So im selling my 57 ford becuase its KILLING me with its 10 or less mpg. I found this 63 chevy 4 door.It will need a repaint but it has new brakes, new tires, a little rust in the floor, lowered, and the part i like the best a 230 cu in chevy 6 that the guy claims gets close to 20 mpg. Hes asking $2500 obo. Seems kinda high for a 4 door, what do you think about the price? should i offer him $1650? i would make a clean looking 60s style lowrider out of it.
if you're happy at 1650, I'd say do it. If you think that's still too high, offer less. He wants to sell, nothing says you have to buy.
Good cars, if it runs decent, starts/stops/steers as they say... I think $1500 would be a good deal, in my neck of the woods anyway. Paint, schmaint... drive it.
20mpg in a car that heavy?? Maybe. You could tune up your 57's motor, or replace it with an inline 6 for less than $1600
20MPG on a dead flat prairie with a tailwind, maybe. Realistically, look for 12-14 around town and 16-18 on a highway trip. Remember, old cars didn't get that great gas mileage. Gas was cheap, cheap.
Yea and the 6s didn't really do much better than the 8s either. What's your 57 got in it? Until we tweaked our 55 (it had a thunderbird 312 in it) we were getting 16 or so. of course that was a long time ago and the gas had lead in it. Not to discourage you if you like the chebby about 1500 is a fair price like Guiseart said.
No offense but that seems *** backwards. Pull an 8 to put a 6. Ehhhh I guess, seems like more work than its worth to me. Aim for 1500 and let him come up a touch and get it for what you want. Seems like it would make a great daily especially if you do some subtle things with it. My buddy has a 63 Imapala, we get shot at from time to time cuz some think were ********ers, but other than that its lowered, nosed, and shaved. Drives it everyday and only complains about not having hydraulics. HaHa.
Can be a cool car, I bought mine for $1600, for a daily driver. It was all stock,6 cyl,auto,, brown, total old man 4-dr car. Well it didn't take long to do this to it. Sold the car, wish I still had it. So if you can get it for a good price I say do it. Gas mileage didn't seem too bad, but I didn't really care, you cant expect much from a 44 yr. old car.
sawing off your foot to keep from dancing wont make you happy. seems like your making a mistake with this deal. just my opinion.
I don't know about chevy 6 p***enger car engines, but my '79 1/2T pickup was an absolute gas hog. Real bad. And no power, either. Maybe the car engines do better, but that looks like a heavy car to get 20 MPG. Best o' luck if you decide to go for it. -bill
My dad had one of them new and my uncle had an Impala 2dr with a 283 and they got the same milage. Keep the Ford and over drive the trans.
backwards it may be... but getting rid of one gas hog to get another to save 2 mpg is too. He didn't say what was in his Ford, but I ***umed an 8. His main concern is 1. old and cool and 2. gas mileage... he didn't mention power and speed or he would've asked what v8 would be fuel efficient. BTW, no offense was taken! FWIW, my 59 Chevy has a 350/350 in it with a 650 Edelbrock carb on it. It weighs around 4500 lbs. I think I get around 13-16mpg on the highway. If you're getting less than 10 in a lighter car, you may just need some adjustments, a rebuild, or a new motor, or change your driving habits I think my 235-powered 50 Chevy gets around 15-18. Maybe more. I never checked, but it's not a huge difference. I think a 50s Chevy with a 235 was rated around 18-23 or something like that, but it's a much lighter car than the one you're looking at. Then again, a 63 wouldn't have a 235. A Corvair will get closer to 30.
I believe that he could get 20 mpg from a SBF with overdrive in his 57, for the same or less money than buying this car. If it were me, I'd look into that option.
Is the '63 a stick or a Powerglide? In a car like that, it will make a noticeable difference in both fuel mileage and acceleration. For comparison, a few years back, my daily driver was a '64 Tempest two door, 215 six cylinder/stick. It got 17-18 around town, and 23-24 cruising on the highway. Of course, it probably weighed 500 pounds less than a '63 full size Chevy. As boring and common as it may sound, it's hard to beat a more modern vehicle for a power/mileage compromise. My '96 2WD S-10 4.3 V6/5 speed gets 20mpg under the worst driving conditions, 24-25 on the open road, and I can still haul home engines and transmissions in it.
My 52 Victoria with a mild 289/c4 gave me 19mpg all day long. No overdrive, no *****footing and a 3:55 gear.
A '63 Chevy Belair four door sedan with an I-6 weighs 3280 lbs if anyone needs to do some math. I'd say you could get the 20mpg if it's a stick/OD but not with a powerglide.
No offense intended so please don't take it that way but I don't know that I would brag about getting 20-24 MPg out of a late model 6 cylinder truck with a 5 gear. I consistantly get 18-20 around town and 20-22 out on the highway in my V-8 powered no o/d auto 65 chebby truck. Loaded or unloaded is the same, it tips the scales @ 3800-4K. It all comes down to tweaking and tunning. One that is properly built and properly tuned can make zot and mileage. it all comes back to what someone wants, if you got a Deuce roadster with a hemi and get bored with it and a '62 Tempest with a banger all at once trips your trigger then by all means the snag the Tempest. You don't even have to have a good reason, cars is personal.
I used to get a solid 20mpg out of my 65 impala with a 283 2 bbl & powerslide ******. If that ***** has a stick and is tuned up right, I'd be shocked if it wasn't AT LEAST pulling high teens for mileage.
I had a '64 Galaxie 4 door in college when money was non-existant and gas was $1. I was happy to pull down 18-20 with that small V8, like a 260? It was 1 long *****. My 77 T bird that came before it got 18-20 on the highway with a 351 W with a fresh rebuild. Around town it ****ed it down.
A Mopar B-body with a 273 V8 and 2bbl get 24-26 MPG(as of last year with the original engine, never rebuilt) and A-body can top out at 27.
Why not spend the money and put a more modern engine and\or trans in your 57? The Chevy will probably not do all that good on gas if it is a powerglide. What gears does your Ford have? Why not a 289\302 and a 5 spped or AOD? A 283/305/307 and a 5speed\2004r would also be a cheap and effective combo. I think you would be disappoined if you bought the 63 just hoping for better gas mileage. And, if your ford is a 2 door, then you would (I think) be a LOT better off keeping it.
I would too. Back in the mid '70s during Gas Crisis #1 when these things were work beaters, I traded a buddy a trashed '64 Fairlane with the 289 he needed for a '63 Chev almost identical to this one....230/PG and no power accessories. I figured I'd save some gas $$, but It got about 15-16 mpg which wasn't much, if any better than what I was getting with my '63 T-Bird with a 390. So I drove the 'Bird to work instead. I ended up using the Chevy to push a bunch of junk cars we'd bought onto my hauler and it went to the crusher with the last load. Jan
IMHO I'd think that plopping a nice FI 5.0/5-spd (or AOD) out of a circa 1990 Mustang into that '57 would get the same results AND be a much cooler car (not knowing exactly what '57 Ford you have).
No offense taken.....you ***hole. Just kidding! My drive to work is a 20 mile trek up and down hills with several stops and starts along the way, and anything I can buy for $400, use for a truck, do nothing to other than change the oil, and get 20mpg with doing that is to my liking. It's got a good "investment to use" ratio.
Your 57 will have a 9" in it...and also 4.11 or higher gears....so go to pick-n-pull, pull a set of 3.11 or somewere in there, and that may save a little more on gas AND may cruise faster as well. I have a 1960 Ford factory 4x4 long bed with 4.11 gears and a 292. It gets 12 loaded or unloaded...and it has to be a good 800+ pounds heavier than yours. I also had a 60 f-100 with a 223 three on the tree. It got around 13-14 in town, and had NO power.
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