Here are some updated photos. I am trying to figure out whether to re-paint powdercoat and rebuild the whole chassis before or after I focus on the body work and paint. I don't want to deal with over spray on all my brand new refurbished parts, but my gut is telling me I should do everything but the bodywork and paint first. Then once the exterior, mechanical, and chassis are done start focusing on the interior stuff.

Thoughts on that order? I got quite a bit done in 5 hours today. A lift and air tools certainly helps.

Also found a fuel leak that probably would have burned her to the ground.

 

No thoughts?

 

pull the body off and restore he chassis

 

What are you wanting to do? If it were me, I'd patch the right front fender and drive the car the rest of the summer.

 

Body on restomod. I am still debating a big block swap or a hot little 350. The car isn'toriginal so no wworries on originality. I may or may not keep the car and I AM currently at $6700 invested. I AM getting parts at wholesale but still need to watch costs so I don't get upside down on the car.

I want to pull all the suspension and repaint or powdercoat everything. Replace shocks, springs, etc. Should I do that before body and paint? I don't have a rotisserie yet and this isn't the right car for a body off restoration since it isn't original and isn't going to bring that $40-60k.

Prices do seem like they have been going up lately though.

 

Unfortunately pulling the body isn't in the budget so it would have to be a body on deal.

Still think I should do the chassis and suspension first? I was thinking of using black spray2k chassis paint on the underside of the body and what I can get to on the frame. The car has been non running in the garage since 1991 and while it has a ton of dirt the underside is pretty clean. Very little surface rust and no serious rust anywhere.

 

Why spend additional money on a car you may not keep?

 

The idea was to try my luck at fixing an old Corvette while still being able to make money on it. The business owns the vehicle and I need to be able to sell it without a loss if something else comes up that looks interesting. If nothing comes up then hopefully it is just going up in value. At this point it is interesting inventory

 

If you're going to resale it, I wouldn't go to crazy on it. Check the springs and all that to make sure they are not sagging and replace the shocks. Paint would make it look good and would be cheap on the underside, so that could only help. Personally, I would throw a hot 355 in it. Light weight, easy to work on and you can put down a lot of power at a pretty low price. Its not a numbers matching car so its never going to hit the big numbers, but if you make it a nice clean looking vette, their will always be a buyer.

 

Yeah, I wouldn't go nuts if you are planning on making money on it. Just clean it up and make it safe to drive.

 

well in that case, finish the body and drive/sell it

 

The springs seemed pretty cheap as ecklers sells the front and leaf spring for $200 plus I get that at cost so it is even cheaper. Powdercoat is mostly labor and gives me some practice.

My plan was to pull the suspension components and powdercoat the small stuff black. Paint the larger stuff like sway bars. Spray2k makes a gloss and matte finish for undercarriage. Planned on matte for the underside of the body and frame and gloss for the bigger pieces like the sway bars. At $20 a can, maybe $100-160 in paint. Powdercoating is almost free minus labor. New springs, shocks, and energy suspension bushings and that is probably around $500-600.

Should make everything pretty nice for around $1000 parts and labor. Then decide what to do with the motor. If I can find a cheap 75+ 454 car with A/C I will buy it and swap motors. Big blocks don't seem to add much more money to the 75+ cars than a small block so if I do it right I might get out at very little money lost on the deal. Otherwise building up a big block from scratch is too much $$$ and I will probably just build the 350 in it to around 450-500 HP.

That is my thought process anyway. I think I can build the whole car including all brand new exterior paint and chrome for a total of $15-16k.

A nice 71 with a brand new exterior and interior that runs strong should be low to mid twenties right?

 

Yeah no personal ROI that I can justify on this one. If it is going in the personal collection then being upside down is usually OK

 

The underside does look old though. I want the car to look fairly nice from all angles. Not to the point where everything under the car is chrome polished and you display it on top of a mirror, but a nice clean paint can go a long way to making that underside look a little less 40+ years old.

Corvette people including myself are "picky" about how the car looks visually. I know guys that detail their undercarriage on intervals like their paint.

 

Me? It's a no brainer. Pull the body, do a complete chassis overhaul, do the body work while on the dolly, then reinstall body. Fit and adjust everything on the exterior. Pull the trim off again. (the stage I'm at now) then prep for final paint. Once done, complete the exterior assembly and interior.

That's the way I'm doing mine. Some guys do finish paint while the body is off. Makes for assuring no overspray gets onto the detailed frame, but you better be careful putting the body back on and adjusting it all. Or you'll be repainting anyway. Im 1 guy working in a home garage, on a labor of love. Not a team of guys or a restoration shop.I have no plans to flip it either.

 

That sounds like a pretty good way to view it. I always like seeing new springs that are still nice with fresh paint on them, along with clean black calipers. Most people that want an entry level vette are looking for a nice body, strong engine that sounds good, and a nice riding car without any noises. Its the cheap quick little things that sells cars. I'm finished with my top end build in my 355, and I could have thrown a lot more money into it. But I kept reminding myself that its not needed and its not going to see much if any track time. Just maybe some red light to red light pulls. But what I wanted is different, and you need to make sure you market and build the car to the type of person who can buy it. I'm probably one of the younger guys on here, so AC was not important, but to someone who just want it to be a cruiser than it might be different.

As far as price, before I bought mine, I was looking at vettes for a good couple of years. I think you said its a 71, which will bump the price up. But ive seen nice cars that people just wanted to unload go for 15k, and cars that should go for less asking far more. I guess in the end what i'm saying is depending on where you live and how well you clean it, you could be asking 18 to 24k for it. I don't know what you plan to do for sure or how it will end up. But it looks like you have a good start. Just don't go crazy, and get everything cleaned. It doesn't have to have new parts, but if I can look around seals and under the car and see that I'm not looking at grease that's been caked onto the car since before I was born, then I'm going to be less worried about buying an old car


On a side note, I think companies should always build a advertisement car with their reproduction parts. Its always a pain in the *** to buy parts and then have to mod them to fit into the car they claim will drop into. Like I have a new front crossmember and rad support that I put in, and they don't line up for the to bolts to connect. So to see all the parts going into the car that are new, and to see if they had to mod anything shows how well the parts where made.

 

 

Based on what I am seeing The're isn't a single repainted new chrome C3 for sale out here so I don't have anything to compare it to. Fairly original cars with decent exterior and interior like this car was before it hit a coyote are around 14-15k now. One guy is selling a big block project car for $14k but it doesn't really run very well. A couple nice shape 5-10 year old restorations in the low twenties. On the high end I have seen several big block cars in the $40-60k range even some non original and a non matching 350 with an asking of $40k. Of course these are asking prices but there is a big difference from $40k to $25k and I have to believe the guy ended up getting more than $25k if he was asking $40k. Then again who knows.

I saw Richard on fast n loud sell a perfectly nice driver quality 69 for six grand because he bought it in a bundle with a 58 for $35k. It made me want to cry. Just because those types of deals come along it doesn't necessarily represent the market norm.

 

How much more time do you have in it though? If it was my car and was for sure being kept then I can justify the extra labor pulling the body. How long would it take me to pull the body from the stage I am at now? Would I lift the body off with a shop crane?

If I pull the body then it would make more sense to replace the front clip with one not damaged than to repair the old one. When I first started people told me not to pull the clip because they tend to not line up well again. Right now the body lines are perfect.