Looking at a 71 442 here locally in NC that was a NorthEastern car for a long time and as such, has some pretty significant rust issues. From what I know, the car needs at least a partial floorboard, probably quarters, trunk floor and maybe even doors as the door bottoms are pretty rotten. I'm guessing most of this is pretty common on NE cars but unfortunately, I'm not a body man. So, I've got to pay others to do the work for me. I'm wondering roughly what all this work would cost me and secondly, would it even be worth it in the end? Thirdly, was does it do to the value of the car when all that sheetmetal has been replaced? The car is not a W-30 just a fairly well optioned 442 with real OAI hood. No documentation and no history. Any opinions would be greatly appreciated as I try and decide whether to rescue this beast or let someone else put the local body mans kid through college!

 

If you 're not willing to give it a shot yourself, it won't be worth it the money at all.

I was quoted around 6k for my car to be patched and painted, and I only needed a 4''x3'' quarter panel patch and 1 new floor pan that I already bought, tacked in place.

If you have the time and patience, pick up a welder, and give it a shot yourself. Metal is cheap, and anything you do will be better than a rotten crust of a cutlass.
If you want a really nice one..... I'd just save for one and buy it.

 

Northern rustbuckets are a lot of work. It started freaking me out when I realized that the frame was really 'soft' in spots. I got fed up with mine and bought a rust free shell on a rolling chassis from California.

I'm basically transplanting all the goodies (drivetrain, interior, glass) from the Canadian car onto the SW car. I don't care about matching numbers - for me this is a hobby, not an investment.

Anyway - start with the most solid body you can, esp if the car holds no sentimental value.

-Justin

 

I think that if you do decided to purchase the vehicle maybe you can find a donor car. There are a couple on ebay now in their parts sections. If not then as the other member suggested you might want to try your hand at buying a welder and attempting to replace the metal yourself. The sheet metal itself is not very expensive. I bought 2 quarter panels.floor and trunk pans and put on myself and the cost for all was about 700.00.Also once you start cutting off rusty parts you are most likely going find that the parts under them are going to be rusty and needing replacing as well. A body shop is going to charge you an arm and a leg to do the work if it done correctly. While the parts are relatively inexpensive the labor to do the work most certainly is not. I would think that it might cost you close to 10,000 to get it repaired correctly and painted. I asked a paint shop what it was to just shoot the paint and they told me 4,000 and that was with me supplying the paint and clear. No body work. Here is an idea what I had to do when I replaced the trunk floor and the right quater panel.
Gary

 

Always buy a clean body and frame if you can, everything else is just remove and replace and easy compared to body work. Both my cars are from out west and I'm still in awe of how clean and smooth the frames are and no rust anywhere, like a person that never ages.

Even with transport costs you'll still be way ahead of any body shop costs, and have a better car in every way.
A clean rust-free car will always be worth more than a patched up car with a crusty frame unless it's really rare.

Allan

 

I currently own an ultra-clean, rust free 72 from California. However, that car is 100% original with 86K miles and I would really have a hard time cloning it with the parts from the 442. If I ever got to that point, I could use the hood, spoiler, drivetrain, buckets/console, suspension, etc on the 72 but in doing so, I would have destroyed its originality but would have also increased it's value significantly. Tough call on that one. Anyway, the price for the 442 is too high (6500) for a parts car in my mind. I don't think I could get that back just in parts. I could spend probably about half that and get all the parts aftermarket but again, I don't really want to modify my 72 even though it's not a high dollar car it is still a rare, rust free cali car with low miles.

 

Sorry, but keep looking.

 

Like Joe said keep looking. When you have to start with the trunk and floor pans etc. you usually run into bad braces, areas where no patch panels are available and a whole bunch of other problems. If you plan on doing all of the work yourself and the car cheap its okay, but if you have to pay for the work its just not worth it.
Also if you are worried about being able to get your money back out of it buy one already done, getting your money back from a car that needed work is pretty tough.
Guess thats pretty much what everyone else said so I'll shut up now

 

Like pretty much every one else has said, unless you're looking to learn and looking for a challange, buy it and do it! But as an investment or as a wise move, don't. It will be much more money to buy the car and have it repaired properly and you'll never get it back then it would be to buy a s complete and rust free car as possible. Even if it is on the other side of the country. There are plenty of us here who could help you out by checking one out ahead of time or you could even pay a professional to do it for you.