I need some opinions here regarding the continuation of my '79 rebuild. I have completed the frame, suspension and everything else that is under the body and it looks great:



It was in very poor condition and took a lot of welding and repair to get it in this condition. Most everything is new in not, it's been totally refurbished.
Now, the conundrum I'm in now is that the body is going to take a TON of work to get back to "like new" condition for paint and dropping back on the body. The front left fender has a big chunk out of it, the hood has small chunks out of it, there are a lot of stress cracks etc. The windshield frame is like new but the body mount areas on the birdcage are toast as is most of the bottom rockers. As I said, a lot of welding and bodywork will be in store. Welding I've done, working with fiberglass I haven't.


So.. there is a '79 Vette for sale locally and the body is in near perfect condition but needs paint badly. The frame has issues but I'm not needing a frame. The car runs well, has new brakes and other new parts as well as brand new Mickey Thompson tires. The current owner drives it now.



I do not know the condition of the body mount areas or the rockers though but the door and hood gaps seem to be really good. The seller is willing to take $4,000 for it but I've offered 3 considering I've "been there" before. He says he doesn't want to loose any more money on it but I explained to him what I've had to do with basically the same vehicle. As I said, I only want it for the body. I could re-coup some money by selling off parts I guess.
My question is, should I offer a bit more and see if he'll take it or keep what I have and learn how to do body work and weld without melting the car? My Wife says to get the other one... So???

 

You can sell the tires and rims for at least $1,000.00. Go for it.

 

Go for it. seems like a no-brainer.

Does the rear end of a '79 fit under a '73? This could save me some work. Also I need a windshield, I can help you recoup some of your costs for sure. PM me if you want. I'm in Ontario also, not quite local but close enough

PS: Sorry if I've broken any rules...

 

Offer him $3500 cash and close the deal. Between David and myself, we can probably get you below 3 grand......sure save a lot of time on body work.

 

Considering the cost to fix your body if you use that body and sell off the extra parts you will easily be ahead. I would bet you could get close to 3k in parts if you take you time selling the items off.

 

I think you guys have me convinced. My only fear is the unknown like I found with the one I have. I'm going to arrange to stop and look at it again on Monday and look for things I really didn't look at on Thursday. I keep going out to the garage and looking at the white one and it's making my decision a lot simpler. Apparently it has a new Rad too.

 

This is exactly what I was thinking. If it were me, after all the work put into the project so far, I'd be on a mission to finish the job and know exactly what I have. You've done some amazing work! I'd keep on going until it was finished, but that's just my .02 worth.

 

You're damned if you do, damned if you don't in this case. You talk about making the body "like new" for painting. Because I'm presently doing exactly that same thing that you're doing (finishing the chassis and reattaching the body), if I were to body swap, the first thing I'd do before putting the replacement body onto the new chassis is restore the body panel seams. This is labor-intensive, albeit not as much as trying to repair the original body. It would really suck to buy the second car, swap the bodies, get the car repainted, drive it for a couple of years and then begin to see cracks running along the body seams because the old adhesive joints have let loose.

 

So I just got off the phone with my C3 guru who happens to be the one that gave me total crap for buying the first on without taking him to see it.. And.. he basically gave me crap again for even considering this one for more then $1,000.00. He anticipates exactly what I found with mine and maybe even worse. He agreed that selling the parts off would pay off but that isn't the reason I was interested in the first place. I'd be in a bit of a pickle if I got the body off and saw that it was worse.. Then I'd have two useless bodies cluttering up my garage and driveway. Looks like I'll be getting busy with the one I have. As was mentioned.. "Damned if you do.. Damned if you don't."