NP or CP : I have no car buying problem edition

"Rustholes-Are-Weight-Reduction" (rustholes-are-weight-reduction)
06/24/2016 at 06:41 • Filed to: None

Hi, I’m Greg, and I enjoy buying and selling cars (actually, I prefer to buy them, selling is the hard part).

This seems to be a “before” picture

A friend of mine just sent me an ad for a !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , it is a 4 door 283 V8 automatic with 67.000km (could be more, since the odo only has 5 digits on those), not the most valuable, but still pretty cool, and for 6000€ (6671$), it might me a sound investment.
The ad doesn’t give much details about the car. It would be interesting to know if it’s a 2 or 4 barrel, a 2 or 3 speed auto (I’m not sure the 3 speed was offered at the time), what options it has, or what the interior looks like. What it does say however is that the car has been involved in an accident, but doesn’t specify the damage. The few pictures included show a dent in the roof, a broken windshield, and a dented rear fender. Other than that, they show temporary registration, so it doesn’t have French papers yet, paint that might be serviceable, what looks to be american racing chrome wheels, amber turn signals in the back (I don’t care if it’s oppo, those have to be white/red), some missing trim, and a rear license plate that seems to be bolted to the bumper (morans).

Duct tape solves everything

The windshield part shouldn’t be too much of a problem. It won’t be cheap to get one in Europe, but it is doable. I’m thinking of a 2000€ budget for this issue. The dent on the roof can be fixed with a hammer, skill, a bit of patience, and just a little bit of body filler (no fan of that).

What raises questions is the rear end damage. First of: what the fuck happened here? was it rear-ended with a forklift? Whatever.
Is this repairable or more exactly, is it worth it financially, as in: I already have enough cars, and my Bel Air is a more desirable 2 door, so this is flipping only.

Bonus top chopped Renault 5 (the later version) in the background

Reportedly, it is drivable. From the pictures, it looks like a lot of work, especially fr getting the parts.
I can’t seem to find the parts online, quarter panels you can buy don’t go all the way to the top, and I haven’ found the rear panel.
Rebuilding them from flat sheet metal seems tricky, since there are a lot of curves in that area.
Pulling/hammering the dent out might work to a certain degree, but it would be far from perfect and would probably require a lot of filler to look smooth (still not a fan).
Finding a donor car in Europe is about as likely than finding a stock FD RX-7 outside a museum. Finding someone willing and able to cut the part in the US and sending it to me for a reasonable price seams unlikely (prove me wrong).
The resell value should be around 20.000-25.000€. It’s hard to fix a market price since thee are not a lot for sale and the prices are all over the place.
So what do you think? Nice Price or Crack Pipe?

DISCUSSION (10)

Stapleface > Rustholes-Are-Weight-Reduction
06/24/2016 at 06:52

Hmmm, this is a tough one. I’d say you can probably make a profit on this, provided you can do all the work yourself, and have a little luck with the parts hunting. But, it seems like it would be more of a headache than anything. I say unless you can get the price down more it’s probably not worth the hassle.

Oh, and that Renault. Completely ridiculous. I kind of like it.

BvdV - The Dutch Engineer > Rustholes-Are-Weight-Reduction
06/24/2016 at 06:53

It looks like it was rear ended on an angle, and they just replaced the bumper afterwards. It looks to be quite CP though, as you say the market for American cars in Europe is very unpredictable, so I don’t know if fixing it up good, would be worth it.

FSI - alcohol enthusiast with a car problem > Rustholes-Are-Weight-Reduction
06/24/2016 at 07:10

I’d say do it. The cheapest Impalas of that era all start at about €22.5k for o.k. examples. This should generate a nice profit IF you find someone who is willing to buy it. Now imagine that would be a convertible or 2 door though and you could ask even more for it.

Rustholes-Are-Weight-Reduction > FSI - alcohol enthusiast with a car problem
06/24/2016 at 07:18

I’m really tempted, I paid 18.5k for my Bel Air, so I can imagine an Impala can catch something around 20k at least. Shame it’s a 4 door though. If it was a 2 door, it would be way easier to resell it. If it was a convertible, I wouldn’t even ask if it’s a good idea, I’d just buy it and when repaired, ditch the Bel Air.

Rustholes-Are-Weight-Reduction > Stapleface
06/24/2016 at 07:21

I’d do most of the work myself, I would let somebody more skilled and equipped do the paintwork. I have sent an email, I’m planning on checking it out tomorrow afternoon. But from what I saw, I’d say 5000€ should be enough.
I know right? it’s a shame it would be highly illegal to drive it on the street.

Rustholes-Are-Weight-Reduction > BvdV - The Dutch Engineer
06/24/2016 at 07:24

I don’t know, it looks as if there was dirt on the bumper, which could mean they hit it with a tractor or something. Could be a reflection though. If it where a 2 door, I wouldn’t hesitate, but the 4 door part makes it a bit harder to resell.

FSI - alcohol enthusiast with a car problem > Rustholes-Are-Weight-Reduction
06/24/2016 at 07:38

You could easily get a good chunk of profit with minimal effort. But it wouldn’t change the fact that it’s the probably least desirable body style and not the most popular model year. 64 and 59 Impalas/Bel Airs seem to fetch quite good money..

Rustholes-Are-Weight-Reduction > FSI - alcohol enthusiast with a car problem
06/24/2016 at 07:45

I was hesitating between a 59 and a 60 when I bought mine, it was a tough decision, as the 59 is really cool too, it would also have been my father’s vintage. The 64 is cool too, but it lacks fins.

My bird IS the word > Rustholes-Are-Weight-Reduction
06/24/2016 at 10:26

That rear bumper worries me. There are a LOT of sheet metal parts under there.

The Stig's former college room mate > Rustholes-Are-Weight-Reduction
06/24/2016 at 12:15

CP: It will definitely need a rear body panel and left quarter panel. Good luck finding that sheet metal in europe. There’s also a good chance the frame is out of square. The early impalas have an X frame instead of a perimeter frame. The x frame is pretty flimsy. The car will definitely need to be put on a frame machine and pulled. I can see in the photo the left side rail is down vs the right side. I don’t know if you’ll get that pulled back to spec or not.