I'll poke in a few more questions - I didn't quite follow what he meant by the body burning and then swapping a whole other body onto the frame. If it burned that well, wouldn't I need to be concerned that the frame may have been weakened with the heat or the motor itself would have had similar damage?

I'll see how firm he is on the price as well - right now we are guessing that I should shoot more for 12k on the vert as it is?

In the meantime, the 74 is sounding more and more like the better deal at this time, and maybe holding it until I get more cash and then resell it and put cash to it for a more complete vert.

I guess at this point, I just need to decide how at what price I am willing to grab up the 68 (risks and all) and pass on the 74. Thanks for all the input thus far!

 

Maybe neither one of these is the right car for you.
I wouldn't limit myself to these two only, there are many Corvettes for sale.
There are really two camps of C3 owners..the '68-'72 and maybe '73, and then '74 and newer..which camp are you really in?

 

I'm only going by what you posted.

 

I sent you a couple I found online that looked far better and better priced than these...how did you make out with those?

 

I am a convertible guy but I would pass on that 68. As others have said you will find a nice driver for less than you will have in that car when done. I would say the car is worth at most $7500 given what will be required. I have bought and sold several C3 convertibles and you can find plenty for sale that will end up being less than that car is going to cost. Hold out for a vert but I would keep looking. Check out cars-on-line.com cctol.com usedcorvettesforsale.com etc.

 

I couldn't be more opposite in my thinking....I have owned many T-top cars and several real convertibles, i can't understand why anyone would want a coupe.
I never saw the T-tops as being anything more than a wanna-be convertible, I love the top off feeling, the T-tops off for me is akin to a sunroof, just two way different creatures, but I also think the best looking c3 is a 68-72 convertible and dig the hard top better than the cove of the coupe,
Which is the big coolness of a real convertible for me in the case of a vette you get a hard top for the bad times of the year and a rag top all tucked away so you can just pop it up, which I can up or down my rag top at any stop light, can't even think about that with T-tops.

Back to the thread topic,

Now that I see pictures of this threads cars...a person would have to talk themselves blue to convince me that 68 is worth a penny over 6500.00 ooh did I low ball it....I paid 6-6500 for my driver 69


YES...my 69 is a purist nightmare but I wanted to mod it anyway, I will have way less than 15K in the finished car.

I know a fellow who thinks his cars are solid gold and when I was hunting my 69 he had a project car that needed interior wiring seals all kinds of stuff I knew how the fellow was and asked how much thinking he would have some crazy price double or triple what it was really worth ( about 5000.00 ) he said 32K
In that mindset my 69 is 50k seems he might be the seller of this 68.

18.5K will buy a heck of a lot of nice vette in todays market.

The 74 has zero interest to me, it's a T-top car and just having the low hp bb means little but it is worlds nicer than this threads 68,
So in this case I would just keep looking....

 

A couple were non responders, the better looking one of the group (the one in NY) cited fairly heavy frame rusting issues. The remaining was a Small Block - I'm dead set on Big Block this time (or LT-1 of course)

I was Really bummed on the NY one, it looked like it might have been a solid fit - appearances aren't worth too much I guess when shopping for these.

I really did appreciate the forwards you sent me on those though - it opened my eyes enough to see that I needed to expand my search beyond this local general region.

 

I'm in florida my 69 came from ohio where it sat in a garage over 20 years....look all over the country....

 

I really have always wanted the vert, and the big blocks have always held a certain mystique for me. So, while I do LOVE the 68-73s, I really do love to a slightly lesser degree the 74-77s - the 78+ I kinda get to the 'meh' on my tastes.

So the 74 would still be a solid consolation prize if the fact was that I couldn't get a driver 68-73 with 427 at the 15k range that I've got for initial investment. But, as pointed out in the earlier post, the 454 in the 74 is a far cry from the 427, so aside from the namesake and it being the last of the Big Blocks, I understand that it's not going to be near the same beast.

Oh well, I've got roughly a little over week or so until my cash clears and I can make a purchase. The more I see reasoned out regarding this particular 68 sounds like it should be skipped over for my purposes after all.

 

It's overpriced about $12,000....in my opinion as a rookie.

 

If you want to buy a car right now, the 74 wins hands down. The 68 would take you years and way more money than it's worth to restore. If you expect to have the money to put a basket case like the 68 together, just keep saving and buy a Chrome Bumper BB Vert that is in already been gone through. If you hunt hard enough and aren't concerned about matching numbers, you should be able to find a decent driver that looks good for $25,000 to $35,000. I look around just for the heck of it, and I see them out there now and then.

 

You absolutely SHOULD buy the particular STYLE Vette that you like the most......there is no doubt about that fact.

Just listen to the members as to how much you should pay for the car that you are interested in.....I was considering 4 different deals from "most desired" to "I'd buy that one". After several months of looking and sleepless nights, I found the "most desired".....it was a similar project convertible like the one you've posted.....but in better shape for 1/3 the price of the "Frankenstein vette".

Remember this:

 

You just gave me an idea for a new thread....but I think there are more than two camps....