It's kind of cool watching some videos of guys finding old rare Camaros. Every once in a while someone finds a rare-ish car that 's missing a lot of parts. Seems the numbers matching guys have driven up the cost of any first gen Z28 or RS car. Modding first gens looks to be dying out. Early second gens are probably headed the same direction. 3rd and 4th gens might be the most modded Camaros and Firebirds now. I wonder if the value will ever skyrocket enough for modding 3rd and 4th gens to fizzle out. Seeing there weren't a lot of rare options available and vins aren't etched on every part might save the 3rd and 4th gens from being priced out of reach for the average guy.

 

I've always believed that keeping the car as stock as possible will be the most appealing to future buyers and collectors. A really low mileage stock F-body will bring a serious price already, never mind in 10+ years. Of course if the 'war on fossil fuels' starts up again, all bets are off.

 

No doubt sub 10,000 miles stock cars will have the highest resale at auction. I'm just not sure clapped out 3rd and 4th gens are going to be goldmines.

 

I don't think the "junk" examples will ever be worth anything. The cost to totally restore a vehicle is huge and not getting any cheaper, so the nicest and most collectible original examples would have to be bringing well into the six figure range for it to be worth totally restoring the junk examples. I don't see that ever happening, hence no real demand (value) for the junk ones.

 

At the end of the day, its all dependent on the buyer. One reasons the muscle cars of the 60's/70's are worth so much is because (relatively) they were made in small production numbers (the camaro and mustangs are sort of outliers because they flew out of showrooms). Another is they werent made to last (alot of consumable parts, IE: the fiberboard heater boxes on the 60's Mustangs) and were driven. Not many people threw them in climate controlled storages off the showroom floor. So even most low mileage survivors need a ton of work to make correct. Since Barret Jackson and Mecum have gotten so big, lots of collectors have bought cars speculating their future values. So alot more well taken care of examples exist. As far as Camaros go, quality pro touring builds on first gens seem to be the sweet spot. I dont ever plan on selling mine, but thats one reason its only getting mods than are 100% bolt on. I dont have the original engine anyways, so I might as well enjoy driving it.

For just a general consensus, eventually the well taken care of odd option cars will bring the money. But if its a quality build, there will always be a buyer for it.

 

It's kind of crazy that people are paying 10K for a shell of a 67-69 Camaro or Firebird.

 

I think another significant reason the late '60s musclecars have grown in value was that, until ~15-or so years after they were built, what was being produced were pathetically weak in performance by comparison. So decades of wishing somebody somewhere would build something faster than a 454 Chevelle or Hemi Cuda had the effect of glorifying those car's values beyond what they would've been had the HP wars continued on un-impeded by multiple oil crisis and emissions regulations. In retrospect, those events that resulted in the "malaise" era forced engineers to develop the tech necessary to produce clean HP like we have today, which is a good thing. But there is no "nostalgia" today for 4th gen f-bodies like there was in the mid-late '80s for Hemi Cudas because since the f-body died we've had ZL1s, Z06s, GT500s and Hellcats of numerous varieties to keep us satiated.

 

This is the best and most concise possible answer.