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Old 04-24-2004, 04:26 PM
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Location: Titusville, FL
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What would you do?

I have a 77 450SEL that recently overheated and blew the head gaskets. I have owned the car since 1991 and did a cosmetic restoration on it in the mid 90's and have also maintained well during the whole time of ownership. The engine was strong (compression in the 135 - 140 range) prior to the overheating and the valve stem seals and timimg chain replaced about 4 yrs ago. The body has a good bit of rust and probable not cost effective to deal with. The interior is in very good condition. I was planning on putting it up for sale in the near future prior the overheating incident. Due to the rust, I figured to try to get $2500 for the car, but was not sure that I could get that much because I think that it also needed injectors.

I am strugling with fixing it (I do almost all my own wrenching) or parting out the car. I am not sure of the condition of the heads so right now all I can figure on is $300 for gaskets + needing about $300 for injectors and a lot of time (in somewhat short supply). My other option is parting out the car, however with the engine not 100% there is lost value in a major component.

I am looking for some opinions on what would you do?

Thanks,
Lee

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Old 04-24-2004, 04:44 PM
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I don't think it's worth throwing money into a rust bucket, myself. I would part the car. You might get some decent money for interior stuff on eBay.
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Old 04-24-2004, 05:02 PM
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It's pretty much fix and sell or drive it, or part it out. There is no "Sell it as is" because you'll lose too much cash.

If you part it out you can get far more than you can if you sell it as is. If you fix the engine it'd make a good driver (although pretty bad with the gas), or you could sell it for $2500 or so. With the engine as is, I would think about $1000 is about it, depending how bad the rust is (if it's worse, count on less, if it's not as bad as I'm thinking, then maybe $1500).
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Old 04-26-2004, 10:32 PM
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The rust is along the roof drip rails, the driver side passenger floor, the hood at several locations, bottom of the drivers door and a few spots around the sunroof. I might post a few digital pictures in the next few days. It had not seemed to cost effective to put significant $ into rust repair and repaint. Now the engine further calls the $ question. I will begin to take the heads off this week, but this is a very low priority.
Thanks for the input.

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