I really hate to do it, but I am considering selling my recently aquired 1973 coupe, "Raquel". I bought it from a friend who was in need of money, and was moving. My intentions were to drive it as-is while restoring my 82, then do a "rodstoration" on it. Money is tight, room is tight, and I believe I will have to let her go.
The following is a list of all that I know is wrong with the car. The pictures show what is right with the car. I have done a lot of cleaning since these pictures were taken, so don't be scared by all the dust on the motor and interior. The PO had the car for 4 years, and only drove and washed it twice. It sat in his garage with the tops out the rest of the time.
The car was originally Metallic Yellow with black interior. Sometime (10 years ago or so) in it's past, it was painted red. The paint is a single stage, fairly nice job. Overall the paint looks great from 5' away, as there is some light trash and some orange peel evident when you get up closer. There were only a couple chips in it when I bought it, where the headlights rubbed against the surrounding paint and popped some paint off. I re-glued the header panel to the light support, and everything works fine, with no binding. There are a couple spider cracks in the hood and front fender, from stress, but you have to be withing a foot so see them. The PO added a passenger mirror to match the factory on on the driver's door. The rear bumpers are original and the chrome is in fairly good shape. The door handles, tag surround, and exhaust surrounds are lightly pitted, but shine good. I have a replacement used tag surround for the car.
The interior appears to be completely original. The driver's seat shows some signs of wear, and the sholder belts are retracted. They work, but are not used. One of the PO's added some aftermarket seat belts and that is what I use. The console cover has a crack in it, but there is a replacement one in a box. The glass is in good shape. The passenger door glass has "Astro Ventillation" on it, and I think the door or glass may have been replaced, since it is an A/C car. The car has the custom interior, with wood grain, power windows, air conditioning, and a tilt wheel. The radio has been replaced, and is not original. The sun visors have been replaced, and there is a couple spots where the panels on the T-tops have nicks in them. The seat back is cracked on the driver's side, but I have replacement seat backs. I also have replacement seat covers and an installation kit. The car has nice "Stingray" floor mats, and carpet appears to be original, and looks good. The jack and the spare tire is missing. The rear compartment doors need some work. The dash lights only work at certain positions on the headlight switch. The dome light switches are missing from the doors, but works when you trun the headlight switch all the way.
The engine is the original 350. The carb has been replaced with a rebuilt one, and the choke sticks open and makes it hard to start. I ordered a replacement spring for it. The A/C compressor belt is on the car, but the line to the condenser has been disconnected from the compressor, and it does not work. The wipers do not come on, but it might just be a fuse. The plugs, wires, rotor, points, belt sand hoses have all been replaced recently by the PO. The tach drive is not working.
The transmission is the TH400, and shifts fine. It was a little low on fluid when I got it. The rear seal or pan has a small leak in it. The exhaust system from the manifolds back is brand new.
The tires are new Firestone Indy 500's with less than 200 miles on them. The brakes have been replaced by the PO and have less than 200 miles on them as well. The car tracks well and drives good for an old car. It stops great. The suspension has not been worked on in many years, and may be original. I bougth both the front and rear suspenion kits to replace all the bushings and ball joints, but have not put them on the car. I also bought new adjustable rear control arms to go on the car.
Here is the bad part:
A couple months ago, a wind storm blew down the car port that Raquel was in. The frame of the car port scratched the passenger front fender, passenger door, and passenger rear fender. There is a scratch on the top of the driver's fender and hood also. These scratches are through the red paint, the primer, and into the sealer that covers the original Metallic Yellow paint. It does not look terrible, but needs attention. Some of the scratches could be filled with touch-up paint, if you were good, but the passenger door and front fender need to be re-sprayed for sure. I have added pictures of the damage below.
I have not spent much time with the car. It is almost exactly like it was when I bought it, except much cleaner. I have all the receipts from the PO (there is about $13,000.00) in receipts from him alone, including his purchase price. And some information from when he bought the car. The PO was told by the guy he bought it from that the engine and transmission had been rebuilt, when it was painted. When it was painted, the nose had been replaced with a 1975 model car. The frame and suspension are unmolested.
I did not know the difference when I bought the car, but after seeing several 1973 Vettes in my club, I know the difference now. The 1973 did not have the bumperettes, and the grilles were aluminum. The 1975 has plastic grilles.
The pictures below are from a car show I took it to the day after I bought the car. It looks the same today, except for the scratches.
Most of these pictures are how I found the car. It had been sitting for many years in a basement garage, therefore it had A LOT of dust on it. I have cleaned up the dust and it looks a lot better now. Here is a shot of it at the Alabaster Christmas parade a few weeks after I bougth it.
I have a little over $8,500.00 in the car and parts now, and hope to get all of my money out of it, if possible. I will entertain offers, but don't really want anything in trade.
I will post some updated pictures next week.
Last edited by Curby; 10-03-2008 at 09:04 AM.
Reason: Car is no longer for sale.
I am taking Raquel to the body shop on Tuesday for the insurance estimate. It is the local Buick dealership's body shop, so I am a little nervous about what kind of job they are going to do on my classic Vette.
My first estimate was from a custom builder that has done about 100 Vettes. he said the whole car needed to be painted, because by the time he blended the paint, it would be everything except the driver's side t-top and maybe the driver's door.
I will post up some pictures as soon as I can get my camera back. My wife has it in North Carolina this week.
Location: Sometimes I wonder... why is that frisbee getting bigger? Then it hits me.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Curby
I am taking Raquel to the body shop on Tuesday for the insurance estimate. It is the local Buick dealership's body shop, so I am a little nervous about what kind of job they are going to do on my classic Vette.
My first estimate was from a custom builder that has done about 100 Vettes. he said the whole car needed to be painted, because by the time he blended the paint, it would be everything except the driver's side t-top and maybe the driver's door.
I will post up some pictures as soon as I can get my camera back. My wife has it in North Carolina this week.
My advise is to not paint the car. If I had the 8500 we would be talking.
I am torn on whether I should sell it, fix it then sell it, or just keep it.
I got a couple quotes on the repairs. It will entail a complete repaint of the car. Not all the car is damaged, but there is no real good place to stop the painting. The damage is only on the passenger door, the front passenger fender, the passenger t-top, the rear passenger fender, and a scratch on the hood and driver's fender. The driver's t-top has a scratch on it, but it can probably be color sanded and buffed out. The insurance company included refinishing the whole car, to keep the color matched.
The quote I got from Impatient Creations was $5,100.00 The quote the insurance company gave me was $2,500.00 They said Foreign Car Body Shop would guarantee the work, and the insurance company would work with them. They have not worked with Impatient Creations, and can't guarantee his work.
I am much more comfortable with Impatient Creations' work, but don't want to spend the extra $2,500.00 on the car. They will put several clear coats on the car, and buff it to perfection. FCBS does crash repair and will only buff the car out, if it absolutely has to be done. It will probably only get one coat of clear from them.
Right now, I want to concentrate my "fun money" on the 1982, and don't really want to put a lot into the '73.
Give me a call, and we can meet. (205) 492-2515
I will post the pictures of the car this weekend. I have asked the insurance adjustor to send me an email wit hthe pictures in it.
Last edited by Curby; 06-26-2008 at 10:28 AM.
Reason: spelling
As you stated earlier, it appears to have a 75 (or possibly) 76 front bumper cover on it. If that is so, that it also must have a 75 (or 76) front end on it. has the front clip been replaced? Hard to tell from the pics.
Yes, the front clip is from a later model car. I was told it was a 1975 when I bought it. The hood has the grille in it. The bumper is fiberglass, and not urethane.
It was done before the color was changed to red, because the front clip has the Metallic yellow paint under the red paint. It was painted red prior to 2004, when the PO bought it.
I got the insurance estimate to fix the repair, and that includes "refinishing" the whole car. Also, the body shop is going to re-bond the header support for teh headlights, since it was popped loose in the incident. The estimate is $2,425.00 which I tend to think is about $4,000.00 too low. The insurance company and the body shop will guarantee the work for as long as I own the car. I will probably have it painted, since it will only cost me $500 out of my pocket.
As soon as the battery charges in my camera, I will smap some pictures of the scratches in the paint.
I checked the engine numbers and it is the original L48 engine. I got the numbers off of it:
I think many fella's would be interested to see pictures of the damage.
That is, if it's not too painful for you!
Here is the worst of the damage on the passenger door. I got this shot from the insurance adjuster.
As you can see, the damage goes throught the red and primer, and down to the gelcoat. The mirror is loose, so the mounting holes are probably "wallered" out.
I took some this morning with the dew on the car. Evie will be emailing these to me today, and I will post them as soon as I get them.
I will be taking it to the paint shop in Birmingham on Tuesday, to see if they will do the work for me.
Here are the rest of the pictures the insurance adjustor took of my car. The car was dirty in the shots, so don't blast me for the dust and rain marks in the paint. It is usually spotless, but has been sitting outside since the car port disaster.
The hood has a small scratch and chipped place in it.
When the header support came loose, the lights dropped down, and when Iturned on the headlights, they hung up in the opening and chipped the paint. Talk about adding insult to injury...
Here is where the T-Top got damaged (the car was dusty when a small rain shower came through. The paint is really good on the car.)
Here is the rear quarter, where all the paint is scratched off.
Here you can see the damage to the front fender and headlight door. you can also see where the door chipped the paint when it tried to open.
Here is another shot of the passenger door.
The paint shop is closed until July 14th, so I will have to schedule an appointment after that.
These pictures are painful to see. The finish wasn't perfect before, but it shure looked great when all polished up for a car show.
I had the local hot rod and Corvette shop give me an estimate of $5,500 to repaint. The insurance company adjuster thought that was too much for a re-paint, and her estimate was $2,500. She said she would not negotiate with the guy I wanted, so I took it to a good body shop, where the owner is a Corvette collector. He is on the insurance company's preferred list. His first impression was $8,000 to repaint. I almost laughed, thinking what the adjuster is going to say.
She will have to negotiate with these guys. I told Earl I wasn't looking for an NCRS paint job, or one that would win car shows. I just wanted it painted one color, and done right. I also told him the insurance company is on the hook for actual cost of repairs, up to $26,000 total cost. They can't exactly total the car and walk away. It is a declared value policy with Safeco.
Once it is painted, I will pull the engine and transmission out to do a complete freshen up of the drivetrain. Then it will be on to the interior for new seats, weatherstripping, door panels & hardware, and carpet.
I know the car is not worth a full frame off restoration, but I think it is a great candidate for a hopped up motor, a 5-speed swap, and a freshened interior.
I think I will be changing insurance companies after this is done.
Thanks, It will be really nice when it is repainted.
I already have. They gave me $1,944.00 for a total repaint. Now it is in the hands of the "autohorized repair facility" They will have to fight with the insurance company for the difference between the estimate and their actual costs.
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1973 Coupe for sale
