dasol7172
Well-Known Member
Hi, just joined. I too suffer from 71-72 b body collection syndrome I have a 1972 SSP that has extensive minor to severe rust issues (surface - moderate to a rotted out frame rail) Is it dumb to want to restore it? At least to an amount that it wont continue to rot away. Of course a satellite will not be worth a RR or GTX but 20 years ago hardly anyone wanted those cars at all and now these same cars restored are in the 30k range. who is to say when there are not many of the SSP's left that they wont increase in value by a bit.
The car is an original factory 400cu with 8.75 sure grip slapstick auto and everything else works besides a heater fan being wonky. It's not my first 71-72 B Body so it has no emotional attachment besides loving this design and not wanting to just give up on it. I guess I'm stuck between two places.. one thinks its a loss and to just let it go and avoid the hassle the other is that these aren't made anymore and while I wont make big money in value gains immediately there is a chance that years from now it will be at least worth what was put into it. Not to mention the biggest reason.. I want to drive the thing!!
Additionally I have to add that I live in an apartment at the moment and will do for the next year so I don't have the room to start the work on it, I would have to take it somewhere and I have done that.. and they quoted 9k to just fix the rotted frame rails, torsion cross-member, shock towers and front floor pan. That would still leave me with 25 year old paint over rusted body panels.. My estimate is that doing the labor of break down myself (remove engine, interior), the blasting and body work along with those other repairs will probably cost me in the +15k range. I bought the car for 4k (which was dumb.. heh.. cant help my disease though.) So im looking at 20k for a car that if it was perfect would be worth 22k maybe.
Does this simply boil down too. Rescue this car and have patience? Patience to wait for things to work out while doing them cheap as possible? Or do I pull the rear-end and just let her go? Admittedly I do not think i would have this struggle if it were a original 318 car with column shift in this condition.
Here is a picture to show what condition I am talking about. This is the LH frame rail.
The car is an original factory 400cu with 8.75 sure grip slapstick auto and everything else works besides a heater fan being wonky. It's not my first 71-72 B Body so it has no emotional attachment besides loving this design and not wanting to just give up on it. I guess I'm stuck between two places.. one thinks its a loss and to just let it go and avoid the hassle the other is that these aren't made anymore and while I wont make big money in value gains immediately there is a chance that years from now it will be at least worth what was put into it. Not to mention the biggest reason.. I want to drive the thing!!
Additionally I have to add that I live in an apartment at the moment and will do for the next year so I don't have the room to start the work on it, I would have to take it somewhere and I have done that.. and they quoted 9k to just fix the rotted frame rails, torsion cross-member, shock towers and front floor pan. That would still leave me with 25 year old paint over rusted body panels.. My estimate is that doing the labor of break down myself (remove engine, interior), the blasting and body work along with those other repairs will probably cost me in the +15k range. I bought the car for 4k (which was dumb.. heh.. cant help my disease though.) So im looking at 20k for a car that if it was perfect would be worth 22k maybe.
Does this simply boil down too. Rescue this car and have patience? Patience to wait for things to work out while doing them cheap as possible? Or do I pull the rear-end and just let her go? Admittedly I do not think i would have this struggle if it were a original 318 car with column shift in this condition.
Here is a picture to show what condition I am talking about. This is the LH frame rail.