Hey everyone, new member here been coming here for years. I'm a gearhead from Montreal, had numerous corvettes from various generations and still enjoy my C4 on cross country road trips.

Here is my question:
What would you pay today for a
number matching 1972 Corvette War Bonnet Yellow (91), Saddle interior( 421), coupe , 454 LS5 Muncie, M21, 3.36 car. car is documented by GM Heritage Services.

Here's is bad:
-Car is Salvage titled, never been smashed but had a fairly small passenger compartment interior fire
-Car is dismantled in "million" pieces in like 20 boxes, body, frame , everything is dismantled. Some stuff is missing: like wheels, rear trailing arms, exhausts.
-While the paint seems intact and scratch free ( most likely a respray in the 80s), there are hundreds of little "bumps" in the paint, impossible to buff out.(driver quality)

The good :
-Original engine is newly rebuilt (mild 270,.510 cam FT) , cast pistons )not fancy but good basic rebuilt by reputable shop ( 5k in receipts for the build)

So what would you pay if you were to buy this "project" ?

Peter

 

Oh wow, sight unseen, not even any photos.....
Completely disassembled with the prerequisite missing parts. And likely with a heap of little bits missing you won't even think of until you miss them.
A ton of work reassembling someone else's disassembly.
And poor paint to boot!
And the question is, what's it worth.
Lots and lots of photos needed. Documentation on engine work needed. Warranty on engine? Etc, etc.
Best quess, it's going to cost as much to get it back together as it's worth. Especially with paint.
value without pictures or documentation on what is good........
0
OK, perhaps that's a bit harsh. But with a salvage title in its current condition. It's a parts car .

 

I agree, wow. You need a detailed inventory list of parts. An AIM will help with parts. New trailing arms will cost you about a grand each. A complete exhaust will be costly as well. Little bumps in the paint may have been caused by poor body preparation. Stripping and painting a vette has gotten crazy expensive in the past few years. Check the usual areas on the car like the bird cage and frame for rust. As far as a price is concerned, depending upon parts, your skills, tools, space and time, you could be upside down even if you got the car for free. Parting out is another matter altogether. Photos will help. Jerry

 

I wouldn’t be scared of a salvage title if you’re interested in making it a quality driver car. Now if you’re trying to somehow make an investment or make money off of it, the salvage title is a negative.
Honestly, c3’s are not good “investments” oil or nat gas is a way better investment for financial return. Probably any mutual fund out there will outperform c3’s

it sounds like a fun project car to assemble.
what would I pay for it? Ima throw out $8k, just not knowing how many parts are missing.

 

What's it worth, probably not much since whomever buys it doesn't actually know what they bought, with it all in boxes.

The salvage title is the least of your worries... it's so "old" you can throw away the title and probably sell it on a bill of sale. Then a new buyer can apply for a clean title when it's driveable. ?

 

Tough question to answer without photos. Some things to consider with a car in boxes. Are willing to add the price of a parts car to the equation? It is really easy to add 1000.00 here and there just trying source correct parts and a parts car may be worth it in the long run. How much time do you have to invest in a project of this nature? Even though these cars are fairly straight forward to work on they can be very time consuming even with a manual to properly reassemble.
Just my two cents worth is that it would(should?) be a parts car.

 

to put a little more context here, the car is also far from me and would likely cost me 2k to move to my shop.
As for my abilities to put this car back together its true that starting from and empty shell and rebuilding it from ground up when you were not the person that took it appart is a daunting task. Missing parts, hardware is inevitable. and time consuming to source.

Im been in the car industry all my life, owning a race shop for the last 30 years. We machine, assemble race engines, fabricate race chassies from scratch, the only thing we dont do on site is paint

Ive owned numerous chrome bumper C3s in the past and while looking at this "project vette" I got somewhat carried away by the cleanliness of the car is a 30k miles car before it was taken appart. in a rust free area.
So yes the car and parts and in very good condition, frame has no rust, birdcage is flawless , it actually a real shame that the paint has small bumps into it because it looks very nice from 5 ft away. no scratches nothing., seems like a primer sealer issue.
Engine is new , all number matching powertrain drivetrain , some interior parts are doubles since the previous owner was gathering parts to complete the project.

ive seem lots of project cars in my career and this one is definitely tempting, but reality is what a 72 number match yellow BBC 4 speed sells for these days? I know ill most likely end up upside down with this car once finished.

Maybe I better just buy a nice BB 4 speed 72 that would cost me the same price but save 1000 hours of my life
I still believe it would be a shame to part out and sell this very much complete number match bb manual car...

 

not more than 6 grand!!

 

.
That is you smartest option. Now, say it out loud again.
Buy a nice one then if you can't resist, offer the price it takes to get the parts car to your shop,, NO MORE! You say you're in the business, then you know its not a good decision.


If you really must save it,, then worth doesn't matter and jump right in blindly.

 

Low ball and negotiate hard and be willing to walk.

 

I'd pay <$10K and park it as my donor parts car for the C3 I'd already own. The rust free no hit frame/birdcage/rolling chassis (if true) is probably worth $5K all day long IMHO. The best of the rest should be carefully labelled, bagged, and stored on shelves.

Keep watching the WTB ads in the C3 parts section and maybe in a decade you'll get some money back.

 

Post some photos please. This will help us give you a rough estimate.

 

if the body is in pieces then its going to need body work and paint so that wipes out anything that this is worth. I would offer $5k so he can get his money out of th eengine but with moving costs and it needing missing parts, its not worth it for more than that. And the list of missing parts is just what you know is missing. If its moissing body mounts you may have to hunt really hard for them since paragon was bought and dismantled

 

I wouldn't pay anything for it. I might take it off their hands if they gave it to me. But maybe not even that..... if I had a lot of room maybe just to sell off the useful parts.

 

Sorry if I missed it...what's the frame look like? And birdcage?

 

with no pics of anything and assuming chassis and birdcage is clean… It will need a lot of work to bring it roadworthy 5k tops