Perceptions...

stingray250

True Classic
I know this should go in the "for sale" wanted section but I need to know if there is any real interest before I pull the trigger...

As most of you know, I'm in the process of installing a GM Ecotec in my 79" x1/9... What you don't know is I've been fighting serious issues with this build...

Nothing really in relation to the actual swap, more so to do with the car's overall condition.

Like the trusting soul I am, I purchased this vehicle out of Florida back in 12/2015 sight unseen... I know... What??? Well here's the story...

I found this car on Craigslist stated as a One owner, never wrecked and had been in storage for over 15 years... From all indications, these statements appeared to be true and correct... The vin check showed no damage... The last registration proved the age of storage... The "gentleman" (we shall use that term lightly) appeared agreeable and for the most part knowledgeable when questioned...

Well I sat on all the info I received from the seller while I looked at several other prospects... Not finding anything that appeared to be a better deal, I spoke with him again... Pressing issues such as body damage, rust damage, mechanical issues... etc..etc..

After then again sitting on it for another week or so, I decided that in lew of flying out to Florida to inspect the car personally I would take a leap of faith...

Bad move... Instead of a leap of faith, I jumped right off a cliff.....

After receiving the car the first thing I noticed was the grapefruit sized holes in the floorboards... after that came the mismatched paint... then the front trunk area that was heated with a blow torch to re stretch the metal trunk pan...

First thing I thought was... Wow, I just bought a wreck... Being the "Can Do" kinda guy and in keeping with my sense of pride, I figured with a little clean up and some metal massaging here and there it would all be better... Little did I know it would get worse from there.... A lot worse...

After doing a preliminary inspection from underneath on my belly, I saw more obvious damage and repairs from a pretty good smack to the left front quarter... Again, pride and "Can Do" took over and I pressed on with fabbing motor and trans mounts along with axle and shift box thinking I'd be able to address the body issues when I got to the point of body work and pan replacement...

Fast forward to today...

I finally put the car on the rotisserie I made this past weekend and was able to actually get a firm look at the undercarriage of my little gem... Whoa... Train wreck is nowhere near the carnage I found.... In addition to the gorilla snot welding up and down the left quarter and blue silicone seam seal covering up the SH*T welds and rust holes I found a 5/8" dia Frankenstein bolt holding the majority of the left front section to the main body... Man talk about devastation... I removed the bolt and the left front strut tower drooped almost one full inch!!!!!!!!!!!!

Pride and ego aside... This now has become a major structural concern along with a major safety issue... Putting almost four times the hp thru the cars chassis won't allow for this kind of sh**tery... One 2G right turn and I could be driving a three wheeler! Or worse someone I sold the car to could be seriously injured or killed... Not worth it in any way shape or form...

So... This leads me to my opening statement...

When I am able to source a new (new to me) chassis to replace this derelict of an automobile, I will be happy to try and give anyone out there the option of purchasing body parts from this car...

I will be willing to section select body parts but only for a short period of time as I don't have storage for a long part out... I will give 72hrs notice before the complete chopping up and subsequent disposal of this chassis to the junk metal man...

Word to the wise from one of my favorite writers...


"It is poison -- rank poison to knuckle down to care and hardships. They must come to us all, albeit in different shapes -- and we may not escape them -- it is not possible -- but we may swindle them out of half of their puissance with a stiff upper lip"


~Mark Twain- Letter to Will Bowen, 25 August 1866



No worries...
 
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Bummer!

Wow, that really sucks. I hope you find a good solid chassis to continue your swap as it was really looking good. I got lucky with my sight unseen purchase but I was definitely nervous about it.
 
Wow sorry to hear of someone serious about an X getting the shaft like that.

If you are close to Oregon I might be interested in a section from the drivers door section (mine has some bubble gum welds sorta holding it together.)
 
Sorry for your experience. I mostly find old car enthusiasts to be the best people in the world, there are exceptions....
I could use parts too, if you're near Michigan. Windshield, both doors.
 
Wow, I had no idea. Big time bummer.

As you will be looking for a donor vehicle, if there is something near West Michigan you end up being interested in, I am certain we could arrange someone to have a look at it.

Jeff an I are both in the Grand Rapids area, we know people all over Michigan and Illinois, someone somewhere could have a look at a prospective donor.
 
Wow - very upsetting

Sorry to hear this my friend. I thought that the worst was over. I wish people could just be honest. :(
 
options

Have you thought of using this body as a mule to develop the mods needed to mount the new motor before you part it out? Nice to do all the development work on a car you ultimately will trash anyway.

When you do get ready to part it out you may find a buyer who wants the whole car to part out themselves, a lot easier than you parting it out and shipping large pieces.
 
That really sucks....

For me is was the engine that blew up a few weeks after buying it. I know how you feel. Depending where you are in the US, here is one in Burlington, ON (Canada), that looks like its in decent shape and needing someone to finish it. Asking $1500 CDN which is less than $1200 US. There are a few members near by who might be willing to go have a look. Burlington is about 2 hours from Niagara Falls, NY.

http://www.kijiji.ca/v-classic-cars...ne/1190771707?enableSearchNavigationFlag=true
 
Thanks...

Thanks for all the encouragement... I stumbled on a replacement chassis about 3 hours away from me last night and am more than likely going to drag it back my way this Saturday...

I'm always up for a road trip adventure...

It's not exactly the year model I was looking for, but it's been a New Mexico car it's whole life up until just recently... NM is just like climate controlled storage right?

Seller claims 0% rust.... A few dings but absolutely no rust or body repair ever... We'll see... If so... I'll be all happy again... A little more broke, but happy none the less...

Car is a 4-speed car with a 1300cc powerplant... Motor is missing the carb but it's claimed to have run before the carb was removed for a stuck float...

850.00 bucks takes it home.... Down from a cool 1000.00 bill.... I had attempted to work a deal with spiderrey here on the Xweb for his 1974 roller but the shipping from Cali to Texas was right at 1000.00! No way that was gonna happen... Sorry Rey... Would have loved to have had those bumpers!

I almost wish I had the room to store this broken a*s chassis... I'd love to have a subject to experiment on... The more I look at the car the more obscene things I discover... It really is disgusting... I am so tempted to contact the seller and send him pictures of my finished restoration... His old car cut up in a dozen little pieces getting dropped off at my local metal recycler...May still do that.

The left front was basically just spot welded in place.... No sub structure welding... No complete tear down and replacement of bent items..... Literally just a big chunk of car cut off another car and welded on to this one in a cosmetic fashion.... Worse part, they used silicone sealer and all the so called repairs rusted away.... It would be nearly impossible after separating these items to get them in any sort of factory arrangement/alignment ever again...

In the picture below, If you follow the "poop" stain around the area on the left front, This is basically where all the gorilla welding took place on the repair... Then you had the Frankenstien bolt holding the rest of the scabbed quarter to the car... And lastly the front torsion bar mount pad... what's left of it...


Anyway... I'll post up some pic's of the new chassis if she passes "Muster"








No worries...


Now I know why the car sat for over ten years in his garage... He was terrified to drive it!
 
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I would be interested

I would like some sheet metal if you are cutting up the car. I need a good undented, rust free nose cone, and some of the windshield frame - lower driver's side.
 
Hard to imagine someone would even try to sell something like that. If you do part it out I could use a good trunk floor if it has one.
 
Parts...

If all goes well, I will get a list of members needs for body parts and PM them accordingly... I will say the only non molested and non rusted parts of the car would be the doors, the front nose, the front quarter exterior sheet metal, the rear exterior sheet metal and the interior metal componentry that makes up the dash and console support... Bumpers are semi good and I still have the 1500cc long block... Pans are gone as well as the rear trunk and rear trunk quarter pans...

If the 75' checks out, I'll have a list of hard parts from it to get gone also... 1300cc complete engine and trans and such... I'll post up at that time...

I will most likely be keeping all the glass... I live in Texas... Lots and lots of miles in TEXAS!
 
Nose cone...

Nose is in pretty good shape... Window frame is so so... Has some surface rust not really sure how deep... I'll let you know when I get to that point.... Thanks...
 
Well....

Well... Seven hours later... Two tanks of gas and a great stop for some of the best BBQ in Texas... It was a total bust...

Short story long, the car was a total loss.... Pans gone, trunk gone, spare tire pan gone, nose has rust holes thru it... The rt lower rocker panel was ate thru in multiple locations... Interior was molded up and totally ruined.... I couldn't even bring myself to offer up anything for it.... Sad to say the least...

On a good note, Benny... The owner wasn't aware that he could easily make his six to eight hundred on parting it out...

The good???

Glass is good... Good straight metal front air damn that I should of bought... Good early grill in one solid piece... Front early turn lenses that mount in the body... Fairly decent luggage rack and a few other odds and ends... Give him a shout if your interested in any parts cause now he's parting it out...

Just tell him the guy that drove up from Houston turned you on to him...

Benny... https://austin.craigslist.org/pts/5696606392.html
 
Well Well!

To add to this adventure I decided to travel to see the second X up in Liberty Hill... https://austin.craigslist.org/cto/5681426107.html Bobby...

This one was a tad out of my price range at 2500 listed price but I figured I was only another hour or so from it and I did have a car trailer behind me so maybe we take a look right?

Initially the car showed well... Digging into the car, the left front quarter panel had been replaced at some point... The left front spacing between the tire and the fender well were roughly 1/2" different meaning the left front tire was pushed closer to the fender well that the right... May have been an adjustment issue as the torsion rod mounts looked clean... The fender repair looked clean but there's more... The front trunk area had three triangle panels bolted in as a rust repair... Didn't look all too bad, maybe they didn't have access to a welder??? Don't know...

Interior was fairly clean... Most everything is still with the car... The original owner left it in storage and the storage owner got it by default... That's why the title is missing... It is a Texas car so I was told... Should not be hard to get one duplicated... Door panels looked good, No seats as they were gone... Console was removed but with the car. New floor pans already welded in place... Looked to be a fair install.

Rear trunk and trunk side pockets were solid as was the fire wall... paint overall was a 6... Faded...Car turns over and fires on ether....

All in all, the car was in "ok" shape but not for the price... I did manage to talk him down to 1500.00 cash but decided I would only be digging a deeper hole for my build. Someone looking for an X in Texas??? This may be the one for you... I'm sure 1500.00 would still take it... The car also had front and rear sway bars new in the package waiting to be installed... And a new looking steering rack...

In conclusion, I came back empty..... I plan to regroup my thoughts and take the damage down as far as I can to get a better grip on what I may or may not do from this point forwards and even try and call in a favor from the Navy SEAL of restoration body work... My friend Pete.

At this point I really don't have much to lose working with what I've already got...... Maybe I just tube chassis the front suspension with a glass front end...

No worries...
 
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