52 Chevy Fleetline.. done and driving all under 1000 bucks!

posted before pics of this up on a different thread so i figured i would start this car its own....

i drove past this car everyday for about 10 years, stopping about twice a year to ask if the guy would want to get rid of it, every time it would be his wife and she would say " ill tell him you stopped by" i never actually met the man.

well about 3 monthes ago i actaully saw the son of a ***** outside mowing his lawn. i stopped in and asked if he wanted to get rid of the car, i had stopped so many times he knew my name even though weve never met. he said i dont know let me think about it. we exchanged numbers and that was that.

about a month goes by and i decided to call him and he answered and says he decided to get rid of it but lost my number. he told me to make and offer i said 400 bucks he said let me think about it.

about a week goes by with no answer and i call him back he says he was gettting read to call me, he would love to sell it to me but wants a more money ( i figured he talked to some people and figured it was worth a couple of grand) but luckily the bigger number was only 500 so of course i dragged her home.

o yea it had a clean ***le and the only reason he parked it is becasue the brake master cylinder went bad heres how she looked when i brought her home.

 

i replaced the points, cap and rotor, plugs, wires, coil, front driverside brake cylinder, and rebuilt the brake master cylinder. then drove it acouple of times but always wanted to do more. so i put it back in the shop and ripped out all the old interior and threw some new seats, front buckets out of a honda and original rear seat recovered.

then i shaved all the side trim off the car, sanded down the bumpers and painted them black, and 600 gritted the grill to bring out the nickle plating.


500 for the car
100 all the motor and brake parts
75 for all the ***le and license ********
150 on interior
100 for paint and misc. ****.

for a grand total of about 950!!

heres how she looks now

 

a couple more.

 

It was entirely too cheap!! You need to immediately send me $1500.00 and bill it to the build cost, just to ease your guilt over the deal you got.

Excellent example of what can be found and made roadworthy with very little cash laid out, though. I've always loved those fastbacks!

 

wow, great job.
Paint those bumpers silver or something!!!

interior looks much better.

 

i had them grinded down and bare metal and i just didnt like the look i dont know why i usually do but for some reaon i like the black bumpers. they make it look mean.

 

Way to go. Wish I was into mine for only 1k. LOL.

 

Yea I wish I was in all my projects this cheap

 

That's a damn fine start for the little that was put into it. Now you just need to swap those honda seats out for something that suits the car a little better.

 

Want your money back !?!

 

That's a bargain price. Have you considered making wide whitewalls out of those tires? The grinder method works well, and I have had really good luck painting them on with snow seal. The set I did that way for my '55 Dodge still looks good 3 years later.

I would prefer chromed bumpers and a bench seat myself, but that's personal taste stuff. I think it would be damn tough to beat that car on that budget.

 

thats what its all about.............. some of us forget!

 

the front seat was real bad on this car and i had the honda seat already thats why i threw them in. i think a bench seat would look great in there thats why i put the center console in to kinda give it that look

 

Nice score! Fleetlines (and Hudsons) are cars I'm looking at buying, and nothing even close to that price and condition. A Mex. blanket interior would have even been cheaper and fit the car well. You done good though.

 

I do feel a little leery about replacing ONE wheel cylinder only on your great find! It has always been accepted practice to replace wheel cylinders in r and l pairs.

 

Man nice score.... guess your persistence paid off way to go!!

 

ive never heard of that before, but as cheap as they were on this car it would be a good idea to replace the other front. thanks for the info.

 

now in the cl***ifieds. for slightly more than i have in it. of course the price is always negotiable.

http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=389777

are shamless plugs allowed? if not, shut her down

 

Seeing that makes me cry when I think about my POS. One day I'll have some luck like that.....but doubtful unless I leave the rust belt.

 

nice job!!!!!!

 

I probably wouldn't have posted a build cost of $950 and then linked to an ad where I wanted $5K.

Just my $.02

 

Looks fabulous..get a front bench seat in there!! I'll give you an A- for that one!

 

agreed...

 

And the Ebay number is a no-no....

 

Yeeeeeeah. I was shocked when I saw that, too. Talking about it here then posting on Ebay or Craig's would have been one thing as it's outside the circle. No offense, but it's kinda like ****ping where you sleep.

 

Yup. Should have put it on eGay or Craigslist for $5K and been happy with that.

Or since we all knew what you had into it you could have posted it here for half the $5K, over doubled your money, and p***ed along a good deal to someone else who can appreciate it.

 

i always start the number high.

just because i only have 1000 in it doesnt mean thats what its worth.
i pretty much stole it to begin with for the original 500 bucks.

 

For 5k you could throw in another wheel cylinder, the old seat and a Mexican blanket.

 

Awesome!

 

make note to self: do not apply for sales position in future! this should be a sticky: how not to sell a vehicle!