'66 dodge monaco... whats it worth?

a friend has had this sitting in her driveway for the last 6 years...

it's a 1966 dodge monaco 4dr sedan... apparently 6 years ago it was her DD till it suddenly started spouting smoke, apparently enough to have it towed to the mechanic and then home when she decided it was to much $$$ to fix (10mpg does that I guess)

she's wanting to get it out of the yard but doesn't want to give it away... I'm having probs finding a realistic value (and yes I want it BAD but thats not going to happen lol)

as you can see it's had its door handles shaved, because of this the front passenger "wing" window was busted out to be able to get into the car after the battery died (silly IMHO as you can get into the engine bay from the outside easily but thats beside the point), and both of the outer tail lights need replaced (driver side is completely gone).

interior is great IMHO for a 45y/o car (my guess is that it was redone in the 80's or 90's along with the shaved handles) it has some holes along the top rounded portion of the bench seat)... the car is all there... even has A/C

it does have a smidge of rust... behind the rear wheel wells (seen in the pic above) but it's not rusted though so very easily fixed... the worst of the rust is at the bottom corners of the rear window... got a good pic of that.

oh and the "side pipe in the pic is a fake... the other is sitting in the car... lol... I don't get it but again not my car

based on that info... can anyone give a guesstimate of what it would be worth? i'm sure they could toss it on CL and start at some crazy price but a ball park would be helpful

thanks guys mark

With that busted window, I'd be concerned about the floorboard being rusted out. That's the biggest red flag I see.

$1500 maybe?

Being a unique vehicle, I would recommend ebay for this car. Take out the longest ad you can, like a 10 day auction. Set a medium high reserve (like maybe $2k) and see what happens.
Do not be disappointed if does not sell there. What you are looking for is 10 days of national attention. In that time you will learn much about the car from questions. If it does not sell, either relist it again on ebay or take your contacts from the questions and continue discussion with them outside of ebay.
Someone from the north will jump on a "florida car".
Someone, somewhere, lost their virginity in a car just like this. The tough part is finding that person.
After this ebay experience you can then move on to craigslist.

Maybe $1500-$2000. It's a neat old car, but four door Dodges aren't very popular. The rust around the rear window is pretty bad, and there's probably a similar hole in the trunk right below it.

I was thinking about $1500 too. It's not a real popular body style and has more doors. No outside door handles makes it less desirable to the police car crowd.

Any idea what's actually wrong with it? Or what motor is in there? Looking at the engine pic it looks like it's painted the later '72-up blue. It's also been converted to electronic ignition.

If the smoking turns out to be something relatively easy to fix, like popping fresh valve seals in, doing that could bring the price up to maybe $2500.

I'd say $1500 myself - at first I was going to say it could go as low as $1000, but it does at least have a big block. As Dave mentioned, rusted out floorboards would be a concern here, as well as the unknown engine problem.

I would post it on ebay and let someone into those cars somewhere in the US find it.

Pretty rusty, unknown amounts of body filler and more rust, shaved handles and bad engine? I think $1500 at most, probably less.

I have no idea about the valuation of this thing. I'm just going to chime in and mention that it is the most appropriate use of shaved door handles I've ever seen anywhere.

I think it needs to have a picture taken with 22's (Beg, Borrow, or well... rent ? ) Just to reach that certain demographic

lol chebbie... thats kinda what I was thinking based on where it lives (north FL)... it's close enough to atlanta and alabama to be a DONK candidate (as much as I hate that idea)

i'll talk to her and see if i can get into the trunk and check the underside for rust... and let her know what you guys think for price range... honestly its about what I was thinking myself... the Ebay idea is a great one... something I never think about but in this case may be the right place for the audience

for engine no clue whats wrong myself and her 6 years ago non car minded memory just remembers smoke... based on the fact that it was towed i'd guess it was likely a BHG (pure speculation based on what she told me)

as for the body style... yup... I was hopeing to get a project and she mentioned (actually her husband did) the car... I was hopeing it was a 2dr hardtop or at least a 4dr hardtop but it's still a freakin kewl car

A four door, old, rusty Dodge with a smoking engine? I hate to be a buzz kill, but with gas looking at $4/gallon by memorial day, I'm thinking scrap value. I hope you get a lot more though.

BTW, is that a big block?

Ebay:
The answer here will be pictures. If pictures say 1k words then put up tons and tons of pictures. It would be wise in your ebay text to post a photobucket link.
You may also find that the ebay listing draws a lot of requests to part out the car. Do not rule this out right away and keep up contact with what people are interested in. Sure, your friend may not want a empty hulk being parted out in the driveway but a few key pieces may put you into the "real money" zone quickly. Tail lights, grill, dash pieces, etc would still leave you with tons (literally) of scrap value. Take detailed photos of what someone buying parts may want to see as well as pictures of the whole car.

Sell the dream a little bit. Point out some of what it could become. Stress the Flordia-ness of the car. I bet you could find some northerner with more dollars than sense that has dreams of your odd and rust free car (by northern standards)

Chebbie_SB wrote: I think it needs to have a picture taken with 22's (Beg, Borrow, or well... rent ? ) Just to reach that certain demographic

There was an episode of "Rides" on last night - or maybe it was on the DVR (friends house...) and the had some RE-DONK - ulous LA & Vegas stuff going, not my cup of tea, but selling....

Bag that E36 M3 and real side pipes and I would rock that hard.

I have nothing useful to add about value.

Those fake side pipes are called "Lakes pipes". Those and shaved door handles along with skinny wheels and hydraulic shocks were the rage for the lowrider crowd when I was young. (70's ) Big cruisers like that were extremely popular to make into lowrider. The only way to get decent enough gas mileage out them I guess. Donk crowd might go for it nowadays but I would think if it still had real door handles the classic iron crowd or someone that lost their cherry in one back in the day would jump on it.

Distributor in front, AC compressor bracket is in the way...is it a B or RB? $1500 is too much for a car that was parked 6 years ago because the engine was smoking so bad it had to be towed. First you have to fix what's wrong from when it "broke", then fix what decayed from sitting, and then what would have to be replaced because it's old. Not trying to be a nay-sayer....but $1500 is a "it broke down" 6 weeks ago price, not 6 years ago.

That needs to be redone. Get rid of the rust, paint it black and put a current 360 in it. Major Cruise happiness.

Way, way, cool....

this is the only decent pic of the engine I snapped (crappy camera phone)

but dizzy is up front as I recall... thought it was a little weird myself (having not played much with v8s)

jrw1621 wrote: Someone, somewhere, lost their virginity in a car just like this. The tough part is finding that person.

Dude, it was a 66 POLARA!! No E36M3!

Probably 383/270. www.cbodydrydock.com

wheels777 wrote: Distributor in front, AC compressor bracket is in the way...is it a B or RB? $1500 is too much for a car that was parked 6 years ago because the engine was smoking so bad it had to be towed. First you have to fix what's wrong from when it "broke", then fix what decayed from sitting, and then what would have to be replaced because it's old. Not trying to be a nay-sayer....but $1500 is a "it broke down" 6 weeks ago price, not 6 years ago.

Agreed. I'd say it's worth more than scrap, but not by much. Realistically she'd be very lucky to get $1k in my neighborhood, assuming it's as nice as it looks. Personally, I wouldn't pay more than scrap price not knowing what's wrong with it.

IMHO it's nicer than it looks in the pics... i'll try to get over that way again with my SLR... prob even drag along my jack so I can get some good shots underside. and see about getting into the trunk.

as I understand it the smallest engine avl in the 66 monaco was the 383... you could get a 2bbl or 4bbl (that had higher c/r and better bump stick but required premium fuel)... but it is 45 years old and was obviously "molested" at some point so who knows at this point.

so about how much would that thing weigh?... I have a friend who'd know what scrap prices are lol... but honestly being in the south and not to far from a fairly ethinic population it would be worth more to some Donker... just picture it with an awesome KOOL-AID theme on 24" spinners... lol

I think it would be quicker and more profitable to just part it right from the start if they want it out of the way. It's got 4 doors, a non running engine, whatever gas is in it is sludge, broken window, and a lot more rust than you can see I'll bet. If it hasn't been moved at all in 6 years there will probably be frozen brakes. My guess is $1200.00 tops IF, and thats a big IF, you can advertise enough to even find someone who wants to fix it or part it out themselves.

Pull the engine and sell as a core on craigslist or at the local machine shop. Remove bumpers and sell as cores on Ebay. Carefully remove trim and grill, headlight bezels, lenses, dash parts, etc. and sell each piece on Ebay individually but all listed at the same time mentioning you'll combine to reduce shipping. By then you'll have more money than you could have sold the car for after trying for a long time and you can sell the roller for scrap or continue parting it out if the parts are selling.

While you may not like the idea, I have seen demo derby guys pay $500-1000 for something like that.

Demo derby does address the issue of no door handles (since they will be welded shut) and the issue of the missing vent window (since all glass will be removed.)