Thinking about another Chevelle
 

I got a call from a friend about a 72 Chevelle Malibu convt. he has.
He's kind of in a bind and offered to sell me his car. My wife and I went and looked at yesterday. It needs a lot of TLC. I don't know what the original color was, but it's currently red w/black stripes and interior. If I bought it, I would probably clean it up and sell it so I could get a decent car for my daughter.
One concern is, when I opened the door, the inside reeked of mice urine. The car has a nice 350 with a mild cam. It runs real nice. It has a turbo 350 in it now with a console, but it originally had a 3 spd or 4 spd. manual in it.
What do you all think this car would be worth?
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I would say $6k. What does he want for it?

Yesterday the guy told me he'd sell it to me for $7500. Today he called me and said he needs money this week for his sons college tuition, so he said I could have it for $6500. I don't want to buy it if I can't make some $ on it. Believe me when I say that I don't flip cars. I would keep this, but I already have 2 collector cars, and I don't have room for anymore. I thought if I could buy this and resell to pay off the loan and have enough left over to get my daughter a decent first car, then I would do it. If not, then I'm not going through with it.

Did you actually hear it run? Does everything on this car work? Mice pee may mean chewed wiring harnesses...

Yeah,
the guy started it up for me. It runs nice and smooth and didn't smoke.
I didn't check the lights or the top or the radio, so I'm not sure about the wiring, but chewed wiring did go through my mind when I opened the door an that pee smell hit my nose.

First off I have to say....OMG .... the dash with the gauges below, looks just like mine did before we did the resto on it.

Really hard to get rid of that pee smell, and are you sure it is not a cat piss smell. I would use that in negotiating a price. Looks like a lot of cleaning. But the convertible top looks good from the outside. Did you check that out, cause that can be a costly expense. I was thinking about $6k because it is a Malibu.

I saw traces of mice activity, like stuffing from the seats in one area of the engine comp, and in the trunk, so I know there is or was mice in the car.
The top has a 3 in. tear on the driverside. It had been repaired but it's not perfect.

How old is your daughter?

If its solid its well worth the asking price and leaves room for some profit.

Hey Gary,
My daughter is 17. :)

Get her a safe car to drive with ABS and airbags and keep the Chevelle in storage for 8 years.

Don't worry Gary,
I'll make sure she gets the safest car with bumpers on all four sides. I'll get it painted safety orange and put run flat tires on it. Waving

LOL..I get it.My Lindsay is 26 and I still worry.

The market is still on the rebound. It would be hard to make the necessary repairs AND make money on it. It would be real easy to get upside down on that one. A Malibu convertible in great shape would go for around $8 or $9K if you don't want to sit on it for any length of time. You could get more, but it'll take time.

I'm trying to sell a REALLY nice Nova for $8K. It's been for sale for 3 years. I've had an offer of $5K. I told the guy he could have the engine and trans for $5K, but I keep the car. He seemed insulted about that. After three years, that was the best offer I had.

Now, a Chevelle would obviously do better, but I haven't seen them do much better. There's plenty of true SS cars that can't sell for less money than that. (at least around here) ....I'd probably play it safe and let it go.


........of course if your daughter digs the rag top, maybe that would be a good car for her?

Carpet is not that bad to replace, but I wonder if the smell in in the seats. Keep us posted on it.

Ray

That car is worth $10k all day long.

I agree with that too.

I agree with Gary and Ray , that Malibu vert is easily worth $10,000 with some cleaning and new carpet . Mine would not be for sale anywhere near that cheap .

Maybe where you are Gary. But here in Michigan, we are still not rebounding like the rest of the country. I wish we were !

I know that the Malibu is not as popular as the SS. But the convertible option is extremely popular. Tough call.

There were only 5000 or so Chevelle Verts made in 71 and 72 and nobody knows how many are left so that makes them somewhat rare . Also when the top goes down the price goes up .

I'm in too if the body is solid. Don't see that many converts and who doesn't want one?

I had a friend check the car out throughly. He found that someone had put cheater panels on the rear quarters. The car originally had a bench seat. Someone just bolted a set of buckets to floor without the proper brackets. The sheet metal under the rear seat was shot. The front section from the front seats forward was in good shape as was the frame. The trunk pan was rustier than I thought, so that would need to be replaced.
The original color was a "Cream Yellow" with a black interior and top.
It was a 350 w/a 4spd. The mice had made nests thru out the car. The cowl area below the windshield was their "latrine". It was full of mice crap.
I decided to pass on this car, because there would be so much work that would need to be done. If I were to restore this car, I think I would have way more in it than it would be worth, unless it were cloned into an "SS" and I wouldn't do that.
Thanks for all your input Guys, I really appreciate it! Bowtie smiley

That stinks. I hope someone who buy it restores it back to original.

Brian, sorry this one didn't work out, there is the right car out there for you.