Parts Car Value, I need some opinions Options

[LvSteveH]

Don't you love it when you go to look at a car that's for sale and you have all of these wonderful images of how great it might be. So here's the deal. The car is a 73 1.7L, original owner 60k mile car. Unfortunately it's rusted to the hilt. It's from Missouri, and the spare actually has a studded tire for snow, that's a first for me. Anyway, the good news is that the interior and many of the seals and such are in great condition. The car has sat for the last 10 to 15 years, it just "stopped running" one day. Out here in vegas most original seats and rubber are turned into dust, so I still have some interest in the car. All lenses are in very good used shape, the interior is virtually perfect, deck lids are great, engine unknow, but has stock fuel injection, tranny is a side shifter, wheels are crappy stock steel w/ rust, and the car has A/C. It's the longer under dash unit setup for use without the center console, was said to all be working when the car was parked. Most rubber is in excellent shape, and the windows operate very well, both mirrors are good, as are door handles. All glass is also good.

So here's the $64k question, the body is junk, of course we'd all love to find great parts cars for a few hundrad bucks, but this guy won't come off of $1250. It's pretty easy to get to that value by adding up parts values, but is it really worth it on a parts car? I have a habit of stock piling parts, so I can't really trust my judgement sometimes. I get too excited about having transmission number six, another set of door handles, and so on. So what's the max value? I do have projects lined up to use the parts, but it could be quite a while before I actually need them.


Thanks for the help (IMG:style_emoticons/default/beerchug.gif),
Steve

[Porsche Rescue]

I don't think you could use 4 cyl. AC on a six without some serious work. All the plumbing to the front would probably work but you would need a 911 compressor I think. Not sure what would be involved in mounting it since it would be on the firewall end of the engine. Cutting the trunk floor of a six would give me pause too.
My guy thinks his car is restorable too (never mind that he hasn't bothered since he got a $2300 body shop estimate in 1984! I don't think that included a complete repaint which the car needs. Had a poor quality repaint years ago (willow green). At least it wasn't a color change. Figure $5k to fix it and paint it. Don't see too many '71's which don't run worth $6400!
About the only "correct" six interior pieces from a '73 are dash pad and driver's seat. Later back pad has shoulder belt cut outs. Door panels would be fine but not "correct" since all original sixes I have seen had plain vinyl rather than basket weave panels. The '71 four I am looking at has basket weave seats which is unusual for '71 as most had plain vinyl. After 30+ years I guess mix and match factory is OK unless concours is the goal.