Thinking of selling my 74 Dart. Need help with value.

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C

charm

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So, the more I dig into the project, the less I want to do it. The biggest draw for me to work on this car is that my wife's grandfather bought it new. It also only has 64k miles. It runs great, although it needs a tune up. The brakes are, well, 4 wheel drums and act accordingly. The tires aren't much larger than the tires on my bicycle.

Then there's the rust. By restoration standards, I believe it to be relatively light. But with no welding capacity myself, and no desire to invest in learning the art, it's a lot. To my eye, it looks like the floor boards need small patches, but not total replacement. Well, small patches and some POR15 after a few hours with a wire wheel! There's a pin hole in the spare tire well but the rest of the metal appears salvageable. There's a hole in the right rear wheel well, in front of the tire, where the undercoating failed and dirt packed itself inside and rust happened. No photo of that, but it's about the size of a quarter and a little to the outside of the seat belt post.

It's mostly straight with a few little dings and the right front fender that my MIL destroyed in the early 1990's while backing out of their garage.

I can't say it's perfect, but for the right person, i.e. somebody who can weld, it's a good starting point. My desire to work on it and my small garage are just overwhelmed.

So, please help me by giving me some guidance to put a dollar value on the car.

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So it needs two floor pans and a trunk pan or spare tire well. That is really nothing. After that, carpet and insulation and you are back to driving. The rest can be done as time goes on while you enjoy it. Slant 6 will run forever. I am seeing about $1000 to $1250 in rust repair and sheet metal. Primer and no paint. Tune up is relatively cheap on that motor and you could do that yourself. Price is what you asked next. $2800-3200. I am sure you will have those that argue that is high or low. If it is running you are golden.
 
If there's already rust through just in front of the rear tire, there's also going to be rust repair required around the inner and outter rear wheel well housings too. That will involve removing the rear quarter panels. Since it's a '74, you're never going to get you're money back after fixing the rust so it's either sell it now, drive it into the ground or pay someone to do the metal repair and restore it for sentimental reasons.
 
If it was gas monkey/counting cars or one of those other shows they would pay 10k for it then put 10k in it and sell it for 50k or even your local classic salvage yard that's out of their mind then would 7-10k for it but this is the real world.

now i really have no clue on car values but after a little research this is what I come up with and its still not an exact science but best i could do in the short time i had to do it. Maybe somebody who buys and sells a lot will chime in.


High retail on the car if it was perfect would prob be like 10k and average like 6500.00 and low around 2500.00 i would be conservative and say couple thousand in rust repair( if it is that bad but you wont know until you clean it up some) and then the fender repair would probably put the car between the low to average condition/price range. so say the car is worth like 5000.00-5500.00 and then you minus the 2000.00 in repairs you are looking at 3000.00-3500.00 for the car. I would price it around 3000.00-4000.00 and haggle down to 3000.00-3500.00

you will never get what it is really worth to you and your family ( esp if you have kids that it can be passed down to)I would drive that sucker just like it is and work on it as i go before i sold it lol that thing is sweettttttttttttttttt and " YOU OWN IT FREE AND CLEAR". spend a few hours with a wire wheel to get a better idea on what the floor and trunk are really like. then if it isent that bad take it someplace and have them weld in some patches. If it is then dig in or get some quotes as you have a rare gem (one owner 64k mile car that does not need 10k in work or a total restoration) that we are all looking for.

when i got my car from my dad it needed a motor and full quarter panels/trunk floor/drop extensions and many other things plus he did not buy it new. I have spent thousands on the car and i now have a sweet little hot rod but I still dont have what you have. A original survivor that came from your family.
 
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halifaxhops said:
I was thinking around $3000 also. How is the frame?
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Frame appears solid.

While I could do a better rust inspection with the car on the lift, I think I know where everything, or is suspected to be. The photos show the years of leaking wiper seals and either the trunk seal or rear window. Based on the head liner, now in the garbage with the carpet, I suspect it's the rear window. Which makes me suspect I'll find rust when I remove the windows.

What I described as the rear wheel well I guess would be better described as the fender well. I can see the extent of that rust and the cause is known, bad adhesion with the undercoat.

I could do the tune up, and a disc brake swap, myself, it's body work, welding specifically that's outside my skill level.

I suppose a couple hours with a wire wheel to see how bad things really are would probably be worth it. If nothing else, it would mean I could give the new owner a better assessment of what the car needs. Or, if I found that the rust is minor, I might even be able to hire a mobile welder to just weld in simple flat patches. None of these locations are seen and I don't need a concourse level restoration if I were to keep it.
 
The car is in good condition when you concider the fact that it is over 40 years old. Where are you located? I have a nice rust free 74 dart drivers side front fender i can sell you if your interested.

If your not ready or wanting to do floor replacement, maybe you can try scraping and grinding most of it off, then applying naval jelly to remove the remainder of the rust, then neutralize the naval jelly, and apply a primer, maybe cut out the small rust holes to solid metal, and fashion up a few small patches that you can pop rivet in over the holes and edge seal. This is by no means a permanent repair, but will help to getting you to enjoy the car.

The floor rust happens from leaky windshield wiper pivot seals. There are kits to redo the wiper pivots and add grease fittings to prevent water from getting inside the car through here.

Maybe cleaning up the car a bit and enjoying it on cruise nights might jumpstart something for you. Maybe networking with fabo members near you who can help you with the parts of the car you are not able to do can help.

It is a good start for a nice project. Maybe throw a nice set of mag wheels or rallyes on it to give it a different look. Dump the bodyside mouldings, and mudflaps, You would be surprised at how much better it can look just by doing this
 
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moparmat2000 said:
The car is in good condition when you concider the fact that it is over 40 years old. Where are you located? I have a nice rust free 74 dart drivers side front fender i can sell you if your interested.

If your not ready or wanting to do floor replacement, maybe you can try scraping and grinding most of it off, then applying naval jelly to remove the remainder of the rust, then neutralize the naval jelly, and apply a primer, maybe cut out the small rust holes to solid metal, and fashion up a few small patches that you can pop rivet in over the holes and edge seal. This is by no means a permanent repair, but will help to getting you to enjoy the car.

The floor rust happens from leaky windshield wiper pivot seals. There are kits to redo the wiper pivots and add grease fittings to prevent water from getting inside the car through here.

Maybe cleaning up the car a bit and enjoying it on cruise nights might jumpstart something for you. Maybe networking with fabo members near you who can help you with the parts of the car you are not able to do can help.

It is a good start for a nice project. Maybe throw a nice set of mag wheels or rallyes on it to give it a different look. Dump the bodyside mouldings, and mudflaps, You would be surprised at how much better it can look just by doing this
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I have a vision for the car! Or had one. My goal was to take make it look a little more modern. Lowered a touch, not much, just a little, bigger wheels, remove much of the chrome trim, and make everything clean.

I think folks have talked me off the ledge, at least for awhile. I think cleaning up the rust just to get a better idea of what I'm working with is the way to go. If the patches are small, I'll cut everything to good, weldable metal and find somebody who can weld simple patches in. Hopefully that's all it will take.

Once that's done, I'll worry about the tune up and brakes. Then I'll worry about the front and rear window frames! Somewhere in there I'll replace all the other seals including the pivot seals. Guess I better get me a bunch of POR15 soon. Worked great on an old Volvo I had years ago.
 
Big dent rust rust rust slant six "beaknose"..$500.00 at best
 
right wrong or indifferent everybody has an opinion just some are a bit more brash on their presentation.
 
stroked340 said:
He asked for oppinions i gave mine..after '71 you can keep all the a-bodies....................
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Ultimately the car is worth whatever somebody will pay for it. If you were selling a Bugatti Veyron, I might offer $20 because I think they're hideous. Plenty of other people would pay you a $1 million + for it.

And, frankly, before I brought this thing home from my in-laws, I was thinking about getting my hands on a British roadster. This is most certainly not a Triumph TR-6! I do like the swingers, even with the beak (although I agree the beak takes something away).

This thread, despite the negativity towards beaked cars, gives me enough opinion to work towards the decision of whether to keep or ditch the car. For now, even though it's a beaked Dart Sport, and not a TR-6, I'm leaning towards keeping. I'm into it for $2 per month (unless I actually drive it then it goes up when I tell the insurance company it's hitting the road) plus a set of brake shoes. So, I'm in it for next to nothing. Might as well put a little elbow grease into it and see what I can do about the rust! I can make the beak work. ;)
 
Depends on your location. Some of these guys in the rust belt are calling 3k + because i imagine some places have a rust problem and a lot of cars didn't survive.

I am in a very dry climate and more survived so a car like that would be 1500. To 2k max around here (colorado)

I just paid 2200. For a 72 demon in very similar shape.

If this car were in my neighborhood
...i would be there with 15 hundy dollar bills ready to negotiate.
 
yep I'm over here with Rani. that's 1500 , maybe 1800 in our neck of the woods. I personally wouldn't give more than 1000
 
Possibly. Never know with you Yankees :D 72 is my favorite year Duster, they got everything right other than the marker lights, had the left the lights from 70-71 they would've been perfect
 
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