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Hello, I need some advice on pricing a corvette for sale.
I purchased a 1971 Corvette Coupe back in 1991 and I paid $10,000. I drove the car for a few years and then I planned to do a frame off restoration, I completely dismantled the car and the only thing left in the car is the transmission and drive shaft. Fast forward 31 years to 2022 and I have no desire to restore this car and have had it listed for sale for over a year with no one interested until lately I received an offer of $6,000.
As you can see the pillar post are rusted and I wanted to know how much this affects the price of the car, I would also like to know if the numbers on the engine block look correct. Is $6,000 a resonable offer. Thank you for your help.
1971 Corvette Coupe, Matching numbers, White with red interior, 350 engine, automatic, power windows, power brakes, power steering, air conditioning, mileage reads 55,789 but I would guess that has rolled over. The car was rear ended and there is some slight fiberglass repair, the car had side exhaust and the tail pipes have been fiber glassed over. California.
Hi Mark, The car is easily worth $6K in parts. To those who do frame off restorations and have competent welding skills, this type of rust is not that scary. I've done them before, with great success and the end result has been a good, clean and structurally sound Corvette. The only question I'd have is whether this rust is localized to the upper portion of the cage only, or does it extend down to the lower mounting areas. This would make the difference between having to remove the front clip or not. Windshield frame replacement is not that difficult. As to the engine numbers, they look completely legitimate to me. They are perfectly straight so they were done with a gang holder rather than hand stamped separately. I don't think too many people were re-stamping 270 hp 350's 30 years ago so your claim of original engine is good. In the end, this is a desirable year, fully loaded standard engine Corvette in a nice color combination so it's worth saving and the right guy with the proper skills can do it. If you take the $6K ask the buyer to send you a picture of the car when it's finished.
Good luck with the sale.
Cheers, Greg
To be honest, my '79 was in WAY better shape than this when I sold it and got $5k for it. So I think $6k is a great offer and you should take it before the offer goes away!
Put it this way, you've had it listed for a year with no offers until this $6k one. And wouldn't the $6k be more useful to you than it sitting on your property?
Thanks for the help guys, WOW! I thought classic Corvettes were supposed to appreciate over time not depreciate. Years ago when I was dreaming of restoring my Corvette I seen that they sell replacement pillar post/ bird cages in the aftermarket Corvette parts magazines, do they still sell them, or are you guys saying that changing them is to costly or impossible.
Thanks again for everyone's advice.
Nothing is impossible and yes from what I understand you can get these piecesparts. The problem being the almighty $. I'd venture to say it would cost 15-20K just to do the birdcage and body.
BTW classic Corvettes do appreciate just not torn apart rusty ones
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LOL, they appreciate when they are at least driveable, and not full of rust that will take a lot of serious work to repair.
If this wasn't your car and you saw it for sale, would you buy it? I'm thinking you were just looking for someone on here to offer $6K for it.
I assumed that people like me would want to do a frame off restorations and the car being taken apart would be an advantage to the restoration not a disadvantage. Please don't assume I have a nefarious reason for posting this thread, I'm just trying to learn, it's been many years since I've looked into Corvettes. Please don't assume the worst about somebody's intentions.
That amount of rust, you would have to give me the car for free. There's not really even a car under there, just a ton of rust.
The person that offered you 6k is a fool, and probably will drop their price onxe they lay eyes on it.... or theyre a real fool and will just go for it.
The person I purchased the car from listed it as a numbers matching car, I want to make sure I'm not misleading any buyers if this isn't a matching numbers Corvette. Can anyone give their advice on the engine block numbers, do they look authentic.
thank you.
I enjoy watching Fantom Autoworks or what ever it is called on Motor Trend TV. One of the earlier episodes had a guy that brought in a '77 I believe it was. They didn't want to do the car as it was a 77 and not worth much. Anyway they did. What I like about the show the guy tells you hours and part costs. The rust was about the same as the OPs. Total cost was around $110,000 for everything. Basically a ground up resto.
If you had just parked it in a garage and left it alone it would of been worth more than $10k now.
Take that $6k and run Forrest run......
It was parked in a garage, when I took the car apart 28 years ago I discovered the pillar posts were rusted. If rusted pillar posts are a common issue for this generation of Corvette, I'm assuming there's thousands of these cars out there that look beautiful on the outside but have the same pillar post rust where people can't see them like me. I guess if I left the car together it looks beautiful but I would be selling a car with pillar posts that are rusted that the buyer could not see.
It was parked in a garage, when I took the car apart 28 years ago I discovered the pillar posts were rusted. If rusted pillar posts are a common issue for this generation of Corvette, I'm assuming there's thousands of these cars out there that look beautiful on the outside but have the same pillar post rust where people can't see them like me. I guess if I left the car together it looks beautiful but I would be selling a car with pillar posts that are rusted that the buyer could not see.
You are correct. That is why whenever someone on here asks what to look for when buying a C3, everyone says rust in birdcage and around windshield frame.
Like others have said, if you had left the car together it would have been worth more, even disclosing the rust. Unless they are a highly experienced C3 restorer, most guys that are going to do a frame off prefer to disassemble the car themselves. That way they know where everything goes when they put it back together. Did you bag and tag all the parts or are they all in a big pile? 28 years is a long time and some parts could go missing over that time.
I'd grab that $6K and even deliver the car at that price!
A car is only worth what someone is willing to pay for it. If you really have someone willing to pay $6,000 for this mess, you should take it quickly!
I am the most honest person in the world and I listed my car on a corvette trade online, I put $9,000 or best offer, I did not think that the rusted pillar post was that big of a deal just something else to fix during the restoration. If your opinion is this car is worth nothing I do appreciate your honesty because I wouldn't want to take advantage of an unsuspecting buyer. I will send a link to this thread to the buyer so he can make a good decision. When I purchase the car I thought It was beautiful, I had no idea that the pillar post could be rusted, or that this was a common issue. Live and learn I guess.
Last edited by 19Stingray71; Jul 22, 2022 at 12:00 PM.
To be fair, almost every C3 Ive owned or looked at has had some degree of rot in the windshield frame. Its always been repairable. The key is, what does the rest look like?
Given your photos, Id agree with the crowd and say grab the $6k before one of his friends talks him out of it.
Numbers matching isn't really an issue on this car I'd say. Take the money and run.
If someone is going to do a frame off restoration it should be an issue, is there anyone who could give their opinion on the engine block numbers, just for my own knowledge.
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Advice on pricing my Corvette
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