Ok guys, not sure how the wife is going to react, but thinking about adding a 2d vette to the garage. But needs some opinions on this.
Have a line on what appears to be a good 1971. Here's the story. 2d owner. Seems to have all paperwork. Original dealer sells it. Guy dies about 2 years ago. Wife tries to drive it, but craps out the engine. Selling dealer gets it back in trade. They toss engine, and put in year appropriate engine, but is nom now. a 350/270 base motor, which is what came on the car. All this is verifiable. Selling dealer is well known vette dealer, good friend to local clubs, here, etc. Guy buys it from dealer with 59k original miles on it, 2 years ago, and now has about 85k miles. Car is original red coupe, red paint. Has M22 4 speed, rear rack, a/c, and it works, he just replaced all seals in that, and is willing to upgrade to R134 and give original compressor with it. Has put in over $3500 in parts in last two years. Basically, whole underside has been re-done. Bushing, tie rods, trailing arms, u-joints, new rotors, stainless lines. REplaced all vacuum lines.
He wanted a better driver, so replaced the rear end with new eaton diff, spring from F-41 suspension, replaced manifold and carburator and distributor with holly and an eldebrock and MSD (though has all of the original parts if want to replace those). Basically, made a better daily driver. All weather stripping replaced. Dash pad has no cracks, seats ok. carpet and door skins very faded.
Few small cosmetic dents on bumper, and a little spider webbing around side grate and head light. Basically, a solid 3 in looks, and 2 on mechanicalls. southern car, frame is not even sniffing rust. If you painted it and redid the interior, it would be lights out. Car looks very good for its year, just red paint is fading.
He's asking $12k for car, and might take a little less.
What do you think? Is that out of line for a NOM? What issues are specific to this year as far as what to watch out for or look for, other than usual vacuum, etc?

 

Sounds OK but .... just told a friend the same thing ..... would you pay $16-20K for the car if it was newly painted? I know $12K sounds cheap but don't overlook paint costs when making a decision on a C3. A quality prep & paint job on a C3 can cost $4K-$8K depending on prep needed (i.e. crack repair, panel alignment, etc). Add in another $1000 for door panels, carpet & other interior trim & goodies.

My 2 cents .... if I could live with the paint & it was a driver not investment car maybe .... If it absolutely needed paint, I personally would not do it on a base car especially with an NOM. If it was a original big-block or option SB motor maybe but that's just me ...

Mark

 

Buy it . Chrome bumper vettes are getting harder to get.

 

Bottom line it's your money buy it you really like it. Just because a vette dealer had doesn't mean much in my book though in fact it's a red flag.
It's no secret numbers cars pull more greenbacks so why does a vette dealer throw out an orignal engine and not rebuild it? Sure it could have been trashed but most can be rebuilt and it sounded like it was never bored?
He replaced the rear end with an Eaton- they came with Eatons. Did they change the rear end becasue it was knocking, broken, didn't like the ratio? Doesn't sound right to me. Add in a M-22, those weren't abundant either. You know what they say in this game- "GM made 12,000 big block xxxx corvettes and today there are 20,000!"
I would really look this car over good, it sounds more like a piece car then you might realize- again it's your money.

Good Luck,

Gary

 

thanks for all the comments, and keep 'em coming. He says he replaced the rear end b/c he changed ration from the 3:42 to 3:08. He has the everything that he took off. I agree, can't imagine why the dealer, which is a well known dealer here on vettes, would have just tossed the motor a couple of years ago. Assume there must have been more issues with it, but am looking at those already and trying to verify.

 

$12k is good price for a chrome bumper in that condition. It doesn't sound like it has many problems at all & I don't think you are looking for an NCRS show car.

NOM don't bother me a bit. Jeez, I wouldn't want a vette w/ an original motor. It would be too much pressure not to break it.

 

Hmmmmm. All three of mine were matching numbers (two I still have and one I traded). I've never felt any pressure driving my three.