1957 4 door Chevy Bel Air very rusty how much is it worth?

[Blk63vette]

Hello

I have been looking at this 1957 Chevy Bel Air and I am not sure if its worth fixing up any suggestions greatly appreciated. This is a black and gray car frame is in good shape how body very rusty with a lot of holes see pics any advice welcome.

Pete

[WagonCrazy]

Gonna be very honest with you here...

If you have all the spare time and money you need, and have a burning desire to commit to alot of time and effort and money on sheetmetal work, and have nothing better to do, then by all means...buy an old car that needs all this much body work to fix. But frankly, if you can see this much rot visibly...then there is a ot more that lurks beneath paint and bondo.

This one's got serious issues if the rocker panels are that bad...

Personally, I'd pay about whatever the resale value on the stainless trim and VIN tag is worth on this car only. (and for me, thats less than $1000...running or not). Especially since it's a 4 door. Not high value to start with in my opinion.

Find a 2 door tri5 that has very little rust evident on the usual spots (rockers, around window frames, trunk floor, etc), and work a deal out with the seller to buy it. You'll be miles ahead on the time and effort equation.

Just my opinion of course, having been thru a few old cars and lucky enough to avoid the rusted out ones...

[Blk63vette]

Gonna be very honest with you here...

If you have all the spare time and money you need, and have a burning desire to commit to alot of time and effort and money on sheetmetal work, and have nothing better to do, then by all means...buy an old car that needs all this much body work to fix. But frankly, if you can see this much rot visibly...then there is a ot more that lurks beneath paint and bondo.

This one's got serious issues if the rocker panels are that bad...

Personally, I'd pay about whatever the resale value on the stainless trim and VIN tag is worth on this car only. (and for me, thats less than $1000...running or not). Especially since it's a 4 door. Not high value to start with in my opinion.

Find a 2 door tri5 that has very little rust evident on the usual spots (rockers, around window frames, trunk floor, etc), and work a deal out with the seller to buy it. You'll be miles ahead on the time and effort equation.

Just my opinion of course, having been thru a few old cars and lucky enough to avoid the rusted out ones...

I think this one is too far gone..

[chevynut]

IMO virtually ANY tri5 you find that hasn't had metal replaced is going to need new complete floors and inner and outer rockers. That's almost a given with these cars. A floor with inner rockers is around $800 plus labor to install it. Rockers are a couple hundred bucks and labor.

One picture isn't enough to see what the car is worth, nor how rusty it is imo. So forget about the rust in the floors, braces, and rockers and decide if the rest is too far gone to fix. That's how I'd look at it.

But as Paul said, keep in mind the value of 4-door sedans is quite a bit lower than 2-doors. I've seen some pretty nice 2-door projects on eBay lately that look pretty solid. It's worth more to fix up a 2-door whether a sedan or Hardtop in the long run. But the value of 4-door cars is going up too. A real nice 4-door might go for $10-15K while a similar 2-door is more like $25-30K.

[Bitchin'57]

I'm with the others. If you're going to invest money in a tri-five, start with a 2 door.

[markm]

4 doors equal parts car, cost as much to build and worth a whole lot less.

[Blk63vette]

1957 Chevy $ door more pics...

[Blk63vette]

Hello

the second time I looked at it the 57 Chevy it was worse...This car is a used by Truly Nolan which they use cars to do their advertising with. This car runs and drives and has its original 283. However, its sat outside for 10 years in the Florida weather...This one was close to the water...Sea air is a killer on sheet metal...The driverside is more rusty than the passengerside. This tells me the driverside was getting mist of the sea salt air...Drip rails on roof are rotted in spots. A lot of holes in this car. They are pretty FIRM at $5900.00. I personally not sure if its worth that.

[Rick_L]

With all the rust on the roof area and around the rear window (probably the front windshield too even if not visible), plus the other obvious rust - this is not a restorable car in any kind of practical sense. It is probably not even worth $1000 as a parts car.

In many areas of the country, you can buy a running driving 4 door sedan for $6-8k that may not be perfect but will be far better than that car. Or for maybe a bit more, a 2 door sedan that's a rolling car but a project.

Regardless, you can do better.

[Custer55]

If the frame is solid, which if may not be if the body is that rusty it's worth what a rolling chassis and running gear is worth, Maybe $1,000. like Rick said. Better off finding a car that doesn't have all the rust even if you have to pay more for it.

[markm]

In the Midwest a 4 door car in that shape is going to bring about the 900 in 5900. I think Cnut has a 57 4 door that is about 10 times better than this one and at one time I thought he put a price on it.

[chevynut]

I bought the pretty solid but banged up 4-door 56 for $600 with the 6-cylinder, 3-speed OD, nice seamless frame, and interior intact....I think it would be drivable but ugly. It's going to be a parts car. There's no way that car's worth $5900 with all that rust. I have a really nice rust-free roof that could be grafted on, but there's a lot more than that to do.

[chevynut]

If you're looking for a 57 4-door, I have a really nice one for sale....kind of a "barn find" I bought several years ago to sell but have pretty much forgotten about it. It's an Arizona car built in CA (Oakland) with virtually zero rust except for some very small bulges in the lower fenders that are an easy fix. It's a 210 sedan with a 283 Power Pack engine and it has a seamless frame, 3-speed on the column, and only shows around 50K miles on the odometer which the owner told me was close to actual (speedo doesn't work). The guy I bought it from says he may have driven it 5000 miles in 20+ years while living in AZ (he's dead now). It runs and drives (we drove it to where it is now) and only needs some minor stuff to be really nice. I have a title and the vin and everything else is intact. I have lots more pics if interested. But it's going to be a lot more than $5900, probably somewhere in the $15-20K range as-is. That's what I've seen for cars like this lately since prices are rising on 4-doors. I plan to clean it up and sell it in the spring...but I've said that for a few years now .

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[WagonCrazy]

$5900??? For that POS??? Run away as fast as you can Blk63Vette

And start searching on phoenix.craigslist.com or some other cities in AZ to find a nearly rust free survivor to start with. Would be worth the trip across the country with a trailer to get it home and work on it.

Or New Mexico, or west Texas or parts of Oklahoma.
All these states are typically dry and the sheetmetal lasts alot longer.

[busterwivell]

IMO virtually ANY tri5 you find that hasn't had metal replaced is going to need new complete floors and inner and outer rockers. That's almost a given with these cars. A floor with inner rockers is around $800 plus labor to install it. Rockers are a couple hundred bucks and labor.

One picture isn't enough to see what the car is worth, nor how rusty it is imo. So forget about the rust in the floors, braces, and rockers and decide if the rest is too far gone to fix. That's how I'd look at it.

But as Paul said, keep in mind the value of 4-door sedans is quite a bit lower than 2-doors. I've seen some pretty nice 2-door projects on eBay lately that look pretty solid. It's worth more to fix up a 2-door whether a sedan or Hardtop in the long run. But the value of 4-door cars is going up too. A real nice 4-door might go for $10-15K while a similar 2-door is more like $25-30K.

I guess I was very lucky, my 56 has solid original floors and trunk, almost no rocker rust. I feel I was way ahead not having to replace any sheet metal.