Show Posts

This section allows you to view all posts made by this member. Note that you can only see posts made in areas you currently have access to.


Messages - X33RS

Pages: 1 ... 63 64 [65] 66 67 ... 73
961
General Discussion / Re: 68 SS/RS L34 or L35 Camaro
« on: September 10, 2015, 07:36:54 PM »
I guess its a double edged sword..  Either you buy a car because you think you can make a buck or because you love it..  I am the latter..

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I am also the latter, I have an oddball collection simply because I like most everything.  At the same time I don't pay more than what the market bares.  We all hate to admit it but we all get old, this stuff gets sold, some of it is handed down.  So I'm careful, I don't like loosing my tail anymore than the next guy.

962
General Discussion / Re: 68 SS/RS L34 or L35 Camaro
« on: September 10, 2015, 05:42:03 PM »
That last bidding session goes to show people that are knowledgeable about restoration are only willing to pay so much.

It's a solid car where it counts but I'd just about guarantee once you get into it you'll find some stuff, and saving all the original front sheet metal likely wouldn't be worth the time.  Both of those fenders took a pretty good hit as evidenced by the severe wrinkles in the wheel arch areas on both sides, right where they normally fold in a frontal impact.   You can almost bet they have been shoved back slightly towards the doors.  Even after spending the time to straighten those fenders you'll probably have even more fun getting the gaps right, and they may never be right after a hit like that.   Better off finding another used pair that are better to start with.

I always get a chuckle out of these adds when people use terms like "Easy Restoration" or "Little needed"   ::)   If that were true then why aren't they restoring it themselves??   There is almost always nothing easy or cheap about this stuff, and they know it.

I think you guys hit the nail on the head, $10-$12k is pushing the limits of what I feel it's worth.  Otherwise you'll be in over your head quickly on this one and still never have a matching number car.

963
Maintenance / Re: Synthetic oil or not
« on: September 04, 2015, 06:58:55 PM »
Joe Gibbs is good stuff.   Not sure why the old tale of synthetic causing leaks is still holding on.  Most of these engines have been rebuilt at some point over time.  Now with more modern materials used in production for seals and gaskets they should have no problem conforming to any oil you choose.

I've used synthetics for years in 9 different cars here and I've never had leaks on a properly sealed engine.

964
Maintenance / Re: Synthetic oil or not
« on: September 03, 2015, 08:16:37 PM »
Next time someone tells you that, tell them all brake fluid is a variant of polyethylene glycol.  Since it does not occur in nature, all brake fluid is synthetic  ;)

Only difference in brake fluid is Dot 3-4-5.1 are glycol based and Dot 5 is silicone based.

965
Maintenance / Re: Synthetic oil or not
« on: September 02, 2015, 08:34:18 PM »
This is an old thread.  A lot has changed in oils since this was started. 

To answer that question, I've never seen any advantage on the dyno with synthetics.  However playing with viscosities does make small differences in output. 

I concern myself more with how the engine is protected rather than worry about a few HP, unless I'm pure stock racing and looking for that little bit. 
   Most of the top engine builders in the country use synthetics nowadays, and each of them have their favorite "go to" brands.  I pay the most attention to the additive packages and what's in the oil that's going to do the best for my engine and it's intended use or purpose.  Every brand is vastly different so do your homework.  Oil analysis is the best thing you can do to make sure what you're using as far as oil and filters is doing it's job.

966
I guess I really am old school then, I still love to do the swap meets and see first hand what I'm getting before I buy.  I was going to say next time I'm in Pomona we should hook up, but that doesn't sound like it's doable.

967
I don't really follow ebay much at all but all the horror stories I read it seems to me their reputation is in the toilet with all this scam stuff going on nowadays.  Guess that's why I hear it called "fleabay" quite often.

When I'm looking for a car I don't even do the ebay thing.  If it's on there for a "buy it now" or offered at a price with a "best offer" option, I'll look at it.   If there is any bidding at all, I'm not the least bit interested in the car and I'll keep looking else where.  Guess I'm still old school and just prefer the old classifieds and looking at things in person.  Name your price and lets deal kind of guy without all the monkey business.

Shame there are so many shady people out there.

968
Understood Austin.  I'm as curious as the next guy and try to pay attention.  I thought it was nice of Danzo to explain things about the car after seeing it in person since we can only tell so much from pics.   Seems they all take the liberties of adding cowl hoods, exterior trim, spoilers, and console/gauges to these cars.  Unfortunately some of those things are pretty expensive to reverse.  The good news is that adding these things doesn't seem to adversely affect the prices of these cars.  For those reasons only is why I suggested leaving it alone.  I don't mean to come across as one sided.  I like them either way.  When I'm dealing with restorations, I just try not to spend customers money unnecessarily if it's not needed.  However I'm not here to stop them from blowing money if they really want to  ;D

969
There's a difference in being smart about something and just blowing money, there's a fine line there.
  But I think you missed my point, that wasn't what I was trying to convey.  Only looking at both sides of the fence with an open mind and laying out just some of the cost involved in doing so and why it may or may not be a good idea.  Making money wasn't the goal here, but everyone wants to recoup investments.

Personally I'd just leave the car as is and enjoy.  It's just not worth the expense to correct things that most people don't even care about anyway.  If you're a concours by the book type of collector then you likely wouldn't have bought this car in the first place.

970
Hard to say, but for the buyers sake, if in fact he plans to correct things, I'd hope he could get about $70-75k when (or if) the time comes so he could at least break even after the repairs and corrections.

If the market won't bare that much then he's better off leaving the car alone or he'll get in over his head pretty quick at the purchase price he paid for it.

With that said, a car like this wasn't a bad buy as is,  as I believe a restoration like this one would satisfy about 80% of potential buyers out there.  Only a few really care if it had a flat hood or no external trim so it's really not worth all the trouble to correct those things when you look at the grand scheme of things.  Just drive it and enjoy it.

971
Here you go, a decently restored 69Z with matching numbers for $60k.  Seems I've said that before somewhere  ;D    Makes me wonder why someone would pay $35K for a basket case that needs at least that much for restoration when you can have this for less.

Yeah Austin, you are right, correcting the hood and other things taken for granted like the trim could get expensive.  However it's nothing I haven't seen on these cars as most people do an amateur restoration and add this stuff.  If you had to pay someone to do it for you it could very well reach the price you have in mind and more if you want to get into undercarriage details.  But I'd have to guess that this level of restoration would likely satisfy most buyers looking for a good quality driver with matching numbers to boot.

Mechanical stuff is easy to correct although can get expensive.  Things that need corrected on the body with paint work can open a can of worms.  Not knowing the brand of paint used (different systems have different mixing formulas) could make paint matching a little more difficult.  Depending on the paint quality of the car (have to see in person)  Painting other areas may not be hidden that well if there is a difference in quality.   At a minimum, painting a new hood you would likely also be painting the tops of the fenders and cowl to "blend" it in.   Removing the quarter trim will leave holes that need to be welded.  You'll get into painting that entire quarter with no real good place to "break" it up near the rear sail (no vinyl top or other trim)   So careful blending will need to be done.

Tough to do properly and may still be detectable to a good eye.  Doing both quarters and hood, tops of fenders etc...  You are damn near painting the whole car at this point, lol.  In this case, if the quality of the paint job is "driver" quality anyway, I'd most likely suggest just reshooting the whole car to make it right.   

Yeah, adds up in a hurry.  So it might be one to just leave alone unless someone is ready to spend some coin.  In which case I wouldn't have paid that much money for the car.  I'd bet whom ever bought it doesn't care about the hood or the trim and like it just the way it is, in which case they did pretty good on that buy.

972
General Discussion / Re: Stolen Z Found
« on: August 20, 2015, 11:39:07 PM »
I never was too much for clubs as they generally have a certain make or model they celebrate and frown on guys like me who have a collection of various makes and models.

But the West coast thing doesn't surprise me too much, because there isn't much of anything that has caught on out here when it comes to car events.  All the good stuff is East of the Mississippi.  We don't have UMTR, NMCA, NMRA, PSMCD, F.A.S.T., Pontiac Nationals, and list goes on.   We have PSCA but they rarely get around outside of California, and once a year you have a nostalgia event over there with cacklefest.   Really nothing organized out here for musclecars though, most of the dragstrips have dried up and most of the national type of events are back East as well.
   All of which I find strange because they have to pack it all in with a few short months of decent weather, yet we have weather year round to support car activities, daily driving, sunshine, etc..  with very little worry of rain ever ruining a car weekend or hurting the turnout 12 months out of the year.  So much so that I have no desire to even venture East past Arizona towards the nasty weather after about November, lol.

973
General Discussion / Re: My New '68 Camaro Z/28 Butternut Yellow
« on: August 20, 2015, 08:11:36 PM »
Looks like I may be coming to you then Larry...haha
You are stocked with those weights ? you mean the newer style though right? (Not the old style micro with the wings)
Can you explain static balancing vs dynamic?
  Yeah I have stock of both, newer style, aluminum wheel style, and a fair assortment of the old micro style with the wings. 
  Static is balancing the wheel with weights on the inside only, dynamic is both sides.  My machine also has options to dynamic balance but keeping both "planes" of weights on the inside of the wheel  (like one plane on the outer lip and one more towards the center of the wheel as one option for instance)

If you run beauty rings it really doesn't matter but most people (like myself) don't like to see wheel weights on the outside of the wheels so I find myself static balancing most wheels.

974
General Discussion / Re: My New '68 Camaro Z/28 Butternut Yellow
« on: August 20, 2015, 05:56:42 PM »
That's why I bought my own pneumatic changer and electronic spin balancer.  Most shops won't or can't take the time to do what you're looking for.  I'm stocked on all those weights listed, and yes you sometimes get a wheel that can use various combinations of that list.  If that gets excessive I like to break the bead and rotate the tire on the rim slightly and start over.  Usually I'll end up with a maximum of 1.5-2 ounces when static balancing and sometimes less in dynamic mode.  The cheaper the tire the worse it can be.

975
General Discussion / Re: Stolen Z Found
« on: August 18, 2015, 11:18:28 PM »
Now that's rough.  I think I'd rather not know what happened to it verses seeing it stripped or burnt to a crisp.

Pages: 1 ... 63 64 [65] 66 67 ... 73