I looked at a 302 2v 79 PC a few months back...all stock except rims and was still in all but excellent condition. I passed it up for 7k like an idiot Lol.
That car has a lot of potential if the floor isn't rotted out. It's dirty and the interior is pretty jacked but that's the kind of car that I'd clean out and freshen up the interior, put a cheap engine build in it and wash/wax what original paint is left and just drive it around with a nice 35 year old patina.
Ewwww.....I just notices that it's got the anaemic 2.3L Turbo under the hood too and not the 302 HO. Not even a nicer driver!?!
Assuming it's not rotted away to nothing (which I doubt considering it's a New York car, covered in salt), offer the guy $1,000 and just make a driver out of it. The car needs "A LOT" of work for it to ever be considered worth anything.....and if the floor is as far off as most of us suspect, it'll never really be worth anything.
Eh, $1,600 sounds cheap to me even if you have a lot of steel to put back in it. And the 2.3L turbo ain't a bad setup for a driver. I mean, crap, you could modernize the setup, and it would be a fun 25-30 mpg car that would be el cheapo to drive and keep running.
It's sort of special, and odds are, if you kept it long enough, some rich dude would come along and want it bad enough to give you what you want for it. Till then, drive 'er.
No it wouldn't. A factory refresh with a few accessory mods like a larger, more efficient turbo. Maybe an exhaust that resembles OEM but retuned for the new boost.
ARP everything and a set of cometics along with some serious porting of the intake and heads.
It would be a shame to turn it into just another shade tree, mod monkey.
It's an 80,000 mile original. For someone who can do body work, it's a car show contender.
I've seen clean noses off those cars sell for $400+. As for the 2.3, I have seen some down right nasty blow through carbed versions...I wouldn't count that engine out. All it takes is the desire to build it right.