What is this 70 Challenger Worth

[01freeman]

I found this challenger for sale. The guy is asking $3000 for it. It does NOT have a title but does have the dash, door and radiator and cowl VIN on the car. does not include grill, bumpers, taillights, center console. It does have most of the interior other wise. The VIN shows that it was a 340 car. No engine or tans is included. Let me know what you think it is worth.
Thanks

 

[74 challenger]

have a pic? it would help. You must do the pros n cons,how much to build it.Figure that out and then see what a 70 project with the car running is going for.Sometime its better to save then to regret. JMO

 

[01freeman]

here are some pictures

 

[RexDub]

Hmm not numbers matching.. missing a lot.. rough I don't know man it's a tough call I guess its up to what your looking for

 

[moparleo]

I would not walk away, I would run away from this one !!! Not much in usable parts, vin means nothing in this shape, no title any way.$3000.00 ? Offer him $300. for sctrap.

 

[DetMatt1]

That's a shame, I have a soft spot for those A66 cars. I would say $300 for scrap is quite harsh, that car is not beyond repair and a title is not impossible to acquire.
Is it a 4 spd or auto? fender tag and or build sheet? What is the build date on the vin sticker on the door? what is the seventh digit of the vin#?
Still don't know what is included with the car, is there a gauge cluster with it? standard or rallye? Hood, rallye? Rear axle? how are the frame rails?
I would say it's at least worth $1500 and if it does have some more documentation, hard to find parts, or its a 4 spd you can go up from there. Maybe $3000 is bordering on fair but of course you wave less in his hace is standard oporating procedure.

 

[oldcarnut]

take note of the missing components & figure out what its cost to replace them , figure out the value of what it will be to complete the car to your expectation level & do the math . if your budget will only allow you to purchase an ebody under the 4k mark its gonna put you in a certain bracket as far as these cars are concerned = rough project, if you can pony up the cash , definetly wait to find something better . with the pics youve shown even if you do all the work yourself youd be lucky to finish it @ 30k .

 

[moparleo]

Amen. This would be the kind of resto that the hardcore guys would think twice about. Keep looking and you will be glad you did when you find something much better. Good luck with hunt.

 

[acguy]

Amen. This would be the kind of resto that the hardcore guys would think twice about. Keep looking and you will be glad you did when you find something much better. Good luck with hunt.

Oh yeah, a 1972 or 1973 318 car is a much better place to put your money into than a limelight/white 1970 340 car.
The bottom line is this, this car is rough but it is one of the most desireable engine/color combinations out there. Most available car are either already restored and extremly expensive or they have been sitting in a field so long the frame rails are completly gone. This car has solid frame rails and the only rust is a hole in the trunk floor and around the rear window, none on the floor or firewall,or frame. This is my car that he's interested in and I don't really want to sell it, I am just trying to finish my daughters challenger and that money will help. I paid $3500.00 for it and I didn't care because its a good solid start and I am fortunate enough to have the skills to do most of the work myself. 3k isn't a great deal on the car, but its not a bad deal either given what else is available out there. It might take 30k to restore but when you are done you have a car thats probably worth that.

 

[moparleo]

Well, since you mentioned it. Nobody said anything about which car would be worth more money if they were both in the same condition. To someone without a lot of money or is short on the experience and expertise required to do the repairs. Which, let's be honest, there is a lot more work than just replacing a trunk pan and a dutchman panel. Oh and a quarter panel, etc... Let's be honest, you had no problem fixing up a 72 for your daughter, so they can't be that bad. I think if the only consideration on restoring a car is the value when done. Then most of us should never try to fix anything that is not "rare, numbers matching, one of one" .Barret/Jackson ruins the hobby for the average guy, because everyone thinks that thier car is worth much more than it really is. You have white collar investors putting up the high dollars at these auctions to boost the value of their own car. Like you said, the good ones are restored and too much money. That leaves the majority of us enthusiast with less to pick from. Lets face it ,this is not the hobby to have if you expect to always get your money back when you are done with the resto.Always go with what you like,and if it is a good investment, than good for you.

 

[acguy]

Well, since you mentioned it. Nobody said anything about which car would be worth more money if they were both in the same condition. To someone without a lot of money or is short on the experience and expertise required to do the repairs. Which, let's be honest, there is a lot more work than just replacing a trunk pan and a dutchman panel. Oh and a quarter panel, etc... Let's be honest, you had no problem fixing up a 72 for your daughter, so they can't be that bad. I think if the only consideration on restoring a car is the value when done. Then most of us should never try to fix anything that is not "rare, numbers matching, one of one" .Barret/Jackson ruins the hobby for the average guy, because everyone thinks that thier car is worth much more than it really is. You have white collar investors putting up the high dollars at these auctions to boost the value of their own car. Like you said, the good ones are restored and too much money. That leaves the majority of us enthusiast with less to pick from. Lets face it ,this is not the hobby to have if you expect to always get your money back when you are done with the resto.Always go with what you like,and if it is a good investment, than good for you.

You're right I didn't have much problem fixing up that car even though it was way worse then this '70. I am fortunate to have grown up in a time when these cars were plentiful and I've had a lot of them, easily over 50. Back then you could experiment and if you screwed it up you could just throw it away and get another. There's some good learning to be had that way.
The total investment in that '72 right now is about $16,000.00 and that includes a supercharged small block, I could have built a normally aspirated 340 for a lot less. It will take about another $4000.00 to finish. That is $20,000.00 for a pretty nice attention grabber. That wasn't a good investment, there's now way I could sell it for $20,000.00. I should put that money into that '70, at least there would be a return on those dollars if I had to sell it. Face it, no matter how much we love our cars, if push comes to shove I would sell my car to save my house. And I would rather have a car worth selling. That is usually something I take into consideration when I buy anything. Its alway better to buy the (potentially) best available car that you can afford even if it takes an extra year to get it finished beause in the end there will be a time to sell it. and, if in the meantime you got to enjoy something that most people get to only fantasize about owning and make a buck in the process you did well.

 

[moparleo]

Exactly. That is why I recommended waiting to find a car in better condition to start with. Not trying to undermine your sale. Just that the newbies don't realize the work and committment and money needed to restore a car. We don't want the next generation of Moparites to get discouraged with their car because they didn't know up front that it might be a little beyond their budget and experience. They don't have the advantage of low cost , decent condition cars that we had to learn on. Just trying to get out information to the members so they can make a more informed decision before laying out thier money. I am sure you would want your daughter to be able to make an informed decision if she was in the other guys shoes. Most guys try to keep upgrading thier cars by selling, trading to get something a little better, more desirable and have to start somewhere . Maybe an offer to do some of the more complex sheetmetal replacement, for a fair price of course, would be a win,win for both of you.

 

[ramenth]

Exactly. That is why I recommended waiting to find a car in better condition to start with. Not trying to undermine your sale. Just that the newbies don't realize the work and committment and money needed to restore a car. We don't want the next generation of Moparites to get discouraged with their car because they didn't know up front that it might be a little beyond their budget and experience. They don't have the advantage of low cost , decent condition cars that we had to learn on. Just trying to get out information to the members so they can make a more informed decision before laying out thier money. I am sure you would want your daughter to be able to make an informed decision if she was in the other guys shoes. Most guys try to keep upgrading thier cars by selling, trading to get something a little better, more desirable and have to start somewhere . Maybe an offer to do some of the more complex sheetmetal replacement, for a fair price of course, would be a win,win for both of you.

Leo, you make some good points, but I see the biggest flaw in your argument based on this example is that you're thinking that all "newbies" to the hobby also have a limited skill set. That simply isn't the case, not with everyone just getting started in the hobby itself. Some may not have the experience you have, but that doesn't mean that you have all the experience, either, get my drift?

You're also assuming that other cars can be found in better shape. Come to upstate NY, where the grass is green in the summer, the leaves are bright in the fall, and the roads are white with salt (not snow) in the winter. I've seen cars in much worse shape going for a lot more around here. Yes, less expensive cars can be bought out-of-state and transported in. But it's been my experience that a lot of folks don't even look at that option. Why? I don't know, I haven't studied the psychology of it.

Value on something like this is relative, of course. Value is set by the money that the seller is willing to take and the buyer is willing to give.

 

[rbbruno3]

I have one of these New York cars also. AND I have 5 thousand dollars worth of new sheet metal to replace all of the rot. (Not counting any labor) With that said, if you can find a solid car your alot farther ahead. One more thing, I thought my car was pretty soild running /driving car. Your best to bring a body guy with you to look before you buy. I am going to love my car when its done But I will somewhere between 50 and 75K in it. If I had known that from the start I would have bought one done and been driving it the last 8 years

 

[rbbruno3]

I forgot to mention that I paid 6500 for it to start

 

[moparleo]

Let's all agree that everything being equal, it will always be better to buy the most complete car with the least amount of cancer as possible regardless of who you are or where you live. In the west, the drivetrains wear out before the rust gets it and the east, cars rot out before they wearout. Knowing these facts beforehand makes you a better shopper. Obvious but not always practiced. None of us were born with any knowledge about anything so you also can't assume that the new people to the hobby know more than they do. It is sometimes worse to know a little bit about something and think you know more you do. You can generally tell a lot about someones expertise by the questions that they ask. Not saying everyone is dumb, just ignorant. Ignorance just means that you are uninformed, dumbness means your inability to be informed. Lets just try to help eachother with whatever expertise we each have been blessed with. I have a lot of automotive knowledge but I also know my weaknesses in certain areas and am still learning .