jwalton

I'm tyring to figure out how far to go in prepping my car for sale. It has a tad over 100,000 miles and is mechanically in excellent condition. Cosmetically on the other hand...

This is the short list of things I'm considering:
Replace OEM leather seat covers (driver's side is ripped)
Paint Acrylic targa top (has the nasty peeling hardcoat)
Paint Halo (previous owner scratched when removing top)
Paint mirrors (lots of chips)
Paint front bumper cover (minor scrape on pax side)
Full detail and polish of paint (black is beautiful, but a pain.).

The seat covers would be ~$500 and I would install them. Everything else I'd be paying someone else to do.

At some point the return on investment doesn't make sense, but I'm not sure where that is.

Thoughts?

wbrands

Sold my '98 with 138,000 miles last June so cheap none of your proposed items would make sense on a return on investment basis. Just wasn't much interest in a 16 (now 17) year old car with over 100k on it.

jwalton

Yeah, that's my fear. I'm assuming the seats are going to have to get done just to get any kind of a decent price, after that it probably doesn't make much sense unless I can get the top done for $150-$200. It certainly doesn't need to be perfect, just good enough to not be a distraction.

Black 02

Sand and polish out the top, get some take off seats and give the car a good detail.

0WildVettes

I am looking for a track car so blemishes are not a concern.

Where are you? Is it a manual? What would you want as is? Mods?

Thanks

Vetteman Jack

Sounds like someone like WildVettes is a good option for you. The things you are considering doing are really going to be cost prohibitive considering what you can realistically get for the car.

jwalton

I live up near Magic Mountain, so close enough I suppose.

Yup, it's a manual. Mods are very minor. It started life as a base car and I changed to the Z06 sways and shocks and lowered it ~1" on the stock bolts. I put 4 track days on the car back in '02-'04 before I started renting cars so besides some black Z06 knock-off wheels for the street, I also have the OEM wagon wheels with some very old NON-runflat Kumho MX's on them (a fair amount of tread, just old tires). The wheel sensors are off the car because the batteries need to be replaced. And finally (I think...), the key fobs were always kinda sketchy so when they batteries died in those, I never replaced them.

As is? I'd have to think about it. It's probably perfect track-car material, but I need to maximize what I can get out of it for personal reasons. Feel free to PM me an offer if you want, and I'll do some man-maths on my own.

We're probably getting close to Moderator intervention here (which would be the second time for this thread), so PM me if you have any specific questions about buying the car so we don't have to dig through the forums to find it again.

jwalton

Oh yeah, one more thing. I replaced the clutch with a heavy-duty ACT (I think, I'll have to go back and look at my full service history ) unit back when I thought I was gonna track it a lot. Needless to say, with primarily street miles on it, it's fine.

0WildVettes

She found a happy new home. Drove perfectly and is a very mechanically sound and documented vehicle.

Thanks again Jim!

jwalton

My pleasure?! It was hard watching you drive away. Well, it's good to know that the car found a good home. Hopefully I'll be back here soon as an owner again!