Pricing a 1970 Chevelle. Need help
 

I've been shopping around my Ducati on craigslist as a possible trade for a muscle car/hot rod of some kind. I got a hit.

Guy has a 1970 Chevelle. Looks clean, 350/350. Had new quarters when the paint was done 8 years ago.

Thoughts about value? He's asking $14k

Ad:

http://seattle.craigslist.org/oly/cto/1127415137.html

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1240339576.jpg

'bout right for a 350/350. Now if it had been an SS396...or a rare 454...;)

Sweeeet! Seems like a good price for it.

Now if that was an SS with an LS-6. you could tack on a few zeros after that 14!

I dunno...seems a bit high for a 70 vanilla 350 chevelle with BOTH QP's replaced.. Try searching in hemmings to get an idea...keep in mind hemmings prices are on the high asking side...

60 70 chevelles listied last month...over 250 for all chevelles listed.

http://www.hemmings.com/classifieds/carsforsale/chevrolet/chevelle/?year=1970

Thats a nice looking car, just make sure the body work was done right, it looks nice from the picture. Chevelle's are great cars to cruise in. I say throw a big block and 400 trans in it and you will have a very fun car. Not to mention you will increase the value with just putting the big block in even though it is not original.

If it was an true SS car, I wouldn't be asking, cause I know I'm not good for it! :D

IMHO '70 is the best year and that looks like a nice example, except for the vinyl top. I don't care for vinyl because they cause/hide other problems like trapped moisture and rust. Great color, but of course pictures never tell the whole story. The price is only the asking price and you never know how desparate he is to sell, you may get it for closer to 11K. That was grandmas grocery getter until he yanked the 307/Glide for the crate motor/turbo 350. I would get a PPI or at least a compression/leak down test just to make sure the motor is as they say.

Nice looking car, but pics can be deceiving. I'd go over the body very thoroughly. bottoms of the doors, bottoms of front and rear fenders, floor boards and trunk, I'd be looking for rust and bondo all over. Early GM was very susceptible to that sort of cancer.

I'd love to have something like that, but I'd prefer a manual tranny and no vinyl top (as mentioned, rust).

You can buy an Olds Cutlass, which is basically the same car for 1/2 that in the same condition. You pay a premium for that "Chevelle" name.

It's getting harder to find any cars from the muscle era '64-'70 for less than $10K unless they are total rusted cannibalized crap.

The problem is that then you pay double for engine parts and the odd Olds specific parts.

Yeah, and that's sad. I'd really like a '65 Impala or '67-'71 Chevelle, but by the time I'm ready to pay that kind of money, the prices will be 4x what they are now.

I am something of an 'expert' on these cars I have had 16.......... my .02 - The plain jane cars are very soft unless it is low miles and or highly optioned. The wheels and hood are not original to the car but if you really like it negotiate a better price closer to $10K in this economy assuming all the work that has been done is top notch.

Chevy produced a cheap version of the SS that was called the "Heavy Chevy" it did not even have carpet but had the cowl hood W/O the flapper - 350/350 combo and steel eight-slot wheels w/trim rings

Keep in mind that 97 % of people in the market for a 70 Chevelle want an SS regardless of the engine option. Prices lately have really fallen even for the almighty 454 LS-6. I recently saw a very, very nice orginal, unrestored 70 454 LS-6 / 4-spd that had under 35K miles. Had all the right stuff, right color, etc. Highest bid at auction's end was $72K + buyers fees. UFB

That same car at a high profile auction 2-3 years ago would have easily brought $50K additional, possibly more with the right bidders. I'm pretty sure the previous owner took a bath because it did not meet reserve but a deal was struck for that amount anyway.............

Try these guys for parts

http://www.opgi.com/indexhome.asp

Olds Gutless? Come on man, you're not that old. lol

If it aint a 442, it's your father's Oldsmobile. No one shops for an old Cutlass unless you owned one in a previous life. ;)

I had a '70 chevelle ss 454 that was that same color, it had a 4 speed muncie rockcrusher & could get the front wheels in the air.
it's now in the big wrecking yard in the sky, boy do i wish i still had that car.

Gotta love the sweet sound of a small block Chevy winding up... and 350 horses will move that car right along. Get a trusted mechanic to check it out, and if it's good, see if you can negotiate him down a bit, then go for it.

Yeah, everybody wants the swagger of a big block and the SS package, but if you get this one, you could probably enjoy it just as much and it wouldn't be as much of a thief magnet.

Yeah, I at first wondered if he was talking 350ci/350hp or 350ci/TH350 tranny. I think the second "350" referred to the model of transmission.

But the 350hp crate motor is pretty common, so maybe he had the ZZ4 crate motor and it should read 350/350/350.

wow looks a lot like a friend of mine's chevelle. but he has had a lot longer than 9 yrs.

Drago (RIP) had one in orange we rebuilt the engine twice one summer back in the late 90's.

someone destroyed it when he was back at college the next semester. i was glad i was 1300 miles away and didnt have to see his face in the morning when he looked out the window and there was a drunken indian parked in the back of the trunk drooped over the steering wheel. the photos of the tow truck pulling the two totaled cars apart was all i could take.

parts the front half of the chevelle lived on in several other chevy's.

sorry this doesnt help you price search...but those old chevy's bring back fond memories of summers during breaks in college.

Looks great, not too sure about the pontiac rims though.

Obviously it's a crate motor right?

BTW, i like the vinyl top.

Mine
 

I bought and old Chevelle and did this to it:

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1240362681.jpg
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1240362701.jpg
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1240362720.jpg

She's pretty quick.

My advice.... it's priced right and I don't think you'll lose anything.

songhoh

That is killer!!

I like the way you kept it stock appearing but with some subtle changes. I;m sick of Foosed out muscle cars.

I agree, a beautifully done '65. Love the steelies with the small hubcaps, it's just "right" on that car. I prefer the cleaner lines of the '64-'65 GM cars...just a taste thing, but the '66's and up not as "clean" to my eye.

IF I were into projects...and I'm not, I think I'd be hunting for a '64 Chevelle 2 door wagon...kind of a mini Nomad look with it's sliding rear side windows...

That's a real beaut!

Vinyl Top this...
 

That's a good looking Chevelle.

What's the color? Looks very close to the Nassau Blue on my Dad's '66 Corvette when I was a kid.






Tim

Same suspension, gutless, even after a complete rebuild. Same with steering, vague, even with suspension upgrades. My son and I went through his 70 cutlass and changed virtually all steering and suspension with the "new and improve" stuff and it still sucked. All 442 means is four barrel, four speed and dual exhaust (442), a formidable car, but still a 350 IIRC.

I think he's looking at a "Chevelle" not a "Chevelle SS 396" which is a very different animal.

BTW, I'd look very, very closely at the vinyl roof. Most these days have lots and lots of rust.

Just as a reference point to how much things have changed, back in '93-'94 I had the almost identical car w/o the vinyl top. Same color, extremely low miles, genuine one-owner who was a little old lady by the time I bought it, bone stock. 307/TH350 trans, cold A/C, showroom fresh interior. Drove like a new car. Took it up to Seattle and VC from L.A. in spring of '94 and have some great pics under the giant redwoods that I should scan.

Paid $1100 for it. Granted it was a 307 but it had rally wheels and was a sharp 2-door. When I sold it in '94, Chevelles were heating-up, unbeknownst to me. I put it in the recycler, (pre-internet for me), for $1700 and I got ~200 phone calls the first day. Realising my folly, I pulled it from the market to re-evaluate. I'd obviously under-priced it by a hair. :D

Wound up selling it to a guy I knew who was a Chevy freak for $2500 and he turned it into a high-dollar muscle car w/ a rat motor and everything beefed-up or replaced. I really miss that car the way it was when I had it. It was an awesome "driver". :cool:

the Cutlass will have a better suspension and nicer interior generally too

my buddy has a 455 with the great big snorkles on the hood, kind of a scary car, makes a great noise, but that much torque, with such dinky little front disc/rear drum brakes

Those are not the Pontiac Rally II Wheels. Those were an available chevy wheel.

Thats a nice looking car. Probably a real nice driver. From the pictures 14K doesnt seem like it's to far off.

Plenty of 442 were sold with Automatics. Probably more then with 4 speeds, they came standard with the Turbo-Hydramatics after about 65 or 66. They later 442's had 400 ci motors and 455's in 1970. THe really hot package was the W30 package cars. Those cars ran pretty hard.

4-4-2 stood for 400 c.i., 4-barrel carb and dual exhaust. I have the old magazine collection with the ads to prove it. There was always a lot of confusion about that nomenclature, even back in the day, but they were always available w/ automatics so *4-speed* was not part of the name.

Always had a soft spot for Oldsmobiles and had friends with beautiful '67 and '68 442s. The '67 was a built street racer in black and the '68 was a bone-stock metallic blue w/ black vinyl top, automatic on floor, (beautiful factory console/shifter), and highway gears in rear end. What a beauty w/ those oval rear 1/4 windows and dual exhaust. sigh.....

Spent many summer nights driving the back roads of Michigan in a 442 convertable.

The sound of their stock dual exhaust was just sublime. Oldsmobiles always had a little rumple to them, like headers with mufflers.

In '70 I thought of muscle cars as 444's
400hp/4sp/$4000
Jim

According to some respected sources, the meaning of 4-4-2 changed over the years as different options became available. The 400ci - 4bbl - 2 exh was the combination most of us relate to when talking performance driven 442's.

Definition of 4-4-2 from the Oldsmobile Factory Literature:
1964 (Original meaning)
4: Four Barrel Carburetion
4: Four On the Floor
2: Dual Exhausts

1965 (First year of automatic transmission option on 442)
4: 400 Cubic Inch Displacement
4: Four Barrel Carburetion
2: Dual Exhausts


1985 to 1987 (Last of RWD 442s)
4: Four speed automatic
4: Four barrel carburetor
2: Dual exhaust


1990 and 1991 (FWD 442)
4: Four cylinders
4: Four valves
2: Two camshafts

These last two make me want to cry.

It's kind of like reviving the Malibu and Nova names and putting them on crappy FWD econoboxes. Blech!

At some point in the 80s, my grandfather got it in his head to purchase a new car. He had a beautiful 1968 Buick Le Sabre. He went down to the dealership and purchased a Buick Somerset. This was around the time GM was trumpeting their Quad 4 engine (Horray! We can make a 4 cylinder engine....just like the Japanese did 15 years before.) That Somerset was the biggest piece of garbage we had ever seen. There was this odd 'tower' that stuck up from the center console that had the radio controls on it. The plastic was so poorly molded that it barely fit together. The anemic 4 cylinder engine would scream trying to pull the car along.

The only upside in this whole story is that I got the 68 Le Sabre. The original 2brl had been replaced with a 4brl, and the car went like stink!

350/350 = engine CI / transmission model

But, haven't we all seen the 327/360 designation? I think that was a 'Vette engine, but some guys rebuilt the 327's in their Impalas, Novas, Camaros, etc. to that spec.

I guess it should be shown with an "HP" after the second number...

http://i518.photobucket.com/albums/u...65burgundy.jpg

1965 327/375 hp (5.4 L/280 kW) Fuel Injected Corvette Sting Ray Roadster

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chevrolet_Corvette