Scott,
By now you probably have bought the '57 ragtop - and if not,
do it! That $100 bucks will be well spent if and when you do
a restoration.
I am into the second year of restoring my '57 Dodge D500
convertible and it too needed a trunk floor as well as
patching on the quarters, d/s floor and rockers. It was a
decent driver and had been used in a movie, so it wasn't a
junkyard car, but still needed a complete redo! I have also
bought 2 D500 parts cars (hardtops) - complete and solid no
rust cars for parts. I have been planning the restoration of
the convert and the 2 dr h/t for the last 12 years. During
that time I have been digging up and buying parts for both
cars, but by getting those complete parts cars, I was able
to save a lot of time and money.
If you do a complete "grandfather's axe" type of resto like
Ron Water's '59 Dodge convert then you will need to have a
couple of extra cars to work with. The $100 car may or may
not be the one you end up with, but the unique parts will be
well worth the minimal investment.
I am estimating a $20 to $25K investment in parts for the
convertible which will put it in the $37 to $45K range when
done. The hardtop will be less, probably in the $15 to $20K
range. I am doing a body off on both with NOS parts (from
the 12 year search) as much as possible and rebuilding the
rest. NOS parts for these cars are getting very difficult to
find anymore, so make sure that you have as much on hand as
possible to make the project a bit easier.
Brian
57 Dodge D500s
Scott Monfort wrote:
>
> I was wondering if I could get a little feedback on a '57
> Belvedere convert I found. It's been sitting in a junkyard for 25 to 30
> years, and is in pretty rough shape, but fairly complete. The car would
> probably need to be gone through like Ron Water's '59 Dodge convert
> (http://members.home.net/ronbo97/59_Dodge_Resto.htm for those who haven't
> seen it). The question is: What would it be worth if restored, beside what
> it would be worth to me? I can get this car _VERY_ cheap (like $100 bucks w/
> bill of sale). I do have the tools and a place to fix it, plus the
> experience to do the job. I'd like to try to save the car, but I'm really on
> the fence about it because of the car's condition. Any input would be
> greatly appreciated!
>
> Scott Monfort
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