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My dad has a 65 Malibu Station Wagon. It’s his first car but about 30-40 years ago he decided to modify it and realized he had no idea what he was doing and the car the sat in the backyard. Today it’s little more than an empty shell, no drivetrain, no interior, no wiring, and what little is still in the car more than likely needs to be replaced. He had always wanted to restore it with me as a father son project, but needless to say it never happened. Now with his living situation and back problems he’s realized that he’ll never be able to do anything with it. He’s only hanging onto it now for me to eventually restore it. It’s something that I’ve always wanted to do, but I realize that I am also in no position to take on a project like that now and probably won’t be for many years. The conflict now is my dad has been offered $2,000 for the car as it is and he’s offered to split it 50/50 with me. Since he’s essentially keeping the car for me now he’s left the decision up to me. Now both of us could really use $1,000. With that I could potentially get my Elantra running again, fix many of the annoyances and potential problems on my Mustang, buy more tools than I have room to store, or even pay for a semester at community college among everything else you could use $1,000 for. And that’s not to mention what my dad could use with the money, since his back problems prevent him from working. I can’t honestly think of any downsides to this option. The upside of keeping the car is that it would make both my dad and myself happy, since we both have always wanted to restore the car. The downsides would be again that it would likely be many years, probably even close to a decade before I’d be able to take the car and do anything with it, also should something happen so that my dad would no longer be able to store the car then keeping it in the hopes of doing anything would be moot.
I’ve asked a few other people for advice on this and their answer as been pretty much the same, that I should take the money over the car. But none of them are car people and don’t really understand what a car could mean like we do. So that’s why I’m asking for advice here. I want to keep the car, but I’m having a hard time justifying it.
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Unfortunately that is going to be a deep personal decision of the sentimental value of having the car even if you don’t ever do anything with it. It is one only you can make. $1000 spends fast and you wouldn’t have to store the car to possibly get less later should nothing ever happen with it. On the other side its sounds like there is a real connection with it for you and your father that that little bit of money may not cover once its gone.
Best of luck.
Are you a car person?
The Malibu was the top trim line in the Chevelle family, and Chevelle DNA filtered into other GM products, like the Monte Carlo and El Camino. Now, if the car is going to go to a “good home”, I’d be inclined to let it go. 2G seems like a generous offer for an empty shell.
Before you let it go, however, I’d send the VIN to one of the GM enthusiast organizations. Some organizations are able to comb through old factory records, and can supply a vehicle’s reproduction “build sheet”, which will tell you everything any particular car came with from the factory. It’s possible you might have a super-rare vehicle that was optioned-up in an unusual way.
[quote=”Evil-i” post=177766]Are you a car person?
The Malibu was the top trim line in the Chevelle family, and Chevelle DNA filtered into other GM products, like the Monte Carlo and El Camino. Now, if the car is going to go to a “good home”, I’d be inclined to let it go. 2G seems like a generous offer for an empty shell.
Before you let it go, however, I’d send the VIN to one of the GM enthusiast organizations. Some organizations are able to comb through old factory records, and can supply a vehicle’s reproduction “build sheet”, which will tell you everything any particular car came with from the factory. It’s possible you might have a super-rare vehicle that was optioned-up in an unusual way.[/quote]
This.
Additionally, I love old cars. And a 65 Malibu Wagon is a pretty rare bird. I would keep it. Maybe sell something else. What I know is that small block chevy’s with TH350 transmissions are getting stacked up like cord wood, especially outside shops that are doing LS swaps. It is cheap to get something like that running and driving, and there is nothing easier to work on than an old Chevy. I know how money can be tight, but I have held on to my El Camino tight. It’s a running project, and believe me something that is running and driving is much more inspiring than something that sits.
Ultimately the decision is yours, but do what your heart tells you. If you get a chance, watch Roadkill on YouTube. They might give you some ideas about how to not always get it right, but get it running.
Good luck!
Tough one. I have too many “project” cars also. Not sure if it is the “car guy” in me or I’m just a hoarder, assigning them some sentimental value making them hard to part with, even though I doubt I will get some of them back on the road. I held onto my first car for 30 years even though it had not ran the last 20 years, then I finally sold it to a friend in the car club because he needed parts to finish his car.
If the vehicle is as far-gone as you mentioned, it may be better to sell it, but take pictures, keep the VIN number, and get the buyers information. Keep in touch to try to keep track of the car. Then in the future, when hopefully finances are better you might be able to track the car down, and buy it back maybe in running condition? Or buy something similar that is complete. The truth is it usually is less expensive to buy a completed project, then to build the car up from just a shell.Thanks everyone for your replies, it means a lot. Yes I am most defiantly a car person.. I’ve been going to car shows and races before I could even walk. No one else that I interact with regularly is a car person and would just tell to take the money without a second thought, which is why I feel more comfortable asking for advice here than asking them.
It’s a four door wagon. I might do some looking up on the VIN, my dad bought it used but he said that is was pretty much a base model. AC and a two speed automatic were the only things he could think of option wise that it had.
The offer was made by a friend of his so keeping track of the car if he sells it shouldn’t be too hard. Also I’m 90% certain that the offer has no time limit so there’s not much pressure to make a decision thankfully. I’m leaning more heavily towards keeping it especially since I remembered that many years ago my dad also had three Dodge Chargers that didn’t run but between the them had all the parts needed to build one that he sold and then later regretted.
I’ll try to dig up some recent pictures of it if I can but in the meantime I found a forum post about it I made a few years ago, on a Mustang forum ironically enough. http://forums.vintage-mustang.com/general-discussion-non-vintage-mustang/646004-not-ford-but.html
I checked out Roadkill, I love it. Watched the Duster big block swap episode.
AC was a big dollar option back in the day.
I’m pretty sure GM itself has a program for recreating build sheets. Or at least it did several years ago.
I think Jay Leno says it best. “We don’t own cars. We’re simply care takers while we have them.” Or something to that effect.
While not truly representative, you can use what Eric has spent on his Fairmont as a guideline. The last thing I heard was the budget is somewhere around $25000. If it’s a still solid and the party interested can put it back on the road, that’s where it belongs. As cold as it sounds, take the money fix your car and go to school. Get a decent job and maybe when the next owner is ready to sell it you will be able to afford it. At the very least it’s fairly difficult to truly waste money on an education.
If you don’t have the time money etc to take on a project like that I would be inclined to let it go to a home that can do the restoration work. Too many times I see those vehicles sit and rot away before the owners will let an enthusiast take it and do the work that needs to be done. We are losing our classics because of the “someday” that never comes for them. Some parts are already hard to find for restorations they will be even harder to find 10 years from now
making it even harder to complete the project making it sit even longer. Pictures would help as well.If your a car person, there is some regret in selling any car you previously owned. Even with the not-so-special cars, there will be times that you recall some special moments related to the car. Example: My 1997 Chrysler Concord LX was the car I had when I met my wife, and we went on a long roadtrip in the car. Sometimes I miss the car, but not in the condition it was in when I sold it with 230,000 miles on it.
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