Highschool car

I still own my highschool hot rod. Has been barn stored since 96. It was hit and repaired 5 or six times. So she has a fair amount of bondo and rust. Floor boards are real bad center body mount is gone.

Found a good rolling chassie. I am torn to buy it and transfer everything needed from my car. Or just restore mine, a lot more work. My car is so far from stock so it will be a resto mod anyway. What would you do?

I would get the rolling chassis and swap everything over.

What kind of car?

79 Malibu 350 4spd

For how common and cheap late 70s chevys are, I would go for the rebody option. Unless you are really attached to the car itself, not the assortment of parts you added.

When I was a kid, I was told about the cool cars guy had and their wives made them sell them or wrecked them. I vowed not to sell mine. What is considered the car where I could keep that claim.

you could scrap the car and probably get more for the 4 speed and all other clutch related parts than you could get for the rest of the car..

my vote: find a Malibu wagon and transfer everything over...

I sold my HS '78 Malibu to a buddy my freshman year of college. He eventually took it apart to restore it. The restore it part never happened. He has '79 'Bu now and some of mine made it onto that one.

How complete is this rolling chassis? Is it an engineless car or a bare chassis?

stan_d wrote: When I was a kid, I was told about the cool cars guy had and their wives made them sell them or wrecked them. I vowed not to sell mine. What is considered the car where I could keep that claim.

To say you still drive a '78 Malibu, like in HS, is better than saying you still have the rusting, undrivable hulk out in a barn/field. I would go for a rebody.

To your comment of the wives forcing the sale...
At my wedding, my wife and I pulled away from the church in my Miata.
Almost immediately, a buddy of mine commented that it was sure genius. Not understanding what he meant, he went on to further explain, "...we still have towels/dishes, etc we do not use but keep perfect since the were wedding gifts." "Your wife will never want you to sell the Miata since it was part of the wedding!"

Personally, I had a '77 Malibu Classic Coupe in HS...and I do not want it back.

Find a nice Malibu someone's grandmother is tired of driving and swap everything over. I have my first car in the garage, an 86 Monte. They body is nice and solid but it needs pretty much everything else.

Rebody.

JohnRW1621 said: At my wedding, my wife and I pulled away from the church in my Miata. Almost immediately, a buddy of mine commented that it was sure genius. Not understanding what he meant, he went on to further explain, "...we still have towels/dishes, etc we do not use but keep perfect since the were wedding gifts." "Your wife will never want you to sell the Miata since it was part of the wedding!"

This was my plan with my 911 from the beginning. If you drive away from the wedding in it there is sentimental value and you'll never have to get rid of the car, at least that's what I thought. Mine was barely running when we drove away. Heck when we got in it to leave I had to cross my fingers that it would start. 10+ years later and its still in the garage. There have been some tough finacial times where I have offered the 911 up for sale, and my better half has said no way. I'm fortunate enough to have my wife and my mistress under the same roof.

Sorry for the off track, as to the original post. Tough one. It's only an original car once. But if you aren't driving it and it is just rotting I'd swap it. Plus I think if you swap everything except the frame then it is still the same car. And at least you can enjoy it, instead of being "that guy" with this great car in a barn somewhere.

if it's too far gone, it's too far gone. if you could boil down all the memories to one particular component or subsystem, what would it be? i'm guessing side-stepping the clutch. so in that case, i'd find a clean grandma example and put my powertrain into it.

i had a '72 monte as my first car. my dad and i built a 383 SBC for it, which due to prostrate cancer was the last project my dad and I worked on together. so when the monte was too far gone to save at a reasonable price (needed quarters and door skins, plus it was nothing special to begin with), i pulled that engine and a bunch of other usable parts and put them in a '66 cutlass convertible. drove it like i stole it for another two years, and every time i drove it i thought of my dad.