Hello Everyone,

I am a new member and this is my first post. Even though I have a Mopar username, I’ve owned many different brands. I’m actually looking at my first ever Camaro and had some questions.
A family friend has a ‘78 that he’s owned over 20 yrs and it’s been in heated storage. It’s an LT/350/auto with T tops. It was a car from the southwest. White with tan interior. I’ve looked at it once but will really look hard at it later this week. It’s very straight and appears to be original paint. Grille and taillights look very good. The subframes look good as well as the perches in back. There is very minor blistering in two spots in the lower rocker area almost where it meets the floor pan. There are also some blisters in the front footwells.

The dash and gauges look pretty good with no major cracks or splits. The headliner is good, but it will need new front seat covers and a carpet kit. The car reportedly runs and drives with a fresh battery.

Im looking at freshening this up for my daughter for her first car. I’m able to do the fuel and brake system flushes as well as the drivetrain if any of those need attention. What I don’t know about is how costly it is to do front floor pans and possible rocker patching. The good part is it needs the seats and old carpet taken out anyway already. Those are just two fixes I’m not able to do.
The paint I would buff and run as is. I’ve had a hard time finding ballpark values on this particular optioned car. Owner is asking $5500. I just don’t want to get buried in a project I can’t get out of cleanly if I have to.
Any advice is appreciated, thanks!

 

Pictures would help but from your description the price sounds reasonable,at least where I live values vary geographically quite a bit.
Do you think the floor pans need replacement? If they aren't too bad maybe a little welding could be all that's required.
How long has it been sitting? Heated storage or not sitting too long means replacing a lot of things,tires,brake lines,fuel lines etc.

 

Yes, i would buy new partial pans and weld them in, since the oem carpet is already coming out anyway. It's been driven in the last ten years and drove fine, although it has been sitting for the most part over 20yrs. I would redo brake and fuel line, flush tank, and put on new tires at a minimum. I would rebuild the carb as well.