Hey guys, I've been searching fruitlessly for a good Z28 or SS that fits my requirements, but a good deal does come by every once in awhile that you can't pass up. A co-worker the other day told me about a 97 Z28 that had been damaged but was for sale. 2,000 for the whole package. As you can see, it's a bit damaged and the airbag has been deployed. My question is, is 2,000 a good price and how much would it cost to restore?

I'm not a big fan of it being an automatic since I'm a fan of the M6, but I could always throw a stall in there and be good to go with some other mods. I know it has a flowmaster exhaust on it and some other things such as a msd ignition, brand new msd distributor, msd plugs and wires whole kit, bbk intake and bbk manifold k and n filter, forced air intake.

I can't verify any of the above mods and don't even know how good half of em are, but this is what the guy told me. It will still start up and drive and has been covered since he hit the telephone pole, the rest of the car looks great on the outside. I haven't seen it in person... so, let me know what you guys think.

Comments please?

 

Wow, running moonshine were we!?

Give him 1k and take it.

it will def need $$$ to be put into it. Id almost say look for a 98+ car.

 

Unless you can do all the body work yourself i'd say no.

That looks like it might be tough to straighten back out.

Mine looked like this when i bought it


Needed all new dash, airbags, hood, bumper cover and support, and fender, headlights.. It's almost done now. Just basically have to put the new hood, bumper cover and fender on.

 

I don't know what he was doing... all I was told is he punched it on a wet road, lost control and hit a telephone pole.

I'd much rather have an 02, but this is definitely in the buget. Any idea how much it would cost to replace the door, rear quarter, seat, new airbag and who knows what else?... geez this is getting expensive.

How much did it end up costing you to replace all of that stuff? And no, I can't do all the body work myself I don't think. There's a chance I could with a little help from a friend that I know... but I'm going to say no to be on the safe side.

 

Look for a solid roller with a great body, lets say it was set up for a v8 and m6 but just removed.

You could score one for 2-3k, toss in a engine and trans for like 3-4k and if you need a PCM. Get to car flashed and for 6-8k you would have a solid car.

 

check the body to make sure it didn't totally fubar the chasis. i woulde say to stay away from it, you have no idea what you might uncover while trying to fix it, UNLESS this is a strict track car.

 

I think about 450 bucks. I found some really good deals on stuff. Went to junkyards, and a found a guy parting a car out and he had a bunch of the stuff i needed, and he gave me a good deal on the hood, bumper cover and fender as well as the dash.

 

I knew I shouldn't have gotten excited when I heard someone say "All it needs is a door!" lol. I would love to get a solid roller and go that route, but don't have the cash right now. Whatever I buy would need to be my DD for awhile. In this case I can put my other car down as collateral and get a personal loan to buy it and then just keep it covered until I had the cash to get a new door from a junk yard. But, from the look of it, there's more needed than just a door since it looks bent down by the seat

 

Yeah, that whole area around the door looks mangled. Gonna take some work before you can put a door back on it.

 

all you are doing is buying someone elses problem.

The air bags alone will probably cost you 2 grand and by law those have to be replaced and you wont find many body shops that will overlook that. Plus by law in most states if the airbags deploy all the seatbelts in the car have to be replaced to ASK ME HOW I KNOW.

for 5k You can get into a LS1 Z28 and you will definetly spend more fixing this one. The car us a unibody design therefore the rocker panel is in a sense part of the chassi and for all you know alot of things could be mis aligned.

However, 2k is a good deal to turn it into a parts car, but see if you can talk him down.

P.S. you can easily make back yor 2k by selling the engine and trans as a complete kit on ebay. part out the rest of the car and you can probably make money to fund your car. But dont buy this car on intentions of fixing it it will cost more than you will think thats why the guy is getting rid of it.

 

That's not too bad. I'm just worried about what Nightrydass said... if the chasis is screwed then I'd be screwed. He's claiming the engine alone is worth 2500 since they've done some stuff to it... don't know what they've done, but someones played with it.

 

I haven't seen the car in person so I dunno. I want an ls1 m6 so I think I'll hold out for that. I know my bank will loan 80% of the NADA value... so looks like I just gotta save another 1k for my down payment and I'll be good.

 

Also DO NOT take out a loan so that you can purchase a car that you need MORE money to fix up that is just not smart. I did the same thing as a wide eyed 17 year old. I put up my 94 nissan sentra to get the 2k I needed for a DOWN PAYMENT on a 85 Z28 that was 3500 dollars and I fell for the well thats the CASH ONLY PRICE, its ganna be 4500 if you finance. Me being the dumb *** I was and not relizing i was getting hosed purchased it. Needless to say the motor spun a bearing 2 weeks later leaving me with two car payments and still stuck with my 94 sentra. I then used my taxes to do one of the FIRST ever LT1 swaps into a third gen so that costed tons and the job was not done right resulting in all kinds of wiring problems. Needless to say the car never did get right and I ended up letting the guy I got it from take it back without reprocussions because I only owend 900 on it. He turned around and sold it for 4k again when half the **** on it didnt even work.

I think I can tell you are probably around the same age, and you are having wide eyes and see a fact car for cheep that needs a LITTLE work. Do yourself a favor, save your money, or wait till your finances allow you to take out a loan big enuf to purchase the car you want that does not need any work. Drive it and enjoy the new found power of the LS1 and once it is paid off start your modding.

A car can get expensive fast, I purchased my 82 corvette this time last year, paid 7k for it and the original 350 was slow as a turd, I have spent 15k in the past year in a full tubular racing suspension and a LS1 T56 swap. I got 22k tied up in the car all together and you cant tell unless u pop the hood. I have not even begun to fix the small little issues with it yet either, or restor the interior and paint.

 

Duke do not fall into what someone tells you a engine is worth after what they have done to it. If the engine has over 100k miles on it, which I am sure it does, it is probably worth squat to most people but like I said you will get the average going price for a LS1 out of it. Case in point I just paid 2700 for my LS1 and T56 with 100k miles, and I dont consider myself getting a deal, that is about average for high miles I only did it because I am going to rebuild it within a year anyways. with the engine and tranny you can probably get 2k for the whole setup. Unless you have cash dont purchase this car.

 

Decision made lol. I'm only 22, but I've only ever driven Honda's and little 4 banger cars. I drove an 02 SS and fell in love. I'll be saving my money to get what I really want that way I can be happy with it and save the money for mods

He claims the engine only has 86k on it lol. Thanks for the help guys, it's REALLY appreciated, you definitely just saved me a costly mistake.

Just saw that I could get myself into a Camaro and nearly wet myself lol. Like a good grasshoppa' I shall wait.

 

I didn't get this until I looked at his screen name, lol. Maybe he raced the Duke boys and the Ol' MOPAR blew this Camaro's doors off!!!!


Seems to be a reoccuring theme around here so I'll state this again, just because it's cheap doesn't make it a good deal. We'll just pretend that car only has $2000 worth of work needed (which I highly doubt as it's probably a lot more). So you buy it for $2000 and spend another $2000. So you have $4000 invested in what? A 97 z28 with a salvage title. As everyone else said don't buy it, widen your search area to a 200-400 mile radius and you'll find a nice LS1 car in your budget. Good luck man!

Oh almost forgot............. Yeeeeeeeehaaaaaaaaawwwwwwwww!!!!!!!

 

Good decision, I know the feeling if getting googly eyed with getting into your dream car for cheep. Often time it turns out bad like a kid on another forum finding a 69 vette for 500 bucks, but did not seem to think it was a problem he could not find a vin on the car. welcome to the word of real performance cars just dont attempt to rice out your Z After many years of differnt kinds of camaros I upgraded to a Corvette and fell in love all over again, nothing I have drivin compars to the handeling my 82 has with the 4k race suspension on it. However the stock handling thats a different story, not sporty one bit LOL. I still love f bodys and would not mind getting myself another 4th gen f body after all I need a spare family car

5-7k will get you in a LS1 f body, If its perfromance you really care about then dont even worry about if its a camaro or trans am, just find the best deal you can the cars are praticly identical.

 

Haha, I knew someone would give me crap for the name. Had to do it since my last name is Dukes... so it just fit too perfectly lol.

All the 98-02 Z's around this area normally are 9-14k. Even opening up the search a bit the lowest I've seen is a high 7's I believe... just gotta be patient and continue looking. I don't even know why I'm bothering until I get my down payment but I just can't stop myself from lookin at em.

 

Freaking KY. lolz

 

Screw that POS, I would never spend 2 grand on that. Even if you parted it out I doubt you would make much more than 2 if that at all.


Save up and get something better.