CC reader Teddy sent me another CL ad that caught his eye (and mine). The ad text is short and direct: 1964 Chevy Impala 4-door with a 283 motor. Tires are flat, been sitting awhile. No title. $1000 FIRM!!! NO SCAMS! NO PAYPAL, CASH ONLY!!!
He doesn’t mention “rust”, but it looks to be sitting in a pretty dry part of the world (Eastern Montana). And who needs a title anyway? Teddy muses: I thought the era of ’64 Impalas this cheap was decades behind us. It all depends…
I wonder why only left side pictures…..
Seems the right price as you can break it for parts at that price .
-Nate
Sweet looking car. It looks like a good candidate for restoration, or resto-mod. 🙂
It’s like real estate, location location location. Here in the midwestern salt belt, this thing would be priced at $3500 and everyone would think it a great bargain. Out west where every old car has a body like this, it is probably just another old car with no compression, a leaky Powerglide and a sun-rotted interior.
What we need to do is have a great derelict car exchange. Every old car should be brought to a central location. Then all of the good bodies, good interiors and good mechanicals can find their way together, and the bad shit can be junked without remorse. Maybe Jason Shafer’s yard. We’ll make a million. Who’s with me?
You forgot flat cam and loose timing chain…..
=8-) .
Wobbly never greased ball joints that groan loudly when ever you get into it too .
-Nate
JPC, there used to be an urban legend that there were trucks shuttling constantly between AZ and Seattle boneyards: hardly-used windshield wiper motors going north, and hardly-used A/C compressors making the return trip south. (I’ve heard many variations on the theme). I recall posing a question to CC a while back–if you were just gonna leave a car sit anywhere in the US, where would it “survive” the best, etc. Maybe Cali or the Southwest not best choice, overall?
To me, this $1000 Montana car looks like a bargain (esp. being the hardtop, even if not four-door). Maybe it’ll end up on a flatbed down I-15…
Well that would make sense. I picked up a few tranny dipsticks from Wisconsin where comparable vehicles were rusted to death and there were plenty to pick from. Picked up new AC lines from someone in Texas and I assume most comparable vehicles were dead and/or no one who owned them wanted to dump that much money into theirs.
I believe in the shade in a cold dry desert would be the ideal location to park a car forever. I’m guessing somewhere in New Mexico would fit that description best.
I bet a cave at Mesa Verde would also work or one of those missile silos in the Midwest.
Well, JP, it sounds like I’m in. The bad thing is I’m only on 1.5 acres, but it’s a great place to start from. The folks in the adjacent home owners association will be happy to see our enterprising spirit, I’m sure.
Yep this thing if sitting here (Nova Scotia) would most definitely be in need of new rocker panels at least. But if one where to buy one in this shape and ship it here it would most likely bring $7500 or more in non running but not rusty shape.
I live in the south in a relatively rust-free area. I had a ’68 Buick a number of years ago that was in very good condition. No rust, good interior, good drive train. I sold it to a guy who roamed the south for older cars like this one to resell up north. He told me that the condition of the drive train was irrelevant; rust-free cars were the mother lode. He jerked good motors and transmissions out of rust buckets and would re-power otherwise solid cars. Needless to say, he was delighted with the Buick.
I get a kick out of that old Chevy sedan that’s sat so long out in the Montana weather it’s sinking into the ground, but has a sunshade in the windshield.
Did I ever tell you guys about the 15,000-original-mile 1940 Buick sedan a co-worker found? It belonged to a distant relative who lived pretty far up in the hills. When he went to look at it, he found that it was indeed far up in the hills, at the end of 8 miles of first- and second-gear road. A lot of those miles had been on that road, and the condition of the running gear and fenders told that story. It had been parked because the engine needed rebuilt, and it had sat out in western Washington mountainside weather for ten years with all the windows shut tight. I wouldn’t be surprised if the car is still there.
Well considering that is Western Washington I imagine it is covered in Moss and suffering from other water induced issues.
I hear rumors that in the woods of Mendocino County there are several abandoned vehicles and various logging equipment.
Problem is, the woods of Mendocino County are used to grow illicit cash crops, and snooping around could result in fatal lead poisoning.
That looks a lot like my ’64 Fairlane when I first saw it. It was sitting in a guys back yard with 4 flat tires, hadn’t been driven in 2 years. Even the same color. It had not been chopped up, no parts were missing, it was just parked there and left to sit. The vehicle I traded for it was probably worth about $1000.
Even though it had been sitting flat on the ground in the weeds, the bottom was unrusted, and I got the engine running fairly quickly. The 2 speed automatic transmission would not shift, dried out internal seals. I had to rebuild that. The engine still runs good, and doesn’t even leak. The biggest issues with my car, and most of them at that age, is suspension, steering, and brakes. All that stuff on my car was messed up. All the rubber rotted, ball joints and steering parts worn out. Everything had to be replaced.
Even here in AZ, that car would probably be priced at $5000+ if it were a 2 door. Being a 4 door is what kills it’s value. Mine is a 4 door, which is why I got it so cheap. But I was looking for a vintage daily driver, not a show or collector car.
Is that a chunk of mid 80s Caddy fender in the last picture?
For a $1000 you could cruise like Travolta in Saturday Night Fever. You’d just have to add some primer spots…
http://www.imcdb.org/vehicle_1362-Chevrolet-Impala-1839-1964.html
I’d pick this up at that price. Its a deal as most people ship them up here in just barely mobile and pump the tires up and sell at seven or eight times the ask. It makes it very hard for a financially challenged individual such as myself to grab an old classic and make it my Dailey driver.
Cragar GTs with thin whitewalls on a white Impala 4-door hardtop… wow. That’s awesome. This car must have looked incredible about 30 years ago.
I paid $3,000 for my ’64 Impala four-door hardtop in 1999, but it was running (I bought it in San Luis Obispo and drove it back to Phoenix armed only with a cell phone and a shiny new AAA membership). Cosmetically, it was in a little better shape than the one here. I hope it can be rescued. The four-door hardtops are fairly rare now, but they have nice proportions.