a SC; Not an IROC wanna-be.

So here's my question: if I was to buy a SC front clip, 2 new fenders (they're both dented), and a flat-style hood, then spend all the time to fix those rust spots and prime the car for paint, and then get a Maaco paintjob (If I'm selling it, I'm not getting a premium job done), will all this work increase what I can sell the car for enough to make up for the time/money spent?

Here's what my car's got, so you can have an idea of what it would be worth now:

- 1987 Camaro SC
- 230,000 miles on body
- About 8,000 miles on motor and trans now
- Dynomax cat-back
- CD player
- Very clean interior, which is not easy to come by in these parts, from what I've seen
- By then, it'll have K&Ns and cut-out baffles under the filters
- Also might have Spohn SFCs
- Grant steering wheel

Right now I'd probably ask around $1500 or so. So, what do you all think? Sorry for the novel...

 

Completely clean and detailed, with documented engine/tranny rebuild, would go for about $3k in these parts.

 

Out in LA, these rides are a dime a dozen.
Wrecking yards full of rust free parts & cars.
UNLOAD the car right now, save the effort for a better foundation of a vehicle.
Your ride now at 230K & expect to get more money cause of a clean body?
Doubt it be worth your effort for return on dollar.
PS want fun?
Ebay it now with a reserve!
There was a V-6 ride previously trying to be GIVEN AWAY FREE here on this site.
NO TAKERS probably still same way now.
Let it go bye now save the money & effort.
OR drive it til death!
I miss fall in New England

 

here in va, u might get $500 for it, i paid $500 for mine, body pretty straight, near perfect interior, 148K miles, ok paint, runs great, 230K is alot of miles, i dont think ill ever buy a car with over 100K again

 

I agree, that engine rebuild had better be documented well. My car has 248,000 miles on the original motor and runs great- but I haven't documented a damn thing. Heck the guys at the suspension shop told me my car's front end held up pretty good for 148,000 miles! I told him he was a hundred thousand off... I love 5 digit odometers!

 

:hail: to 5 digits..lol people your high mileage car has low mileage and also looks quite cool when its a 00000.0

 

Thanks all for the input. The rebuild wasn't documented at all, atleast I never saw any documentation. When I bought it last spring, I was told the motor and trans were both rebuilt 2000 miles before. I have no proof on whether that's true or not, but I like to think that how well they run, and how strong the car seems to be, is enough for me. It'll have to be enough for whoever buys it too (I won't be asking much anyways).

On another note, how would you go about documenting a rebuild? Just keep all the reciepts? If you're doing it yourself, no one's writting out a labor sheet or whatever

 

u can have reciepts, but its just saying u rebuilt a 2.8 motor, doesnt prove it was your 2.8 motor, i was told a motor i had had just been rebuilt, turned out the block was cracked..go figure

 

Keep in mind in the north east its gonna be all about the body. My bird barely runs and it looks like hell but i gladly bought it cause it was totally rust free.

 

Yeah, that's the problem if you do it all yourself. I suppose you could get the machine shop to write the block's ID # on the receipt from their work (hot tank/bore/hone/etc...), and I wonder if they do write it on their anyway, as proof for themselves.

As to resell value after doing the work you mentioned; I'd say it's not worth it. Someone's going to look at the mileage and argue for price anyway. I know -I- would. I wouldn't pay $3k for a car with that many miles, even if the owner showed me every receipt. I know that's a price-knockdown waiting to happen. Plus, you can -tell- a Maaco job- overspray everywhere. And I would see the Maaco job, and wonder what was under the paint.

That's what I loved about my Maaco job; I taped over, or removed, anything I thought they'd paint. I brought it to 'em with no taillights, no blinkers/marker lights, and taped up the black bumper inserts on my bumper. (Most Maaco places just shoot over those!) And when I got the car back, I re-undercoated the rear wheel wells, they had some overspray under there.

 

yeh, i've got a maaco shot car right now...looks good (just about as good as you can see inthe pic) but the after a few years the clear coat discolors a lil' bit, and eventually the black has started to look just a tad faded. NO big deal by any means, but still...I'm doing a reshoot this summer, but i've got a friend who'll do it for free minus the paint, which is a big relief off my shoulders, and the car should look damn good....HOUSE OF KOLOR here i come!!! on the other hand, one of my best friends just dropped his 1968 dodge charger off at maaco, they're doing a complete job on his. A couple of hte panels had some rust under the paint and needed replacing, they're cutting and welding new 1/4 panels on, and getting a new drivers door, then they'll go ahead and prep the rest and paint....I'm kinda interested to see what the car looks like finished again, but the prob is, he's paying $2,300 bux for cheap paint, and labor that isn't going to be all that good. Hopefully though, he won't have wasted all that much of his money.

 

ya, macco did paint inside my wheel wells,would look fine it they woud have completly paint in my wheel wells, also they got some paint from there hands on my interior, the the painting is very good, i have found like 4 runs with isnt bad at all, they didnt sand it like they were supposed to either but it turned out good, well worth my $275 (it was on sale, paint job was usually $575)

 

That's the same paint I'm going with; House of Kolor. Those color charts are impressive- I almost feel bad with just choosing blue.