To buy a camaro shell or a complete roller?

[CamaroJesse]

I am looking for a 67-68 Camaro right now. This will be my second 1st gen. Im having a hard time finding a clean car to start with on my budget. From what I see around my area (chicago suburbs), 8-10 grand will get me a nice roller with everything but a motor and trans and it may need paint. I am capable of doing my own body and paint but i dont want to start out with something rusty. So im looking for opinions between 2 ideas i have. First one is i found a 68 Camaro near by for $3500. car is very clean with original panelsjust needs a floor pan. The kicker about this one is its just a shell and subframe on stock suspension. It has no glass, interior, lighting, steering column, window trims, moirrors, handles, and doors are gutted. the ONLY good thing about this is car is that its clean. Im worried about how much money it wil cost to put it all together with all these odds and ends. So its either buy the cheap car and replace EVERYTHING except body panels or spend 8-10 grand on a car that is more complete. Looking to see if anyone has been here before and has any helpful input. thanks!

[csouth]

I guess you need to ask yourself how stock were you going to keep the interior anyway when you reference door panels, seats etc? I know some of the necessities like glass, trim etc double in price when you put "Camaro" in the description. You need to know what your final goals are for the car. Then I would weigh and how difficult the missing parts are to find at a reasonable price vs buying a nice roller for more money. Example: I have a friend building a Chevelle right now that he should have walked away from based on the body, but he got it cheap with a running motor and thought it was a deal. When the body was blasted, it was terrible. He should have bought a roller for more money in better shape since he was putting a 572 in it anyway. With no plans on keeping the motor or the interior, it was somewhat of a loss. His sale of the drive train and other stuff didn't net 2k and he has way more than that in body....

[Rod]

get the roller

[srh3trinity]

Get the roller. Even if you get rid of the big pieces of the interior, you will have a starting point. The small stuff will nickel and dime you into spending a fortune. Believe me, I am living it.

[BuddyP]

As Chris stated above, it really comes down to what componants you need. Also just how good of shape are the componants on the roller? If the glass, trim and most interior componants are in very good condition, it may be the better buy. If all you have to do is throw drivetrain in and clean up the paint then go for the roller. If the interior is ho-hum and trim has some pitting you'll probably be better off with the shell.

In my case, I could've made good use out of the "shell" since I've pretty much replaced everything else on the car (almost as if I just bought a VIN tag lol).

[Twentyover]

Buy the good shell and a rust bucket. lean/transfer parts to the shell, or sell what you don't use.