ZFORME

I am in process of gathering information to determine a fair value for a red 1954 Corvette that is very,very rough.
Original drive train is in car.
Gauges are all there, tach with hour meter, radio...
Hard top not with car
convertible top missing
most of the stainless trim missing
steering wheel gone, non original steel wheels are off car no hub caps, on jack stands, car has been bone dry for 40 years.
engine froze will put kerosene in cylinders, let set for a few weeks to try and free up is what I was told.
will add photos Monday at 9pm from adventure.

Where do I find a guide for valuation on a rough red 54 Corvette. Needs full expensive restoration.
Any help would be greatly appreciated. I want to be fair on an offer for it.

Randy G.

Your comment "hard top not with car" suggests you don't know a lot about '54 Corvettes. I wish I had someone more knowledgable than me look at ours 10 years ago when I bought it. I would have passed, but that's water and many thousands of dollars under the bridge now.

53-55 Corvettes are the most expensive Corvettes to restore even if the car is fully intact. The reason is that because so few were produced it makes no sense for the suppliers to make replacement correct parts or to stock any parts for that matter. Go to Corvette Central's web site and search for '54 Corvette parts and all you'll find listed is paint, wax, car covers, and 6 volt light bulbs. My experience with my '62 after restoring our '54 is that parts for the '62 are a dime a dozen in comparison.

The stuff you listed as missing represent many thousands of dollars. What about seats and seat frames? No one I know of supplies a correct gas tank. And make sure you are sure about the engine being original, too, because I've seen a lot of "original engine" '54's that were not original. And finding one, especially with the "241" head, is nearly impossible. Later VIN '54's had dual pot air cleaners. Thousands IF you can find one. Good set of side curtains at least $4,000. Ignition shielding, tach distributor, water pump. Water pumps when I was looking were $1,400. None of the radiator companies make a correct replacement that I know of. A good set of hub caps are thousands. 6 volt Wonderbar, correct shifter, exhaust extensions, on and on.

Whatever figure you come up with to restore it, I would double it. I did and was still way off.

If you are trying to determine a value in order to purchase and restore it, I would encourage you to find the most complete car you can afford and do the math. You can get upside down in a real hurry looking for the missing stuff on a '54.

ZFORME

Well in 2004 at Corvette Carlisle the 54 was the car year for that show. They told me $70,000 to restore it to perfection. Original tail pipes they said were $2K. So It has sat. The motor is original and tranny and rear diff. I am going to barn now to get pics. It is bad.
It is not my car, I can buy it or sell it. My decision to make. Stored here for 20 years and stored before I owned house. It is a relatives car.

SonnyAK

Sounds like you definitely had the right person with the knowledge respond first to your thread! Having never owned a '54, I had no idea parts were so difficult to come by, but I guess it definitely makes sense!

Good luck on Monday and I'm looking forward to seeing the photos...

ILBMF

Yeah, let's see the pics including under the hood please.

ZFORME

Here are some:

ZFORME

Seats and frames are in another part of barn. The frame is straight as an arrow and strong no rot anywhere.
I found VIN tag but not any trim tag any place.

Revfan

Does it have to be a NCRS style restoration?

vettebuyer6369

There's no trim tag in 1954.

I think you should spring for the 1954 NCRS judging guide from their website, and you will have an easy reference to tell you whats missing and correct or not. It will be worth every dime as you take the time to figure this out.

ILBMF

Wow!

Frankie the Fink

VetteDaddy (Brett) on here as brought many of those early, early cars back from the dead -- you might PM him and ask an opinion. I don't know of a better expert on their restoration. There was a survivor '54 at NCRS Kissimmee car corral a few years back that the owner wanted $49,000 for. Needed quite a bit of TLC but everything was there and operating. I agree though, you could get upside down so fast on this project your head will swim...

rfn026

This doesn't appear to be a Survivor. To be a BG Gold Survivor 80% of the car must be unrestored in all 4 areas. It might be difficult to even get a Bronze with this car. Here's a little bit on what it takes to be a Survivor.

This appears to be a candidate for restoration. That means you're going to be upside down with this car. Big time upside down.

Hagerty says this car is worth less than $41,000. Let's just say you can buy it for $30,000. A Duntov '54 might sell for about $120,000 on a good day.

The numbers just don't work. You'll spend over $100,000 to turn this into an NCRS car. This car is a financial hole even if they give it to you.

Now it might be a lot of fun to just get it running. If you can buy it for $30,000 just get it running and have fun driving it around.

A golf club membership is easily over $30,000 today and the annual dues are over $10,000 a year. This car might be a lot more fun that playing golf.

Richard Newton
Restoration Fun

MaineDoc

I have had two 54's and I love the look. As I have said before, the price of even small parts will take your breath away. I was always concerned with braking something and having to pay top dollar to replace it. There is also the matter of fit. While solid axles are tight enough for many, the early cars remind me of the 28-29 Model A Fords-built for tiny people. I'm now 5-7 and mine were really snug. Maybe make a great resto-rod rather than a full restoration.

Frankie the Fink

How tall were you before ?

The other thing to consider is the market for these cars if you are thinking resale....I think its diminishing as the Buck Rogers look doesn't appeal to everybody. Don't mean to offend but when I was on the hunt for a C1, I didn't even consider anything before 56 (actually focusing on 58 and above)

MaineDoc

I used to be at least an inch taller, maybe more, but age does many things including causing shrinkage-my height I mean.

BADBIRDCAGE

I'm with MaineDoc on the resto mod build. Much less expensive. Much more dependable and enjoyable.

ChattanoogaJSB

I'm just curious if the block appeared to be original and if you were that close to the car if you bothered to check that and the head casting? It would seem that is important and easy to look for. If you aren't digging that deep then maybe the prospect of restoring this car isn't for you.

I'm not trying to be negative, but as other have said it is very easy to get starry-eyed about the potential of one of these cars just "begging to be made shiny" but most of us would want to be pretty shrewd before we made a deal and hauled it home. That means knowing precisely what you're buying as well as what you think it will cost to restore. If you are thinking you can restore it cheap, you simply cannot. If you think you can get it running cheap(er) you probably can. This is one of those cars that a crappy restoration of sorts isn't going to help. The next buyer is going to see what was done wrong and needs doing properly.

I do wish you luck, and it is enticing the way it's presented.

ZFORME

Getting the NCRS manual for it.

Frankie the Fink

The manual(s) will tell you what it takes to get to various levels of correctness and driveability. It won't tell you the cost to do so....something that seems relatively simple to address per the manual might cost 1,000s in procuring the 'unobtanium' parts to do so.

I think that's what we are all trying to tell you

AZDoug

Resto-Mod it.

If you can get it for say $10K, you can put custom seats and door panels in, have the gauges refurbed, new modern motor (from a '60s V8 to LS1) and trans, and paint it for another $30K. If you want the engine compartment all pretty, add maybe another $5K. Add a couple grand to rebuild the stock brakes and suspension. Couple more grand for refinishing the windshield assembly.

Add $5K for incidentals, and few $K for wheels and tires.

This is with YOU doing mechanical reassembly, etc., paying someone to do paint and body and interior. You WILL have to shop around, you can pay $10K or $30K for the exact same quality paint job, No it won't get the Goodguys car of the year, but it will be a nice looking driver.

Adding a modern frame and suspension, I will have to defer to someone else on price

Missing top of door trim, or conv top frame I cannot help on price. You can always just drive it with no top,a nd keep looking for a top frame.