It's getting harder and harder to find "collectible" cars that don't have ridiculous asking prices. Even ones that need quite a bit of work like this 1974 Corvette that needs lots of work most often have sky-high asking prices. This is a refreshing surprises seeing that not only is for sale around the corner from my home on Cleveland, Ohio's west-side, it has an asking price of $3,800. It's in generally good mechanical shape and at that price it's a bargain. Get it for closer to $3,000 and it's an all-out steal.
L-48 denotes a one-hundred and ninety-five horsepower Chevrolet 350 cubic-inch V-8 beneath it's brown bonnet. If it was an L-82 (two-hundred fifty horsepower) or 454 (two-hundred seventy horsepower, three-hundred eighty pound-feet of torque!) the asking price would probably be considerably higher. When I saw red-letters on the hood I first thought it said "454"; no such luck. Fun fact, 1974 was the last year Chevrolet offered the 454 in a Corvette.
A spirited test drive revealing to me that either the engine in this car is "tired" or my current "L-48", a 1977 that my wife and I bought going on ten years ago, is seriously juiced. Despite the lack of power, it's not the first L-48 of the vintage I've driven that I thought had anything but "sporty-acceleration", the car handled remarkably well; the front end in particular stayed together quite nicely. Better than my '77 does quite honestly. But I can fix that inexpensively.
I told my wife after my test drive that if we didn't have our recently purchased 2004 Mitsubishi Eclipse GTS Spyder that I would have bought this on the spot. And done what with it? Well, having bought several automobiles all but on a whim and figured out the details afterwards, my knee-jerk answer would have been to "flip-it". Or sell the '77. Oh, I don't know. Again, I'd figure that out later.
Flipping cars may sound like a cool way to make money but the margins can be, ahem, marginal; especially on something with as narrow a niche as a third-generations (C3) Corvette like this. Parts can be stupid-expensive and factoring in time spent making improvements and you could be operating at a loss. The seller of this car, who's selling it for a friend, told me the price was firm at the time since a "young couple" were interested in it to replace an old Porsche that had "taken them to the cleaners". Not unlike what one of these could do to your bank account if you don't know what you're getting into. Trust me on that.
'74 L-48's like this are worth a tad more than my '77 but not that much. The really valuable "C3's" are the 1968-1972 models with their lovely but useless chrome bumper-ette's. '73's with their rubber noses and chrome rear bumpers are "a thing" and have their own following; prices reflecting that as well. 1974 was the first year for the rubberized bumper covers fore and aft in compliance with the federal mandate that cars sold in the United States be able to withstand a five-mile per-hour impact without suffering significant damage. Chevrolet was lauded for the styling job they did on these since they made the older models back then, in particular the now oh-so-valuable '68-'72's, look "old". Turnabout is fair play as they say.
I like the interior on '74's because they have far more '68-'72 in them than my '77 does. There's a thin-rimmed wheel under that period correct (but awful) steering wheel cover and the HVAC controls are clumsily stuck into the top of the shifter console like god intended. The interior of '77 is a mish-mash of C3 designs; some '68-'72 here, some '78-'82 there. Tilt works but the telescoping column is stuck where it is. Radio is after-market.
What negates the value of this car was the body; it needs a lot of work. Perhaps a total respray which would include, to do it right, a total sanding if not stripping. This spot is the worst of it and to make matters worse you can't simply spray this fender because it's pin-striped. You're looking at at least the asking price to fix the myriad overall finish issues and that's on the low end. To do it right you'd be looking at double. Shoot, some say triple. So, all in, with various other little issues this has to get it totally "right", you're looking at twelve to fifteen-grand all in which is about, factoring in the asking price, these go for in real nice shape. But if you're buying this to flip, remember what I said about margins.
Hope those kids know what they could be getting themselves into. After-all, if you're going to do it, do it right. Or don't do it at all. This old-timer with a scant 97,000 on it deserves it. And the guy selling the car is the kindest gentleman. I told him if I see it still for sale later in the week I'd give him a call. Well, newsflash, as of the Friday morning after my test drive it's still there. Gosh, I don't know how serious I am about it but my quick, spirited jaunt in it pointed out to me just how far I've come with my woe-begotten but beloved '77. And how far I still have to go.
No comments:
Post a Comment