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Seat covers are common, as the bolster wears. Weatherstripping is common. Carpet is common. The weatherstrip is almost a must, as water leakage will damage the seats and carpet if you replace them.
You can price them, add them up and figure that into your calculations?
Mine had to have all that stuff. Seat covers from Rock Auto are decent. I got the carpet from there also, mass back, and is it nice. Wilcox for weatherstrip kit.
Any idea what a rough estimate might be to repair the interior? $1000?
It can be less if you don't need every single piece of carpet, but mine did so I got the complete set.
The weatherstrip was from Wilcox, again, a full set for the entire car. It was 400 bucks.
The seat covers were from Rockauto and they are base vinyl/phony leather looking. I'm wanting to say it was about 350 for the set. standard seats, but the sport seats are about the same price.. The springs were rusted out (common) and I got a couple of trampoline kits to replace them from Keen. He's local to me, but I think they were 20 a piece or something close.
I do all my own work. In terms of cost, it will help tremendously if you are handy enough to do this yourself. It's not hard and Wilcox and other vendors have videos to help, but if you end up paying someone to do it for you, you can expect to add hundreds to that price.
PS: Scuffing and little scratches, discoloration and whatnot is common with cars this old. An amazing product to use on the colored plastic interior panels (door, console sides, etc) is a spray on dye (They call it a dye, but it looks like paint to me?) from Corvette America. Keens and other places stock it and it really saved me a fortune from having to replace all that plastic. It was AWFUL and it looked like it had been sanded in places.
Cleaned it well, and sprayed it.. That stuff made it look great!!!
So, if you're doing interior you may want to have a can on hand.. It's totally worth doing, and especially VS the cost of replacement.
I've had 3 85's, 89 and now a 94. I'd go with a LT1 car. I've said it before I've had little to no problems with all the cars. I paid $5,000 for the 94. I changed the radio and the wheels. I also have a C6. The C4 is a blast to drive I love it. I even have a 97 Z28. Just test drive one a make up your own mine.
Weatherstripping looks pretty good, seats are better than what I had in my 86 when I bought it, its the floor carpet that gives me reason to worry from the rain water getting in. Got to get the moldy carpet out of there.
Depends what you wanna do with this car, do you want to fix it up nice or what?
I'd buy it at 4.5 if it ran well and the 4+3 worked right.
Seat covers are 300 bucks. The covers themselves seem to be in good shape, an upholstery shop could likely re sew them for little money. As said, the little scuffs and stuff are parr of owning an old car, and a cheap one at that.
If you offered 2500 on that car you might get lunched in the face. You could offer 4000, but understand its priced pretty good and doesnt seem to be in bad shape.
i like it though. not many red saddles i see. most spray it black!! bleh!
your at least 50 hrs of your own time demolding and installing. the seat covers should be sewen back together and if certain panels need to be replaced its easily matches with perforated vinyl and looks perfect. i did it on my 86’s medium grey interior.
id pay 3k max for that car even with the low klms. minus the water logging id pay the ask, if ghe 4+3 functions
Was it water that leaked in through rain, for how long? Flood?
No electrical issues, it drives ok? Not a fan of neglected cars, usually a lot more is uncovered as you start digging deeper
Doesnt mean it is a bad car. If it had 104k on it and the price was right would you still want this?
everyones different but I wouldnt come anywhere near a fixer C4 they tend to bankrupt you real quick.
I've had 3 85's, 89 and now a 94. I'd go with a LT1 car. I've said it before I've had little to no problems with all the cars. I paid $5,000 for the 94. I changed the radio and the wheels. I also have a C6. The C4 is a blast to drive I love it. I even have a 97 Z28. Just test drive one a make up your own mine.
I'm a big fan of the later, white C4s. Sell me your car!
But seriously though, how did you find a car like that for only 5,000?
Was it water that leaked in through rain, for how long? Flood?
No electrical issues, it drives ok? Not a fan of neglected cars, usually a lot more is uncovered as you start digging deeper
Doesnt mean it is a bad car. If it had 104k on it and the price was right would you still want this?
everyones different but I wouldnt come anywhere near a fixer C4 they tend to bankrupt you real quick.
It wasn't a flood, she was just outside for about a year. The interior smells like mildew and the foot wells are black with something. Obviously, the weather stripping has not done it's job. I've got a feeling that I'll be having to dump at least 2 grand into fixing the interior. If I can get this car for 2 grand, then maybe I'll consider it. But it's going to take a hell of a lot of work to get the thing in decent condition and out of "beater" territory.
Don't fall for the advice that you'll need to spend more money and buy a newer model C4 because they're going to be cheaper to fix up. The newest (1996) C4 is now 23 years old. There isn't a car made that's 23 years old that isn't going to cost you possibly big money to get in safe running condition let alone cosmetics to make it look good. It seems to me that you"re on the edge with this one and each description of the car sounds worse than the one before it. Offering $2K on a car advertised for $4.5K isn't going to get it if the car is in better shape than you think it is. If the seller does drop to $2k quickly, be even quicker to walk away.
Since your brother-in-law is an experienced mechanic, I would suggest that you not buy it unless you can take him with you to check it out THOROUGHLY. Also, do extensive research on the 4+3 overdrive unit - from my understanding, the 84 through late 85's were prone to bearing failure due to improper lubrication from a design flaw, which was addressed in the 86 production models. http://5speeds.com/dne.htm - Here's a good video from Paul Cangialosi (4+3 Guru) too:
- Also, make SURE you CAREFULLY check the emergency brake - I say CAREFULLY because if the cables or mechanisms are rusted, the emergency brakes may stick on (even though the handle is all the way down), and may cause a fire if driven any long distance!
Offering $2K on a car advertised for $4.5K isn't going to get it if the car is in better shape than you think it is. If the seller does drop to $2k quickly, be even quicker to walk away.
The price on the window says $6K.....$2K is a low ball, its not a bad offer for THAT car......
The price on the window says $6K.....$2K is a low ball, its not a bad offer for THAT car......
The situation is very complicated. Originally, the seller wanted 6k; he is a police officer that was injured and fell into a coma. The guys who were selling the car for him estimated 4.5k, which is where I'm getting the number from. Good news is, he is out of the coma!
[SPOILER] It was on Craigslist in South Florida. Asking price $7,000, I got the Z28 for $1,900 on Craigslist asking price was $6,000 but it wasn't shifting, stuck in 4th. I googled it turned out to be the transmission solenoid. I got lucky but also had to paint the front bumper and change the stripes. I took the wheels off my my C6. There are great deals out there.
"Is $4500 a good price for a red, '85, Doug+Nash 4+3?"
No, not in the northeast.
That statement is certainly misleading. It may not be a good price for the car indicated in this post because of its deteriorated condition. I personally own a "red 85 Doug Nash 4+3" in the Northeast. It only has 51k miles and every service record since new delivery. Completely maintained and immaculate in every sense of the word. I have an agreed upon value of $11,000.00 with my insurance carrier. Would I get $11k for it if I would sell it?? Certainly not on this forum, But the price would be a FIRM $9,400 to sell it outright if I felt the need to do so. And yes...I do know it would take LOTS of time to find the right serious buyer to pay that amount. If no one showed interest in that amount, it would just stay in my stable. I have a real liking for my 85.
Last edited by FOURSPEEDVETTE; 03-22-2019 at 11:04 AM.
03-20-2019, 06:02 PM
But the price would be a FIRM $9,400 to sell it outright if I felt the need to do so. And yes...I do know it would take LOTS of time to find the right serious buyer to pay that amount. If no one showed interest in that amount, it would just stay in my stable. I have a real liking for my 85.