51 Styleline- price?

HOpefully somebody can give me a bit of info and idea on value in the next 30 minutes. got a friend who wants me to go with him to look at a car he is thinking about buying. I have not seen it yet, but here is what he told me.

1951 Chevy Styleline, 4 door. good paint, (not original) good interior, original wheels. engine and trans gone. guy has a 350 for it availabe with a mechanic friend of his. I don't know if that is included in the purchase or extra. I know no other details. friend knows even less than I do about cars (that's why he wants me to go). the guy is asking 7500 for it.

Looks like my friend is looking for a 50's era car in running condition for the most part, he wants to work on it, but slowly and over time as he doesn't have the knowledge, time and tools to just jump in with both feet.

I saw this one which I thought was much better if he wants a styleline http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eB...m=180184102706

Thanks guys.

Red

RUN AWAY... it might be worth $2,000-$3,000 with a brand new interior and decent paint. Style line is much less desirable than a Fleetline... I gave $800 for my '51 Fleetline 4dr w/ an intact interior and running 235/ Powerglide, needed a lot of work but, put it into perspective. a '51 Bel Air might be worth $7,500 in that condition, but there super rare and highly desirable, cause there 2dr H/T's

Just looked at the E Bay ad and that car could go to $7,500 and be a decent price. completed the cars are worth $8-$10k w/ original driveline, they can sell for about $10k more w/ a V8. I'm partial to original 6cyls cause I like the factory placement of the E brake handle, it can't be there w/ a V8..

the 51 styleline two door is a shorter roof line my 50 is a styleline two door that has a much smaller side glass in the back side windows the 50 on e-bay is a deluxe .i can not tell you what one is worth something you can make a good car out of i think would be 3500? with a good body hard to say two door styleline is worth more then a fleetline mat?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by pat mccarthy

the 51 styleline two door is a shorter roof line my 50 is a styleline two door that has a much smaller side glass in the back side windows the 50 on e-bay is a deluxe .i can not tell you what one is worth something you can make a good car out of i think would be 3500? with a good body hard to say two door styleline is worth more then a fleetline mat?

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When I looked them up 5 years ago the Styleline was worth less than the Fleetline, both 2dr and 4dr. can't compare a 2dr styleline to a 4dr fleetline or vice versa... at that time Ebay prices were reflecting the same as what I found as far as the Value on NADA. This was 5 years ago, it might have changed now, but I would be supprised if it did

thanks guys. especially for the fast response. I was thinking 4k maybe, good thing I asked here. I am trying to help my friend balance his enthusiasm with patience to pick something good. has to be his taste but I think I am picking up on what he likes and am pointing some of them out to him as I find them.

You're great, appreciate the help. later I'll try and post some pics of update on what we've done on the 51 recently and where we're headed with it. see what you think.

Red

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Matt167

When I looked them up 5 years ago the Styleline was worth less than the Fleetline, both 2dr and 4dr. can't compare a 2dr styleline to a 4dr fleetline or vice versa... at that time Ebay prices were reflecting the same as what I found as far as the Value on NADA. This was 5 years ago, it might have changed now, but I would be supprised if it did

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well in stock form ? the coupe roof line is what every one wants ? car was a low dollar car new and harder to find alot of them did but make it i would not say on were what i have been offered for mine but let say i could buy many stock fleetlines:D

Also, your '50 is a coupe and not a sedan like most.. here is a sedan
http://carnut.com/show/03/all/all103.jpg

PS

found this while looking too, wish he'd buy this one and customize :)

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/51Mer...em300172663976

Quote:

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Originally Posted by pat mccarthy

well in stock form ? the coup roof line is what every one wants ? car was a low dollar car new and harder to find alot of them did but make it i would not say on were what i have been offered for mine but let say i could buy many stock fleetlines:D

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NADA would figure stock restored I would assume.:)

Not all Stylelines were coupes, most were Sedans, shown by the picture, the larger rear window... '51 was the last year for the fleetline because popularity fell w/ the fastbacks

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Matt167

Also, your '50 is a coupe and not a sedan like most..

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yes i know :)

yes it was a bare bones car just one belt line trim and not much more

All right guys, went and saw the car. It is a Styleline Deluxe 4dr. sedan. It looks like it was tricked out in the 50-60's style. Has the brow over the front windsheild, visors over the headlights. burgundy paint with some flakes, white paint on the top, has some nice pinstriping. Interior matching burgundy, good condition. paint is overall pretty good actually, as is most of the chrome. of note are:

bb gun shot to front driver side fender, about a nickle size loss of the paint and the small ding of course.

small dent in hood, looks like they closed it on something in the engine bay, has cracked the paint there.

front bumper and grill look great except for one piece of the grill at far passenger side.

car rewired for 12volt but they don't know which gauges are working if any. it is a young kid (late teens early 20's?) that owns it. he drove it till a year ago, pulled engine, trans and driveline/rearend. still has original engine but rest is gone. they installed the rearend out of a 76 cutlass and have the 350/350 to go with it but they aren't installed and it isn't setup for them yet.

Ok. My friend really likes the car, and I do think it looks great, real old school kustom look. I told him 4000-4500 but gave him a run down on what I thought he'd have to pay for (he has nowhere to work on the mechanical stuff, let alone the knowledge, and I don't have any room to help him here).

My questions for my esteemed brethren:

1. those of you that have done, or have helped with the 350/350 conversion in these, what all has to be done (i.e., looks to me like there needs to be some cutting for the exhaust manifolds to fit, also looks like there is a problem with the mached up engine mount they have interferring with the steering)?

2. Is he better off taking the original engine and finding a matching transmission and driveline/rearend and going all original on that?

I told him bottom line on what he offers is how much does he like it, knowing what he'll have to spend to get it running, and that there are the problems with the paint he'll have to live with or spend money repainting, if he likes it enough he may want to offer more.

Your help is appreciated.

Red

PS
it also has the dummy spotlights mounted at the corner of the hood up close to the door posts, just for cosmetics. looks pretty cool actually.

you can put a 350 not to hard look for headers they do make to fit in the 49/54 had bell crank steering with a independent kingpin front end with ball bearing wheel bearings there is better front ends you can buy a fatman front end i clip my front in the mid 80s long before any one made any thing for them. it works great .car and stops very good so with the clip i took care of 3 things stoping. steering. and a big block fits in fine .but you can now buy every thing that will bolt on .i would not wast much time with the stock front end and front drum brakes they stop and steering was not that good with a small block. mine was this way when i got the car in 79. car now is fun to drive the steering box gets in the way of a ram horn ex manifold a truck log ex mainfold may work but may get hot feet watch the fire wall

Again, the old thing to consider is the resale value or actually the lack of it, on a 4 door..... As long as he wants to keep it forever, it's kewl.....but after he does a lot of work and spends a bunch of money on the car then gets bored with it and tries to sell it he's going to take a beating.... Four doors just don't bring the big bucks....never have, never will.