What is this car worth?, Need help on a rough estimate Options

[Richard Casto]

Ok, I know that sight unseen it is hard to estimate the value of car, but I will do my best to describe the car I looked at last night. I am also going to attach a number of photos of the interesting bits mentioned below...

It is a 73 2.0. The car is complete, but not currently in run-able condition. It was last driven in about 1989. The owner reports that the car was towed home from an autocross in 89 after a problem with clutch cable with the intention to fix, but was never addressed. The car was then stored outside under cover from 1989 to 1997 (does not look like it has been stored uncovered). Then it was moved into a garage from 1997 to today.

Engine has stock EFI and looks to be complete. Owner has receipts for top end rebuild (including new heads) from about 1987, but engine, clutch and transmission are in otherwise unknown state. Engine code is for a 2.0. I am assuming good core for rebuild, but that is about it.

Interior looks to have normal wear and tear. I would say average condition overall. Seats need to be recovered/replaced. It has the center console and all gauges. Has Mahle wheels (real or clone, I don’t know for sure) on old rotted tires. Has front and rear sway bars and suspension looks to be in good shape. I can’t say about condition of brakes, etc.

Body is in overall average condition. It has a number of small bubble spots, chips, scratches, etc. This includes some (not much) right under the vinyl on the roof pillars. Driver side fender has been replaced. Owner had put car into a wall at a HPDE in mid 1980s. I can see where fender was replaced and some minor bodywork around driver side headlight. Does not look like anything else was cut out and replaced and body work around suspension pickup points look ok. Driver door may have been replaced at that time as well.

Ok, now for the rust. Hell hole has been replaced. Owner claims to have not performed this work and didn’t even know it had been done. Current owner purchased car in 1984, so previous owner may have had this done. It looks like the entire box area up past the rear inner suspension point was replaced. I don’t know why, but I didn’t take a photo of this (doh!). Maybe I just was not as concerned considering it looks to have been well done. If you didn’t know what to look for you may not notice it had been replaced (seam weld vs. spot, etc.). Battery tray was not put back and battery was moved to trunk. Some surface rust in front truck at very bottom, but front trunk is solid otherwise. Rear trunk had typical rust in area over exhaust. Visually it is not pretty but looks to be mostly surface rust with no area around perimeter that I could come close to pushing a screwdriver through.

I don’t view them as really, really bad, but the Longitudinals are the worst part of the car. Rocker panels were on the car and I was unable to remove them and examine from that side. Jack point seemed to be pretty solid however. Both seats were out, so I was able to look on the inside. The inside driver side has perimeter rust around floor board. There is some evidence of stress in this area as there is a visible crack (see photo). One of the front bolts that holds the drivers seat down has pulled out and/or rusted out. There are some odd bolts that pass through the floor on the rear of the driver seat area. I ran out of time and didn’t inspect that. I suspect it might have been where a harness was attached to the body. The jack point on the driver side seems a bit weak. The passenger side is worse. It has been repaired. It may have been at the same time as the Hell Hole surgery. It mostly consist of a strip of angle iron about 1 foot or more in length that his holding the floor to the longitudinal toward the rear bulkhead/firewall. Closer to the front of the car (not previously repaired), I was able to push a screw driver into the longitudinal. The rail that runs left right (don’t know name for this) was rusted where it met up with the passenger longitudinal. Under the car on that side showed another angle piece that joins the rear firewall and the floor. Two or three additional small pieced of plate steel (a few inches in length in each direction) was probably covering up holes in the floor or was added to increase strength in this area. Jack point on bottom had been removed and a new one fabricated and welded to longitudinal.

If I was to buy this car, I suspect I would be re-doing some of the repair work on the longitudinals as well as fixing items that had not been previously fixed.

The car needs to be repainted and has been sprayed locally in a few places. Most noticeably the front fender replacement and surgery on Hell Hole area.

I don’t want to bias anyone, so I am not going to say what the owner is asking (I think it is on the high side), but I am having a hard time figuring out what the value of the car is. So feel free to throw out some values!